Voices: the CMB Blog

I don’t want to brag, but my smartphone is in really good shape.

Like millions of other people, I have multiple fitness and health-related mobile apps, and they’re constantly alerting, pushing—begging me to login, add my stats, and track my diet and exercise. And while I’ll confess there are times these apps get more of my attention, they are awesome tools for getting and staying in shape.

Of course, they’re not a brand new phenomenon, and in a 2011 Consumer Pulse study: Consumer Perspectives on Health and Wellness, we found 7 in 10 smartphone users interacted at least weekly with mobile fitness and diet apps. With smartphone ownership growing, the number of people using these tools has only increased, and companies are responding by bringing new and exciting additions to the mobile health (“mHealth”) app marketplace. In fact, over the next 5 years, the mHealth market is expected to grow annually by 23 percent.

There’s much more to mobile health than tracking calories and reps, and what’s truly exciting is mobile’s capacity to revolutionize how we understand and manage our health.  As Mark Curtis notes in “Your phone will know you are sick before you do,” new mobile technology—like “body hacking” will put more of our own health data literally at our fingertips. Body hacks include tools like GlucoDock, a plug in for the iPhone, allowing diabetics to track their blood sugar easily on the go; or the simple but elegant pill bottle cap that connects to a patient’s phone and alerts them when it’s time to take their meds.  Besides being extremely clever, these mobile technologies also change how we interact with those involved with our care—hospitals/providers, insurers, and pharmacies. These tools have the potential to give patients an unprecedented level of control and involvement in their own care. What was once hidden in a doctor’s files is now available to be examined by patients themselves.

Way back in 2011, we asked consumers how much they expected to communicate with their healthcare provider, insurance company, and pharmacy in the next few years. Of those who used mobile apps to perform health and wellness activities, over one-third expected their digital communication with each to increase. Well, these “next few years,” are here. Health apps are no longer restricted to physical betterment through diet and fitness; they’re helping us take control of our own health maintenance—from identifying ailments to tracking provider-patient interactions. What’s next? Look into your crystal ball, what do you wish your phone could do to make and keep you healthier?

Hilary O’Haire is an Associate Researcher at CMB. Although she enjoys working out and her RunKeeper app, a love for good food keeps her determined to eat at every Boston restaurant ever featured on a Food Network show.

Read our latest Consumer Pulse: Leveraging the Mobile Moment: Barriers and Opportunites for Mobile Wallet.

The Mobile Wallet is a hot topic for those in the retail, technology and financial services industries. As you may know, mobile wallets allow customers to pay at store checkouts with a tap or wave of their smartphones. In our recent Consumer Pulse study of 1,500 smartphone users, we learned that half are unaware of Mobile Wallets.

To drive adoption, retailers and technology providers will need to overcome a lack of awareness and fear of new technology, all while offering a clear advantage over more traditional payment methods. As shown below, loyalty programs provide a key leverage point to drive Mobile Wallet adoption.

Click to see larger version

Download our latest report on the Barriers and Opportunities for Mobile Wallet and learn more about what will drive (and block) adoption, and who has the advantage as we enter the next leg of the mobile wallet race.

Judy is VP of CMB's Travel & Entertainment practice and loves collaborating with clients on driving customer loyalty.  She's the mom of two teens and the wife of an oyster farmer. Follow Judy on Twitter at @Judy_LC

You’re about to step out your front door...

But wait just a moment! You can only take your phone or your wallet, which will it be?

Pre-smartphone there would be no contest, I’d take my wallet. But times have changed, and the balance has now tipped in favor of my beloved iPhone. Beyond checking email, I use my phone to deposit checks, see when the train is coming, read the news, record my ski stats, listen to music, and if I've also forgotten my lunch, I can use a mobile wallet app to buy a sandwich at the deli across the street.Of course there’s more to mobile wallets than the fate of my lunch, there are billions of dollars at stake for the banks, credit card companies, start-ups, tech giants and others who want to dominate, or just cash in on, the evolving relationship we have with our smartphones. In our latest Consumer Pulse, we surveyed 1,479 smartphone users about what they know about mobile wallets, what’s keeping them from using, what features they’d like to see, and who they'd trust to provide them.

First things first, half of respondents said they were familiar with mobile wallet technology (or proximity payments)—apps that let users swipe or tap their phone at the point of sale, rather than using credit cards or cash. When we asked this 50% to tell us about their experience and expectations for using mobile wallets most said they didn’t plan on adopting a mobile wallet…but nearly a quarter said they were planning to try out the technology in the next 6 months (TWEET THIS). That’s no small number considering smartphone ownership is nearly ubiquitous.

Now let’s consider our more reticent smartphone users, what’s keeping them from trying out the technology that’s already at their finger-tips? We weren’t surprised to find that security (73% called it a barrier to adoption)—particularly identity theft—was high on the list of what’s keeping people from giving up on cash and credit (TWEET THIS). The good news for mobile wallet providers is 79% said they’d be more likely to adopt if they were guaranteed 100% protection against fraud and theft. While many mobile wallet providers already offer this protection, the results show there’s a real opportunity to benefit from promoting this type of security measure (TWEET THIS).

If you’ve assuaged the fear of being scammed, stolen from, and over-charged (remember when people were afraid to shop online?) what’s next?  Aside from the novelty of scanning your phone, what’s the incentive behind using a mobile wallet over your, just as convenient, credit card? We found reward and loyalty points were very appealing, particularly when offered as additions to existing rewards people get with their credit cards—80% of non-adopters said they’d be more likely to adopt if offered these extra rewards (TWEET THIS). Of course people like rewards and points—you don’t need to be a marketer to understand that. But nearly as many (66%) said that getting the same rewards they got with their credit card would increase their likelihood to adopt—to which I say, c’mon people aim a little higher.

So yes, rewards are nice, but one of the best things about smartphones is the ability to look stuff up. Think of how many arguments have been nipped in the bud by a quick search of imdb.com or Wikipedia. That ability to find the information you want any time, any place, is just as compelling in a shopping context. Including location-based services like the ability to easily compare items in stores nearby increases likelihood to adopt among 78% of non-adopters (TWEET THIS). But we also found people were a little leery of getting too many alerts, both because they can be annoying and because they suck down battery life. Note to providers, offering people the choice of what alerts and discounts they receive could be a major draw as they decide who they’d like to provide their mobile wallet service.

The topic of mobile is rightly dominating the discussion in almost every industry, but the fact is, for most people mobile wallets are still incredibly new. Amid all the noise and growth, there’s still tremendous opportunity for providers who understand the concerns, goals, needs, and desires of the millions (billion?) of people with the technology right at their fingertips.

Download the full report and learn more about what will drive (and block) adoption, and who has the advantage as we enter the next leg of the mobile wallet race.

Megan is CMB's Product Marketing Manager, she loves Alpine Replay, and longs for the day she can unlock the front door with her phone.

Originally Published on Loyalty360

Shoveling snow, grocery shopping, folding laundry, some daily activities just don’t scream fun…but maybe they should.  We’ve all heard about gamification–using game design elements to drive desired behavior while making life a little more enjoyable. While the day you get points for unloading the dishwasher may be a long way off, gamification is being used to drive member engagement in many loyalty programs.  To spur some creative thinking, I’d like to present some ‘games’ currently offered by loyalty programs. 

 But first, a quick review of the different game mechanics that can be used to dial up the fun:

1. Points and levels: Keep track of game progress and link to a benefit

2. Appointments: Ask members to visit at a certain time to get a benefit

3. Progress: Show members what percentage of a task they’ve completed

4. Countdowns: Limited time to complete a task adds to add urgency

5. Sharing: Gain status/points for social behavior

6. Leader Boards/VIP lines: Publicly celebrate high achievers

7. Loss Aversion: Force members to complete a task or lose the benefit

Here are some recent examples of travel and hospitality brands that are creating more rewarding and fun loyalty programs through gamification; hopefully this list will encourage you to think about all the ways you can make life a little more fun for your customers.

• The enduring popularity of Jeopardy, bar quizzes, and games like Trivial Pursuit, should leave no doubt that people love trivia games.  The InterContinental Hotels Group’s (IHG) trivia game—Win it in a Minute—awards correct answers with free miles, and capitalizes on the universal desire to prove how smart we are. And it’s proving a smart move—the VP of loyalty programs reported that in the first two weeks of the “Win It in a Minute” promotion IHG has seen 100,000 game plays and has handed out more than 100 million Priority club points.

• Leave it to Caesars Entertainment to take a different spin on loyalty. Having a huge amount of guest data means Caesars can reward their loyalty members based on projected spend, rather than past behavior, as well as present customized offers in real-time to their guests. They also offer Reward Credits through gaming (of course) but also through social gaming by playing Caesars Interactive Facebook games like Caesars Casino.  Total Rewards Members can also use the Social Rewards program to engage with the brand on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to earn even more credits.  These twists on the typical points based approach are making the Total Rewards an even more effective loyalty driver.

• I hadn’t harbored any ambitions to become a “mayor” using the Foursquare app until I heard about their partnership with Starwood—Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) members vie to become “SPG Mayor” by checking into any of the Starwood’s hotels. Along with bragging rights, the Mayor gets to share travel tips and tricks with the rest of the community, as well as additional points and rewards. It’s a simple but effective way to harness the appeal of location-based mobile technologies and our competitive natures, while showcasing the brand’s most loyal members.

• TripAdvisor has employed many strategies from the gaming industry – and they seem to be reaping the benefits of rewarding participation. The popular trip review company grants their contributors badges and titles, like Senior Reviewer, and the approach seems to be paying off for all involved:  TripAdvisor has benefited from more postings (as the ‘competition heats up’) and the traveler can assess a reviewer’s trustworthiness based on their volume of reviews. 

What do these programs have in common? They align with the brand and the way their customers experience that brand.  They embed fun, competition, achievement, status and rewards to increase member engagement.  It may sound simple, but gamification is a strategic choice and you’ll need to ask the questions:

• Why are you adding game design elements to your loyalty program?

• How does it benefit members? Will they enjoy it?

• What are your business goals?

• What actions do you want members to take?

• Which members are most likely to participate?  How valuable are they?

• What metrics will you use to measure your effectiveness?

To incorporate game mechanics into your loyalty program you need to start with the end in mind, ask what’s your vision of success? And think about the most important behaviors you’re trying to motivate. What actions link to those behaviors?

Building customer loyalty is hard work. But while you’re delivering the brand promise, fulfilling customer expectations and enlisting your promoters…stop to have some fun.  At this (and any) time of year, your members, particularly those who live in the frozen Midwest and northeast, will probably love to play along!

Judy is VP of CMB's Travel & Entertainment practice and loves collaborating with clients on driving customer loyalty.  She's the mom of two teens and the wife of an oyster farmer. Follow Judy on Twitter at @Judy_LC

In Orlando for the Loyalty Expo March 20-22? We'll be there too, stop by our booth!

Happiness means something a bit different to each of us. To Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos.com, happiness means working for a company that you’re excited about, surrounded by people who feel the same way.As a researcher, I read his book Delivering Happiness as a subliminal message to anyone working with customer satisfaction or loyalty data. Reading his book, it’s clear Tony set out to highlight his journey, not to write a comprehensive corporate history or autobiography.  This is the golden rule in report writing as well – pull out the highlights and tell a story around the most important pieces.  

Tony adopted another critical rule of report-writing: write for your audience.  Tony admits his book is not a work of grammatical perfection, but it’s written in a way that makes it easy for everyone to read and enjoy. This separates Delivering Happiness from many of its neighbors in the world of “business books” – its informal tone is easy to digest. Throughout the book, Tony seamlessly juxtaposes comical stories of growing up with Asian-American parents with stories of his ambition, failed attempts, and successes.

Beyond the autobiographical elements of the book, I found the managerial guidance in Delivering Happiness also relates to research. The following principals are important context when writing recommendations, but also when thinking about survey design and analysis interpretation. As an added bonus these “rules” might also serve you well in your personal interactions:

1. Remember that you are an n of 1; other people have opinions, too. When Tony was first approached with the idea of starting an internet shoe website, he was skeptical because he himself had never considered purchasing shoes through a catalog and couldn’t imagine people buying shoes without trying them on. My toes are thankful that Tony realized “it didn’t matter whether I would be willing to buy shoes without trying them on first.”

2. Embrace change with an open mind.
Zappos.com was originally based on drop-ship sales, and had shied away from opening a warehouse with inventory because it was not part of their business model. When they realized they were limited in what they could offer their customers, they thought, “If changing our business model is what’s going to save us, then we need to embrace and drive change.”

3. Listen to employee’s feedback. Customer feedback is great – but it’s important to also hear from your employees. Happy employees are critical to delivering a positive customer experience, and employees working in the thick of daily processes often have valuable insight and ideas around what would enable them to better deliver.

4. Pay attention to word of mouth and the lifetime value of customers. It’s important to think about how your company is interacting with customers at every level – one happy customer with a large network of friends may be more valuable than he first appears. Zappos.com trusts their employees and empowers them to help customers in any way they can – even if that means recommending another site for their purchase.

From a research perspective, mobile technology strikes me as the most obvious application for these principals. As mobile technology changes the way consumers shop and interact, we are presented with new opportunities for listening and observing. As you think about your personal and professional goals for the new year, keep an open mind and hopefully happiness will find you.

Jeannine is a Project Manager working with our Tech, eCommerce, and MedTech practice. She finds happiness learning about new places through reading, travelling, and talking with just about anyone she can find.

What's your plan for delivering happiness in 2013?