With the 2012 Holiday Season already in full swing, it’s important to make sure your strategy can keep up with changing technologies. Check out the trends that will help drive your sales this holiday shopping season.

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<br /> <a href="http://www.truaxis.com/blog/12827/its-holiday-season-techify-your-retail-offers/" title="HolidaySeason"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/WLGav.jpg" alt="HolidaySeason" border="0" /></a><br /> Source:<a href="http://www.truaxis.com/blog/12827/its-holiday-season-techify-your-retail-offers/" title="HolidaySeason"</a><br />

The iPhone and other smartphones have had a dramatic impact on everyone’s life. Not only have they changed the basic day-to-day but they have also changed how consumers bank and the expectations these consumers have. Take a look at some of the new norms of banking.

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<br /> <a href="http://www.truaxis.com/blog/12820/breaking-the-bank/" title="BreakingtheBank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/8E3fo.jpg" alt="BreakingtheBank" border="0" /></a><br /> Source:<a href="http://www.truaxis.com/blog/12820/breaking-the-bank/" title="BreakingtheBank"</a><br />

Thanks to new innovations in mobile and social apps, the way consumers shop is forever changed. Whether it’s to compare prices, read reviews, get coupons or even make the purchase, these apps have had a huge impact on consumer shopping habits. Check out some of the latest trends in mobile and social shopping and make sure your business is taking advantage of these technologies.

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<br /> <a href="http://www.truaxis.com/blog/12814/mobile-social/" title="MobileSocial"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/2tJDc.jpg" alt="MobileSocial" border="0" /></a><br /> Source:<a href="http://www.truaxis.com/blog/12814/mobile-social/" title="MobileSocial"</a><br />

Recently, comScore published their “Online Shipping Customer Experience Study,” that looks at recent trends, what drives customers to purchase and ways to improve the customer shopping experience. Take a look at some of their findings to help your e-commerce business continue to thrive.

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<br /> <a href="http://www.truaxis.com/blog/12807/online-shopping-and-satisfaction/" title="OnlineShopping"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/wifli.jpg" alt="OnlineShopping" border="0" /></a><br /> Source:<a href="http://www.truaxis.com/blog/12807/online-shopping-and-satisfaction/" title="OnlineShopping"</a><br />

While daily deal sites may have brought in $3 billion in revenue in 2011, customers are getting fatigued by the number of emails and lack of relevance. Additionally, these sites don’t do much to drive customer loyalty or let retailers track spend. Retailers need to find new ways to appeal to their customers so their marketing dollars don’t go to waste.

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<br /> <a href="http://www.truaxis.com/blog/12803/the-current-state-of-daily-deals/" title="StateDailyDeals"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/x907w.jpg" alt="StateDailyDeals" border="0" /></a><br /> Source:<a href="http://www.truaxis.com/blog/12803/the-current-state-of-daily-deals/" title="StateDailyDeals"</a><br />

A recent JD Power and Associates study showed that, overall, customers are more satisfied with their bank. However, customer advocacy and loyalty seem to be down. Take a look at some of the findings and see what you can do to keep your customers satisfied while increasing retention.

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<br /> <a href="http://www.truaxis.com/blog/12798/customers-banking-satisfaction/" title="BankSatisfaction"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/IhaYE.jpg" alt="BankSatisfaction" border="0" /></a><br /> Source:<a href="http://www.truaxis.com/blog/12798/customers-banking-satisfaction/" title="BankSatisfaction"</a><br />

On Tuesday, July 10th, Truaxis invites you to join our free webinar, “Changing the Game: How big data is changing the face of loyalty.” Emily Murphy from Forrester Research will join Truaxis CEO and Co-Founder, Schwark Satyavolu, and CRO, Jen Millard, to discuss Specifically, the opportunity to use big data to not only drive greater customer loyalty for both in-store and category spend, but also how it can lower the operating costs of these programs while providing the customer with a more personal loyalty experience.

During this webinar, these industry thought leaders will talk about:
- The current state of loyalty
- What’s keeping loyalty programs from success
- Emerging trends for merchants
- Emerging trends for financial institutions
- What you can do and how to measure your success

Join us at 11am PST, on Tuesday, July 10th to learn about the current trends and emerging opportunities for both retail and financial loyalty programs.

Register now!

Emily Murphy
Analyst Serving Customer Intelligence Professionals
Emily Murphy serves Customer Intelligence Professionals, focusing on loyalty trends, technologies, services, and analytics. She helps marketing clients navigate the evolving customer loyalty landscape and develop data-driven loyalty strategies and programs. Prior to this position, Emily spent three years at Forrester supporting the Customer Intelligence team and researching customer loyalty. Emily is a magna cum laude graduate of Boston College.

Schwark Satyavolu
Co-Founder & CEO
Schwark is a co-founder and one of the original visionaries behind Truaxis. He is a serial entrepreneur committed to solving this and other real-world problems through innovative web technologies and information aggregation techniques. Schwark was most recently an entrepreneur-in-residence with Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP). Prior to that, he co-founded Yodlee and served in a variety of functions, including chief technology officer. He also worked at Microsoft and was a key contributor to Microsoft’s project management tool. Schwark has produced seminal TCP/IP research and holds three patents, with 15 others pending. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and a master’s degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Jen Millard
CRO
Jen is recognized industry expert on consumer and channel segmentation, specializing in the convergence of technology and retail innovation that improves retail operations and the consumer experience. Prior to Truaxis, she was the founder and managing partner of Retail Growth Partners LLC. She was also the Executive Vice President of New Business Development for ZoomSystems and has held executive positions at Bed Bath & Beyond, Brown Shoe Group, Sears, Saks Inc. and McMillan Doolittle LLP.

Jen serves on multiple retail and consumer products board of directors and also holds a seat on the Board of Governors to the University of North Texas Retail Merchandising School. She is a member of the National Retail Federation, International Council of shopping Centers (ICSC), Airport Council international (ACI), and was recognized by Chain Store Age as a ‘Rising Star – Top 40 under 40’ in 2007.

In today’s tough economic times, financial services firms are struggling to acquire new customers and effectively retain them. To help, it is important that they increase their focus on customer engagement models to strengthen customer relationships across all touch points. By creating an interactive, customized and well-coordinated experience across various channels, these institutions can attract and retain customers, while increasing their profitability.

A recent Gallup survey revealed that only 3.8% of fully engaged customers closed their accounts as compared to the average 6% switching rate for all customers. This translates to a 37% increase in customer retention! By fully engaging customers, banks will be able to keep customers loyal, which will also decrease the acquiring costs for new customers.

Research indicates that 18% of banks have a blog. Blogs are a great way to engage with customers and can help clarify bank policies while encouraging positive communication. Wells Fargo uses a combination of social media tools, including a financial blog, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to offer customer service, customer education and to promote new services.

Mobile banking is another great channel that can be used to drive customer engagement. Mobile banking gives customers the convenience of “anytime, anywhere” banking that can be as quick and simple as checking an account balance or as innovative and useful as depositing a check by taking a picture. In fact, the availability of mobile banking is cited as one of the top 3 reasons customers switch banks (Source). Mobile banking has shifted from a nice-to-have to a requirement for all banks looking to remain competitive with their customers.

The key to a customer engagement strategy is to keep customers engaged along all touch points. This means that every banking channel needs to be user-friendly and consistent to the customer so not to frustrate or confuse them. Additionally, each channel should focus on its strengths and its value-add, rather than just mimic other channels. Banks should also consider using customization techniques so that customers feel like their bank actually knows and cares about their needs. By focusing on the customer, banks will be able to increase retention and create more loyal customers.

StatementRewards offers much more than just merchant-funded rewards to banks and credit unions; it offers a comprehensive suite of innovative, transaction-enabled services to help drive engagement, loyalty and top-of-wallet spend. To help explain all of the exciting services offered, we created this short video infographic. Take a look and see what StatementRewards is all about!

This Thursday, May 31st, Truaxis invites you to join our free webinar, “Changing the game: Using transaction-enabled services to enhance the banking experience.” Brad Strothkamp from Forrester Research will join Truaxis CEO and Co-Founder, Schwark Satyavolu, and SVP of Business Development and Sales, Carlo Cardilli, to discuss how transaction-enabled services allow banks to increase customer loyalty, engagement and “top of wallet” spend.

During this webinar, these industry thought leaders will talk about:

· A quick overview of how consumers use various retail-banking channels.
· What are transaction-enabled services?
· Why transaction-enabled services are critical to financial institutions?
· What is StatementRewards and which rewards types are offered?
· A look at the short- and long-term opportunity for financial institutions.

Join us at 10am PST, this Thursday the 31st to learn how transaction-enabled services are dramatically changing the relationship between FIs and their customers. Register now!

Brad Strothkamp
Vice President, Principal Analyst Serving E-Business and Channel Strategy Professionals
Brad is a leading expert on eCommerce/eBusiness strategy development within financial services, as well as on best practices of financial firms for selling to and servicing online consumers. He does extensive research on how consumers use the Internet to research and purchase financial products – regardless of the channel – as well as the seamless cross-channel customer experience that financial firms need to develop and deliver in order to maximize sales.

Prior to joining Forrester, Brad spent more than 10 years developing and managing online services for consumers. Most recently, Brad was a vice president in Wells Fargo’s Internet services group, where he led the development of Wells Fargo’s eBusiness strategy and managed a team dedicated to driving online sales, including marketing, platform development, cross-selling, and channel integration efforts.

Brad has been widely quoted in the press, including such media outlets as BusinessWeek, The Wall Street Journal, and American Banker. An accomplished public speaker, Brad has delivered speeches at many events, including Forrester’s Finance Forum, Technology Leadership Forum, and European Finance Forum. Brad earned a bachelor’s degree in advertising from the University of Kansas and an MBA in marketing and information systems from the University of Missouri.

Schwark Satyavolu
Co-Founder & CEO
Schwark is a co-founder and one of the original visionaries behind Truaxis. As a result of his own family’s frustration with information overload and confusion when trying to switch cell phone plans, Schwark, a serial entrepreneur, committed himself to solving this problem.

Schwark was most recently a entrepreneur-in-residence with Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP). Prior to that, he co-founded Yodlee and served in a variety of functions, including chief technology officer. Prior to this, Schwark worked at Microsoft and was a key contributor to Microsoft’s project management tool.

Schwark has produced seminal TCP/IP research and holds three patents, with 15 others pending. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and a master’s degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Carlo Cardilli
SVP of Sales and Business Development
As SVP of Sales and Business Development, Carolos leads the financial institution strategy and sales.

Prior to Truaxis, Carlo was SVP of Sales and Business Development at mFoundry, a leading provider of mobile banking and payments. Prior to mFoundry, Carlo was VP Business Development for Kivera, the leader in location information for wireless consumers. Carlo also served as a Principal at Navigant Consulting where he focused on M & A, integration and regulatory strategy for various telcos around the world. Formerly he was with Arthur Andersen’s Telecommunications and Media Practice and ARC Associates.

Carlo is fluent in three languages and earned his M.A. and B.A. from Cambridge University.