Parago, a leading provider of end-to-end engagement management programs for consumers, sales channels and employees, announced that its proprietary prepaid reward ordering portal, PROP™,  has achieved significant milestones in a mere six months since its launch. PROP has attracted dozens of new clients to Parago, and has distributed 500,000 Visa® prepaid cards totaling $20 million in issued or loaded funds.

PROP, an acronym for Parago Reward Ordering Portal, provides large organizations a central destination for ordering, loading, activating and customizing Visa® prepaid cards for incentives and rewards. The one-stop online destination is a customizable portal that makes the prepaid incentive procurement process simple for every business department and provides the much needed controls and ability to audit that corporations require. Whether it is a short run of cards used by Human Resources for employee recognition, or thousands of cards for a large-scale consumer incentive program, PROP enables all departments within an enterprise to procure prepaid incentives through a few quick clicks.

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.”

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."

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.

Loyalty and incentive programs are driven by consistency and pervasiveness throughout an organization — especially when the key foundation is engagement of prospects and consumers.  Achieving that level of integration requires both a clear strategy and strong infrastructure.

So what do we mean by ‘infrastructure’?  Well Fanplayr provides a great example of that with their new integration with Constant Contact.   Systems and tools are one thing but when there is a higher standard to call something ‘infrastructure’.  That standard is defined by a new process — which should be quite difficult — instead becoming a natural part of your existing processes.  

By simplying the inclusion of gamification (for engagement of pre and post sale customers) into all email communications, Fanplayr demonstrates its understanding of how momentum is built in customer focused programs — by allowing your team members t o relatively easily access new capabilities without an unnaturally high degree of additional effort.