Building stickiness around web apps

When you talk about the stickiness factor of your web apps, you're not talking about selling cotton candy online. Instead, you're talking about the ability of your web applications to either tempt or coerce your customers to come back to you again for content or services.

Getting them to come back is the goal of anyone who is trying to build a business online. Repeat customers are golden in the sense that they have already patronized your business, know something about it, and are likely to remember you whenever they are in need of something similar.

So, how do you get them to come back, other than providing an excellent service? This is where the idea of stickiness comes in.

Discounts and deals that have an extended shelf life is one way. Here's an example. When we built an e-commerce system for MaggieMudd, one of the requirements was to be able to manage deals. These were, of course, coming from Groupon, Living Social, Town Hog, and so on. The orders needed to be placed online, the unique voucher number entered, and in the background, the voucher management system needed to take care of the redemption process, discount, and issuance of credit to the customer.

MaggieMudd structured their deals so that folks who purchased an item online with the deal voucher would always have a little bit left over, anywhere from 1 to 5 dollars.  MaggieMudd was not crazy enough to give back cash to their customers, instead, they gave them something more valuable. A digital gift card. The order management system was tied into a digital gift card manager. Soon, MaggieMudd was issuing hundreds of small value gift cards to their deal-based customers. In so doing, they were tempting them back when they were again in need of something similar to what MaggieMudd sold. If you had a good experience, why not go with the guy who sent you a discount?

Sticky apps range from email collectors, that is, when people sign up on your website for a coupon, a newsletter, or as part of an e-commerce process, to customized content. We're presently working on a top-secret "post-it note" application on the MaggieMudd site that will allow visitors to tag and post notes on pages that are interesting, and ask for an email reminder of the page on any specific day that they need it. This is an exciting project, because it means that people will have a way of finding them again at a more relevant time, say, when a birthday or a celebration event is coming up.

There is plenty of opportunity to develop sticky apps in order to gain and retain customers. Facebook, perhaps the ultimate of stickiness, is an important place to develop apps that give your fans' networks the ability to interact with you and the further opportunity to connect with them again. Take a look at our Facebook page to see some of the apps we developed as lead generation tools.

Converting those one-time Groupon customers to regular customers

If you've had a Groupon offering, or are thinking of having one, you MUST develop a strategy for maximizing your customer relationship. First rule of thumb: Do not take what the sales rep gives you. They will tell you about all kinds of deal structures that have worked really well in the past, and that you should follow one of those past models. Keep in mind, Groupon needs to sell as much as possible today so they can pay for yesterday's merchant deals. Consequently, they'll look for quantity over quality. Last thing you want is for a Groupon customer to run into your business, snatch the deal, and then disappear into the dark alleys, never to be seen again. This is quite common.

Second rule of thumb: You are on your own. Groupon and other group buying sites, will NEVER share their email address list with you. That list is the very foundation of their business, they've paid big bucks to build it, and they're not gonna give it up, even the addresses of those customers who bought YOUR products through them. Groupon is not interested in helping your business thrive, even though they pitch you this way. They are interested in selling your products and getting their commission. In and out, drive-by style. Getting those customers to come in again will depend on you. You'll need to reach down into that entrepreneurial mind of yours to come up with a solution.

So, what can you do to ensure that a Groupon offering will actually help you in the long run, rather than simply provide you with a big wave of money-losing customers for a short time?

Think about how you will structure the deal. And track your customers. The former has to do with business. The latter, technology.

MaggieMudd ran a number of group buying deals. One of the products the company sold was ice cream cake. The product was sold online, and could be completely tracked. It was delivered, much like pizza, but purchases needed to be made 24 hours in advance, as all cake sales were custom made.

Anecdotal evidence pointed to the development of new customers from cakes that were delivered to Groupon customers. Typically, cakes served anywhere from 6 to 150 people. This meant, they were mostly only appropriate for parties. Consequently, new people were introduced to the product, and thereby became new customers. And paying customers, too.

It's hard for technology to track this behavior, but it's not hard for a merchant to set up a deal with this in mind. If you can design a deal that will REQUIRE your customers to come back again, or even better, to bring their friends, you have a better chance of growing your base.

Using technology to track your customers, and communicate with them, is not a new idea. I'm sure you've been into a Borders store, and were asked about your Borders rewards account. Lots of stores do this.

In this case, MaggieMudd did a double-punch. They required all Groupon originating purchases to be done online. As a result, they were able to collect the Groupon email address list on their own, and leave something with the customer. Utilizing the Gift Card Manager in conjunction with their online ordering system, they were able to convert customer balances into digital gift cards which customers could use later.

The image here will probably make most merchants cringe. Using a deal voucher, the customer now is owed $8.51. After already having a 50% discount.

To give Groupon and others credit, they do not require you to give money back to the customer in this case. Instead, customers need to use the entirety of the voucher, or forfeit any positive balance.

But why not just keep a balance and leave a calling card, i.e., digital gift card,  instead? And while you are at it, encourage the customer to opt-in to your own deals list? If you can do all of this, then you have a better chance of converting those customers into return and even regular customers.

While it's true that many businesses will not have a model that lends itself easily to online ordering, there is always an opportunity to using technology to gain their loyalty. It starts with getting that email address AND managing that email address. After that, you can do all kinds of fun things, like email promos, random drawings, 50% off deals, and so on. If your business does a 50% off Facebook deal, for example, and a former Groupon customer from your email list picks it up, you are better off because you don't have to pay any commission.Simple bottom line fact.

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