Subway Singapore has joined the Pointpal loyalty and rewards community. With the announcement, Subway customers can now use their mobile phone (Apple iOS or Android based) to collect points and redeem rewards, instead of a physical stamp card.

To introduce the new platform, for every eight stamps collected, customers will earn a free 6-inch Subway meal. Customers also can receive two free stamps when they sign up for the mobile loyalty program between April 15 and May 15.

"We want to continually innovate and provide the best possible customer experience and this is increasingly around a mobile loyalty rewards program. Customers are rewarded for their purchases, and can use their mobile phone to capture and redeem these rewards across participating franchisees and as part of this local-store marketing activity. Pointpal and their mobile loyalty platform enable us to do this and we look forward to continual innovations," said Sarah Lee, franchisee of 10 Subway restaurants in Singapore.

Europcar, a provider of European car hire, is working in partnership with the UK supermarket group, Tesco, to provide motorists with discounts on their car hire.

Under the new agreement, Europcar has become a Tesco Clubcard Rewards partner, offering 17 million Tesco Clubcard customers the opportunity to use their points for car hire reservations.  With a focus on quality and convenience, Europcar is helping Tesco bring new added value services to its Clubcard customers.

Tesco’s Clubcard rewards scheme allows customers to exchange their Clubcard vouchers, accumulated as points through shopping, and exchange them for Clubcard Rewards tokens, worth up to four times the value. These tokens can then be used with a range of over 600 partner rewards.

As Europcar becomes a new Rewards partner, Tesco Clubcard customers can now exchange their vouchers for car rental tokens, allowing them to get out and about for less and get the most from their Clubcard.

To better serve customers in their service department, Morristown, Tennessee-based Rusty Wallace Auto Group turned to re:member group to create a customized points program for their GMC/Buick/Cadillac/KIA stores, geared to reward customers for servicing their vehicles at the mentioned dealerships.

"Rusty Wallace Cadillac GMC Kia cares about its customers' experience and building customer loyalty," said Paul Long, re:member group Vice President of Business Development. "re:member group's loyalty marketing platform will help Rusty Wallace Cadillac GMC Kia increase customer retention. Customer-facing employees will now have additional tools to build relationships and increase customer loyalty to the auto group."

Rusty's Bonus Rewards will feature a variety of benefits and ways to earn points. Members will be able to earn points towards the purchase of a Rusty Wallace vehicle through services they use regularly, such as service and body shop work done at Rusty Wallace, as well as by shopping online at Rusty's Bonus Rewards Mall.

Facebook has confirmed that it bought a San Francisco startup that helps merchants court shoppers with rewards for checking in with smartphones during visits.

Facebook's acquisition of Tagtile for an undisclosed sum came on the heels of a billion-dollar deal to acquire the startup behind wildly popular smartphone photo sharing application Instagram.

"We're happy to confirm that Tagtile's founders are joining Facebook, and that Facebook is acquiring substantially all of the company's assets," the world's leading social network said in reply to an AFP inquiry. "We've admired the engineering team's efforts for some time now."

TCELab officially unveiled its next generation Customer Experience Management (CEM) Platform, integrating a suite of big data tools with leading edge customer loyalty science from Bob Hayes, Ph.D.

“Big Data are a macabre clown,” states CEO Stephen King. “Most enterprises have LOTS of it, and it can be a great deal of fun! But, big data can also be grim, narcissistic, and a huge waste of time if not approached correctly. Enterprise adoption of better CEM programs has become critical because if you don’t get the data right, you’ll fail. It’s the classic case of garbage in / garbage out.”

“Our solution to business’s Big Data problem revolves around customer loyalty, a leading indicator of business growth. Our approach is to correlate customer satisfaction and loyalty with the mounds of big data available internally and externally, either in the cloud or in enterprise systems,“ continues Dr. Hayes, TCELab Chief Customer Officer. “Then, through linkage analysis, we provide C-Suites with vital business intelligence reporting on an annual, quarterly or monthly basis that provides laser-focus on operational KPI’s that impact and accelerate revenue growth.”

TIBCO Software Inc. announced that Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy, Inc., the nation's first and largest chain of integrative pharmacies, is leveraging loyalty management solutions from TIBCO Loyalty Lab(R) to increase customer acquisition, retention and engagement.

Pharmaca has identified a large market opportunity to enhance the pharmacy experience by integrating traditional pharmacy services with a holistic remedy and service model. Marrying the best practices of conventional and natural medicine, Pharmaca offers an integrative healthcare experience, which seeks to help customers achieve a sense of empowerment about their wellness and live the healthiest lives possible. When Pharmaca needed more insight into its customers' buying behaviors across its full-service pharmacy, supplements, HABA, OTC and Lifestyle departments, it turned to TIBCO Loyalty Lab to:
- Launch the Feel Better Rewards Program at 24 locations to help measure ROI across departments and access what customers were buying and why, when they made purchases and how often, as well as how much they were spending;
- Use analytics to visualize goals, results and needed adjustments along the way for improvements;
- Reward buying behaviors across different parts of the store with a quarterly dividend program to drive frequency;
- Drive program adoption and engagement, including increasing sales and transactions, average basket amount, member frequency, members shopping retail and pharmacy, and members earning and redeeming awards.

QuestBack, Europe's leading provider of Enterprise Feedback Management (EFM) and Social CRM solutions, has announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Globalpark UK Ltd, has completed its rebranding and is now officially trading as part of QuestBack in the UK.  

QuestBack's new website, launched last week, now presents the company`s complete offering with EFM, social CRM, Market Research and Customer Experience Management, all available to UK customers. Acquired in 2011, Globalpark particularly extended QuestBack's presence and expertise in the spaces of social CRM, Market Research and Customer Experience Management, positioning the company as a global leader within its space. The integration of Globalpark means that QuestBack's existing customers can now benefit from state-of-the-art market research, social media engagement, social CRM tools and services on what is becoming a fully integrated platform.

Ivar Kroghrud, CEO, QuestBack comments: "We are pleased to announce the full integration of Globalpark UK into the QuestBack family. This merger enhances our specialist knowledge and offerings of social media and social CRM to our customers and builds upon our global presence."

Point Inside has just launched a new offering nSide, which takes targeting of incentive offers to a new level which the company itself refers to as 'Hyper-Targeting".  This new offering hits home for us because it brings together new techology and good fundamental business strategy in a new level of targeted incentive programs.

Point Inside's product design highlights 3 keys to 'hyper-targeting:

1. An understanding of the true cost structure of incentive programs and lost investment associated with poorly targeted programs.  The key point here is that incentive program ROI needs to be examined in aggregate (across all programs) and at the individual program level.  Too often, failed programs are ignored in the ROI calculation -- created a skewed picture of overall ROI and the negative impact of weakly conceived incentives.

2. Incorporation of shopper intent and interest data to drive a higher level of targeting.  Most programs are loosely designed assuming 'everyone will be interested in everything' but the truth is many offers don't hit the mark with a majority of targeted prospects.

3. Timing of the delivery offers using locations based techology is a key aspect of hyper-targeting -- by maximizing the likelihood of the offer being timely and relevant. 

In the end, Point Inside's new offering speaks as much to companies respecting their investment of time and resources into desiging incentives as it does to increasing the overall effectiveness of incentive programs.

Convergys Corporation, a global leader in customer management, announced that it has received a new patent from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for an analytics technique that helps improve the customer experience within an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system by statistically linking IVR and caller satisfaction data.

Since IVR systems typically handle huge call volumes and generate countless data records, monitoring and analyzing the effectiveness of these systems poses a challenge in terms of information management. Although other packages exist to help assess the performance of an IVR system, these packages are limited because they approach the analysis solely from the IVR system or analyst’s point of view.

The USPTO awarded the formal patent to Convergys for its application of advanced linkage analytics that compares portions of data generated through an IVR application to a customer satisfaction score obtained from a survey. These comparisons statistically reveal which areas within the IVR correlate to low customer satisfaction scores so that adjustments can be made to improve the overall customer experience.