News and Analysis
Loyalty in the Time of “Near Me” Searches, Omnichannel, and Covid-19
In addition to the opportunities and challenges that come with an omni-channel commercial ecosystem, 2020 brings to businesses the challenge of mobile search, which leads people on the go to search for “X near me” and pick the closest possible option. The new year also brought, as hardly anyone would’ve predicted months ago, an impending recession as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
I caught up with Nicole Amsler, vice president of marketing at loyalty tech firm Formation.ai, to garner her insights on loyalty strategy this year.
Google Disables Reviews and Q&A, Yelp Announces New Features Amid Outbreak
Important announcements were posted Friday by Google and Yelp as part of the effort to contend with coronavirus and its impact on businesses.
Google has published a new help page titled “Limited Google My Business functionality due to COVID-19.” Before diving into the details in the announcement, I’ll mention the most important headline. Due to a rapid reorganization of priorities, Google has determined that at this time, they will disable the ability to leave new reviews, reply to reviews, and post new Question and Answer content.
These Chatbots Are Helping Brands Respond to Covid-19 Queries
Chatbots could help fill the gap in business-to-customer communication capacity during the Covid-19 outbreak. Although there will always be a need for human customer service agents, even when chatbots with AI are deployed, the coronavirus outbreak is demonstrating just how valuable this automated technology can be for brands working in a time of crisis. Already, chatbot companies like LivePerson say they’re seeing significant increases in volume on their platforms. As the pandemic widens, even more companies are likely to start integrating chatbots into their customer service systems.
Here are six chatbot solutions that brands can start using right away.
Commentary
State of Hyperlocal 2018: Very Early Returns From Street Fight’s Annual Survey
It’s a truism in tech businesses that you should be just a little ahead of your customers, but not too far beyond their current focus. Street Fight’s third annual State of Hyperlocal survey aims to assist in that, as well as help companies prioritize their R&D and product marketing and development.
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Street Fight Daily: Guardian to Sell Its Data, What Facebook’s Marketplace Lacks
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Guardian Moves to Separate Data from Inventory, with Monetization Model to Follow… Salesforce is Acquiring Krux to Boost its Data Management Capabilities… What Time Learned From the Small Sites It Acquired…
Street Culture: How RetailNext’s Growth Is Driven by Diversity
As the company has grown, according to CEO Alexei Agratchev, it has experienced two “productivity peaks,” where fewer people are doing a huge amount of work. Then new hires are brought on, and the productivity stays about the same for a few months as the growth potential is realized. This can be a frustrating cycle to manage.
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