Sybase 365 has expanded its portfolio of mobile customer relationship management tools and services that enable enterprises to engage customers throughout the entire customer lifecycle using the mobile channel.

In a recent global study commissioned by Sybase 365, when asked to identify the services they would most value, 40 percent of respondents said receiving offers and coupons delivered by mobile. This was the second most desired choice, after emergency alerts—55 percent—with buying cinema/theatre tickets via mobile in third place—39 percent.

“This focuses on couponing and loyalty, an end-to-end service from program creation and implementation in existing CRM solutions to solving the last-mile problem of redemption and payments,” said Scott Miller, director of product management at Sybase 365, Dublin, CA. “We do lot of work in business-to-business CRM systems for enterprises asking ‘How do I mobilize?’

“The second area that is considerably less built out is business-to-consumer mobile CRM, mobile marketing, mobile advertising, really the whole customer lifecycle,” he said. “There’s been local marketing, which is a fairly well worn path, but we’re emphasizing the loyalty and redemption side of this throughout the entire customer lifecycle.

“We’re generating awareness using classic mobile marketing tactics—customer acquisition driving transactions, post-purchase customer care, customer intimacy retention and repeat purchase”

Sybase 365 is a subsidiary of mobile messaging and mobile commerce service provider Sybase Inc.

The company provides SMS, MMS and GRX interoperability, mobile commerce services, innovative text messaging, mobile marketing and content delivery services for wireless carriers, financial institutions and enterprises. 

Sybase 365 processes more than 1.3 billion messages per day, reaching 850 carriers and 4 billion subscribers worldwide.

Mobile CRM
By expanding its mobile marketing and mobile messaging services, Sybase 365 is helping enterprises to drive mobile coupons, mobile loyalty programs, enable mobile payments and undertake customer research via the mobile device  across a single platform, increasing insight into consumer preferences and improving customer acquisition, retention and loyalty.

The mobile payments component of the service supports a wide variety of mobile and point-of-sale payment systems, providing brands and retailers with payments, redemption and transaction options, to maximize their marketing campaigns. 

In addition to Sybase 365’s mobile marketing, mobile advertising and mobile messaging capabilities, Sybase 365 has integrated specific capabilities to complement cross-campaign marketing initiatives and customer relationship programs.

Mobile Coupon/Voucher Module: Enterprises are able to reach any customer on any mobile operator network through SMS-based mobile coupons.

The service requires no additional hardware and integrates with all payment systems.

Mobile Loyalty Module: Enterprises can now leverage a more advance tracking capability which analyzes and reports the usage and redemption of mobile coupons and marketing programs.

Customers can easily manage point allocation, tapping into loyalty points systems from existing programs for easy integration across all marketing channels.

Mobile Research Module: Customers will be able to execute surveys and other interactive customer campaigns to build valuable customer profiles, which can be used to determine lifestyle preference and drive targeted product recommendations.

Mobile Payments Module: Customers can immediately act on offers they receive by purchasing goods or services, redeeming offers or processing loyalty offers, all at the point of sale, as well as on their mobile device.

Sybase’s platform is currently messaging and mobile Web based, but the company is adding iPhone, Android and Java applications in the near future.

“We’re putting a set of tools together for tracking and measuring customers as they move throughout the life cycle,” Mr. Miller said. “If you build out a more comprehensive redemption and mobile payments network, all of the marketing and loyalty and couponing programs on the front end translate into more mobile transactions.

“Campaigns are more effective if brands and agencies are able to track transactions and the true effectiveness of mobile marketing campaigns,” he said. “The whole area of mobile CRM makes campaigns dramatically more valuable.”