Like me and let the conversation continue

You buy a cup of coffee and the cashier hands you a receipt with an incentive to join the company’s Facebook page. You’re not completely sure if you should. What the cashier forgot was that your order was messed up, you waited for more than 10 minutes, and the manager was not in the store. So what do you do?

You like the brand on Facebook only to tell all your friends about your bad experience. Isn’t it ironic that you have to like them to tell them that you really do not like them!

A complete stranger walks up to you in the parking lot and hands you a flyer. It is a coupon to your favorite store, plus a chance to win a digital reader. Would you give this stranger your phone number? Would you introduce the stranger to your family and friends? Would you invite the stranger into your home?

Yet the same thing happens online and you willingly become friends via an unknown brand ambassador – perhaps a sponsored story via a friend of a friend.

Soon, both brands, the coffee company and your favorite store start communicating with you as if they are your best friend. Offers pour in, they are personalized as if they know you, and they touch you more times in one week than you call your best friend Jill in one month!

Let’s bring this closer to home. Our consumer walks up to an ATM, we ask them to choose their language, next we ask them what they want to do, now while the cash is being counted we tell them that we an awesome offer for them. Really! You do not know that I speak English, you do not remember my favorite transaction, and suddenly you pretend like you know what is best for me!

Financial institutions have an incredible opportunity to leverage data, consumer trust, and mobility to build interactive relationships with the consumer in both the real and the virtual world.

Imagine a transaction that started an ATM with, “Hello Kate” (she speaks English). “Do you still want $120?” (They remembered.) Now, while the transaction is being “readied,” the financial institution can leverage the warmth to make a targeted offer. If you do this well, you can continue the conversation on social media.

Rather than asking Kate to like your institution, why not ask Kate about her experience or remind her about something important – like a bill that needs to be paid or an upcoming renewal of a certificate of deposit. Or, even think about prompting her to visit your social media site.

“How much does a family of four spend on drinks if they were to eat out every week of the year?” Check out our Facebook page to see how much we spend (leads to a like), download a budget calculator (could be an app), and pick up a coupon for appetizers at one of five restaurants (you start building up their preferences).

This same transaction can take place on online banking, at a branch, or even at the call center. The key is that the institution should recognize the consumer, know what they want, and try their best to help the consumer along.

Successful consumer engagement is driven less by likes and more by what happens after the like – both in the real and the virtual world.

Successful social media brands have used social media to do five things –

1 – Find compatible consumers
2 – Know more about their consumers
3 – Inspire their consumers to become brand ambassadors
4 – Listen to learn about their consumers, and
5 – Look for ways to quantify the return on effort and investment.

You can do even better if you look for ways to merge real world and virtual transactions – social integration is a key mantra for success. It pays to integrate your marketing efforts to show your consumer that you know what is going on.

Financial institutions need to look for ways to leverage consumer trust, consumer preferences, and consumer interaction to build long term mutually profitable relationships. Integrated marketing is the key mantra to driving consumer engagement.

- See more at: http://blogs.ncr.com/ncr-banking/consumer_experience/emarketing/like-me-and-let-the-conversation-continue/

The Future of Grocery Shopping Comes to Wisconsin

This winter, shoppers at the Woodman’s Food Markets Gammon Road location in Madison, Wis., got a look at the future of grocery shopping when the store unveiled and conducted demos for customers of the Woodman’s Mobile Shopper, powered by NCR Corporation.  The app is currently available on the Apple App Store.

With Mobile Shopper, shoppers can:

• Save time and make shopping easier by using their own iPhones to scan items in the aisles as they shop;
• Use the app to create virtual shopping lists before going to the store, further increasing the speed, efficiency and ease of shopping trips;
• Checkout at the Woodman’s self-checkout (SCO) stations with a QR code on their phones that transfers their mobile shopping information to the SCO.  The SCO station confirms the weight of the items scanned with the phone against the items being bagged at the SCO station;
• Pay with their preferred method of payment;
• Quickly be on their way. 

During the checkout process, attendants can quickly help customers reconcile any discrepancies the system identifies and answer any other questions they may have.  Produce, other non-barcoded items and impulse items can also be added at the self-checkout.  The store also features free WIFI throughout so shoppers do not have to use their own data plan while using the Mobile Shopper app.

“NCR brings unique and powerful technology that helps Woodman’s achieve our goals of customer service and convenience,” said Chad Greenwald at Woodman’s.  “We’re excited about launching this Mobile Shopper solution with NCR and look forward to delighting our customers with this new, high-tech shopping and check-out option.”

“With this launch, Woodman’s is moving toward making the shopping experience faster and more convenient for their shoppers,” said Chris Lybeer, vice president and general manager of retail marketing and mobile solutions at NCR.   “Launching mobile checkout takes Woodman’s to the forefront of the 21^st Century and creates additional opportunities in the future for Woodman’s to interact with their customers in real time during the shopping experience.”

Following deployment at the Madison location, Woodman’s will explore deploying Mobile Shopper at their other 13 stores in Wisconsin and Illinois.

For more information about the Woodman’s Mobile Shopper, follow the feed on Twitter, @WoodmansApp.  Or, check out this Mobile Payments Today video that shows how this great shopping tool works!

See more at: http://blogs.ncr.com/converged-multi-channel-retailing/point-of-sale/the-future-grocery-shopping-comes-wisconsin/

8 Ways Your Employees May Be Stealing From You

According to the National Restaurant Association, employee theft accounts for a loss of approximately 3% of annual sales. You may be wondering how to spot employee theft. This short list below gives some of the ways employees may be stealing from you:

• Transferring self service items (those that don’t generate a kitchen chit, such as coffee or soda) off a check that has been paid for with cash and reusing the same item on another check.
• Giving away self service items, such as a drink or dessert, to a guest with the expectation of receiving a larger than normal tip.
• Short ring – ring up a lower priced item and pocket the cash difference
• Using lower priced liquor and charging for call brands
• Placing tip jars next to the cash register – easy to put cash into the jar and ring “no sale” on the register
• Comping checks after they have been closed. Manager finds a check closed to cash by an employee who has already checked out. The manager reopens the check, applies a comp, closes the check and pockets the cash.
• Comping checks after printing. Employee will print a check for the full amount and present it to the customer. After the customer pays with cash, the employee comps an item off the check and pockets the difference.
• Claiming phony walkouts – Employee presents the check and quickly collects the cash. Employee tells manager that it was a walkout, pockets the cash and asks the manager to void the check.

Employee theft is serious business. In addition to the above suggestions, it may also be wise to look to at a employee theft deterrence software such as Restaurant Guard to figure out the best way for your business to address the issue.

Have you fallen victim to one or more of the types of scams above? What steps have you taken to protect your business? I’d love to hear from you in the comment area below.

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See more at: http://blogs.ncr.com/hospitality/thoughtleadership/8-ways-your-employees-may-be-stealing-from-you

Hotels POS system - New Technology

The NCR Hospitality team in Midtown Atlanta area has been operating all season on a remedy known as NCR Mobile Pay.  Of course you can pay with it, but it’s much larger than that.  NCR Cellular Pay is a individual assistant that allows a cafe visitor get what they want without awaiting someone to ask.  The technological innovation has not been simple but when you see it in activity, it’s amazing.  Cellular Pay is the first technological innovation that completely holds the consumer-centric characteristics of cafe dealings.

Get more information on Mobile Pay by downloading the PDF document mobilepay.pdf

Short Payment method:
Your pos system server takes orders purchases and opens a check. When a new check is started out, the POS prints a chit containing information describing how to view the check. Your server delivers the chit to your desk.