Supernova Award Category
The Problem
Rock/Creek’s outdoor enthusiast customers are an extremely passionate group. Most outdoor enthusiasts live a very active lifestyle and prioritize two things above all else: their next adventure and the gear they will use on it. Their expectations are extremely high and they are willing to spend to make an experience great. As an outdoor gear retailer, creating memorable experiences for its customers is a challenging priority.
Key to Rock/Creek creating memorable experiences is its ability to recognize and serve its enthusiast customers. In order to create memorable experiences Rock/Creek had to overcome two obstacles: 1) as a retailer, they had a tough time serving the informational needs of their customers at scale and, 2) retailers sometimes recognize enthusiasts – either online or in their store – but frequently cannot.
Rock/Creek realized that the only way to solve this was to engage with a community that had meaningful customer overlap and a shared vision about how to best help outdoor enthusiasts discover memorable and authentic experiences. They are challenged by the fleeting attention of customers combined with the high turnover of associates. As a result they have difficulty in systematically recognizing customers and then addressing their unique needs. Additionally, Rock/Creek needed to consistently attribute sales to enthusiasts and connect those sales to the campaigns that may have influenced a purchase.
The Solution
Rock/Creek partnered with a publisher that catered to the broad, passionate customer base they were after with a resource to discover the experiences their gear helps to fuel. This partner, RootsRated.com, provides two essential elements to the solution: One, outdoor adventure content that appeals to an active local audience; and two, a enthusiast community where members frequent to share likes, dislikes, plans and achievements.
Rock/Creek then needed a way to connect the ecosystem. ENGAGE.cx and its ability to: one, define an attribution model that could be instantiated in real time; two, identify unique customers as they engaged across both digital and physical channels, including RootsRated.com; three, track customers on their Omni-channel journey to collect their individual behavioral patterns; and four, provide visibility into the Rock/Creek Customer Lifecycle in order to monitor performance of all customer experience initiatives.
The results
Identifying customer preference is critical to delivering amazing experiences. For a specialty retailer like Rock/Creek, understanding a customer’s chosen sport is of particular importance. Imagine sending content or promotions about technical climbing gear to a dedicated steep water paddler. Successful experiences and campaigns require carefully matched content, whether communicating in-person, online, or via email.
Using a combination of empowered and knowledgeable store associates, content tracking, and customer experience technology, Rock/Creek is able to deliver a consistently excellent experience for their customers with appropriate focus on customer-preferred, sport-specific products and content.
Beyond basic preference identification, Rock/Creek is defining detailed customer personas and using the combination of RootsRated and ENGAGE.cx to categorize and operationalize customers into these advanced personas. Through the use of persona-driven content from the broader connected ecosystem, Rock/Creek expects to see dramatic benefits to average ticket value and frequency of purchase as customers receive the most relevant information and guidance unique to their interests - no matter how they choose to engage.
Metrics
Together, we began the project with the unproven assumption that some percentage of visitors were experiencing both content from RootsRated and products from Rock/Creek. Immediately following implementation, we successfully identified shared visitors across the two properties. Within a week, hundreds of engaged, loyal, and potentially valuable common customers had been correlated.
The speed with which the initial assumption was proven to be true was a positive surprise.
Further impact will be seen as customer visits continue and additional touchpoints are integrated. Specific performance targets include in-store traffic, transaction frequency, and average transaction value associated to this set of engaged and loyal common customers.
The Technology
Rock/Creek engaged with enthusiasts through the RootsRated content platform via a combination of content creation, sponsorship, and cross-promotion. Online engagement across Rock/Creek and RootsRated is monitored and analyzed using the ENGAGE.cx Relationship Cloud. In-store traffic and customer identification is accomplished using Meraki CMX wifi gear.
Customer identification, correlation, and experience optimization is accomplished using the ENGAGE.cx Relationship Cloud.
Disruptive Factor
The traditional retail model has relied primarily on a transactional relationship with customers. The core challenge is making the transition to an experiential and relational model with customers by not only providing them goods and service but also value-added information based on their interests. Rock/Creek seeks to harness the power of those adrenaline fueled moments in gorgeous landscapes to enhance their relationship with customers and drive additional sales. Rock/Creek understands their continued success is not simply about gear, but instead about becoming the trusted partner that inspires and fuels great experiences for its entire community. To do so, technology must be blended with community, content, interests and human interaction in real-time while not getting in the way.
Our goal is simple: establish a connected ecosystem that creates a truly immersive experience for customers across all channels.
We see the immersive experiences evolving across three Rock/Creek mediums:
- eCommerce – Rock/Creek can personalize real-time web experiences that are driven by interests and activities that a customer has shared in the RootsRated community.
- In-Store Kiosk – RootsRated provides an outdoor experience kiosk to its store partners in order for their customers to explore local adventures.
- In-Store digital displays – Live content that displays preferred brand gear actively being used on scenic outdoor adventures that matches the profile of the customer.
Shining Moment
Enthusiasts love to share. Content kiosks were deployed providing a virtual trophy case and spurring conversations about the completion of experiences for a given area or sport. Completion of all items in a category is a badge worn with pride.
During an average session, customers use the kiosk for three minutes and view four experiences; demonstrating the time customers are willing to invest and further strengthening the relationship between customer, retailer, and community.