Steve Taylor's Blog

Recently I’ve been doing a lot of work in the loyalty area especially dealer customer loyalty and manufacturer brand loyalty and thought I would share some of the technology surrounding loyalty schemes/programmes.

Consumers are more inclined to participate in a loyalty programme during a recession and that loyalty rewards hold increasing value in the current economic downturn.

A lot of loyalty programmes in use today are accompanied by a loyalty card (aka reward card, club card, points card, advantage card) which facilitates the tracking of the customer.  Even though the card has some psychological benefits it essentially acts a an identifier.

Cards and Other Forms of ID

Plastic “credit card” style cards are normally used as they fit nicely in most peoples wallets and purses but variations do exist:

• Paper cards
• Plastic cards
• Key fobs
• Nothing (just ask the customer for ID)

Rather than just have the customers name on the front of the card normally for convenience and security reasons the card will hold a unique identification number.  This number usually appears on the front of the card just in case the reader or card becomes faulty – this allows manual entry of the number.  The number can be read in a number of ways to make it quicker and easier for the operator at POS.  The main ways to read the card are as follows:

• Magnetic Stripe
• Barcode
• Smart Chip
• RFID (Radio-frequency identification)

Future of Loyalty Cards

There are some downsides to having cards:

• According to recent research a third of customers forget or don’t carry their loyalty card. 
• There are so many loyalty cards out there it’s quite common to have too many cards to carry.
• With all of these cards being produced, there is a recycling and green element to consider.
• The cost of readers at the dealership can be seen as cost prohibitive.

One way to combat these issues is to use the customers mobile phone.  More and more phones now have NFC (Near Field Communication) capability.  NFC is an emerging technology that allows wireless communication between devices from about 4 inches in distance.  Most people have a mobile phone and this can be used more and more as a loyalty tool.  SMS, MMS etc. are currently used heavily in loyalty to send vouchers and codes to customers.

Barcodes have also evolved and moved to the mobile phone. Pepsi use a 2D barcode that customers can photograph with their phone to show messages or download ringtones and wallpapers.

Microsoft Tag

At this years CES 2009, Microsoft announced their own 2D barcode, called Microsoft Tag.  This barcode is based on the High Capacity Color Barcode (HCCB)but has an interesting twist.  The tag doesn’t really carry any information but a unique code that gets looked up on the internet.  This way you can store more information but more interestingly, you can log how many times the tag has been scanned.

You’ll need an application on your smart phone (or iPhone).  To get the application, point your phone’s browser to http://gettag.mobi.   Here are a couple of tags that I’ve just created to test it out.

Conclusion

Treating the customer well, making them feel special and personalising communication is the basis for customer loyalty.  All dealers should be doing these things from day to day, but combined with a loyalty programme and loyalty card the dealer can gain an insight into customers buying behaviour.  Identifying who your best and worst customers are, along with gaining feedback from them will help position your business above your competitors.

Using Azure Services Platform, a Microsoft “motoring guy” links his Porsche to GPS, music, Internet and more

PRESS RELEASE

REDMOND – Dec. 4, 2008 -- Ori Amiga’s 12-year-old Porsche doesn’t look out of the ordinary, even if the car has been around the block a few times. But thanks to some custom modifications, this automobile is far from normal. Amiga never rides alone in his car, which he refers to as the “MeshMobile”—his digital life is always riding shotgun.

The MeshMobile is a labour of love stemming from Amiga’s work as principal group program manager of Microsoft’s Live Mesh, which allows you to synchronize all of a person’s information—photos, music, documents, and more – among PCs, notebooks, and soon, mobile phones.

Live Mesh itself is part of what Microsoft calls Live Services, one of the building blocks of Microsoft’s new Azure Services Platform, unveiled in November at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles. The Azure Services Platform is a “cloud” platform hosted at Microsoft data centres. It’s designed to give developers and others the ability to easily develop and scale up applications that, among other benefits, can run on a wide variety of devices.

With the Live Services and Live Mesh components of the Azure Services Platform, software developers now have a tool to find new and useful ways to link people, data, and digital gadgets. Or, in this case, a very analogue Porsche.

At PDC, Live Mesh served as a prime example of what Microsoft’s approach to cloud computing – called software-plus-services – can offer. With Live Mesh, Amiga says, he can connect the four pillars of his digital lifestyle: data; devices; applications; and, through the social interactions software now provides, people. Live Mesh and Live Services offer the pipeline through which information flows to devices, friends, and co-workers. It’s an idea that’s simultaneously simple and powerful, Amiga said: The ability to be in complete control of your information anywhere, on any device.

As Amiga puts it, everyone on the team is excited about all things Mesh-related, and that’s how the MeshMobile was born. “I spend a ton of time in my car. I'm kind of a motoring guy,” Amiga says. “I wanted the experiences I have with software at home with me in my car. The idea was bringing the goodness of the Mesh into the automotive environment to see what we could do.”

Amiga spent a month on the hardware design, solving problems such as sunlight readability, voltage regulations, and space constraints (“my car is pretty small,” he says). He needed an interface that would be easy to use and see, in order to avoid any Mesh-related accidents on the road. It took a lot of fabrication, but the MeshMobile looks as if it shipped from Porsche’s factory with the Live Mesh touch screen already installed.

The software, though, is where the excitement is. At his fingertips, Amiga has instant access to his huge and growing music collection. If he adds an album at home, it’s available in his car the next time he starts the ignition. The MeshMobile is GPS-equipped, and when in motion it’s “dropping GPS tracks into the Mesh” so that his friends can find where he is on Virtual Earth. Amiga also can quickly check the weather and—when stuck in traffic, of course—open Internet Explorer and do some browsing. If traffic on Highway 520 (a busy freeway near the Redmond Microsoft campus) is actually moving, an audio synthesizer will read his e-mail to him over the speakers.

Ultimately, the idea behind the MeshMobile is to prove that the connected experience Live Mesh offers isn’t limited only to phones and PCs. “Hopefully this will spark the imagination and get creative people out there building similar stuff,” Amiga says of the MeshMobile.

Microsoft’s new Live Services and Live Mesh tools can do much more than link automobiles to a music collection, of course. As part of the Azure Services Platform, they’re the digital plumbing software developers can use to link any number of digital data sources, notebooks and phones and other pieces of hardware, and the people that need that data every day. The MeshMobile is the one of what could be thousands of new applications based on Live Mesh and Live Services.

Although created as something of a hobby project, the MeshMobile embodies the power of having your digital life on demand. Through Live Mesh, Amiga can tap into the data pipeline and have access to all his information as he cruises around Seattle.

“Live Mesh (and Live Services) provide so many opportunities,” Amiga says. “Really, it all boils down to data. Data, data, data. You have devices that produce data and devices that consume data. You take a photo with your digital camera, and you want to render it on your mom’s digital picture frame halfway across the world.” Microsoft’s new cloud applications let you do that. The help break down what Amiga calls “digital islands.” From anywhere, on an array of devices, you can access anything you want.

Even when you’re in the driver’s seat, instead of on your sofa.

Vectorform have developed another Microsoft Surface application for BMW.  They started off with a prototype for a X6 configurator.

The prototype was such a success that they followed up with a much improved version for the 7 series that allow the user to fully customise the vehicle through the Natural User Interface(NUI).  360° views of the interior and exterior of the car, along with the ability to change and view the paint and trim immerses the user in a fully interactive environment.

 

Here is the demo of the new app they have developed:

Network Q is the used car brand of Vauxhall that offers the consumer piece of mind when buying a used car.  Vauxhall, a UK based marque owned by General Motors (GM) allows Vauxhall dealers to list their Network Q qualifying vehicles on their website.  In my previous post: Third Party Stock/Inventory Data Feeds I talked about how important and how much choice there is now when displaying your vehicles online, with the Network Q website, its free for dealers to list their vehicles.  This integration saves the dealer manually uploading the vehicles one by one though the admin area and can be fully automated by taking the stock from their DMS (Dealer Management System) such as Kerridge/ADP, Pinnacle etc.

The vehicles need to undergo a set of multi point checks and meet some other requirements such as age and mileage.

Vauxhall use a company called Datafirst who are based in France to manage the Network Q website.  Datafirst offer a webservice API (Application Programming Interface) for you to upload the stock.  Unlike most third party websites that accept feeds the API the Datafirst provide allows the updates to be made in real time.  From a developer’s perspective this is far better to work with than CSV (Comma Separated Values) file.  The biggest problem with CSV files is that they normally get transferred via FTP (File Transfer Protocol) which makes it difficult to determine whether the transfer succeeded or not.

The Datafirst API is session based and a number of calls need to be made in a particular order.

The main decision you need to make is how the webservice gets called.  Normally I would have built an SSIS (SQL Server Integration Services) package to deal with this by utilising the webservice and xml tasks.  But due to a number of reasons, such as deployment etc. I opted for a simple console application that is run from Windows scheduled task manager.

The 4 steps required are:

1. Initialise Session
2. Send Vehicle Data
3. Send Vehicle Photos
4. Finalise Session

Something I recommend is that you put good error checking at every stage plus a catch all to catch unhandled errors.  Is not uncommon to find that Datafirst’s service is unavailable from time to time. The error checking will alert you by email so you can rerun or notify someone of the failure.

I do this by adding the following piece of code:

   1: AppDomain currentDomain = AppDomain.CurrentDomain;

   2: currentDomain.UnhandledException += new UnhandledExceptionEventHandler(UnhandledExceptionHandler);

   3:  

   4: static void UnhandledExceptionHandler(object sender, UnhandledExceptionEventArgs args)

   5:         {

   6:             StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

   7:             

   8:             Exception ex = ((Exception)(args.ExceptionObject));

   9:             sb.Append("****** Unhandled Exception ******<br/><br/>");

  10:             sb.Append("<br/>ExceptionType: " + ex.GetType().FullName);

  11:             sb.Append("<br/>HelpLine: " + ex.HelpLink);

  12:             sb.Append("<br/>Message: " + ex.Message);

  13:             sb.Append("<br/>Source: " + ex.Source);

  14:             sb.Append("<br/>StackTrace: " + ex.StackTrace);

  15:             sb.Append("<br/>TargetSite: " + ex.TargetSite);

  16:  

  17:             Exception ie = ex;

  18:             while (!((ex.InnerException == null)))

  19:             {

  20:                 ie = ie.InnerException;

  21:                 sb.Append("<br/><br/>****** Inner Exception ******<br/><br/>");

  22:                 sb.Append("<br/>ExceptionType: " + ie.GetType().Name);

  23:                 sb.Append("<br/>HelpLine: " + ie.HelpLink);

  24:                 sb.Append("<br/>Message: " + ie.Message);

  25:                 sb.Append("<br/>Source: " + ie.Source);

  26:                 sb.Append("<br/>StackTrace: " + ie.StackTrace);

  27:                 sb.Append("<br/>TargetSite: " + ie.TargetSite);

  28:             }

  29:  

  30:             Utilities.SendEmail(Utilities.Preferences.ErrorEmails, sb.ToString());

  31:         }

The next thing to do is set up the objects we need to pass over.  First off we create a base class with only one method that serialises the object.

   1: public abstract class RequestBase

   2:     {

   3:         public string SerialiseToString()

   4:         {

   5:             XmlSerializer xs = new XmlSerializer(this.GetType());

   6:             XmlWriterSettings xws = new XmlWriterSettings();

   7:             xws.Encoding = new UTF8Encoding(false);

   8:             string xml = string.Empty;

   9:  

  10:             using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())

  11:             {

  12:                 using (XmlWriter xw = XmlWriter.Create(ms, xws))

  13:                 {

  14:                     xs.Serialize(xw, this);

  15:                     xw.Close();

  16:                 }

  17:                 xml = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(ms.ToArray());

  18:             }

  19:  

  20:             return xml;

  21:         }

  22:     }

Then the objects, here is the vehicle request object that takes a collection of vehicles.

   1: [Serializable]

   2: [XmlRoot("REQUEST")]

   3: public class VehicleRequest : RequestBase

   4: {

   5:     [XmlAttribute("NAME")]

   6:     public string NAME { get; set; }

   7:     [XmlAttribute("SESSID")]

   8:     public string SESSID { get; set; }

   9:  

  10:     [XmlArrayAttribute("UVSTOCK")]

  11:     [XmlArrayItemAttribute("USEDVEH")]

  12:     public List<Vehicle> Vehicles { get; set; }  

  13: }

Once all the objects are specified and marked-up with the relevant attributes we need to send them over to the webservice.  Now, normally it would be easy to create a proxy class and call the webservice direct from code, but the way that Datafirst work is just to receive POX (Plain Old Xml) via HTTP requests and responses.  To send the data then we need to us the HttpWebRequest from the System.Net namespace like so:

   1: public static string PostRequest(string xml, string uri)

   2: {

   3:     Uri address = new Uri(uri);

   4:     string responseXml = string.Empty;

   5:  

   6:     HttpWebRequest request = WebRequest.Create(address) as HttpWebRequest;

   7:     request.Method = "POST";

   8:     request.ContentType = "text/xml";

   9:  

  10:     byte[] byteData = UTF8Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(xml.ToString());

  11:  

  12:     request.ContentLength = byteData.Length;

  13:  

  14:     using (Stream postStream = request.GetRequestStream())

  15:     {

  16:         postStream.Write(byteData, 0, byteData.Length);

  17:     }

  18:  

  19:     // Get response   

  20:     using (HttpWebResponse response = request.GetResponse() as HttpWebResponse)

  21:     {

  22:         StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream());

  23:         responseXml = reader.ReadToEnd();

  24:     }

  25:     UpdateSession(responseXml);

  26:  

  27:     return responseXml;

  28: }

Now you might be wondering how do the images get transmitted.  Well, we need to encode the images in base64.

   1: internal static string ConvertImageToBase64(string path)

   2: {

   3:     byte[] byteArray = null;

   4:  

   5:     using(FileStream fs = new FileStream(path, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read))

   6:     {

   7:         byteArray = new byte[fs.Length];

   8:         fs.Position = 0;

   9:         fs.Read(byteArray, 0, (int)fs.Length);

  10:     }

  11:  

  12:     return Convert.ToBase64String(byteArray);

  13: }

It’s recommended due to the amount of vehicle images that can be transferred to only send over modified or new images, so you’ll need to update the database with a sent flag or similar.  Alternatively, what I did that works well is to set the creation time of image to some time in the past and the next time you look for the images only get images without that date.  This is extremely useful if this application was to be deployed to a computer within a dealership or you don’t want to mess around with databases.

So there you have it.  Not difficult but different to how other people do it, and in my opinion a lot better then the CSV/FTP model I tend to come across.

All dealers know that the the bigger the forecourt and the more stock on show the more chance a sale will be made.  With the internet now being an everyday tool for the consumer to research their purchase before they buy most dealers have embraced the web with their very own website.  The problem lies with the brand.  The big portals and magazines/newspapers have great marketing budgets and have become the first point of call for most users.  The question is: What’s the best way to accommodate the plethora of portals, all using their own schemas and their different delivery channels?  This also becomes more difficult across multiple dealers and dealer groups.

The portal sites vary on their business model also.  Some based on a per vehicle basis and some on a per lead basis.

The main portal that almost everyone advertises with is Auto Trader.  Auto Trader works on a cost per vehicle advertised per week.  At the time of writing I believe this to be around the £4 mark, being discounted based on number of vehicles and manufacturer deals to as low as around £2.

netcars on the other hand charge on a per lead basis.  They provide the dealership with a free Non-Geographic Number (NGN), normally a local 0845 number.  This allows them to track the enquiries.  The price at the time of writing is £5 per lead.

Skupe.net on the other hand have a different variation to that of netcars.  By default there listings are free, but if you want to have a sponsored listing you appear at the top of the search results (like Google) and pay for the lead.  Depending on the lead you get, being a call (£10), email(£5) or click thru (£0.35).

Here are some of the main portals in the UK:

Suffice to say the portals above will give a varied amount of leads and quality of lead.  It’s up to the dealership to track the amount, and quality of lead coming from each portal to measure the Return on Investment (ROI).

For those of you that live in the UK and are attending this years Glass’s Event: Driving Business Opportunities for Profit and Growth in an Uncertain Market, then I’ll see you there. 

After the success of last years event: The Internet - Gaining the Competitive Advantage, Glass’s have again pulled together a host of key industry speakers that cover all areas of the automotive industry. 

Below is the preliminary list of delegates that will be attending this years event:

One of the major problems I face when it comes to writing articles for my blog is what to write about, I’m not sure what people already know and what they don’t know.  So if any of you would like me to cover anything in particular or even have any questions I could answer then let me know. 

Automotive Analytics

There are a number of analytical software packages on there on the market and most of them offer an on-demand, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) version.

For those who don't know, Google offer a free way of measuring activity on your website, called Google Analytics.  They offer this service for free to encourage you to advertise with them via there Pay-per-Click (PPC) advertising.

The one major downside (if you see it as one), is that Google can use the data you gather to help them evolve there products and services in the future.  If this doesn't bother you then I would suggest you get yourself set up.

Event Tracking

By default, Google Analytics mainly tracks page views and visitor information but sometimes you need more information about what’s happening on your website.  Currently in beta and therefore not fully available, Google have a new event tracking API (Application Programming Interface) that allows you to track custom events on your website.  For example, you may want to know how many users have watched all of video or how many have bombed out after just a few seconds, or how many users have searched for a certain make or model from your used car search.

Even though it’s in beta and the information isn’t available in the analytics I believe that Google are still recording the data you capture if you start using the API now.  This is how to implement it to track how many people are searching for each make and model.

First of all you need to make sure that you are using the latest analytics API, the JavaScript include is called ga.js not the urchin.js which is the older one.

Now lets assume you have something like this simple search:

On the “Search Button” we need to add a little JavaScript to the onclick event:

   1: onclick="pageTracker._trackEvent('Search', 'Quick Search', Make.value + '|' + Model.value);"

A better way of attaching this code is unobtrusively via an attachevent.  Here is an example using JQuery:

   1: $("#SearchButton").click(function()

   2: {

   3:     pageTracker._trackEvent('Search', 'Quick Search', $('#Makes').val() + '|' + $('#Models').val());

   4: });

The above code simply call the _trackEvent function of the pageTraker object and passes in a few parameters:

• category (required)  - The name you supply for the group of objects you want to track
• action (required) - A string that is uniquely paired with each category, and commonly used to define the type of user interaction for the web object.
• label (optional)  - An optional string to provide additional dimensions to the event data.
• value (optional) - An integer that you can use to provide numerical data about the user event.

I’ve assigned a category of “Search” and the action of “Quick Search”; this allows us to categorise for advanced searches, new vehicle searches etc. I then specify the label that is the Make and Model values concatetated by a | character. e.g. Volkswagen|Golf.  I have omitted a value for this type of tracking.

I must note that this type of tracking isn’t new and is included in the more advanced enterprise analytics packages all of which come with hefty price tags compared to the freeness of Google.  In addition, this type of tracking would be easy to implement if you were to do your own custom bespoke solution.

Here is the link to the full Google documentation.

BMW have integrated Google Maps, along with the local search into their range of cars.  Available in Germany now and probably in the US and UK from 2009 the system will be identical to the online version of Google Maps.  In addition to the maps, the driver will be able to search local businesses listed on Google Local Search which is powered by Yell.com here in the UK.  Once the driver has found their desired business, they can start the GPS route and call via Bluetooth phone connection at a press of a button.

PRESS RELEASE

BMW ADDS NEW "BMW SEARCH" SERVICE TO BMW ASSIST(TM) POWERED BY GOOGLE MAPS(TM)

Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey - September 15, 2008... BMW introduces access to Google Maps (http://maps.google.com) search capability within the vehicle on 2009 BMW Assist and Navigation system - equipped 1 and 3 Series. For the first time, subscribers to the optional BMW Assist Convenience Plan can access "BMW Search" to quickly find a desired business with just a key word, benefiting from the world's most famous online search engine. After finding what you want, you can immediately start route guidance or a hands-free call with your Bluetooth® - linked phone at just a simple push of a button.
Utilizing newly introduced hardware operating on the AT&T Mobility GSM network, this unique service identifies the current location and destination of the vehicle automatically and then displays the local results with details of address, phone number and distance. For example, you can look up business information like the names of restaurants, hotels, service stations, banks, supermarkets, cinemas and public facilities such as schools or city halls, all by the simple use of a key word. You can also easily ask for a search at another location.
In a nutshell, "BMW Search" using Google search technology and intelligence saves time and reduces frustration with destination entry on today's navigation systems. The information you look up is continuously updated by Google. "BMW Search" is the next logical and consequential development of the link between the automobile and the Internet.

To allow customers to send business listings and street addresses with associated phone numbers from the internet directly to their BMW, Google and BMW began offering "MyInfo" with the introduction of the X6 back in April, now extended to all other 2009 BMWs except for X3. "BMW Search" now opens up access to the Internet directly from the vehicle, representing another building block in the BMW Assist services portfolio.

About BMW Assist:
BMW Assist provides the driver with services that enhance on-the-road security and convenience, for added peace of mind. The BMW Assist and Bluetooth® System is standard on all 5, 6 and 7 Series models, including the M5 and M6, and is included in the Premium Package or available as a stand-alone option on all other models. BMW includes the Safety Plan for 4 years at no additional cost. BMW is the only manufacturer that offers this duration of service as other manufacturers only include the first year of service. The BMW Assist Safety Plan is a subscription based service that is subject to certain limitations.

The in-vehicle equipment integrates GPS technology and hands-free wireless communication functions to deliver emergency and other services, accessed via buttons in the overhead or centre console. The BMW Assist system transmits the location and vehicle information to the BMW Assist Response Centre. A response specialist speaks with the vehicle occupants to coordinate dispatch, notify emergency contacts on file, and link BMW Roadside Assistance or emergency services as needed and/or requested. A severe accident automatically activates the Automatic Collision Notification function.

The BMW Assist Safety Plan also includes Door Unlock and Stolen Vehicle Recovery services, which can save the driver time and money. New to BMW Assist is MyInfo, which allows users to send business listings and street addresses with associated phone numbers from the Internet, directly to their BMW. TeleService automatically notifies the BMW centre when the vehicle will need service. A service advisor then proactively calls the customer to set up a convenient appointment and have the needed parts ready.

BMW Assist subscribers can also enrol in the BMW Assist Convenience Plan (available at an additional cost of $199 per year) to avail themselves of BMW Assist concierge services; from finding the lowest fuel price or the best French restaurant in the area to information on flight arrival gates or times, as well as receiving directions, traffic and weather information. On most models produced September 2006 and later, a selected destination and its phone number can be sent directly to the BMW Navigation system and the subscriber's Bluetooth - linked mobile phone, after a push of the Concierge menu option. New for 2009 is BMW Search, which allows online access to the Google Maps database inside the vehicle to quickly find a desired business with just a key word. The Convenience Plan also includes Critical Calling, a service that can connect the driver to a requested party via a response specialist in case their mobile phone is not in the vehicle or its battery is discharged.

Lastly, the BMW Assist system includes Bluetooth hands-free calling and phone connectivity with phonebook access and speech recognition for dialling by name or number via steering wheel controls. Use of this feature requires a customer-provided compatible Bluetooth mobile phone. To learn more about BMW Assist, please visit www.bmwassist.com.

After the success of the Renault Laguna website, Renault have made use of many of the same features in the new Renault Megane website.  You can see the site here: http://www.nouvelle-megane.com/