Loyalty scheme provider Welcome Real-time is
to target French institutions through a partnership with
consultancy Accenture.
Welcome, based in Aix-en-Provence, France, has
clients in markets as far flung as India, Saudi Arabia and Brazil
but has yet to claim a big banking contract win in its home
market.
Consultancy services are to be provided by
Accenture’s 150 loyalty and CRM specialists, which will benefit
from elements of the Welcome platform and its expertise in the
loyalty arena.
One of the main areas of collaboration between
the partners is an attempt to add data obtained by consumers’
mobile phone habits to make marketing more efficient.
Traditionally, loyalty schemes tailor marketing to segments of
consumers through data which banks and retailers have on their
customers, but this is the first time it has been tried with mobile
services.
Joël Nadjar, executive partner at Accenture
Financial Services said developments in mobile technology meant the
industry was “on the edge of a drastic transformation” on how it
can reward customers
“If we can understand the environment the
customer is acting in through the mobile device we can achieve that
transformation,” he said, speaking to CI in Megèves,
France, where the announcement was made.
“For example, if they are at the point of
sale, trying to buy a gift with their mobile payments device,
noticing what kind of gift and what kind of price, then providing
even more personalised information becomes possible.”
A prototype of the solution is running at
Accenture’s Next Generation Branch showroom in Sophia-Antipolis,
France
Welcome also announced an upgrade to its XLS
product, from 7.0 to 7.1. New features include an iPhone
application with the ability to show rewards and discount offers on
a live map, a merchant portal for running campaigns and more
in-depth reporting for banks.
