(for Online Ordering clients). For
small franchise systems, we can do
this in one day. Our revenue model is
a subscription-based one where
every participating location of a
franchise pays a small monthly fee
for the services it uses. The services
come as ‘modules’ that layer on
top of the basic Rewards/Loyalty
program. For instance, a franchise
can add Mobile Payment or Online
Ordering or Customer Survey or
Appointment Scheduling to the
Rewards/Loyalty program, and pay
an additional monthly fee for those
additional services. The pricing for
our services scales with the number
of locations, so larger systems get
a lower price. Also, the client pays
only for those text messages,
picture messages, and emails that
they actually send. This allows them
to control their spending and not be
subject to monthly minimums, ‘use
them or lose them’ message buckets,
etc. that many competitors impose
on their clients.”
“We typically can on-board a new franchise system
in two weeks, which includes importing their store
location database, customizing our iOS/Android
app and Admin Portal platforms for the client’s
brand, and importing their entire food menu (for
Online Ordering clients).”
be simultaneously promoted via social
media, amplifying its reach and effect.
“Such offers may easily be tied into
our online ordering and mobile
payment platforms. For example:
‘Place an order via our Mobile Online
Ordering App today from 3pm to 7pm
and get double rewards points.’ Or
‘Get 5 extra rewards points every
time you pay at one of our retail
locations using the mobile payment
app and spend more that $10.00.’”
“Additionally, rewards cash,
e-coupons, and e-gift cards issued by
the Skoop! platform may be used by
rewards members to pay for online
orders, without any additional effort
or action by the member.
“Then, when a transaction is made,
or a reward is redeemed, or a daily
deal is purchased, the Skoop! platform
can post (with permission, of course)
to the customer’s Facebook page
or Twitter feed and tell all of their
friends/followers about their
experience, etc.
who bring their products into the
market verticals where they have
significant access. Such channel
partners may be advertising agencies,
direct marketers, payment processors,
and the like. Though we have many
clients in the franchise market
vertical, none of them are direct
clients of Skoop!. That being said,
a good cross section of brands who
are using our services via channel
partners include: Planet Beach
Contempo Spa, East Coast Wings,
Forever Yogurt, Le Macaron, The Lash
Lounge, and 16 Handles. They range
from spa, to casual dining, to bakery/
pastries, to an eyelash salon.”
We discussed Skoop’s scalability. As
a franchise owner, I would want to
be sure they had the framework to
grow with my business, while taking
on other clients. Dan has that all
covered. “Skoop!’s infrastructure is
all cloud-based, as is ‘best practice’
these days for businesses such as
ours. This gives us the bandwidthon-demand, redundancy, hot-standby,
and location-sensitive content
delivery capabilities that we need in
order to supply our clients with the
security, scalability and reliability
that they expect. This is especially
important as Skoop! both expands
into non-US markets and on-boards
bigger clients.”
Economical and
Simple Integration
Skoop!’s services are very
economical and very fast to
deploy. “We typically can on-board a
new franchise system in two weeks,
which includes importing their store
location database, customizing our
iOS/Android app and Admin Portal
platforms for the client’s brand, and
importing their entire food menu
“So when asked, ‘what’s special
about Skoop!,’ I always answer,
‘Integration and ease of use. Our
clients are very busy running their
franchises. They don’t have the
time or technical expertise to
manage multiple vendors for
multiple marketing services, in
an attempt to cobble together
a multi-channel campaign that
wouldn’t be as effective as a
Skoop! integrated campaign in
any case.’ With Skoop!, it’s one
vendor, one platform, integrate d
results reporting, and a measurable
ROI across all of the channels
and programs.
The Future of
Mobile Technology
The man with a crystal ball when
it comes to the future of mobile
technology is sitting right in front
of me. So I couldn’t help but ask him
where he sees the mobile business
going in the next year and where he
thinks the market will be five years
from now. He said, “Wow, it’s
difficult enough predicting what will
happen next year! I’ll only address
mobile marketing, as opposed to
the general case of ‘mobile’. All
the trends point to a world in which
marketing messages will get much
more targeted, personal, and
location/time/context-sensitive.
Data from many sources will be
combined, practically in real-time,
to create a living profile of every
customer or prospect, so that she/he
can be presented with the most
appropriate message for that exact
“The company services are not
supplied to the market under the
Skoop! brand, but under the ‘private
label’ brand of one of our channel
partners. We are primarily
a technology company with
a deep knowledge of the franchise
market ecosystem, and we work
with channel partners and resellers
90
time/place (i.e., down to a few feet
of where she/he is standing). The
platform will know what you want,
when you want it, where you want it,
and what you will be willing to pay
for it. This is very much in
alignment with the past few years
of evolution in the non-mobile
internet world, except the mobile
world adds the important element
of ‘location’. This will require a new
framework of laws and privacy
policies to ensure that opted-in
consumers are protected against
abuse, at the same time allowing
them to control the level of
messaging they want.
“I also believe there will be a huge
uptake in the use of mobile wallet
technologies, rendering the use of
plastic credit cards (and cash)
obsolete for many consumers. There
is obviously no need to carry around
a wallet full of cards when your
mobile device can satisfy that need.
Of course, there are many very
powerful vested interests in that
battle, and a large installed base
of plastic cards and card readers
(including the coming ‘chip and
pin’ cards), so this will be a rather
bloody battle for years to come.
But the major success of
programs like the Starbucks
mobile payment card and
Skoop!’s new Mobile Payment
platform point to the fact that
consumers very much embrace
the convenience and security of
such systems.”
So what is on the horizon for
Skoop!? “I can’t talk about
specific prospects by name,
but suffice it to say that we
currently have a large pizza
franchise in development, a
major network of pubs in
the UK that will be in pilot
in January, a large frozen
yoghurt franchise
currently in a pilot
program, a large retailer
in the UK, and a large
US-based hair salon in
development. I expect
all of these to be in
production by mid-2015,
which will add more than
6000 locations to our
platform. Of course, we
will probably also pick up
an estimated 100+ new
small, regional franchise
clients in 2015, with a few
thousand locations in
aggregate.”
To learn more about Skoop!,
go to www.skoop.com.