Using Foursquare, Todd has checked-in to his local Publix 33 times, without hearing a peep from them. He will blog after every check-in until he gets some form of acknowledgment. In the meantime, he will offer some ideas free of charge. Join the Watch!
It was just shy of 10:00PM, and I had a serious jonesing for some Greek Vanilla yogurt. So, what did I do? I hopped in the car and ran over to my Publix, which is literally sixty seconds from my house.
It was just after 10:00PM when I arrived tonight. The store was nearly empty. Just a few other souls wandering like me. And then I realized, they weren't wandering like me. They were at Publix after 10:00PM. Like me, they were on a mission.
In fact, there were more employees than customers. It is actually a cool time to be in this Publix. I live in classic Suburbia, and this store is sandwiched between several large neighborhoods. This, of course, means that from about 4:30PM to 7:30PM, there are roughly 42,500 people in this store. One of life's biggest mysteries is why I always end up there at the same time as everyone else...
Anyways, if I am store management, why not attempt to drive traffic to the later, slower, wee hours? Perhaps this strategy can help relieve some of the pressure from the very busy rush-hour madness. See, the thing is, geolocation tools like Foursquare and Gowalla can also be strategically used to impact the timing of your customer interactions.
Todd's FREE Publix Foursquare Idea: Incent your customers to come during the slower, wee hours. You know they are buying, and you know they are probably there for a specific reason. Why not reward ALL customers who check-in after 9:00PM with 5% off? Dudes like me might be going to purchase Greek yogurt, but with a little incentive, perhaps I might buy some coffee creamer. And some Oreos...
What do you think? Got any cool 'Foursquare" ideas for Publix you want to share?