ClickFox, the pioneering leader in experience analytics, announced the company's findings from its brand loyalty survey. April is customer loyalty month, and ClickFox's survey results shed light on what companies and industries consumers are most loyal to, as well as key drivers of brand loyalty.

Twenty percent of respondents singled out Apple as the brand they can't live without, with Coca-Cola, Google and Amazon also topping the list. Additionally, consumers indicated that they are most loyal to food and beverage companies (58 percent) and technology and gadget providers (51 percent). Conversely, respondents are least loyal to health and fitness companies (44 percent) and wireless providers (43 percent).

Quality and service drive loyalty
Consumers are presented with multiple choices daily when making purchases, deciding between name brands versus generic or reputation versus price. One theme resonated throughout the survey results: Quality and customer service are most important to gaining and retaining customer loyalty.

Canadian Hockey fans are some of the most passionate and loyal fans alive, spending each season riding the incredible highs and disappointing lows that come along with true dedication to the game.

This year, Visa, a proud sponsor of the NHL®, is once again celebrating this unique mix of passion and loyalty with the return of its Hockey Love Hurts campaign. Visa knows that sometimes "Hockey Love Hurts" as hockey fans go through ups and downs with their favourite teams, often getting their hearts "broken" in the process.  To ease the pain, Visa is ensuring that fans across the country have a chance of attending the Stanley Cup® Final, even if their favourite team doesn't.

Getting to the Stanley Cup Final has never been so easy!
Throughout April, Canadian Visa cardholders are automatically entered to win a trip to Game One of the Stanley Cup Final for themselves and 10 of their friends every time they use their Visa card.  No morning practices or perfect slap shot required.  Instead fans can earn their trip to see Lord Stanley's Cup while purchasing weekly groceries or even that morning cup of coffee.

Punchcard, an Idealab company, announced the introduction of Punchcard for Business, the company’s new business-side marketing solution that gives local merchants valuable insights into customer purchasing behavior, along with the ability to automatically push offers directly to consumers’ smart phones via the Punchcard Mobile App. Pioneering Online 2 Offline (O2O) consumer and merchant solutions in what has been called a trillion dollar market, Punchcard for Business gives local businesses a live link to customer mobile devices along with a way for local businesses to push relevant offers to consumers based on their past purchasing behavior. The result is that consumers receive targeted offers from local businesses that they love and local businesses can finally communicate with consumers in an automated fashion. This is especially important for local merchants as 15% of their customer base typically generates 60% or more of their profits. Punchcard’s loyalty and mobile marketing solution works for local businesses of all types, including specialty retailers, restaurants, grocery stores, coffee shops and others.

Combined with the Punchcard Mobile App, Punchcard for Business gives merchants a personalized dashboard which provides rich customer data based on actual purchases. Gone are the days of the “one size fits all” offer as merchants now have the ability to push personalized offers such as: a percentage or dollar amount off of their next purchase, an incentive to tell their friends, a free item if they come back and purchase again this week, or an offer based on the customer’s past purchase behavior (i.e. “buy a sweater to go with those jeans you bought last week”).

Genbook, a leading online appointment scheduling software and small business marketing solution, announced Genbook Verified Reviews, a robust tool that helps small businesses promote their reputation online by generating reviews from their verified customers. Customer reviews are an increasingly powerful method of online marketing with 49 percent of consumers stating that they are more likely to visit a business after reading a positive review. Genbook Verified Reviews automatically generates and publishes customer reviews on a merchant's Genbook scheduling webpage, Facebook page and across search engine results.

Genbook's closed-loop review-gathering system invites only customers that have scheduled an appointment online with a specific business to submit a review. Because each review is associated with an appointment scheduled online, Genbook is able to verify the identity of the reviewer and that they were a recent customer of the business.

"Given the overabundance of choice among local service providers, consumers are increasingly relying on online customer reviews when selecting a business to frequent," said Rody Moore, founder and chief executive officer, Genbook. "Genbook's Verified Reviews enable small businesses to promote their reputation online through the testimonials of their real and recent customers."

National flag carrier PT Garuda Indonesia (Garuda) and Standard Chartered Bank announced the expansion of their strategic cooperation, aimed at boosting the airline’s international growth strategy.

Under the partnership, Standard Chartered Bank will collaborate with Garuda to enhance its Garuda Frequent Flyer customer loyalty program. This collaboration includes the launch of a new Garuda Indonesia – Standard Chartered co-branded credit card for Indonesian customers.

The card will also be applicable in six other markets - Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea.  Among the benefits offered are discounts for all international and domestic routes and free aditional 5 kg baggage allowance for the executive class.

MarketTools, Inc., the leader in software and services for market research and customer feedback, announced the expansion of its Shopper Research solutions with the addition of new, innovative technologies that improve respondent engagement and offer more detailed insights than ever into shopper intents and preferences. These solutions incorporate new visual tools that deeply engage study participants with game-like experiences, and leverage the latest web technologies to help researchers pinpoint metrics on participants' shopping behaviors.  The tools and technologies help deliver higher quality research data and more effective predictions of product performance in the market ‒ faster and more cost-effectively than traditional shopper research methods.

With today's consumers looking for more value than ever before, fast and accurate Shopper Research insights are critical to helping retailers and manufacturers alike respond to a changing marketplace and gain a competitive edge.  A recent MarketTools study of grocery shoppers reveals that 63 percent of respondents say saving money is somewhat or much more important now versus last year.  The study also revealed that 80 percent of respondents buy items with money-saving coupons; 62 percent buy store brands instead of name brands to save money; and 58 percent buy items only when they are on sale. In a complex retail landscape, it's more critical than ever to understand how these behaviors and attitudes influence the purchase decision.

Opinionmeter International, developer of award winning mobile research software, announced the release of their TouchPoint(TM) survey app for the Android platform.

Android Survey App Building upon the success of their iPad survey app released last year, Opinionmeter has extended its cross-platform mobile survey software to include Android mobile phones and tablets. In addition to using the TouchPoint(TM) survey app as a mobile survey system, you can also run the Android survey app in kiosk-mode for continuous in-store feedback. Click here to download the free app for a 30-day trial.

Opinionmeter's mobile survey system enables companies to improve business performance by capturing real-time, on-demand customer satisfaction data at the customer's Point-of-Experience. All Opinionmeter products are web-enabled and remotely managed in real-time through the web-based SurveyManager portal.

Opinionmeter's real-time survey solutions range from handheld to kiosk to online web-surveys; even paper survey options are available. "Our cross-platform solutions cover all the touchpoints of your organization's feedback channels including those using multiple mobile operating systems," says Morgan Strickland, CEO of Opinionmeter International.

To continue its focus on social selling, shopping cart software developer 3dcart has built a software integration with ReferralCandy, a customer referral application that helps merchants increase conversions. Through the ReferralCandy system, customers share referral coupons via email or social media and receive cash or coupons as referral rewards.

By giving customers an incentive to share, ReferralCandy helps online merchants drive more sales through word-of-mouth. Retailers also gain visibility into their referral programs through detailed tracking and analytics, empowering them with tools to measure their progress. To keep full control in the hands of the retailer, storeowners also get the ability to customize emails and rewards, ensuring the programs accurately represent their brands.

Sign-up is simple for 3dcart customers and their shoppers. Create an account with ReferralCandy through the 3dcart app store and complete the quick and easy integration. Orders feed directly into the ReferralCandy app, prompting an email to the customer that encourages them to refer friends and collect rewards through their referral portal.