Customer service is always one of the top strategic initiatives for retailers, but few do it well despite the direct correlation with sales, profits, and customer satisfaction. While a greater customer service focus may impact all of these metrics, there is also a cost associated with those efforts. So how can retailers effectively (and profitably) provide customer service just at the right time? One approach that is increasing in popularity is “on demand customer service” delivered by customer service software companies such as ServiceGem.

ServiceGem provides retail and hospitality companies with the ability to offer a “Virtual Call Button”TM anywhere within their facilities. Customers or guests can request on demand customer service by either calling a unique number, sending a text, or by scanning a QR code. Doing so sends a request via ServiceGem’s proprietary software to send a service rep to the specific location of the customer.

Customer service will always be a major concern to retail companies as it continues to be a key point of differentiation against their competition. Consider software provided by companies such as ServiceGem a major step forward in providing customer service “just in time” and in a cost efficient manner.

•Focus Groups: One tried and true method of gaining feedback and input regarding a new business or product idea is to conduct focus groups. Focus groups involve pulling together a group of customers (or potential customers) with the goal of gathering qualitative feedback. Given the small number of participants in a focus group, it is often more difficult to gather quantitative data like you can with surveys. Focus groups are employed frequently by brands such as Coca-Cola and Proctor & Gamble. Our team has facilitated focus groups on behalf of Neutrogena, Gap, and Harrah’s. Big brands have a built-in ability to gather throngs of passionate followers, though it often requires some sort of payment or company discount to gather a broad set of customers and/or prospects.

•Surveys: In order to gather quantitative insights (e.g. x% of my target customers would buy my product at $y), surveys are often employed. The web, including sites such has Survey Monkey and Zoomerang, has made it extremely easy for companies both big and small to launch a survey. That said, small companies often will need to get creative in terms of finding people to survey. This often involves partnering with a related company or advertising an incentivized survey on the web. There are many ways to go about this, but those are a few to consider.

•Competitive Research: One easy way to determine if there is a market for your product or service is to assess the size, growth, and profitability of your potential competitors. This can be done by using an array of online tools such as Hoovers, Nexis, and Factiva. Finding information about publicly traded companies is straight forward, but gathering similar data about private companies (especially small ones) can be a real challenge. We have heard of guerrilla tactics employed by start-ups such as posing as potential customers to gather key insights. We are not advocating this, but the point is to get creative in finding information about companies and using it to build a financial model for your business.

•Online Testing: A new and unique process that is offered by DreamTester, shows how to develop a new business idea by employing a 5 step process; Develop a New Idea (or build on an existing idea), Build Your Test Website, Send Customers to Your Test Website, Analyze Test Results, Make a Go/No Go Decision. The process is easy to follow and will allow you to get a true “intent to buy” read from real customers.

Good luck and remember that it doesn’t take a huge commitment of time or money to determine upfront if your idea/business/product has potential to succeed.

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Facebook Like & Save Benefits

•Enhance Conversion: Offering an incentive during the order process has proven successful in boosting the conversion rate (orders/visits) of e-commerce sites. Providing an easy hurdle for customers to get a discount should offer an increase to conversion while not distracting them from the order they are placing.

•Build Social Media Presence: E-commerce companies gain a new method to build out their social media presence on Facebook. Getting the “likes” via a discount is the easy part, and needs to be followed up with a well thought out social media strategy.

•Tell a Friend: Recommendations have become an increasingly important way for e-commerce companies to acquire new customers. Rabid “brand fans” will actively post about their favorite products on Facebook, Twitter, and increasingly Google+. But what about those people who show their love or merely interest in products via their purchase behavior, but would never talk about it online? This feature captures that missed opportunity for e-commerce companies.

•Alternative Discount Mechanism: In a world flooded with daily deal offers from the likes of Groupon, Living Social, et al (seems there is a new one every day), discounting has become more than a recession busting strategy to increase/maintain sales as customers have come to expect it. Tying an incentive to a customer action is a way to reward customers for doing something and not just an everyday discount.

Five Important Components of a Contract

•Deal Terms & Structure: This is arguably the most critical section and will ultimately drive how successful and profitable a deal is. That said, it is important to get creative when it comes to deal terms. Consider thresholds and “kickers” to help motivate performance on behalf of your partner as well as increase the profitability of a successful deal. Base financial incentives on metrics that are outside of the norm. The point is to be creative as there really is no right or standard set of deal terms.

•Beware of the Long Tail: In many cases, we have seen a “long tail” inserted into an exclusivity or payment clause. This is not necessarily a bad thing, and often will provide a critical level of protection, but is something of which to be aware. Be sure to ask your attorney about this.

•Narrowing the Exclusivity: Often times, partners would like to prevent you from working with anyone they would consider a “competitor.” Be sure to look at the exclusivity list and try to tease out those that are truly competitors and seek to remove the rest. This will go a long way towards reducing impediments to your company’s future growth.

•Term and Termination: Be sure to gain a firm understanding of the contract term and ability of either party to terminate. Even a diligent business leader or entrepreneur may not realize that there is an auto-renewal clause embedded in the contract that extends an agreement beyond the initial term. This is fairly easy to discern from a contract, but important to consider. As a practical matter, it may be helpful to set calendar reminders to remind you to either extend or terminate an agreement.

•Dispute Resolution and Arbitration: This is an interesting one and a section we’ll leave to your attorneys. The idea is that arbitration can often be a better method of resolving a dispute than litigation. Consider this as a key component to consider in your contracts.

Contracts are indeed quite complicated and require legal support and guidance. That said, they are not merely the domain of your legal team and require the attention of executives within your firm. Study up a bit on contracts and ask your attorney to explain some of the more common contract sections.

1.       What is my goal in building this app? Creation of a new (or sole) revenue stream, expand your reach, monetize your brand, increase customer engagement?

2.       What value does the app provide to potential users? Does it address a customer’s pain point? Does it provide a new way to engage customers?

3.       What is your budget to make this app a reality? Building an app is not just a matter of building one release and then calling it a day. Future releases based on user feedback with new features need to be considered when coming up with a budget for the app.

4.       Are there other similar apps out there on the marketplace? Before investing in an expensive mobile app, take a look at what other apps are already in the marketplace. Will your app feature functionality not present in your competition or do you have a built-in rapid customer base that can separate your app from the pack?

5.       What is the plan to promote your app? There are over 350,000 apps in the Apple app store. Be sure to have a plan and don’t expect it to stand out on its own merit.

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