Right now, 1 in 4 americans are working from home in 2021. According to Upwork’s “Future of Workforce Pulse Report” released January 14th this year, by 2025, 36.2 million Americans will be working remotely, an 87% increase from pre-pandemic levels.
While multiple vaccine rollouts are very promising, it’s important to note that even in a post pandemic world, many companies will be consciously choosing to not return to the old workplace structure. Many companies have found that productivity has not dwindled due to employees working from home.
French automaker PSA announced a "new era of agility," in which its non-production staff will work remotely from now on. And Mark Zuckerberg said as many as 50% of Facebook employees could be working remotely within the next five to 10 years. Zuckerberg pitched the idea as both a matter of satisfying employee desires and also as an effort to create "more broad-based economic prosperity.
Over the last few years, c-store retailers have really embraced the digitalization of engagement. With less people driving and pumping gas on their way to and from work, we need to take that offsite engagement to the next level.
So what the most effective strategies for offsite communications with customers?
Omnichannel communication
Steamlined communication via a customer facing kiosk in-store, a mobile app, as well as a wealth of valuable data through Electrum’s enrollment data gives you a wealth of actionable marketing data.
You, the retailer, control what customer data you want during the enrollment process. You decide what is required or optional information. Many retailers provide bonus points at enrollment for emails, giving customers additional incentive to be engaged through email.
It's crucial to make that offsite communication really count in 2021. Many consumers are craving connection, not just generalized marketing. Loyalty provides you actionable data combining demographic profile data with buying habits, so your offsite communication is effective, segmented, and personalized. These campaigns vary from something general –like a health foods campaign for segmented customers--- and can drill down to a specific brands. Retailers can create profitable supplier relationships using switch marketing. You send out a marketing email campaign for Candy Company A to all the customers who buy competitor Candy Company B’s product and get Candy Company A to pay for the candy A discounts. You can target coffee drinkers, create pump only segments and heavily target them with CPG discounts that prioritize in-store purchases to be redeemed, and so much more.
-The Electrum Team