When a customer takes a photo from the interactive mirror, you can choose the ways in which they can post to a social media channel. The options are:

Your Facebook

This allows the customer to post to YOUR Facebook page. This is the best used option when trying to increase engagement and likes to your social media site, as well as driving traffic from Facebook to your online store and your bricks and mortar store.

There are a few options in the request form that you need to choose. However, you must make dev@fivefaces.com.au and administrator of your Facebook page as this is the account used by OmniMirror to post things to your page.

You will then need to provide:

- The Album Name where the photos will go to when posted.
- The Album description which describes the Album to customers
- The caption that will be put for each photo posted.

Triggers are quite a powerful promotional tool made available through OmniMirror. Triggers allow the system to play a specific media file a certain percentage of the time, when a customer interacts with the interactive screen in someway, and play another media file in the other times.

To explain this by way of an example, you can set a rule that if a customer hits the shop button, the top screen has a 10% chance of giving them a discount code that will give them free shipping on their purchases from the OmniMirrror unit, and the remaining 90% of the time, they simply get a welcome message. This is particular popular as a means to drive Facebook posting. You can set rules such that 20% of the time, is a customer takes a photo and posts it to Facebook, they get a code word that gives them some promotional package at the counter. This is a great way to reward the customer for their engagement as well as increase the experience of the customer.

It works by defining a trigger, and these are:

- When a customer posts a photo to Facebook
- When a customer hits a Virtual Button

Defining the File Name that should play for the winner, then defining the percentage chance the customer can win, and finally, the alternate file to play if the customer does not win. This is all done in the request form section for Triggers.

Virtual Buttons are buttons that hover over the right hand side of the interactive mirror, and allows customers to leave the mirror to go online to a website of your choice. This can be to your online store, loyalty program sign up, social media site or really any place on the internet you want to expose to them. The system then becomes an interactive kiosk, allowing customers to bring up the keyboard to enter data if required, and do everything that you may want them to do online.

You can specify what virtual buttons you would like configured in the request form and where they should take the customer online, and you can have up to 10 buttons if required, and each button can be named accordingly, with a maximum character list of 10, including spaces. Simply enter the name of the button, and the website URL where the customer should be taken to when they hit that button.

ALl interactions are monitored and provided to you in the monthly reports.

OmniMirror is a high definition screen, and as such requires HD content for optimum viewing. It supports a wide variety of file types, including:

- Video Formats (AVI, MPG, MP4)
- Image Format (JPEG)
- Flash Format (SWF, FLV).

All files must be provided at the resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels (High Definition) for optimal results on the screen. Other formats can be used, however it may be stretched or compressed and often leads to a lower quality display, and this greatly reduce the impact of your message.

The lowest cost and most often used file type is images. Images must be provided in the following specification:

Image Type: RGB JPEG.
Image DPI: 72
Image Resolution: 1920 x 1080.

If you are unsure, you can download our sample image and modify it by adding your images to it, ensuring it will be the right quality. Click the below sample to open the image, and then right click and save the image to your computer.

OmniMirror is an extremely powerful interactive mirror that has a range of features that can be switched on and off at your request. All of this is handled via a request form that you will have been provided by your account manager.

This post introduces key terms used through the request form, what they mean and how you can use them. Once you familiarise yourself with the features, requests can be sent any time and processed within 1 business day by the Five Faces team. See below OmniMirror:

Top Screen

The top screen of OmniMirror is a digital signage screen that can play content based on time of day, and day of week, and can be changed easily. All you need to do is upload content to our system, and submit the request form. Furthermore, this content can changed based on interactions on the interactive screen, but more on this in the specific section.

Interactive Screen

The interactive screen is the interactive mirror that customers can use to take photos, and share them via social media channels. This is where the OmniMirror magic occurs.

Virtual Buttons

On the interactive screen, on the right hand side hovering over the mirror, you have the option of having virtual buttons which can take the customer to any website you want, or connect to our Apps if required. This is perfect for connecting customers to your online store, social media channels, videos or loyalty programs.

More information is available on each specific section of the request form, and they are listed below.

- Content Portal & Types
- Virtual Buttons
- Triggers
- Branding Border
- Sharing Options of OmniMirror

I have been noticing an inundating amount of articles on the evolving retail landscape and omni channel retailing, with a particular emphasis on mobile.  While there is no doubt that mobile is a powerful channel, I wanted to share some of the results we have seen with online shopping in-store. It isn’t as exciting as mobile in the media, but often uninteresting things end up getting better results.

Before you switch off and consider this entry a sales pitch for interactive kiosks, let me share with you the motivation. Our clients are posting very positive results, and one in particular in the last month at one site had:

• ~1,500 interactions (1,500 customers browsing the interactive kiosk looking for product and information)
• ~240 online checkouts (240 people who added product to there basket and checked out from the kiosk)

That is very powerful – but here is something even more so.  It appears a great deal of these checkouts were for products not available in that store, which means 240 people that potentially would have walked out of the store without making a purchase.

If the above has not engaged you – then I’m afraid the rest of this article will not add value.

After analysing the data and working with the retailer, we do have a few things we can infer that I would like to share. If you have had experience on this – do let me know in the comments below.

1) The Catalogue Affect. 

Retailers have been providing catalogues to customers for quite a while to provide a tease of information and promotions available in store. The kiosk acted as a more in-depth catalogue, allowing customers to locate products they were after, or browse accordingly.  The additional benefit and perhaps key differentiator was that when the customer found something that wasn’t available in-store, they didn’t need to be referred to another outlet or have staff run around trying to get stock in, they simply get referred back to the kiosk to purchase it online (whilst in-store) and then let the customer know that it will be delivered to them for free the next day, as a reward and apology for the inconvenience caused to them.

For fashion retailers who have small floor space, once the customer finds the size, if the colour isn’t right, they can pop online and buy it then and there.

2) Convenience. 

Never downplay the importance of convenience to a customer, particularly when we are looking at men or kids. While the women shop – men may not interact with a catalogue, but they will play with a screen, and incidental purchases do happen as a result.

It is also quite convenient if you have a trolley full of kids to stop by at a kiosk to have a look for the things you are after, rather then walk to the relevant section and browse.  Don’t know about you – but I stay away from any store that has toys or candy if I have my little cousins with me.  It is too dangerous!

Finally – Australia has one of the worst satisfaction levels when it comes to customer service from retailers (2011, Sydney Morning Herald). A kiosk can assist in giving folk a DIY option that certain customers are demanding given the general downsizing of the number, and in many cases the quality of staff.

3) Floor Space.  

Big bulky items that do not require testing can easily be kept in the back warehouse, and the huge floor space they would take is replaced with a kiosk. You can provide greater facts, figures and with a bit of clever content, a complete experience for that product. The customer can purchase from the unit or print a docket to pay at the counter, and then collect it at the back warehouse.

I do think the above findings apply across nearly all retail segments, and although mobile is great – it still requires the customer to do something. A kiosk is there to be touched and ready to be used anytime, and that is something not to be ignored, even if the kiosk is nothing more then a tablet (although be wary of this!)

Before I end – we need to at Five Faces bring the social element to this. How many times have you walked down a retail aisle and saw something very clever, or you found something your friend would love? Your not interested in buying it, but you want to share it, so you take a photo and send it to them.  This is something very common these days, but quite often the retailer isn’t mentioned in this phenomenon and neither is a clear path to purchase available from this recommendation.

Now if a customer who is browsing the kiosk stumbles upon a product that is cool or they would suggest to a friend, or even something they would like for their birthday, they can share that photo on Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter, and with it could be a link to the online product page should any friendlies wish to purchase.  We know social media sells – we have proven this time and time with SocialEyes/OmniMirror, and the results of a service like this could drive online sales through a simple social phenomenon that is happening right now.

So is Mobile the saviour of retail? Not by itself.  Technology is invading the retail space in many facets, and clever implementations can affect bottom line figures.  You do not need to be the biggest retailer to afford it either, just be clever, or well – talk to us .

Signing Out.

We trust what our friends say, seriously consider what they suggest, and are influenced by what they like and dislike. Facebook allows us to enable these friends to recommend products and brands openly, and encouraging them to do so is a powerful opportunity for a business.

Celebrity product endorsements are a great example of utilising a trusted advisor to influence consumer behaviour. It worked in the past, and it works now.  Kaspersky broke into the very competitive Antivirus market by having Jackie Chan represent the brand. L’Oreal gets big celebrities for big bucks to be the face of their products, all to take advantage of the trusted advisor principle.

Five Faces has no rights to this image and is used for illustration purposes only.

Social media takes this to a new level. If a customer recommends your product or brand on Facebook, you are getting your message out to over 150 people instantly, and via the best trusted advisor, a friend.  This is a compelling value proposition for any business.

Given the above – it would make sense then to judge the success of a Facebook page by the number of friends that share or engage with the content (In Facebook terminology – ‘number of people talking about this’).  However – most retailers still rely and report on total likes as the most important indicator of success, and I think this needs to change. Likes are important, but that by itself is of limited value.

The process of getting traffic and increasing the fan-base of your Facebook page is now pretty much established. You can use Facebook Advertising to drive Likes – and this works extremely well, or you can run marketing campaigns to drive traffic and likes to your Facebook page. What isn’t established is how you keep the customer engaged with your page, and have them continuously share and talk about your content. This challenge is where most Facebook pages unravel, and I don’t blame them, it isn’t easy!

The reason it isn’t easy is because when a customer likes your Facebook page, your post becomes 1 of over 400 posts a customer will get per day from their friends, other pages and interests.  That is a lot of messages, and naturally, much of it becomes white noise. I for instance, only engage with 20-30 messages in my news feed per day, and the rest I may glance at, or scroll past without even looking.  So the challenge is to remain relevant with the ‘connected consumer’ when you are just a drop in an ocean of messages being delivered to the customer per day.

Below are three examples of some prominent retailers comparing ‘new likes’ vs. ‘people who are talking about this’ over a month. We will keep the names anonymous.

The first thing to know is when a customer likes a page, they also “talk about the page”, and hence you will notice Retailer 2 and 3 have similar movements between the two graphs. If we are to judge the health of these pages based on Likes alone, then Retailer 2 and 3 are certainly doing better than Retailer 1.

However, although Retailer 2 and 3 are getting plenty of new Likes from customers, not much else is happening. It is clear that after liking the page, they are not sharing or engaging with the messages beyond that. This means Retailer 2 and 3 are becoming the white noise that is ignored, and a further increase in Likes isn’t likely to change this pattern. Yes, every now and then, a relevant message will hit a relevant customer and value will be created, but for the most part, it is wasted.

Retailer 1 however, has reached the holy grail. They have consistent increase to their Likes, but each message that they deliver is being engaged and interacted with by their customer base. In fact, each message they post is being delivered to over 7 times their total fan base. So if they had 100 total Likes, each message is being distributed to an additional 700 people that may not have known what the brand or product is, and they are getting this message via a trusted advisor. Jackpot! The results have been greater traffic to their online page, greater Likes on Facebook, and even increased foot traffic.

I have bumped heads with a few social media strategists that believe a retailers Facebook page should just show the latest product and promotions, and that the customer isn’t interested in other things. I think this content is no doubt important – but it is just one piece of the content strategy if you want to take full advantage of  social media.

My suggestions is to focus more on engagement then Likes, as engagement will lead to more likes, and tactical campaigns can increase Likes quickly, but sustainability of your Facebook page depends on your content strategy and engagement – and here are my suggestions:

1. Use the magazine/newspaper approach to your page. Customers buy a magazine because of the articles, and they accept the advertising that goes with it. Your Facebook page should have messages and articles relevant to your customer base, and your advertising should be just one part of it, not all of it.
2.  Interact with your customer. If they post something good or bad – respond. Facebook is a two way medium, and when customers spend a good portion of their life on it – 2 hours can be a long time to respond, and people notice poor response. You’re better off with no Facebook page then an unmanaged one.
3. Look beyond your product – find something engaging that your customer cares about and is related to your brand. Your posts should encourage feedback and engagement, not just be an information “blast”.
4. 1-3 messages a day is plenty. Your customer does have a life outside of your product/brand, so respect it. You are always one click away from being disliked, so do not spam!
5. Monitor your posts effectiveness. Look at what messages your customers are engaging and distributing, and what they aren’t. Adjust your strategy accordingly. Facebook Insights is a fantastic place to study your customers behaviour and engagement with your brand.
6. Where possible – do not give power to another business to manage your page. You are your brand and you are best to represent it.
7. Use images as they are more engaging to customers, even in a news ticket. More people interact with an image on Facebook then a text post, a check-in or a video.

You don’t have to go far to see this in action and the results it gets. I had the absolute pleasure of working with Lorna Jane who pioneered our SocialEyes product in their stores, and they are a great example of everything I talk about here.

Follow them on Facebook and see how they engage with their customers on a personal level.

Signing Out.

Yazz

It is no secret that I am not the biggest fan of Apple, and for no other reason than Apple makes it painfully difficult to develop for them, particular when customers give us challenges that are a little above and beyond the intended purpose for it.  Correction – I should say, Apple makes it painfully difficult to develop for them without voiding warranty (jail-breaking) in order to meet customer requirements.

By contrast, Android is extremely easy to develop and configure for, and the open source community make it a breeze to solve some pretty incredible challenges. Furthermore, there are so many off the shelf tools to configure the Android system, that very little falls outside its capabilities.

So if you are thinking about putting tablets in-store to increase customer engagement, or as an ordering system for hospitality, or even a kids games area to engage the little ones, here are some things to think about before you go ‘bobbing for an Apple’:

1. Developing for Android is cheaper and faster then developing for Apple.  There are fewer restrictions, less rules and far more flexibility.  I have seen quotes for Apple Apps come in at twice as much as Android to achieve the same thing!
2. Android tablets last longer in public environments.  We see more Apple iPads come back to us broken then we do Android tablets – even the old ones like the Motorola Xoom get great mileage
3. Locking down an iPad is currently impossible without hiding the Home button on the iPad. Even then, the feature set (iPad Configuration Utility) provided by Apple is lacking.  This means you either need to buy specific case/mountings that hides the home button, or more clever customers can find their way around your application. Locking down an Android is viable and straightforward.
4. Yes, there are more Apps on Apple then Android, but nearly all Apps that are popular will release on both platforms within months of each other.
5. Android devices are cheaper then Apple devices. Might not mean much for one site – but start looking at large networks of 2-300, and it does add up.

So unless there is some need for it, remember that the experience of the customer is in the content you are displaying and the interaction they have with it.  There is minimal difference between the two platforms from a hardware perspective, so beyond your personal allegiance, it is hard to see any key advantage Apple has over the cheaper, more reliable and easier to work with Android platform.

As a side note – be aware that there are many platforms now which allow you to develop mobile applications that are compatible across both Android and Apple devices. You don’t always have to pay twice!

Signing Out.

Yazz

Yazz is the founder and Managing Director of Five Faces, and has been working with retailers on their digital in-store, mobile and social media strategy for over 5 years. Five Faces specialises in technology solutions that blur the lines between Online, Social Media and In-Store.   Find out more about us at http://www.fivefaces.com.au.