1. Get the Opt-In—Your mobile program will only be successful if you can grow your database large enough to deliver a positive impact on your bottom-line. To build your mobile database you first must gain your customer’s express consent to communicate with them. This isn’t necessarily a hard thing to do; it just takes a bit of time, creativity and consistent effort. Consumers aren’t quick to volunteer personal information unless they perceive value in doing so. You know your customer base, so be creative. Consider loyalty programs, contests, coupons and campaigns that capture their attention. Simply asking for information with nothing in return won’t likely elicit trust or magically build your database.

2. Collect the Right Information—Contact information like phone numbers, addresses and emails is helpful, but you can gain a strong advantage by gathering consumer preferences. How do your customers wish to be contacted? How often? What products or services are they interested in? Knowledge of communications preferences allows you to generate targeted and personalized marketing campaigns while increasing your chances of getting through.

3. Honor Customer Preferences—Knowing how someone prefers to be contacted is paramount to turning a one-time shopper into a loyal customer. Once consumers have supplied their communications preferences, honor them with vigor. Communicating information they’re not interested in or through non-preferred channels only increases the probability that they will opt-out of your mobile program.  Once a customer opts-out, the chances of him opting back in are slim.

4. Pay Close Attention and Update—The mobile database is a living entity. Identifying your customers’ preferences and channel response shifts will put you in a unique position to offer only what interests them while increasing response rates and your ROI. But be careful. As mentioned, honoring customer preferences is critical, but noticing shifts in channel preference is equally important. For example, the number of people who prefer to be contacted via text in 2012 is higher than it was in 2011. You must continually monitor the pulse of your customers and their changing purchasing dynamics.

A mobile database requires a strategic blueprint, creativity and attention, but it’s an investment that could make your mobile marketing results soar. The countdown is over — are you ready to launch the mobile rocket?

If you want to learn more about building a mobile database, register for our upcoming webinar with Loyalty360 entitled Mobilizing Your Loyalty Program, Tuesday, May 22^nd at 1pm EST.

I recently hosted a joint webinar with LexisNexis highlighting the current state of risk mitigation as it pertains to database and platform management.  It was clear by the litigation statistics that the trend of lawsuits is not going to slow.  FDCPA compliance is clearly the greatest concern, as 87% of the lawsuits filed under consumer statutes this year pertained to it. There is a clear inability of most organizations to control functions that are necessary at the platform level and a need for automated processes to reduce risk and error.

Below are four functions necessary to address main compliance issues as both you and your consumer/payer database evolve with technology and regulation changes:

• Safe Window Dialing – In the age of phone number portability – it’s extremely important to understand that the number obtained for your contacts is not necessarily representative of their physical location.  Detecting these mismatches and dialing in a “safe window” is the key.
• Phone Type Identification and Campaign Treatments – The ability to determine a phone number type allows you to select specific treatments within campaigns.  Unique to the SoundBite Engage platform, you can take a single list, split it by device type (wireless vs. landline) and then run concurrent passes with different channels – preview and dialer, for example.  This creates a competitive edge while ensuring compliance at the device level.
• Automation Efficiency – Timeliness of data and processes relating to automation can protect you in a variety of ways.   This could be your Do-Not-Call/suppression lists, or even a mid-day scrub from a third-party provider where you have identified some risky debtors in lists that have already been loaded to your dialing platform.   This automation can also include your call history or detail export for processing on your host system.
• Preference Management – You gain a greater and deeper understanding of your payer base and uniquely support the growing need to manage and honor evolving consumer preferences, across all the communication channels – voice, text and email.  Collecting and tracking consumer opt-ins to honor permissions provides a record – which keeps you compliant with FTC regulations and leads to a path of building an opt-in database, which is becoming increasingly important.

In the end, we all need to be able to comply.  One of the benefits of being a cloud-based provider is the flexibility in software development and the ability to create tools that help you gain a level of control in the platform.  This will lead to risk mitigation, and ultimately, let you get back to your job at hand.

To learn more about risk and compliance from SoundBite and LexisNexis, please listen to the podcast Best Practices for Collections Risk Mitigation.

The same goes for text messaging.  The number of text messages has been on a steady climb as people across continents, demographics and generations embraced the ease of its use, the ability to cut through the other cluttered communications channels and be able to instantly reach loved ones, co-workers, and friends.  And in addition, text messaging is growing as a marketing channel for collecting coupons, tracking loyalty points, making payments and receiving notifications of special promotions.  A recent report out by Gartner shows that worldwide smartphone sales in Q4 2011 are 47% higher than Q4 2010.  In addition, a recent blog by Nielsen shows that Smartphone and feature phones now make up a 50/50 split of cell phone ownership.

Text messaging is still the best way to reach consumers. There are those, though, who doubt the text force.  We have heard grumblings from the dark side of MMS and QR Codes that text is dead.  Well, being a mobile marketing Jedi, I believe the future of text is strong.  Yoda also says, “always in motion is the future.” And here are just a few reasons why:

1. Text message usage rates are strong and growing.
2. Text message adoption rates are also increasing.
3. Smartphone sales continue to increase.
4. Emergency and charitable organizations are using text more and more.
5. 103% Cell Phone penetration rate in the US

I saw the original Star Wars movie as a kid in the summer of 1977 and have watched the phenomenon grow over the years.  Still, to this day, if it’s on TV, I’ll still tune in and watch it.  Even my kids, while they’re still a little young yet, are beginning to turn to the force. As it is with Star Wars, it is also with mobile. The next generation is coming along and diving into mobile devices like no other generation has.  May the force be with them!  Although, I hope they don’t decide they want to vacation on Tatooine someday.

Text SMSJedi to 99222 to learn more about this incredible force to engage consumers.

The home shopping process reminded me of the request for proposal (RFP) process.  RFPs don’t just get sent out of the blue.  The requesting organizations spend hours creating questions, considering vendors to receive the RFP and organizing a document that will be easy to understand thereby allowing them to compare results across vendors. Basically a ton of work for what they hope will let them gather the right information and make the best vendor decision.

As I see more and more RFPs come across my desk here, I am often struck by how these request documents are mired in on-premise questions.  You simply can’t use a typical on-premise RFP to effectively evaluate a cloud-based solution.  Questions such as number of trunks and port space are not addressing the cloud model and I feel as if I am being forced to crunch the cloud message into each response. It is as if the document is asking questions about a house that only has the foundation poured, while I can offer a house that is ready to move into today.

Here are four steps to ensure that your RFP evaluates cloud-based and on-premise providers equally. 

1. Be forward thinking. For most of you, the last time you were in the marketplace to purchase a dialer, the cloud was simply not a viable solution.  Over the last four years, the technology, deployment and security has advanced leaps and bounds with many industry reports clearly showing that contact centers today are moving to the cloud.  Are you clear on the differences and advantages you can receive from the cloud?

2. Ask questions and seek out the experts.  Speak with vendors who may offer assistance in the development of the RFP.  By engaging vendors who have experience in the marketplace, you can understand the cloud business model and be able to position questions that can effectively evaluate on-premise and cloud-based dialers alike.

3. Understand how to grow your dialer. The contact center is an always changing and evolving landscape.  Look to a vendor with a truly integrated multi-channel offering, which will allow you to leverage new features without having to buy additional support modules.  Your RFP questions should reflect the cost-to-expand and timeline to deploy future solutions to adapt to the changing marketplace.

4. Test while you wait. Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a home before you actually bought it?  Typical RFP processes can last months and once the decisions are made the installation of on-premise solutions are typically not quick.  Contact centers can run a low-risk, low-cost pilot during an RFP process with cloud-based providers  which may even eliminate the need to continue with the process.

There is little doubt that the RFP process, for both the issuer and participating vendors, is a labor-intensive process, just like purchasing a house.  Why not seek out the experts, like SoundBite, learn and ask questions specific to the cloud – this will help break out of the current paradigm and get you the benefits and functions when it comes to on-premise and cloud vendors.

Have a question about your RFP? Let us help.

My wife—and the store she was in—benefits from a mobilized loyalty program or “cardless loyalty”. There are multiple ways that consumers’ loyalty membership info can be accessed so they no longer have to carry cards in their wallets or on their key chains. COLLOQUY reports that Americans are enrolled in an average of 18 loyalty programs. That’s a lot of cards to carry and numbers to remember. I’m still using old landline numbers from 10 years ago as my loyalty pin number for some programs.

The ability to have your mobile phone device as your unique identifier, allows for convenience, scale and adoption.   Your loyalty information can be stored, managed, and retrieved via an email address, phone number, mobile application or even a text message, all in one device. Consider the following:

• Truaxis reports that loyalty program customers generate 50-70% of a company’s sales
• Even though enrolled in 18 programs, the average number of programs in which households actively participate is just 8.4
• US-based wireless subscribers (327.6 million) is more than the entire American population (312.4 million), according to CTIA
• The number of loyalty memberships in the US is 2.1 billion
• The recent eTail West conference reported that 40% of all retail emails are being read on mobile devices and;
• 60% of mobile phone users browse with their phones and 29% buy

Mobile is clearly a preferred channel for consumers to engage, interact and do business with retailers. All major forms of reaching your customer be it text, voice, email or web, can all be done via mobility. And retailers should take full advantage of this convenience and the ubiquity of mobile for not only specials and coupons, but also for messaging on loyalty rewards programs, such as account updates and redemptions.

Mobile makes loyalty program participation personalized and convenient. Cards can be forgotten, misplaced or left in the car, but consumers always have their mobile phones on them, enabling them to access their loyalty information anywhere at any time.

Are you attending the Loyalty Expo and want to hear more about marrying loyalty and mobile? Attend my workshop, “Mobilizing your Loyalty Program”, on Sunday, March 18^th to learn about program best practices, leveraging consumer preferences and successful cardless loyalty case studies.

A recent survey of 1,500 US adults at the 2011 Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition revealed mobile shoppers’ most common purchases broken down by percentage:

• 16% bought apparel
• 15% bought food and beverages
• 11% bought toys and games
• 8% bought home goods
• 4% bought sporting goods
• 3% bought jewelery
• 8% bought all other products

M-commerce shoppers also tend to spend less time perusing websites or apps and more time hunting for a specific product.  Here are a few ways m-commerce consumers can hunt better and help their fellow man focus on the best mobile shopping opportunities:

• Since a  smartphone’s screen size is smaller, shoppers focus on the task at hand and not lose  attention to the numerous websites available for surfing.
• Browsing for price comparisons while in a store is an effective  tool for m-commerce customers.
• Mobile shoppers also tend to use social media to share experiences and direct friends to certain links and mobile marketing promotions.
• Location-based services creates awareness of in-store opportunities immediately available.

According to Deloitte’s 2011 Annual Holiday Survey, more than a third of 2011 mobile consumers also enjoyed the benefits of social media – using the technology to share their buying experiences with their friends and to gain tips for their own future purchases.  Consumers in large numbers used their mobile devices to find store locations (67%), compare prices (59%) and more than half (51%) researched product information.

To learn more about mobile trends impacting the retail industry, download our free report, Beyond the Crystal Ball: Forecasting Mobile’s Impact on the Retail Industry in 2012.

After reading the final FCC 12-21 order, below is what I see are the significant highlights:

• In an attempt to harmonize rules and reduce industry confusion, the FCC adopted rules that mirror the FTC on consent for prerecorded telemarketing calls that have been in effect for a few years. Those rules will now apply to companies that were exempt from FTC jurisdiction, like telephone companies, banks and airlines.  The rules continue not to apply to tax-exempt non-profit organizations, calls for political purposes and calls for other noncommercial purposes; including those that deliver purely public-service or emergency messages. However the FCC retained its exception, for wireless carriers calling their own customers without charging them for the call.

• The requirement for prior express written consent for telemarketing calls to wireless numbers applies to calls (voice & text) that are either autodialed or prerecorded.  Under the new rules, telemarketing text messages will require prior express written consent the same as prerecorded telemarketing messages. The same holds true for autodialed telemarketing messages to wireless phones using live operators (predictive calls).

• The new rule will not go into effect until 12 months after Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval. This will allow our clients a relatively long window in which to obtain the required consent from their customers and others.

SoundBite has been and will continue to be actively engaged in ensuring that our voice and that of our industry be heard.  This has involved dedicated and consistent advocacy with industry associations, members of Congress and the FCC.  We will continue to advocate for fair and reasonable regulation that aligns our business interests and those of our clients and partners.

Next month I will be speaking on the panel, Understanding TCPA: Maximize Consumer Contacts and Minimize Risk at the National Credit and Collections Risk Conference.

I saw several instances of Twitter hashtags, and Facebook mentions, but only three examples of mobile marketing call-to-actions used.  The first was the NFL with a SMS call to action, Text NFL to 69635 sweepstakes to win a million bucks.  Was it an awesome example of mobility?  Well, on one hand it was great to see an advertisement using a keyword call to action. On the other hand standard message rates did apply (why no FTEU NFL?) and the response time after sending in the keyword was horrible.  I waited for 45 minutes before I got an auto reply text back.  Whoever powered the NFL campaign failed to enable the most intrinsic concept regarding mobility: immediacy.  Perhaps it was done on purpose so people texted in multiple times, thereby driving up text entries received? Or maybe it was the all too familiar scapegoat “the network” that we like to blame when things don’t go right.  I doubt it, since the number of tweets per second over the last 3 minutes of the game set a new sporting event record.

The second call to action worth mentioning was the GoDaddy.com use of a QR code.  I have to applaud them…for their use of the QR code. I’ve seen QR Codes used in TV commercials from time to time, but never have I seen it displayed in a commercial for the full 30-second spot.  Although, if you don’t know what a QR Code is or what to do with it, the ad wasn’t as effective.  If, however, you do know about QR codes, I bet you grabbed your phone and scanned it, feverishly looking for that additional “not shown on the air” content.

One call to action that wasn’t a TV commercial, but was advertised on the Lucas Oil Jumbotron, was a campaign from the Department of Homeland Security called If You See Something, Say Something^TM. This was the call to action displayed: “Call 1-877-226-1026 or text the issue and your location to 69900”.  I had seen this on Friday’s NBC Nightly News where department Secretary Janet Napolitano discussed security measures at the Super Bowl and utilizing a text call to action on the Jumbotron.  This brought mobility to the Super Bowl like never before – enabling attendees to text or call in an issue invenue.  Using multiple types of call to actions enables the full power of the mobile phone, just like SoundBite enables mobility via text, voice, email, or web.

Additional mobility uses during the game included of course, the Best Buy commercial, shining a light on prime mobile innovators from the invention of the camera phone, mobile payments, to the popular game Words with Friends.  Also highlighted during the game, but much more prevalent during the half time show was the use of Augmented Reality (AR).  Madonna’s performance was augmented by creating a number of realities around and including the stage that were not actually part of the field itself, such as creating what appeared to be a boom box especially as LMFAO took the stage, and the creation of the “World Peace” sign at the end.  Of course during the game, we all know and love another use of AR, the 1^St and Ten graphics system, which displays the yellow first down line TV viewers see during the game.

Overall, it was a loss for mobility, just like it was for my beloved Patriots.  Will mobile be more involved at Super Bowl XLVII?  Will the Patriots have another chance at a Super Bowl ring?  All I can say is- there’s always next year!

Ok, I’ll admit it; I have had the conversation with myself (and with my wife) regarding how I can be more like Tim Tebow.

No matter what I do, I’m not going to get taller, faster, more athletic, better looking, or have a fan base of millions.  However, there are many things Tim Tebow can teach those of us in the contact center world that can immediately change our fortunes.

1. Just because it doesn’t look exactly like what you’re used to , doesn’t mean it isn’t the best option for you to win. The Denver Broncos were not winning consistently, but they had the vision to give a new style of quarterbacking a chance.  Tebow’s style is very different, yet he turned around Denver’s fortunes and created a winning environment. This is not unlike the movement to cloud-based solutions.  There are still some who have concerns about trying a new cloud-based approach, but they are quickly getting left behind.  In order to win consistently, you must be a leader – not a laggard.  Denver’s coaches understood that Tebow’s athleticism, winning pedigree and commitment to his teammates provided them the best chance to win despite what some perceived as a risk.  But moving to the cloud isn’t risky. A contact solution in the cloud is new and different, but it’s actually the safer strategy given all its’ advantages.  In addition, Denver literally created a totally new offensive playbook to match the preference of their new quarterback  and personnel.  In the contact center world, you similarly stand to get the best results if you understand and honor your customers’ contact channel preferences to improve both effectiveness and efficiency.

2. Flexibility is both a necessity and a huge advantage in most anything you do. Tebow is hard to defend against because he can pass, he can run, he can scramble, etc…  Tebow teaches us that being one-dimensional can be limiting.  He often runs what is known as the “option” which allows him to choose the best play instantly to optimize the result. In the contact center world, you need that same kind of flexibility in such uncertain times.  You’re better prepared to achieve great results when you have on-demand capacity that flexes up or down to meet your needs.  Plus, when you can leverage multiple best-of-breed tools and channels (such as predictive dialing, voice messaging, mobile messaging, and email) interchangeably in a single-platform, you’ve created superior flexibility to get the best results with the least amount of effort and complexity.  The contact center of today and tomorrow must be as flexible in terms of its’ internal infrastructure as well as its’ ability to deploy the right contact strategy or channel to maximize results.

3. Getting locked-in on a single receiver or solution can be dangerous. Tebow and other young QB’s tend to lock-in and commit to a receiver because it feels comfortable.  Yet, once the QB throws the ball with this tunnel vision it regularly brings a negative result that can not be reversed.  This relatively blind commitment is costly.  Similarly, from an ownership perspective, Denver’s thinking about whether to commit to Tebow as the long-term QB of the franchise.  The problem is, once they sign him to a multimillion dollar contact for multiple years, it will set the organization back tremendously if he doesn’t end up being an All-Pro.  It’s similar to writing a check to install on-premise hardware and software. You can’t get it back, and it’s going to take many months or years of resources’ time and effort to really get it right.  That would all be wasted.  With a cloud-based solution, you’ll always be able to make a change and improve your team without having to worry about sunk costs.

4. You’ve got to have the right tools, but just having the tools isn’t enough. You need to work on your mechanics to be the best. Tebow’s poor throwing mechanics causes mistakes and turnovers.  The other problem with Tebow is that his mechanics are very hard to change or improve given how he’s played quarterback all his life.  In the contact center world, poor mechanics results in sub-par results and lost money.  With respect to the mechanics of your contact center, cloud solutions constantly improve technology with upgrades, and some companies, like SoundBite, provide ongoing strategy consultants that help you optimize the mechanics of your campaigns and strategies.  This yields top tier results!  A cloud-based solution is fundamentally built to be flexible and evolve over time as your needs, your client’s needs, and the market needs all change.

Whether you’re a Tim Tebow fan or not, there’s a lot to learn from him in regards to life and in business.  Applying some of these lessons is as close as I’m likely going to get to being more Tebow-like.

What these same vendors don’t want you to know is that, once you make this move, you are now locked into their proprietary environment — although they will claim that it is open — for another 5 to 10 years. New features aren’t free or actually even new, they are paid for and not leading edge so, essentially, you have sub-optimized functionality at the component level in order to have an integrated solution. The whole might be greater than the sum of the parts but the parts are not best of breed. Also, implementation time, or time to value, for these deployments is measured in months, if not years. Wait until you receive the annual maintenance bill – often times exceeding 20% of the list price of the up-front investment – and you will realize that you are in a losing battle in a competitive landscape.

But all is not lost. The cloud has come to the rescue! What was once considered the ‘risky’ choice is now commonplace. Many cloud communications /contact center vendors have emerged that provide key components of the contact center and, importantly, seamlessly integrate into the infrastructure that is already in place. Hosted IVR vendors provide natural language, speech-based front-ends to improve the customer experience for inbounds calls. Proactive customer communication vendors provide highly scalable, outbound, multi-channel solutions that can handle bursts of automated voice, text and email messaging – saving the huge investment in capacity that is better provided in an on-demand model. Chat vendors provide solutions for real-time communications with consumers that visit your website. Each of these components can be added into an existing contact center individually allowing clients to maintain existing components they have familiarity with or that are meeting their current needs.

Welcome to the hybrid contact center. Best-of-breed solutions are easily deployed through the cloud without the need for significant capital investment. Investments are protected. Vendor lock-in is avoided. Capacity is provided on-demand – you can scale up or scale down. Essentially, the contact center in the cloud model allows you to test a hosted solution with little expense and ensure it is the right fit before sinking huge dollars into the mix. Let the Hybrid Contact Center be your savior.