Author Archive
GeoHelp for Sales, Support and Branding
Posted by: | CommentsThe GeoHelp platform is undergoing final testing ! This system features a Help community for ALL participating BUSINESSES so they have their own “Mobile Support” page. Here is an example:
Anyone can view and READ this interactive dialogue happening between each business and interested followers. When you join GeoHelp (http://GeoHelp.com), then you can participate in the discussions online or using your mobile phone. Use this medium to 1) ask sales or support questions, or 2) find out about the latest news, or 3) to discuss relevant topics around this company’s products or services !
GeoHelp is a completely unique social networking concept: A verified user environment where participants (customers) are anonymous, yet businesses get maximum non-identifiable demographic information about customers who specifically REQUEST a dialogue with them. This concept allows businesses to customize their sales and support efforts to be more relevant to individual customers interests. This system enables businesses and consumers to have a much more personal dialogue !
Customer preferences are the TOP priority - The GeoHelp platform (http://GeoHelp.com ) puts the customer in charge of the business/customer relationship. Who to contact, when to contact, and how much contact one desires are all issues that THE CUSTOMER controls. Click here to see: Business selector or Mobile settings.
Privacy & Security are a priority – GeoHelp consumers are anonymous to businesses, (but “known” to 2du) because everyone’s contact information is VERIFIED to protect against fraud and enable the ability to blacklist a troublemaker, an optional PIN code can be used in SMS text messages to protect against identity theft, no 3rd party URL shortening is used to protect against links to malware, and much more !
Real-time Messaging- Imagine a restaurant that is having a slow night so the owner takes out his mobile phone and creates the following message on their microblog; “2 for 1 on all entrees for the next 3 hours” . This message is automatically sent to ALL opt-in members who “follow” this restaurants microblog (via web, email, RSS, or mobile texting). I think this example says it all… the power of real-time messaging will revolutionize many business sectors !!
Microblog admin tools are a priority – Businesses get multiple support tools which send notificationswhen new microblog posts are received, demographic data for each participating member is easily viewed, posts can be labelled with priority levels and issue status(answered/being investigated/unanswered), your microblog integrates easily to Google Analytics, customer historical data and sales/support notes are available together with each post, and much more !
BRANDING is a priority - GeoHelp communities let businesses have a “personality“, participating tells customers that your business brand is CUSTOMER-DRIVEN, GeoHelp has security features that keep your brand away from spam and malware, GeoHelp has features which encourage honesty and accountability, GeoHelp compliments all of your other marketing vehicles (web sites,blogs,social networking sites, etc), and GeoHelp lets you communicate ONE-ON-ONE in REAL-TIME so you can “WOW” them every day !
The GeoHelp Loyalty Framework
Posted by: | CommentsMost people are a member of some loyalty program. An airline program ? A large clothing store program ? Here is an overview “framework” that helps explain how these systems work and why ALL BUSINESSES need to have their own Loyalty Program !
Rewardable Behaviors
The idea of a loyalty program is to modify your customers behavior. You want them to visit your store more often, buy more of your products & services, tell their friends to do the same, help you improve your business, and more. Modifying behavior is not a bad thing as long as you create a WIN-WIN proposition !
Reward Types
The GeoHelp platform enables the giving of “points”. You can then create AUTO-REWARDS (rewards thresholds) so that (for example), when a customer reached 100 points then they get a discount or a two for one offer. When they reach 200 points then they get a higher discount, and when they reach 300 points then they get a higher discount plus two free tickets to a Red Sox game ! These settings are able to be done by you (the business owner) by creating SUPER MESSAGES at the start of your loyalty campaign. Rewards delivery is AUTOMATIC !
Tangible and Intangible Results
The framework above lists a lot of good reasons why all businesses should use a loyalty program. The GeoHelp iphone app offers location rewards while still respecting your customers privacy. Concerning the intangibles, businesses will have the opportunity to associate their brand with a NEW INNOVATION and (hopefully) your business name can be seen in the GeoHelp map when consumers are close… cool !
High-Touch Customer Service Using New Media
Posted by: | CommentsEveryone makes mistakes… what REALLY matters is how you react when it happens.
Remember the FIASCO when Toyota announced that the brakes in their cars didn’t always work? These types of problems highlight the need for a NEW WAY of doing business communications. I am an avid fan of using NEW MEDIA TOOLS to offer personalized help, so lets look at the communications challenges that Toyota was facing:
1) customers had general questions (What is the problem?, Why did this happen?, What will be done?)
2) customer had specific questions (Is my car model one of the ones at risk?, where do I go to get it fixed?)
3) customers and local Toyota dealerships needed to arrange appointments for all of these service visits
4) Toyota service personnel needed to explain repair details of each car model to each individual owner
5) Local dealerships needed to explain the safety risks of waiting for your repair (or lack of risk?)
6) Local dealerships needed to keep customers informed of the status of this repair challenge (where are you “in line” ?)
7) Dealerships needed to show their customers that they are customer advocates when it comes to safety.
In the past, ALL of this communications between Toyota customers and local Toyota dealerships would be done by telephone… ONE customer at a time. A purpose-built PUBLIC social media solution (like GEOHELP) would have been a much better solution.
EVERY Toyota dealership in America would have their own LOCAL Help Community where local customers and Toyota representatives could discuss the situation in a way that is much more PERSONAL and RELEVANT to their customers. YES… 1,200 unique GeoHelp customer service communities can be activated in less than an HOUR to immediately create a communications channel between every dealership and their customers !
Customers could ask (or read) general discussions about these issues in the evening as well as during normal office hours. PRIVATE questions could be sent to the dealership such as “This is Sally Smith with the 2006 red Prius, I was going to go on vacation next week and I’m concerned that I might need new tires as well. Can you look at my brakes and tires on Monday for me?”. This is what PERSONAL service is all about. I’ll bet that if Toyota took advantage of these next generation customer support tools that they could have turned this massive recall into a POSITIVE experience for their brand so customers forget the initial problem, and remember your RESPONSE to the problem!
The Problem With Location-Based Coupons (Until Now !)
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I hear the same location-based coupon example all the time… walk past Starbucks and BRRRR… you get a mobile coupon for 20% off a cup of coffee !
Sounds great right ?? Well there is something SERIOUSLY WRONG with this vision !
The problem is that this solution does NOT SCALE ! Do you want coupons hitting your phone everytime you walk past a starbucks, or a CVS, or a McDonalds, etc…etc… this whole concept gets annoying real quick ! PUSH advertising has always been annoying in traditional media and it is just as annoying in mobile media.
What is REALLY NEEDED is your own personal COUPON INBOX where brands send their coupons and offers. You access this inbox and CHOOSE to use your GPS coordinates to find specials close to you ! This is what our 2du REAL-time Service Platform does. You get your own web account where Businesses send their coupons and events information. When you want to see specials close to you, you can use your smart phone to view and sort your local options ! Simple.
Our system gives you full control over who you want specials from, how many you will accept, under what conditions you are willing to receive them, and much more. Sorting can be done by category, location, business, expiration, favorites. And the best is… 2du offers location-based coupons for thousands of brands with absolutely NO MOBILE SPAM !
Go to http://geohelp.com/ to learn more.
Grow Your Business – a No Hype Analysis
Posted by: | CommentsA lot of us struggle with the real world issue of “How do I grow my business??” I started looking through those dusty books on my shelves (from a previous lifetime!!) and found some inspiration I thought I would share.
Growing your business is NOT as complicated as you think. Just like trying to scale a mountain, you have to get motivated enough to get “from here” to “that ledge”, and then from “the ledge” to “the next ridge”, and before you know it, you are there ! So, we need to break down the problem into smaller bites.
Here is the good news, you only have to increase 5 variables by 10% !
I know everyone hates math, but if you are a business owner then this makes sense:
So in conclusion, if you increase these 5 variables by 10% each then you will increase your customers by 21% and your revenue by 46% and your profit by 60%. So now, with my “2du hat” on, I would recommend that you start by increasing your leads by 10% by promoting your GeoHelp membership.
New Media Defined – What Am I Referring To?
Posted by: | CommentsAfter doing many blog entries, I realized that I haven’t listed what we think of when one says “new media” ! One definition is ” new media is a set of communication technologies that enable or facilitate user-to-user interactivity. Said another way, new media enables a “many-to-many” communications model ! This is very different from the traditional radio, TV, and newspaper’s “one-to-many” communications model.
The NEW MEDIA technologies that 2du is working with include:
GeoHelp Identity Protection: Why Is This Necessary?
Posted by: | CommentsYou probably know that “malware” and “identity theft” are potential computer problems that can strike any of us. I was just reading an article by Finjan Inc. (a leading anti-virus software provider) who wrote that they were able to track a “bot network” (hacker software) all the way back to the master server in the Ukraine that still had REAL TIME CONTROL of over 1.9 million computers ! Read that one more time… they had REAL TIME CONTROL over 1.9 million computers that are innocently sitting in living rooms all around the world ! And that is ONE example of what is happening on the Internet today.
We are no longer talking about “hobby hackers” sending “annoying jokes” that wander the Internet causing mischief… we are talking about organized cyber-criminals who are actively trying to get into your computer and accounts (like social networks). This article says that there is even a blackmarket where the “keys” to these hacked computers are sold. So gaining control over your Facebook account can be SOLD to another hacker ! Click here to read this fascinating article.
I think you get the idea… we are living in a different world now… ALL of us must be serious about security in ALL of our Internet activities. Especially when using social networking systems.
The GeoHelp Platform has a signup process which requires all users to VERIFY that they are REALLY the owner of the email account and mobile phone number that they have entered. This might take just a few more minutes… but I hope you understand that it is in your own interest to do this simple verification procedure. When identities are VERIFIED, we ALL have a safer environment.
VERIFY = text message sent to your mobile phone and email.
You answer the message and you are verified !
Social Media Managers – Are YOU Responsible for Postings ? YES !
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You were just given the DREAM assignment of building up the “social media” presence for your company… you do all of the right things, you get the FACEBOOK page started, you get your TWITTER account, and you start communicating with your customers !!
So far so good…
A few months go by and you are having a great time interacting with potential prospects and existing customers. Now the CEO visits to see how things are looking. He seems to have a completely different perspective… “How are you capturing these leads ?“, “Why are people talking about politics and weather?“, “Where are you pitching our new product line?“, then you see his stern face go from BAD to WORSE… “What is this ??? Someone wrote the “F” word on our web site ??? Get that OFF immediately !“
You clear your throat and and hope for the best… “I’m sorry sir, but we have very little control over what people write on our social media sites“
SILENCE….. SHOCK….. The boss turns to you and says “From what I can see, YOU don’t have any ROI metrics in place, our sites are poorly focused, we are not capturing customer insights, and YOU allow our BRAND to be associated with bad language ? Come to my office first thing tomorrow and explain to me why this is our BEST solution (?)“
So, how SHOULD a business leverage the power of social media ? Businesses should use social media tools that are specifically designed to both engage your customers while protecting your BRAND. Social platforms such the 2du Business MicroBlog Platform offer advanced security mechanisms, identity theft protection, integration into CRM software, personalized email & mobile coupon generator, mobile barcodes for ROI tracking, and of course,profanity filters !
Click here to see an example of a GeoHelp Community.
Click here to read more about our BUSINESS features.
Would You Invest in This Team?
Posted by: | CommentsI love this photo !! This is the original Microsoft team from 1978 ! That’s Bill in the lower left ! If you were talking to them in 1978 would you have seen that they had a “billion dollar opportunity” ahead of them ?
Well… to be perfectly honest, I think the 2du team ALSO has an opportunity to create a billion dollar company. This is not because we are some kind of super geniuses, this is because there is a “perfect storm” of new media and social change opportunities happening RIGHT NOW !! Advertising is undergoing significant changes, mobile two way communications will become mandatory for all businesses, retail business models and technologies are changing, POS and mobile payment systems are changing, the technology divide between business owners and customers is growing, information filtering is increasing in value, and more ! A lot of the established infrastructure in these markets will be abandoned and reinvented. This is a huge opportunity for the right team with the right resources. 2du’s business model, accomplishments and VISION proves that we are positioned to be a significant player in these markets. Help us move to the next level… it will be a FUN ride !
Preferences & Privacy – Consumers Have Choices
Posted by: | CommentsOne of the central concepts of the GeoHelp Platform is to let consumers control their own preferences. Under the SETTINGS section on the GeoHelp website, there is a page where you are given full control of your location data, your account start page, your language and locale settings, and much more ! Every time you choose to follow a business, you can select if you want communications via mobile, email or web. If you choose “WEB”, this means that all communications comes to your private GeoHelp account and you are never bothered with business messages to your email account or mobile phone !
Click here to see the ENTIRE preferences page
