Growing customer loyalty at any

inHARMONY
JULY 2012
In this edition:
New Harmony Application
Java Staff Rostering
Web Watch
Search Engine
Optimisation
Customer Spotlight
Loyalty at any price
Growing
customer
loyalty
at any
cost
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Managing Director's Note
Rust never sleeps
I was intrigued to discover I actually have over ten loyalty cards in my
possession. Only one is in my wallet the others are on my desk, in my office,
the glove box of my car, my bedside table and at least one I use as a bookmark.
Ever since Tesco launched its innovative Clubcard loyalty scheme back in 1995,
loyalty cards have become a widespread device that businesses have used to
connect with customers.
In the winter edition of our newsletter we summarise the latest statistical
findings on the success of loyalty programs and put forward the thoughts of
leading practitioners and business authors.
FBS has been busy employing the services of talented website optimisation
experts to assist our customers to reach their targeted audience. Even the
most compelling products and services on the internet are useless if no one
knows about them and they cannot be found with non-branded keywords. Ecommerce anonymity is avoidable and our article on search engine
optimisation titled “Who really knows you’re out there?” makes interesting
reading.
“Even the most
compelling products
and services on the
internet are useless
if no one knows
about them “
Our commitment to recruiting talented personnel hasn’t stopped with the web
department. In the last three months we have employed a number of people
to fill important roles in account management, implementation and training
and hardware support. Our account managers will be having important
conversations with you about our new services. What I can reveal is that we
have employed a new systems integration manager, Sam Sattler who is
responsible for extending our technical services. We now offer preventative
maintenance on hardware and tailored service level agreements. Joining Sam
and forming part of the new team is Phillip Hubbard as a senior technician.
This will free up Mark Sinclair to work in a number of important areas,
including working in conjunction with hardware vendors, exploring new point
of sale and back office solutions.
In closing, I would personally like to thank Bremnar Glass Equipment on their
20 year anniversary as an FBS customer, and the return of one of my favourite
newsletter articles “From the Vault”; when we take the time to acknowledge
long-standing business relationships.
So which loyalty card do I carry in my wallet… my flybys card.
Mark Silver
Managing Director
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Focus on Customer Loyalty
Loyalty
at any
price
The western world has an overabundance of choice. The internet fuels
the fire with an ever expanding and
preserve array of product selection.
American psychologist Barry Schwartz contends that
“infinite choice is paralysing and exhausting to the
human psyche. It leads us to set unreasonably high
expectations, question our choices before we even
make them and blame our failures entirely on
ourselves.”
Is it possible to design a loyalty program to address
the malaise?
Research and customer surveys over the last few
years have unearthed surprising similar statistical
results for the success of customer loyalty programs.
The metrics used to measure how successful the
customer loyalty programs were, included
1.Achieving or exceeding revenue targets
2.Customer retention
3.New customer acquisitions
4.Enhancing customer service satisfaction
5.Up selling
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Focus on Customer Loyalty
Serving up
facts, figures
and leading
opinions
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2
Successful loyalty programmes have a
clear view of what loyalty means and how
it can be directed to increase customer
goodwill.
Loyalty programs are a way for the retailer
to encourage the continued patronage of
customers. They allow retailers to gather
data on customer behaviour in order to
decipher trends, appropriately reward loyalty, and
influence shopping behaviour.
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4
Customer retention and engagement is
paramount. Surveys over the last few
years have identified that between 63%72% of new business comes from existing
customers.
Retailers who have experienced success
with their loyalty programs typically have a
department dedicated to customer loyalty
and retention.
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— Brian Woolf, president of the Retail
Strategy Centre claims that Loyalty
programs tend to do well in the first year,
but like good theatre, you have to find
ways to keep filling the seats. Furthermore he
suggests that “collecting customer data is one thing,
but turning actionable data into a customer-focused
strategy can be a whole new ball of wax. Top
management hasn't figured out what to do with all
the information gleaned.”
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—
Archie
Norman
non-executive
Chairman of ITV, former Chief Executive of
Asda was fond of claiming, loyalty schemes
are a “bribe. This isn’t real loyalty, it’s the
opposite.
They encourage customers to be
mercenary by making them play one retailer off
against another.”
“Our competitors are looking for other things to do.
We have nothing against loyalty cards, but we
believe our success is more to do with being radical
and doing things with pace."
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Customer expectations are greater now
than ever before, they’re fickle and easily
wooed by the promise of savings and
getting more for less. Brand loyalty is
certainly at risk.
Most loyalty programs, won’t survive if
they require too much work on the part of
the consumer, whether that be in grasping
the rules or in knowing how and when
points can be redeemed.
Tesco invested “₤300 million a year in
rewards, at a time when falling grocery
prices have squeezed margins on its core
business. The cost of the rebate is only
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Focus on Customer Loyalty
one overhead of a loyalty program. The cost of
marketing and managing a program – investment
in systems, fulfilment support and so forth –
which normally run well into millions…many
retailers seriously underestimate the full cost of
setting up and sustaining loyalty programmes, so
even those that increase sales might actually be
draining money.”
— Scoring Points: How Tesco Continues to Win
Customer Loyalty (by Clive Humby, Terry Hunt
and Tim Phillips, 2007)
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“No one would contend that a
card-based loyalty scheme is a
credible alternative to being
the right price, offering
excellent service, innovative products and
customer care – because any business that
neglects factors like these is extremely unlikely to
have long-term success in achieving customer
loyalty.
Innovative customer-care programs
offering services that customers want will develop
loyalty. The important point is that this initiative
and a card-based loyalty scheme are not mutually
exclusive.”
— Scoring Points: How Tesco Continues to Win
Customer Loyalty (by Clive Humby, Terry Hunt
and Tim Phillips, 2007)
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— Frederick Reichheld, author
of Loyalty Rules! argues that
loyalty is still the fuel that
drives financial success - even,
and perhaps especially, in today’s volatile, highspeed economy - but that most organizations are
running on empty. Why? Because leaders too
often confuse profits with purpose, taking the low
road to short-term gains at the expense of
employees, customers, and ultimately, investors.
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Too many companies have
betrayed customers’ trust by
rewarding
disloyalty.
For
example, new customers get
the best cell phone deals while long-time
customers pay top rates. Infrequent travellers get
the lower advance ticket price while frequent
business travellers pay ridiculously higher fares.
But that doesn’t mean customers won’t give their
trust - and their business - to a company that
really earns that trust. Especially for customers on
the Web, where business is conducted at a
distance and risks and uncertainties are
magnified, trust is more important than ever.
When asked to name the attributes of e-tailers
that were most important in earning their
business, Web shoppers’ #1 answer was “a Web
site I know and trust.” All other attributes including lowest cost and broadest selection lagged far behind.
- Frederick Reichheld, author of Loyalty Rules!
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Loyalty programs require an
engaged and loyal workforce
alongside technology, product
and incentives.
So it’s
pertinent to reflect on the words of Sir Richard
Branson, Chairman, Virgin Group "Loyalty rules at
every level. Loyal employees in any company
create loyal customers, who in turn create happy
shareholders. The process sounds easy but it's
not, and it has defeated some of the bigger
organizations of the twentieth century."
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Focus on Customer Loyalty
Want to reward your loyal customers?
Why not implement a VIP customer
rewards program?
FBS has many sites currently utilising a range of very successful rewards programs through Harmony. We can work with
your company to implement a rewards program that suits your needs. Harmony can track your VIP customers spend
and generate an attractive incentive to enhance their shopping experience. A number of handy reward systems can be
easily set up and managed in Harmony.
Issuing Discount Vouchers at Point of
Sale
WinPOS can automatically generate
discount vouchers at the Point of Sale
when a transaction meets certain
criteria, e.g. spend $1000 and
automatically receive a $150 discount
voucher.
There are two types of vouchers that
can be issued. The first is a discount
reason voucher that can either be a $
or % discount. The discount, in this
instance, will be issued on every line
of the transaction. The second type is
a promo discount voucher. This
voucher is printed with a specific $
amount that is applied to the overall
value of the sale.
Distributing Your Own Discount
Vouchers
You can create your own discount
vouchers and distribute them to your
customers, (these are a great
addition to
newsletters). The
vouchers can be generic or for
specific stock ranges and you can
have multiple promotions running
simultaneously. They are easy to
manage as the value, expiration date
and stock that the discount is applied
to, is controlled by your Head Office.
An added benefit of using a discount
voucher instead of a gift voucher is
that you don’t have to pay GST on the
portion you are discounting.
Issuing GIFT Vouchers from Head
Office
Harmony can also be used to create
Gift Vouchers based on specific
customer “spend” rules. These Gift
Vouchers can be distributed to your
customers via email, SMS, or as a
physical card that is posted.
An added benefit of using a gift
voucher instead of a discount
voucher, is that information about gift
vouchers e.g. Value, Issue Date,
Expiry Date etc. are maintained
within the Harmony Gift Voucher
Register. The register allows you to
track and modify gift voucher
information as required.
Improve Harmony Performance by Archiving Saved
Harmony Files
We often get support calls related to Harmony performance problems. In most cases, these result
from insufficient system "housekeeping". Every time you produce a form or report, you have the
option of saving it. Many people save everything and never go back to clean up their files. The
OUTPUT directory becomes larger and larger, eventually slowing down overall system
performance. This is because every time you save a file, the system has to go through the entire
directory to find the next available space. We have seen directories with as many as 100,000+
documents, when the maximum recommended size is 10,000.
The solution is to periodically go through your saved files and archive anything you don`t need to
access regularly, for example, invoices and quotes more than 3 months old. You can still access
your archived files; however they no longer affect system performance.
Instructions for archiving files can be found in the Harmony System Administrator Manual which
can be downloaded from the manuals area on the FBS website. Alternatively, your Account
Manager will be able to guide you through the process.
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Focus on Hardware
Sales Orders on
the move with
Harmony Mobile Sales
Sales orders on the move with Harmony
Mobile Sales
The ability to take sales orders in various
environments, such as “on-the-road”,
showrooms or trade fairs, in an efficient
and professional manner, has been and
continues to be an important requirement
for many businesses. In the past, it was
common for businesses to use third party
software on small PDA devices with limited
functionality. The latest advancements in
tablet technology, have allowed FBS to
overcome the restrictions of the past and
have now developed Harmony Mobile
Sales.


Online and Offline ordering (connection
required periodically for upload of orders)
Stock images
FBS have developed and tested this
Features and benefits of Harmony Mobile application for Windows 7 based tablets
Sales include
and can recommend the Samsung Slate
tablet PC. The Samsung Slate is an
 Seamless integration with harmony
extensive portable work station that
backend
 Nightly automatic updates to keep features an i5 Intel Processor, 4GB of ram,
a 64GB solid state drive, with peripheral
stock records accurate
connections such as USB port, micro HDMI
 Item Cost lookup
and Micro SD card.
 Stock on hand online lookup



Debtor stock item history online
lookup
Full debtor history lookup + this year,
last year
Carton, Pack or single multiples
For more information on Harmony Portable
Sales, Samsung Galaxy Slate, or to organise
a demonstration, please contact your
account manager.
Are you an Microsoft Excel number cruncher?
Then our special offer, available until the end of July, is just for you! We have been working hard to improve our General
Ledger reports to output to excel so you can crunch and formulate all you like.
Reports that are currently available include:
- Chart of Accounts
- Balance Sheet
- Profit & Loss Reports
- Extended Trial Balance (Trial)
- Summarised Trial Balance (Trial)
- Transaction Ledger
Special offer: For a trial period of 60 days, FBS will install and configure the updated Extended
Trial Balance and Summarised Trial Balance reports. These reports can be used by all users
without restriction. If you are satisfied with this feature, we will install and configure the reports
listed above for the special offer price of $549.00.
Contact your account manager for more information about the offer.
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WEB WATCH
Oxford - New Website Launch
Company Overview
Oxford was first established in 1978. The
first store was opened in Sydney at Bondi
Junction in Sydney's Eastern suburbs. The
concept was initially conceived to provide
a bridge between designer clothing and
an overcrowded middle market that
characterized Sydney retailing at the
time. The brand successfully developed
throughout the 1980's earning a
reputation as an innovative, and
sometimes 'quirky', alternative to many
higher priced brands.
The Oxford brand has evolved over time
into a modern, contemporary and stylish
collection for both men, and more
recently, women. The look is individual
and aspirational, successfully combining
good design, high quality and excellent
value.
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Website Requirements
Oxford already had an e-Commerce
website up and running when they
started using Harmony in 2011. The
existing website was not integrated into
their back office ERP system, so when
they implemented Harmony, this
requirement
became
imperative.
Ensuring the website was as up to date as
possible and reflected accurate pricing
inHARMONY
WEB WATCH
Oxford - New Website Launch
and stock levels were the key reasons for
commissioning Future Business Systems
to develop their new and fully integrated
website.
delivery. Oxford has invested in an
Australia Post e-Parcel solution that
enables Harmony to create shipping
labels and electronic manifests to
Future Developments
Like all great businesses, websites are
a constant work in progress. Further
plans to develop the site are already
in motion. Currently in development is
the ability to purchase Gift Cards and
electronic Gift Vouchers on the
website, which will be redeemable
both online and at any of their 21
stores Australia wide.
Hosting
Oxford has opted to host their site
with FBS’ secure hosting package that
provides a constant connection using
a dedicated hi-speed fibre optic line.
With hard disk arrays and off site
backup redundancy, down time is at a
minimum, and site speed is at an
optimum level. Expert support from
the web development team is just a
phone call away, guaranteeing peace
of mind.
Stand out Feature
One of the website’s
standout features is the
integration with the back
office Harmony Loyalty and
Rewards
program.
Customers who purchase
online are entitled to earn
rewards points just as if
they were shopping in
store. The rewards points
are converted into Gift
Vouchers and issued to
customers via Post, Email
or SMS. This is just one way
in
which
Oxford
is
rewarding
their
ever
growing, loyal and devoted
customer base.
e-Parcel
An integrated parcel solution was
imperative for a smooth transition
from Harmony invoicing to customer
make the distribution of website
orders a breeze. This solution
eliminates manual double handling
and re-keying of data, significantly
reducing any margin for error.
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www.oxfordshop.com.au
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New Harmony Application
Java Staff Rostering
Flexibility and control at your fingertips
Harmony’s new JAVA Rostering program offers the
perfect balance between flexibility and control, in a
graphical, user-friendly application.
It interacts
seamlessly with Harmony’s Payroll and Retail Budget
programs, and can be run either as a fully integrated
function in WinPos, or independently, allowing for both
in-store and head office access.
One of its newest features is the ability to cost your
rosters against store wage budgets, in order to better
manage your company wage bill. Real time wage costs
can be calculated as rosters are created or updated,
taking into account standard pay rates, penalty rates and
other loadings. The system will give you a visual
indication of any cost-budget discrepancies, and may be
set to either alert or prevent you from creating rosters
that exceed budget. The system will also allow you to
exclude staff costs that should not be included in a
team’s budget.
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New Harmony Application
Authority
The authority for rostering can be
restricted to head office, or
allocated to store level. Similarly,
the accountability for roster wage
costs can be controlled by store
level management. Functionality
to approve rosters can be used to
give senior store management the
responsibility for finalising rosters.
A smart team shortlist allows
roster managers to easily select
appropriate staff, based on their
roster history, store allocation and
availability. Whilst this allows staff
who work at more than one store
to appear on multiple shortlists,
rostering conflicts are avoided by
real-time updates.
Customisable
colour
Customisable
colour-coded
rosters enable you to allocate
staff based on set criteria in a
quick and effective manner,
providing staff with an easy to
read visual interface. Team
members are able to use
WinPOS to view, print or
email their individual and
team rosters.
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WEB WATCH
Search Engine Optimisation
Who really
knows you’re
out there?
H
If your website is not
on the first page
you’re fighting for
scraps.
How do you turn your website from a ghost town
to a thriving online success story? Do you have a
compelling product? A point of difference? An
imaginative loyalty program? A visually appealing
and highly functional website? A cost effective
logistics operation? Unfortunately even if you
answered yes to all of the above, they are of little
value if your target audience cannot find you.
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WEB WATCH
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WEB WATCH
Search Engine Optimisation
The best way to drive targeted traffic to
your website is by implementing an
effective search engine optimisation
strategy. And there is more substance to
the hoopla than you might believe. More
reliable data emanating from independent
research exploring organic search rankings
have unearthed compelling data that
concludes that 95% of website traffic from
organic, non-branded queries on Google,
Yahoo and Bing originated on page 1 of the
results.
Why are the numbers so high? Several
factors
are
contributing
to
this
phenomenon.
Practice makes perfect. We are becoming
more intuitively linked to the art of the
search.
What to expect?
With countless competitors and demand
outstripping the supply of available links on
the first page, the competition will become
increasing fierce. The value of a high
organic search ranking for non-branded
keywords will continue to skyrocket as
companies wrestle to maximize their
exposure and profitability.
“Get your facts first, and then you can distort
them as much as you please: facts are stubborn,
but statistics are more pliable” — Mark Twain
Search engines have lifted their game and
are providing better search results,
significantly reducing the need to browse
on further pages.
The search criteria employed by people is
better defined. This is further supported
by studies that show that the average
length of a search query is longer now than
at any other time.
What are your Options?
Future Business Systems offers a
comprehensive array of top-quality SEO
services. We have established a strategic
partnership with a leading digital
marketing company to ensure our
customers achieve better search engine
rankings, increased traffic and importantly
increased sales.
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Interaction
How good are your data
backups?
Here are some simple questions to help formulate
backup strategy:
a
- What level of data loss can my business manage?
- What are the critical data areas that my business cannot
How quickly can we get our systems up and running if a manage without?
disaster strikes? These questions are often asked by - What manual procedures do I have in place?
managers and business owners and the answers are usually
- How do I purchase new servers/storage and what do I
not very assuring.
need?
The staff at Future Business Systems take your backups
seriously. We feel as passionate about this issue as you
do. Recent changes to our System Integration (SI)
department means we are building expertise in this area so
that our in-house and field technicians can provide expert
advice in relation to all your backup needs. We can design
a solution to fit your budget, ranging from a simple
method of utilising removable media each day, to taking
hourly snapshots of your data and uploading them onto
cloud or network storage at another location.
We often come across customers with insufficient backups
in place and when they experience hardware failures, data
loss is often the result. This type of situation can be
avoided if you understand how your backups work and
ensure that they are tested at regular 6 monthly intervals.
This process is often overlooked, as staff change backup
tapes and external drives daily and assume everything is
working as expected.
A regular
review of your company’s backup
policy and disaster plan should be
undertaken in addition to testing.
FROM THE
VAULT
- Do I know where I can setup new servers?
- How do I plan for a natural disaster?
- How do I plan for a loss of power or communications
equipment?
- Have I planned for a virus attack?
As your business grows and changes you need to ensure
your backup strategy and disaster planning also goes
through a process of review and updates. This can be a
simple act of reviewing the plan, identifying any
weaknesses, and then putting in a process to address
them. This is where FBS can help. Our technicians have
broad industry experience from managing small business
systems to managing large disaster recovery centres for
IBM Australia. Take the time now to get in touch with your
account manager and book a time to start your backup and
disaster planning session.
This year marks the 20 year anniversary of Harmony’s installation at Bremner Glass
Equipment. BGE has been a successful (and original) equipment manufacturer for the flat
glass industry in Victoria and throughout Australia and New Zealand since 1968. The
company was formed on the back of 42 years of experience as Glass merchants & Glaziers.
BGE have been using Harmony to assist them in running their businesses since it was first
installed in 1992, and we are delighted that 20 years on, they continue to use Harmony.
Future Business Systems would formally like to acknowledge and thank Greg Bremner and
his staff for their business and continued support over the past 20 years.
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