Manchester City Football Club trials mobile phone ticketing

Telecoms operator Orange have launched a trial of mobile contactless services with Manchester City Football Club (MCFC). In the first phase of the trial, the technology will allow fans to use their mobile phones to enter through the turnstiles for home games. In future, the trial may allow the purchase of club merchandise or refreshments, as well as loyalty discounts for fans who regularly attend the matches.

Mobile contactless, otherwise known as Near Field Communications (NFC), provides an alternative to cash, bank cards, security or travel passes, and tickets. NFC-enabled SIM cards mean handsets can be used for a combination of daily-life needs, whether it is buying a drink, going to a football game or taking a bus. Users swipe their mobile phone at dedicated terminals or readers, making shopping, commuting or entering buildings simpler, safer and more convenient.

Scheduled to commence in early 2008, NFC-equipped mobile handsets will be supplied to selected MCFC season ticket holders, replacing their existing contactless cards. The football stadium trial will be the first NFC trial undertaken with Orange UK customers, closely followed by a new transport ticketing and information trial with Reading Buses.

"As the first English football club to introduce contactless-based ticketing four years ago, we're pleased to be working with Orange in driving this next technology breakthrough," explains Duncan Martin, head of retail, Manchester City Football Club. "Mobile contactless services will offer many advantages to our fans, including loyalty schemes and discount vouchers."

Duncan adds, "NFC technology also allows us to build a closer affinity with fans and offer them more than just football. By linking this technology to our customer database, we will use this valuable trial data to analyse customer demand, create more targeted campaigns for our most loyal fans and tackle wider issues such as ticket touting and crowd security. The net result will be a much richer matchday experience for our fans."

www.orange-ftgroup.com

Wicked Uncle automates consumer product ratings

Wicked Uncle, the online retailer, (www.wickeduncle.com) has gone live with a new service from eDigitalResearch to manage consumer-generated feedback. The eProductRating service will enable Wicked Uncle to collate and display direct customer opinions and feedback on its products and quality of its services.

Wicked Uncle proactively researches the latest and most popular children's toys and pre-selects groups of recommended gifts according to age range and gender. Wicked Uncle specifically does not simply provide the latest craze or fad and instead aims to constantly research upcoming alternative gifts, commonly from smaller specialist manufacturers. This inherently makes customer feedback on the proposed selections invaluable.

eProductRating provides a forum for visitors to appraise products and service, thereby giving online retailers crucial insight into their customers' opinions and allowing them to ensure that their product ranges are fresh and appropriate to their target audience.

Michael O'Shea, Wicked Uncle's founder, says, "Our unique sales proposition is that we provide a tailored service for our customers that recommends appropriate gifts for children according to their age and sex, so interaction with our customer base is vital. The advantage that eProductRating gives us is that we are given excellent feedback directly from our customers, and this feedback is also translated into clearly displayed information for our visitors, which gives them more confidence in their purchasing decisions. No matter what marketing we did, it would not be as trusted as honest reviews by customers for customers."

eProductRating is a Web 2.0-based solution from eDigitalResearch for gathering interactive content from the customer that can be formatted so that it is displayed as a seemingly integral part of the client site. It provides automated 'star' ratings and moderated results which are collected for automatic analysis within the eDigitalResearch reporting system, which can then be fed to the product teams.

O'Shea continues, "Previously we used to rely on customers having to actively seek out feedback methods, primarily through standard email, which naturally diminished the response rate. Now however, the ease of use of this interactive and recognisable system has given us unprecedented feedback rates that not only inform us but also serve as candid marketing material."

www.eDigitalResearch.com

Retailers fail to provide returns instructions

Many online retailers are failing to provide customers with information on returning unwanted goods, according to Snow Valley's Online Returns & Refunds report.

26% of the retailers assessed in the report enclosed no returns instructions at all with their order and only a third had a link on their home page containing the word 'return'.

However, the report also found that once the goods had been sent back, 90% of the retailers were able to process the return and refund without further action from the customer. Half of the refunds were made within 2 working days.

The Online Returns & Refunds 2007 report put 70 UK retailers to the test. Goods were bought from each website and then returned by post, store or courier.

Carlo Rimini, managing director of Snow Valley said, "Our research shows that there are 3 types of retailer when it comes to returns. There is a 'hassle free and proud of it' set like Boden that actively promote their returns policy to attract new customers. Then there are the retailers like Amazon that keep relatively quiet about returns but once the customer puts the wheels in motion they're very efficient. And lastly, there's a group that seems to actively try and make returns difficult for the customer."

"Poorly managed returns will undoubtedly impact customer satisfaction and loyalty - even if a retailer chooses not to promote 'hassle-free returns' they really must be geared up to deliver a dependable service. The fact that 11% of the retailers this year had customer-facing returns management systems in place, where the customer logs the return before sending the goods back, shows that retailers are focused on improving the processing of returns and refunds."

The full report is available on Snow Valley's website: www.snowvalley.com/report

Threshers Group provides bill payment service

Threshers has entered a five year agreement with retail bill payment network provider PayPoint to supply a full range of bill payment services to, potentially, the entire Threshers 1700 store estate nationwide. Threshers Group incorporates the brands of Threshers, The Local, Wine Rack and Haddows in Scotland.

The PayPoint service is predominately in the Threshers Local branded stores as part of the increased convenience offering. The PayPoint terminal is currently sited at over 300 stores and there is potential for a complete roll out to all 720 Threshers Local stores.

Alun Johnson, Threshers group's operations director said: "With over 50% of the UK population being within a 10 minute walk from a Threshers Group store, the further installation of PayPoint terminals into our sites will be a huge benefit to the local communities who shop in our stores. With our expansion plans into the convenience sector, we see PayPoint as the ideal partner to work with."

Mike Igoe, PayPoint retail director commented: "We are delighted to be associated with the Threshers Group for the next five years and look forward to furthering the strong trading relationship we have established. Working together with Threshers we will be selecting the best outlets from their well known high street stores to compliment the current PayPoint network."

www.paypoint.co.uk