How thick is your wallet? If it’s full of money, then that’s great! But most people’s purses/wallets are thick with half-filled cardboard stamp-cards, flimsy vouchers printed on the back of receipts, and even the odd customer feedback form that you were supposed to give back in, after you’ve filled it out. It’s a paper cut waiting to happen.
On the other side of the till, there are staff getting red ink on their fingers just to put a stamp on a coffee-cup shaped white space. There are venues hoping you happen to read the writing on the A-board display in the corner, and desperate for you to scan their QR code in the window. Customer engagement is leaving a paper trail and going through it is a fool’s errand.
Bath-based Memberoo has developed an app to help build loyalty between companies and their customers, and make every visit count. It aims to help small and medium-sized businesses set up their own digital loyalty schemes so that they can get to know their customers and encourage return visits.
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An app is born
Having worked in customer engagement for 13 years, co-founder Emma Smith (pictured right) quickly realised that technology could be used to help. With her industry experience she partnered with Don Keir, who had the technical know-how to help her execute her great idea. They founded Memberoo, and bought together loyalty schemes, rewards, surveys, events, mailouts, and analytics all on one platform.
Emma’s original realisation, that organising her theatre group would be much easier if she could keep all of her member data in one place, has since been developed to create an app that would serve the commercial market as well as the public sector.
“By bringing together a group of skilled individuals across the private, tech and third sector, we were able to come up with a great engagement platform”
Emma tells us, “By bringing together a group of skilled individuals across the private, tech and third sector, we were able to come up with a great engagement platform that works as a tool for businesses, enabling them to engage with their customers and allowing the general public to keep their loyalty cards in one place.”
From Bath valley to Silicon Valley
Memberoo is one of many tech startups to have set up shop in the internationally successful SETSquared‘s Bath Innovation Centre. Elspeth Hinde, marketeer for Memberoo tells us, “Without the Bath Innovation Centre and the SETSquared business incubation programme we would not be here. Emma and Don met through SETSquared. There has been a lot of advice and support from them and other parts of the South West tech community that has been truly invaluable.”
“Just because your app behaves in a certain way on one Android phone, doesn’t mean it will behave like that across the board”
One of their greatest successes to date is raising money from a Silicon Valley investor, which in turn may well help encourage the investors to turn their attention to the South West of England. Elspeth offers advice to others thinking about creating a successful app-based business, “Trialling it with multiple devices is key. Just because your app behaves in a certain way on one Android phone, doesn’t mean it will behave like that across the board.”
“There will be lots of things you don’t know the answer to, which is fine, but make sure you know who you can ask”
Emma attributes some success to collaborating with others. She tells us: “Find useful people and surround yourself with them. There will be lots of things you don’t know the answer to, which is fine, but make sure you know who you can ask. Something like SETSquared can be so useful when you’re in the early stages. Organisations like that offer support, but they also put you in an entrepreneurial space with other innovators, making it exciting and inspirational.”
Being a member of the South West tech industry
It hasn’t all been coffee shops and theatre groups, though, as with most startups there are always teething problems, Emma tells us: “There is a good group of tech entrepreneurs in Bath and Bristol, but there is a definite lack of affordable office space with the right type of contract. As a startup the aim is to start with a small team and grow quickly, but we found it difficult to find office space that had less than a four-year contract. They were too expensive for us when we were small and didn’t offer us the space to grow.
“Thankfully, we have managed to find some great offices and have put together a brilliant team of people in the South West with the help of organisations like TechSPARK and SETSquared.” [Thank you, we are happy to help!]
Memberoo are in the process of launching their new app and website and will be looking for early adopters. If anyone is looking for a way to increase their customer loyalty they should get in touch, and definitely download the app to start their own Memberoo community.
