Official Blog of GTM360 Marketing Solutions
In Omnichannel Fiasco #1: Standard Chartered Credit Card, I’d described a recent omnichannel experience that started well but went downhill soon thereafter. In this post, let me describe another omnichannel experience that was a fiasco from the word go. This was with Vodafone M-PESA mobile wallet. When M-Pesa was on the drawing board, my company … Read more
The leading British technology and Internet apps blog Make Use Of recently launched a loyalty-cum-rewards program where readers earn points for sharing its articles on social networks. In the past, I’ve come across rewards for filling forms, completing surveys and taking other actions but this is the first time I’m seeing a website rewarding social sharing … Read more
In over two decades of using credit cards, I missed a payment for the first time a couple of months ago. This happened on my HSBC credit card, which I’ve been holding for nearly 10 years. I’m blaming eStatements for my slip up. My payments are due in the third week of every month. I … Read more
In the good old days, an onpremise B2B software vendor would go through a long-drawn sales process but, when he bagged the deal at the end of it, he’d grab a pot of gold by way of millions of dollars in upfront license fees. There’s no such luxury in the brave new world of cloud … Read more
Security increases friction. That’s not news. I’ve myself written many blog posts – click here, here and here – on this perennial tradeoff involved in payments. However, I recently found a new security measure that actually creates new sources of vulnerability. Ironic but true. Since December 2013, India’s central bank RBI has made it mandatory … Read more
Since I wrote Loyalty Or Disloyalty Programs? and Beware Of Losing Sales With Bad Loyalty Programs, a couple of companies have used mobile technologies in very innovative ways to design loyalty programs that truly foster loyalty. But Shopper’s Stop is not one among them. The pioneer of India’s organized retail industry recently introduced a mobile app variant of its … Read more
I recently went through two omnichannel experiences, one that started well but went downhill thereafter, and another that was a disaster right from the beginning. Before I deep dive into my experiences, here’s a quick working definition of omnichannel: Omnichannel is where a single business process is deliberately split across multiple channels so that each … Read more
I’ve been asked many times why, in this day and age of LinkedIn, I insist on job applicants sending me conventional résumés in DOC or PDF formats. Well, that’s not strictly true. I’ve been asked only twice, most recently by a man in Pune, Maharashtra*. In my experience of helping a couple of customers with … Read more
Advances in Big Data, Internet of Things and other technologies are contributing to an ever-increasing deluge of information in today’s digital world. Not surprisingly, analytics has once again become a hot topic. But I sometimes wonder if there’s such a thing as “too much analytics”. I’m not referring to “analysis paralysis” where no action results … Read more
In Mobile Wallets Should Fix What’s Broken – And It Ain’t Payments, I’d highlighted why paying with plastic cards comes naturally to most people and why mobile wallets are not offering any compelling reason for people to switch to them instead of continuing to use plastic cards for their everyday payments. I’d also pointed out in … Read more