It is now an established fact that self-service terminals are an ideal combination of classic and modern sales channels, due to their optical presence, local distribution and innovative technology. Yet despite its high strategic significance, the self-service sales channel is rarely used efficiently. A study has shown that over half of the customers interviewed at self-service terminals would like to be immediately approached by a customer advisor and would also use the possibility of requesting a callback via the terminal. The automotive industry started sales promotion programmes using multimedia kiosk systems at the very beginning of the multimedia era, repeatedly combining this type of solutions with the options of the suitable sales channels. One example is MCC smart GmbH: in the phase in which customers are thinking of buying a car, the Internet and public kiosk terminals (e.g. at trade fairs) provide support – in the phase of heightened interest, CD-ROMs and the Internet from home plus kiosk terminals in retailers’ sales points are very effective for anonymous self-information and consulting – but the actual concluding tool is ultimately the sales staff workplace (SSW). However, the key factor is that all information entered by the customer in all phases of the information and sales process is available and can be called up on all sales and marketing channels.

One current trend is the use of customer cards for increasing customer loyalty to a company. At the moment, for instance, more than every second person in Germany collects bonus points, which they can redeem via the Internet and even more effectively via In-store Redemption Terminals. Holders of customer cards are more likely to buy products, even products they have not bought before, from retailers issuing the customer card than non-card-holders. Members of bonus programmes recommend the provider in question far more frequently than non-members, aiming to gain extra points. They have also proved far more satisfied with the retailer in question than non-members. 65 percent of customer-card-holders have therefore adjusted their purchase behaviour: 31 percent only or mainly shop in outlets for which they have a customer card – and for 34 percent, the customer card is at least an incentive to shop there more frequently than before. Customer cards are used at kiosk terminals in Britain and the USA, for example, for “Advantage Points”, which provide card-holders with specific offers based on their previous purchase habits and the purchases of similar customer groups, with the aid of database marketing and data mining. Loyalty-card-holders who went to the kiosk immediately after entering the store bought around double the amount as loyalty-card-holders who did not use the kiosk and even three times as much as customers with no such cards. In Germany, around one third of cards is not used (“sleeping cards”), because some retailers have not yet understood how to make the benefits of the cards clear to customers, and because there has not yet been any genuine dialogue with customers on the subject. In the flood of card offers, only the card providers that offer more than interchangeable price reductions have a clear advantage. For instance, important additional information on customers’ purchase behaviour can be gained by means of direct coupling with other incentive systems (reduction stamps, coupons, voucher booklets, etc.). One example is Checkout couponing, where price reduction offers are made individually – on the basis of the purchases just made – avoiding waste to a great extent. However, only 25 percent of German retail companies currently evaluate the information gained via customer cards; meaning they do gain data, but do not use it for relevant offers, as for example Boots, Tesco and Sainbury's do in Britain. The mail order sector, on the other hand, has always had a head start in the customer knowledge stakes over standard retail, as companies have a complete customer history. Complex scoring systems were therefore developed some time ago to assess purchase interests and product affinity, cross-selling and up-selling potential and of course credit ratings. Individual analysis methods help the mail order sector to send the correct catalogues to individual customers, make suitable offers and especially to avoid making unsuitable offers.

The retail industry is now catching up in the customer knowledge and customer loyalty race by setting up and using reduction and customer-card systems. As early as 1979, the Spanish fashion chain Cortefiel introduced the first customer card and was thus able to not only maximise the success of their direct marketing and prevent loss of customers, but also support store managers with scorecards for tailoring their range and marketing activities to their local customers. Lowes, one of the USA’s largest retailers with more than 1200 stores, intends to make use of CRM solutions on in-store kiosk terminals to offer customers a personal service and also welcome them personally. One of the largest and oldest retail chains in Turkey, Migros Turk T.A.S., has been using data warehousing, CRM, customer life-time and one-to-one marketing for some time to provide outstanding customer service. Customers can log in with their Migros Club Card via kiosk terminals, are likewise welcomed personally, even with a Happy Birthday song on the correct date. They are also issued with personally customised vouchers and coupons based on their purchase behaviour. By using the terminals, Migros Turk has saved more money on postage than the entire project cost in total. Similarly, the US retail chain Giant Eagle uses its CRM system via “Personal Shopping System” kiosks. In the light of many consumers’ fears of total customer transparency, the Dutch de Bijenkorf retail chain offers its customers the option of viewing and altering their personal data and preferences in the de Bijendorf CRM system at in-store kiosk terminals at any time. Many companies in the USA such as Ford, Honda, Microsoft and Radio Shack use photo terminals as a basis for their one-to-one marketing campaigns.

Visitors to rock concerts or bars are animated to have a photo taken of themselves and their friends at a photo terminal, then register online and voluntarily enter data to be able to view and print the photos. Many people so much want to see the photos that 50 to 80 percent of visitors do so. The system is thereby in on-site contact with potential customers via the photo terminal at an event and then takes them online to gain more information, enabling individual direct mail and email campaigns in ongoing communication with the customer. Britain’s top retail chain Tesco has gained enormous profits from its club programme, as Tesco is able to adapt its marketing and service activities to fit the behaviour of customers in its stores, analysed on the basis of the club card data. For example, Tesco customers can print and redeem individual coupons especially for them at kiosk terminals – on the basis of this customer-oriented corporate strategy, Tesco has overtaken large established retailers to occupy the top position in Britain in the past few years. In Germany, several of the PAYBACK partners started enabling their customers to redeem their collected PAYBACK bonus points directly in-store at suitable kiosk terminals a few years ago, thus diverting a large part of the customer’s share of wallet to their own range – at some 330 PAYBACK service desk terminals at Galeria Kaufhof, 300 OBI PAYBACK service points in OBI DIY Stores, 250 pointomats at real,- and about 720 dm service points in the dm drugstore chain. As of autumn 2005, “HappyDigits” customer-card-holders have also had the option of printing out vouchers at 180 Karstadt customer terminals and redeeming them in Karstadt department stores. In December 2005 alone, vouchers amounting to over 5.4 million euro were printed by Karstadt – three times the expected level.

Banking institutes, too, have recognised the significance of self-service terminals for target-group-specific and individualised marketing campaigns, thereby reaching customers at ATMs, bank statement printers or account service terminals. Customers can react to offers that interest them and inform the bank by which means they would like to receive further information. Addressing customers personally by name increases attention and leads to a more positive customer evaluation – addressed by name, customers also find it more difficult to reject an offer. Due to high use frequencies – studies predict that 45 percent of all bank transactions in 2010 will take place at ATMs – and a high acceptance level among customers, ATMs are almost predestined for various marketing activities, especially if they are personally targeted at the individual customer. This direct personal form of address is a key and unique feature of self-service terminals, which standard media cannot offer other than at high prices. The success rate of campaigns via self-service systems is therefore some 50 percent higher than with traditional direct mailing, as the OCBC-Bank in Singapore has found. They also cost less than half and the processing period can even be reduced by 30 to 70 percent.

Reductions, bonus points and bonuses alone, however, are no longer a particular incentive nowadays to favour a certain card over others. Convenience is gradually becoming more and more established as a success factor. Companies that offer services that support customers’ shopping create customer benefit and thereby increase the acceptance and use of customer cards. In-store kiosk terminals will become increasingly important as friends and helpers on shopping issues, in the light of tight staff resources. For instance, future kiosk terminals and ATMs will be able to read their users’ mood and react correspondingly. Various IT providers are currently working on the development of terminals using facial interpretation to automatically register whether a fruit purchaser is annoyed or a wine purchaser is in a good mood. People who have difficulty reading the small letters on the ATM screen – expressed by narrowed eyes or furrowed brows, for example – will automatically be shown larger letters the next time they visit.

The list of successful CRM examples is almost endless – read more soon in “Handbuch Praxis Kundenbeziehungsmanagement (Vorgehensweisen - Checklisten - Best Practise)” edited by Eckhard Reimann & Hagen J. Sexauer, DenkInstitut!, Wiesbaden, autumn 2006.