ORLANDO – Bob Gold, CEO of Gold Mobile, related a recent experience to Loyalty 360 regarding a visit to a “semi- fast food restaurant.”
“They wanted me to tell them what I thought of my experience by going to their website,” Gold said. “Awful.”
Gold said the future of mobile resides in “in-the-moment engagement” whereby companies interact with customers throughout the day when they need or want something – accompanied by a reward.
“In reality, people need these little interstitial actions throughout the day,” Gold said. “Most mobile apps are missing the point.”
Gold said the trends in mobile are leaning toward the experience being about a person, not a device. “It solves half the problem on an app. Companies can’t wait for customers to go to them. They have to go to the customers. It needs to be about crafting content to help the customer with something right now to make their life simpler.”
Gold isn’t high on mobile apps because companies spend thousands of dollars on them, and they aren’t very helpful except for people who use them a lot.
“Apps have to be about preferences,” Gold said. “Apps have to ask about customer preferences and have to be coordinated within mini experiences. Ask your customers. Go to people. Don’t wait for them to come to you.”
Digital assets can be a reward mechanism, Gold said, but the future of mobile is “more about the last mile.”
Just like the U.S. Postal Service provides Last Mile delivery service for FedEx and UPS, Gold said trends in mobile need to focus more on finishing the process for a customer.
Gold said companies probably have too much data – which he calls “analysis paralysis” – which leads everywhere, except to the main goal: the customer.
“Just ask your customers and be there for them,” Gold said. “Marketing loyalty should be about mini-interstitial experiences and attach rewards to them. Rewards can be simply for actions and not just transactions.”
Another area Gold views as troublesome is the fact that a popular social media site like Facebook isn’t connected to a brand site and its loyalty programs.
“Marketing and loyalty leadership have to understand a day in the life of a consumer so each channel can have a 360-degree experience,” Gold added.