Turnstyle develops a range of social Wi-Fi, location-based marketing, reporting and analytics solutions for the offline retail market, designed to automate customer interactions and marketing campaigns through value-added in-store services.
According to Xpertek Contact MD Chris Cochrane, the partnership will appeal to retailers looking to leverage their investment in free Wi-Fi services for in-store customers, combining Xpertek's local market knowledge with Turnstyle's proven technology.
"The deployment and expansion of Wi-Fi networks in South Africa is at an all-time high," says Cochrane. "That said, free Wi-Fi providers are struggling to monetise their service and achieve a measurable return on investment.
"Working with Turnstyle we can offer our customers an immediate and effective solution to this challenge, which, when combined with our own existing customer touch point solutions, enhance the customer experience while generating valuable and actionable marketing data for retailers."
Turnstyle CEO and founder Devon Wright says Xpertek is the ideal partner to bring the Turnstyle brand and solutions to the southern African market.
"We were struck by Xpertek's insightful industry knowledge of the local market," notes Wright.
"Our mission is to give customers the experience they deserve while providing retailers with a comprehensive view of how their customers engage their services online and in-store. Our success therefore greatly depends on understanding retail and customer dynamics in the regions we operate in, so having a partner like Xpertek openly share its market knowledge and impressive go-to-market models was a critical step to doing business here."
Turnstyle helps retailers gather information on their customers' behaviour, shopping habits and in-store and online activities in order to answer critical marketing questions such as:
"Customers tend to expect free Wi-Fi when they visit certain retail establishments," says Cochrane. "As it stands, providing this service does little more than add to the cost of doing business. Using Turnstyle's public Wi-Fi Software as a service solution, however, we can now tie-in Wi-Fi access with customers' social media portals (such as Facebook and Twitter), giving our retail customers a means of gathering valuable marketing information with consent."
In doing so, retailers can tie-in their Wi-Fi services to a customer's physical location, allowing them to, for example, generate customer contact lists for marketing purposes, automatically post social media 'check-ins' to increase brand presence, and recommend products and promotions based on the customer's online behaviour.
"The rapid expansion of smart device use in the region has resulted in an exponential increase in demand for anywhere, anytime Wi-Fi access. This in turn creates opportunities for smart retailers to take advantage of social Wi-Fi, location-based marketing and presence analytics solutions to markedly improve their competitive advantage and brand appeal," concludes Cochrane.
Chris Cochrane / Managing Consultant / Xpertek Contact / www.xpertekcontact.co.za / +27 82 491 5409 / az.oc.ketrepx@enarhcoc.sirhc
Devon Wright / CEO & Founder / Turnstyle Solutions / +1 (647) 965-3386
Karen Heydenrych / Communikay / +27 83 302 9494 / az.oc.yakinummoc@neraK
