There is a blind spot for most retailers and it involves their loyal customers. These loyal customers are talking about a brand, on social media, but on a local level. Most brands are not well-equipped to monitor it, however. In fact, 88 percent of local consumer feedback and content is missed by major retail brands and by independent businesses.
Consumer Engagement grows by over 500%
In 2012, VenueLabs reports that location-based consumer engagement grew by over 500%, and that trend continues to accelerate. Every day, at a single location of Starbucks, Target, Pizza Hut, and others – the local consumer experience intersects with the brand promise. You can read the full blog post, along with links to several cool research-backed infographics: Industry Benchmarks Show Strategic Importance of Local.
In the post linked above, they also include benchmark data on retail (the above 88 percent figure was for retail), quick serve restaurants (QSR), fast casual restaurants, and hotels. You can get a detailed infographic on each. One other amazing stat for retail: Of the storefronts with local channels, a whopping 93 percent were on Foursquare.
Percent of (Retail) Storefronts with Local Channel
- Foursquare = 93%
- Citysearch = 66%
- Facebook = 65%
- Google+ = 59%
- Yellow Pages = 55%
According to VenueLabs, which specializes in “Storefront Listening,” consumers are sharing their local storefront experience every day. But the key point is most brands are not listening well. They don’t have great tools to tune in to the local channel. Sure, you can monitor hashtags, but few people, especially on a mobile phone use a hashtag. Of course, that is only this writer’s opinion, I have done only a cursory scan of tweets with hashtags as opposed to those without them.
Here are some of the questions that the company suggests large and small brands start asking:
- What sites do people complain about employees the most on?
- Where do I need to look to find operational issues?
- Where can I find my raving fans?
- How are my new drink specials resonating in the restaurants we launched them in?
- What are my customers saying at the point of sale?
- Which locations have the happiest customers – which locations need help?
- Where do my marketing investments resonate best?
- Are there new channels where my customers are engaging?
In a previous report from 2011, the company explained that 53 percent of mobile searches are reported by Bing to have local intent. With local content surfacing in these searches, you don’t want to have a blindspot. You want to have rearview and sideview mirrors as well as some web cams to help you see from all angles, so to speak. All in all, there is some fascinating data to prompt some discussion and thought for companies of all sizes.
