Mobile help retail stores win sales

With big retailers such as Blockbusters and HMV going belly up and attributing this on people buying online instead, it is of no surprise that retail stores are concerned this Christmas, particularly as these sales can make up to 40% of retailers' overall annual revenue.

Good news? Retailers concerned about the negative effects of online shopping this holiday season can rest a little bit easier tonight as research by BuzzCity finds although 47% of shoppers around the globe expect to do their Christmas shopping online this year, this will not negatively affect the volume of customers shopping in retail outlets.

With multiple ways for customers to shop, retailers must focus on creating a consistent customer experience regardless of the channel chosen by customers to engage with retailers this holiday season. By doing so, this will help ensure retailers are competing across channels. If a customer's first point of contact with you is visiting your website via their smartphone, you need to ensure this is representative of your brand and creates an enjoyable shopping experience. Consider that one of your brand values is 'quality products and services' but your mobile website is ill-designed and difficult to navigate - is this truly demonstrating your 'quality' brand principle?

Mobile helping retail stores win sales

Make sure you have a mobile website to ensure you do not lose sales to others and integrate this with your store. For example, if a customer reserves items online, you can send a text message alert to notify them when the reserved product is available for collection at their nearest store.

Text messages can also be used for sending general alerts about accounts such as new statements, special events and promotions. This can prove very valuable when developing customer relationships as you can invite special customers to a fashion show for example, increasing the likelihood that they will become a repeat customer.

Retailers have a deeper understanding of their shoppers today including their buying habits and demographics helping them tailor mobile coupons and promotions to increase revenues. Using geo-location technology, you can even send specific deals to customers when they are nearby, making the likelihood that they will visit your store that little bit higher. If you are a restaurant for example, you can blast customers with a mobile alert or e-mail advising them of any deals making them not only aware you are nearby and putting yourself to the forefront of their mind, but also providing a direct reason for them to visit your restaurant over others. With UK shoppers becoming more cost conscious, this can provide the perfect excuse to spend money in your restaurant over others.

Retailers could consider equipping sales staff with tablets and custom apps so they can help customers in store and pull up information instantly on customers' past shopping behavior or to find information about merchandise. For example, they could find information about stock availability both within their store and other nearby stores enhancing the customer experience and helping secure the sale. QR codes can also potentially be used to allow customers to find detailed product information, add products to a 'wish list' and even suggest other associated products for example.

Mobile technology can be used to help retailers enhance customer service across channels and provide a more cohesive and consistent experience. Learn more about how retailers can enhance the mobile shopping experience or read our Retail section to find out more.

For further information regarding HSL Mobile, visit us at:

http://www.hslmobile.com

follow us on LinkedIn, @hslmobile, Facebook or Google+

or call us on +44 (0)1506 605 260

or email us at sales@hslmobile.com

Energy suppliers use mobile communications to build customer trust

Competition amongst energy suppliers remains fierce as players in the market and customer loyalty both remain low. Accenture found that 73% of customers said they would consider switching to other electricity suppliers and energy-related products and services. It is vital that energy companies build trust to help retain customers and enhance customer loyalty.

Accenture’s new Energy Consumer research revealed consumer trust was at its lowest in four years with only 1 in 8 UK customers trusting their energy provider to inform them of measures they could undertake to cut energy usage. Although 77% said that informing them about measures that they could take to cut energy use was important to developing trust with their utility supplier, only 65% confirmed that their utility supplier was currently carrying out such activities.

Other important features which ranked highly amongst customers when it comes to trusting energy suppliers were easy to understand pricing, accurate billing and reliable energy delivery. Recently, I rang my energy supplier to try and understand their pricing tariffs and make sure I was on the best deal and even though I have a higher math’s degree, it took a good 5 minutes to understand their pricing tariffs clearly.

How can mobile help energy companies build trust?

Accenture found that 38% would like to receive notifications about their energy usage to their mobile devices, and 50% would like online personalised tips on actions they can take to reduce their energy bill. By delivering such information to customers’ mobile devices provides customers not only with what they want, but it also gives them more control and a better understanding of their account as well as measures to cut energy usage. This helps increase customer trust for their utility supplier.

For utility supplier to provide easy to understand pricing and billing, SMS can also be used to send billing and pricing information to keep customers informed and ensure bills are paid on time. Smart meters with in-built SMS technology help customers learn more about their energy usage and improve accuracy in billing by providing real time data usage. This provides more transparency in pricing and billing making it easier for customers to understand their accounts and enhance the trust they have for suppliers.

When it comes to providing reliable energy delivery, SMS can also be used for sending information regarding any issues such as outages ensuring that when energy delivery is affected, customers are notified immediately and are kept updated as to when the issue is expected to be fixed. This helps greatly reduce the number of calls made to customer service departments, as well as managing expectations’ of customers and in turn, improving customer trust.

There are many ways in which mobile is helping energy companies enhance trust and strengthen customer relationships.  Find out how SMS solutions help monitor energy usage or read our Utilities section to find out more.

 

For further information regarding HSL Mobile, visit us at:

http://www.hslmobile.com

follow us on LinkedIn, @hslmobile, Facebook or Google+

or call us on +44 (0)1506 605 260

or email us at sales@hslmobile.com

The future for retailers in a mobile environment

Mobile seems to be everywhere you look and is changing the way people interact and use information. You can now find information instantly from practically wherever you are and at any time and this is changing the face of retail.

Gone are the days where you could only shop when retailers were open. With the introduction of the Internet, people are able to shop from home, or on breaks at work, allowing people to shop 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Now, mobile is able to offer even more convenience as customers can shop wherever they wish - from home or on the move - and they can use even more channels to connect to the Internet such as a traditional PC, laptop, tablet and smartphone to do so. This improves the customer experience as it allows shoppers to fit shopping into their busy lives, using whichever device they wish. Retailers must recognise this growing new channel and respond appropriately.

An article in Tech Advisor, The promises of "Omni-Channel" retailing, proposes that location, product, price, quality and service are no longer differentiating factors for retailers and there are five new factors which are relevant today in a mobile environment. These are:

1. Connecting - shoppers connect to the Internet or mobile to find product information. This needs to be available to both the shopper and staff in the shop.
2. Predictive - retailers must look at customers and predict in real time, rather than relying on historical data.
3. Personalisation - making a personal offer to each shopper in real time.
4. Context aware - making the offer at the right time and the right place whilst in your store or nearby. 
5. In-store experience - shoppers today are looking for information, product details and product comparison and this should be enabled within the store.

These five factors focus on real-time information, knowledge and treating customers personally with tailored offers.  Even better, it focuses on ensuring that staff within a store are equipped with as much knowledge as a customer. This helps ensure customers find what they are looking for in a convenient and speedy manner.

An article in The Guardian, Omni-channel retail: joining up the consumer experience, states that retailers are able to improve engagement and convenience through omni-channel retail. They, as well as many others, argue that it is important for retailers to provide a consistent experience across all channels that shoppers may use as if retailers fail to offer this, they may lose that customer completely.

The retail experience within a store cannot be undervalued. By visiting a store, shoppers can have a face to face interaction, compare products more easily and have questions answered quickly. However, showrooming is becoming a more prominent trend within retail where shoppers go online via their mobile phones to compare in-store prices with competitors’ prices. This is why it is crucial for retailers to adopt an omni-channel approach to guarantee they price competitively and also ensure the in-store experience is first class, as well as the customer experience across all other channels.

Mobile is certainly changing the face of retail and it is vital that the importance of this channel is recognised by retailers to secure their continued existence.  Find out how retailers can enhance the mobile shopping experience or read our Retail section to find out more.

For further information regarding HSL Mobile, visit us at:

http://www.hslmobile.com

follow us on LinkedIn, @hslmobile, Facebook or Google+

or call us on +44 (0)1506 605 260

or email us at sales@hslmobile.com

Secure Mobile Messaging #1

SMS is not a completely secure technology and therefore using SMS for communicating sensitive messages could have severe consequences if the message was intercepted,. The technology is adequately secure for a number of purposes such as chat between friends or colleagues, news alerts and entertainment or informational content. For these purposes the use of SMS is appropriate.


In reality the uses to which SMS are put are many and it is often too convenient a technology that leads to its use being inappropriate for some purposes.


The vertical sectors that can benefit the most from secure mobile messaging and to whom disclosure of a message can potentially be catastrophic are financial, law enforcement, government and aviation. Even although most benefit is typically achieved by theses sectors, secure mobile messaging also has a strong place across most most organisations.


Why is SMS not secure? There are a number of stages at which an SMS message can be intercepted. GSM addresses some of these stages but none sufficiently to deliver complete security. For a message being sent between two mobile users belonging to two different mobile networks the stages are: (1) air interface, (2) transmission links and switches, (3) SMSC platform, (4) transmission links and switches (origin network), (5) transmission links and switches (destination network) and (6) air interface. The air interfaces in stages (1) and (6) are typically secured using A5/1 or A5/3 encryption, the latter being less common but increasing in usage, however it is possible to intercept SMS to or from a specific handset if you are using the same cell as the target handset. Once the message is away from the air interface the message is being passed unencrypted through infrastructure forming the rest of an operator's network and through infrastructure belonging to other parties. It is when a message is traversing this infrastructure that it is at its most vulnerable, and where a sensitive message has the potential to be disclosed.


All it takes is an employee of a mobile operator with access to the relevant equipment or links to "open up" your message and read it. There have been cases in the past where mobile network engineers have snooped on SMS messages without authorisation. Such casual snooping can be easily hidden as being related to a legitimate task so as to not arouse suspicion. SMS messages have even been illegally snooped on by government officials.