In detective novels of old, dropping a dime on someone meant placing a tip-off call to the police. But when Bloomingdale's drops a dime, the only booking being done is revenue, and the dialers are the chain's sales associates.
Naturally, not every customer hears from the associates: Of the chain's 20 million customers, the top 20% account for 73% of its business. Its best customers shop more than 30 times a year.
When people shop that often, chances are they'll get to know the store's associates. And the Bloomingdale's reps likely will know them as well. But if they need a little prompting, they rely on Klondike, a campaign management system designed by MBS, which feeds customer data straight to the call center — or the sales floor.
The system provides monthly transaction records on the store's 15,000 most valuable customers in a consolidated marketing database of customers, including their transactions and promotion history, as well as some basic household information. Live links, which go directly to point-of-sale terminals, allow associates to provide access to individual customer snapshots, with the ability to drill down quickly.
The point-of-sale system, which is activated by swiping a credit card, enables salespeople to custom-build merchandise suggestions. Aggregate spending information atop each customer's file allows the floor rep to make snap decisions about offering special services. If a consumer who buys thousands of dollars' worth of merchandise every year wants to return an item that hasn't been stocked in four years, a salesperson knows to accept it with a smile.
Customized messages can also be sent by the system to the floor. They're then delivered to the customer. For instance, when the store hosts one of its “Girls' Night Out” specials, a sales rep can be alerted that a given customer is particularly desired at the event, and can be fed information about it. That information is printed on the customer's receipt, too.
The customer data influences which reps make outbound calls. Store promotions tend to fall into one of three categories: storewide, targeted and cosmetic.
For a storewide special, such as free gift wrapping, the associate with the greatest amount of interaction with the customer usually makes the call. If a promotion is contained within a single department — men's clothing, for instance — the rep in that area who has dealt with the customer is likely to dial. And for cosmetics, a category that often engenders a relationship with a single salesperson, that individual is given exclusive access to the customer.
