LAS VEGAS -- One of the themes evident in many of the educational workshops at the 2014 NACS Show centered on building community. Whether the topic was engaging customers with loyalty offers or helping coworkers stay connected--and keeping those lines of communication secure--the goal was to get people talking.
At this year's convention, a series of sessions focused on technology, appealing to IT personnel, but also to those involved in marketing, operations and accounting.
In a technology session on loyalty, Kickback Rewards founder and convenience store retailer Pat Lewis suggested an interesting concept--relevant rewards. The Twin Falls, Idaho-based retailer showed three types of rewards, all with the same goal of getting the customer to buy more fuel, but each offered different reward levels based on demographic information.
One example featured soccer moms and traveling executives sometimes called "road warriors." One customer got a 25-cent discount, while another got a 50-cent discount. The assumption is that while 25 cents might move one type of individual, it might not move another. It's a matter of finding that sweet spot.
Developing the kinds of tools that allow for such precise offers takes multiple steps, said Pradeep Sinha, president and CEO of Contata Solutions, Minneapolis. He said there were different types of analytics that automated systems could run:
- Descriptive. What happened during a particular incident.
- Diagnostic. Why did it happen? Often this process is about queries and drill-down activity.
- Predictive. Here, analytics can look into what could possibly happen based on historical data.
- Prescriptive. Using certain formulas and algorithms, this process suggests the best courses of action.
Often, such analytics examine how events such as college homecoming nights or hurricanes affect sales, reveal how certain demographics of people buy particular items or analyze what items often sell best together or "market basket" research.
Other sessions focused on building bridges between colleagues. The topic in one workshop was Microsoft SharePoint, a software platform meant to increase interdepartmental communication and information sharing. Eric Riz, executive vice president of Concatenate Inc., Toronto, said retailers have to consider its capabilities and the importance of breaking down any silos that exists between departments or individuals.
Implementation is one challenge. "It's about finding a way to implement [the solution] that's adoptable and sustainable," Riz said. "The final [reward] is when the employees are using it to get their jobs done."
Finding a common business language is another challenge. What does a status report looks like, for example? In accounting, it might mean one thing, but in commercial real estate, it might mean another.
Part of developing an implementation or adoption roadmap is getting the right executive to lead the charge, he said. The team he or she creates must define and create value around the project, get feedback from potential end users and set expectations through the use of metrics. One metric could be that 78% of employees will be using SharePoint for human resources, Riz suggested.
Other steps he outlined were to set ownership parameters that make sense, prototype and pilot the project and then create awareness within the company, which is a huge step, he said.
Data security and examining a company's vulnerability to data thieves was the topic of another workshop. Presenter Ed Freels held up a book on how to hack into a point-of-sale (POS) register.
Saying he liked to use props, the Worcester, Mass.-based Honey Farms operator also pulled out an innocuous white box that could sit plugged in any office unnoticed. But inside was a snooping device looking for wireless signals.
Freels advice:
- Think like a fighter. In many ways, fighting data thieves is like preparing for a bout in the ring. It means testing your own systems, failing and taking an honest look at where the vulnerabilities are. "[Data thieves] are not going to go easy on you, so why should you?"
- Your calendar is your best tool. Catching hackers sometimes means keeping to a regular schedule of checking pumps for skimming devices, reviewing monitoring reports and revisiting stores to make sure employees are executing on data-security training. Putting reminders on a calendar is an important step to making that commitment.
- Execute against a baseline. As a first step to increased security, figure out what the chain's base standards are and then work to maintain those standards.
- Find a partner, not a vendor. He suggests picking suppliers who will work with you, supply you with information and support ongoing questions.
- Know more. With data security being an increasingly complex issue, he said retailers need to keep gathering information.
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