Recently my company had marketing campaign where there was idea to give voucher (one-time) for coffee as a gift for finishing an online task by our customers on our e-learning platform.
Partnership idea:
Purchase vouchers from coffee place which has most branches around the country. Costa Coffee was selected.
Challenge:
Costa Coffee is not ready technologically (IT system) to handle such task.
Obstacles:
- Vouchers generated by Costa Coffee can not be "checked" in the system when presented by customer - therefore if someone prints 10 vouchers, they can easily use them in any Costa Coffee (rather than 1 voucher for 1 customer - one-time)
- Company takes the risk that someone will use the voucher more than once (the financial summary will be made after 2 weeks - vouchers use will be counted, so if a customer copies a voucher then they will use it as many times they wish, as the one-time feature is not implemented in Costa Coffee IT System)
Suggested solution - step by step (ideal scenario):
- Company orders 100 vouchers for one coffee each (Medium size - Latte/Americano/Mocca)
- Costa Coffee produces 100 vouchers
- Each voucher has it's individual characteristic (numbers, QR codes, codes) - something that can be scanned/inputed into the IT System and the casher/till will record it, that it can not be used more than once (one-time vouchers)
- Costa Coffee sends the file (Word, Excel) with these vouchers to the Company
- Company distributes it to its customers (via email, postcard, thank you note, or as we would do - on our e-learning platform)
- Company pays upfront for the vouchers (we know the budget straight away)
- Customers go to Costa Coffee and redeem voucher at the cashier/till for a coffee
- They enjoy the great coffee plus think positively about the Company
Business Case:
- Salespeople giving out vouchers to their customers
- Vouchers used in the marketing campaigns as the "thank you" (for example after downloading their ebook, or after first purchase)
- Costa Coffee has wifi connection - why shouldn't we invite our customers for webinar (web conference, online training, e-learning) while drinking coffee in Costa Coffee ?
- To cheer up a friend who is in different city (or travelling?) - wouldn't it be a nice if I could text (sms) my wife while she's on the business travel - text #have a good day - start it with a cup of coffee at Costa Coffee - waiting at the train station for you - just redeem this voucher #VOUCHER NUMBER - Love M.
I strongly believe that technology can create new ways of doing business and easily address such scenarios as I presented to you. Connecting people with things they love.
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