Until 2003, the company’s loyalty programme was managed by an outsourced provider. But as Famous Footwear grew, the costs of running the programme escalated. The company also had inadequate access to and control over critical data. To address these issues and strengthen its marketing and loyalty programmes, Famous Footwear selected Epicor Retail CRM. The solution provides integrated capabilities for customer analysis and segmentation, campaign and loyalty programme management, and real-time targeted communications. Together these functionalities provide managers and associates with a complete and consolidated view of the customer in all channels and the ability to respond effectively to their interests and needs.
These functions are enhanced by Microsoft Reporting Services, which enables key information to be shared efficiently through ease of formatting and Web accessibility. Further, Microsoft .NET is being incorporated to optimise the solution’s interface, navigation and overall ease of use.
Epicor Retail CRM has enabled Famous Footwear to gain much greater control of its critical customer information, at a lower cost. “In addition to cost savings, CRM lets us view information and run queries instantaneously, to better understand our customers and enhance our loyalty programmes whenever necessary,” says Amy Ochoa, Famous Footwear’s CRM director.
In 2005, Famous Footwear began to use CRM to profile its customer base from multiple perspectives, including seasonality, lifetime value and demographics, to improve its target marketing campaigns. The company drew on data from records on several million customers to reveal nine distinct customer segments and their potential contributions to revenue and company growth. “We now know more about how to prioritise our marketing investment, tailor our offer and get the timing right for our seasonal shoppers,” Ochoa says. “This knowledge is essential to developing effective strategies that will continue to grow sales.”
Famous Footwear used the Reward Manager module within Epicor Retail CRM for points tracking, reporting, and redemption for all its loyalty customers. “The solution gives us the flexibility we need to enhance our offering to members, whether its extra points for gold status members or bonuses for establishing online member accounts,” Ochoa says.
Epicor Retail CRM enables Famous Footwear to send reward statements electronically, which is a convenient option for customer and a significant cost saving for the company. To assist in managing the large amounts of e-mail communications, it will continue to track them closely in the CRM database.
“We feel secure that our Epicor Retail CRM solution is the right place to house and analyse our millions of customer records and associated transactions,” Ochoa concludes. “Epicor will support us as we continue to enhance our rewards-based loyalty programme.”
This article first appeared in the Retailspeak Partner Guide 2010