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Starbucks’ mobile app: Creating a venti impact in customer loyalty
Katherine Radin RetailStarbucks may have been ahead of its time in 2008 when it introduced its Starbucks Card rewards program. Encouraging coffee enthusiasts to register for a "frequent buyer" card, fans of the coffee chain found themselves drinking their way from Welcome Level through to Gold Level status. As smartphone technology improved over the years, the loyalty program went hand-in-hand with Starbucks’ mobile app and mobile ordering system. What was originally seen as a form of convenience is now inspiring retailers to hop aboard the mobile loyalty program train.
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Unsafe firms imperil US workers, occupational safety group report says
Seth Sandronsky Facilities & GroundsEmployers can and should do a better job of ensuring U.S. worker safety, according to a new report from the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (NCOSH). Titled "The Dirty Dozen," it details how 12 firms put workers and communities at risk with unsafe labor practices. The report marks Workers’ Memorial Week, which honors Americans who have died and suffered injuries and illnesses on the job. "Too many workers become ill, injured and die each year under the watch of their employers who, in some cases, are repeat offenders and among the world’s most profitable companies," said Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, co-executive director of NCOSH.
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Are restaurant owners, managers, and consumers on the same page when it…
Linchi Kwok Food & BeverageSome big restaurant chains, such as Starbucks and McDonald's, have already taken action in responding to sustainable trends in the industry, even though a study from 2016 suggests that consumers might not want to make a concerted effort themselves to eat at a green restaurant. Do owners, managers, and consumers think alike when it comes to the green attributes that matter the most to the restaurant business? With several questions in mind, I helped conduct a study where we asked 386 consumers, 115 restaurant managers, and 80 owners in the United States to rate the importance of 12 green practices that a restaurant can undertake.
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Is Twitter still popular, relevant, or worth it for businesses?
Emma Fitzpatrick MarketingMost marketers rely on the big three social platforms to connect, engage and inform their followers. For B2C marketers, 97% used Facebook, 65% used Twitter, and 60% used Instagram, according to 2018 Statista data. For B2B, 89% used Facebook, 81% used LinkedIn, and 75% used Twitter. For years, Twitter has consistently ranked among brands’ go-to destinations for social media platforms. But did you know Twitter has 32% fewer daily active users (126 million) than Snapchat (186 million)?
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How to optimize your webpages for voice search
Emily Johnson CommunicationsVoice search is not merely a passing trend. It has now gained wide popularity, as it is more convenient for many users to speak with an assistant than to type. To keep up with this change, search engine giants like Google and Bing are moving towards semantic analyses and natural language processing from a keyword-centric approach. That means voice search is already a part of key search results. To stay ahead of the competition, make sure your webpages are voice-search optimized with these eight tips.
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Business lessons learned from the Boston Marathon
Roberta Matuson Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementEarlier this week, I had the opportunity to watch the Boston Marathon. If you've haven't seen this race, which happens to be the oldest marathon in the U.S., I'd encourage you to do so. It's quite a sight to behold. Here are some of my key takeaways from the race that can apply to business.
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Are you measuring the right things?
Linda Popky Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementThe good news about today's technology-enabled world is that we have the ability to measure just about anything. And the bad news is that in today’s technology-enabled world, we have the ability to measure just about anything. We are literally drowning in data points — some of them more useful than others, but all of them screaming for our attention. How do you determine on which measurements to focus? Here's the key point to remember: What gets measured gets managed.
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Study: Teeth whitening products may do more harm than good
Tammy Hinojos Oral & Dental HealthcareHome teeth whitening kits are a popular and easy way to brighten your smile. You can buy a variety of teeth whitening strips at the grocery store and you can get more potent, faster-working formulations from your dentist. You place the strips over your teeth and leave them in place for a few hours. A few days or weeks later? Voila! Brighter, whiter choppers. Americans spend more than a billion dollars a year on these teeth whitening products. But a new study shows that while these products do whiten teeth, they may also be damaging them.
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Travel2020: 9 travel gadgets you never knew you needed
Lark Gould Travel, Hospitality & Event ManagementThis year’s Travel Goods Show in Las Vegas brought forth plenty of new luggage, carry-on solutions, and novel ways to rest on a plane. But the show, which brings together buyers and manufacturers in this $31.1 billion market, also highlighted solutions for things not always identified as problems. Some useful, if not quirky, innovations surfaced that deserve their moment in the spotlight, even if that light is a dim beam streaming from a ceiling panel on a plane.
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What’s next as Department of Defense inches forward on commissary…
Miranda Y. Brumbaugh Law Enforcement, Defense & SecurityOn July 1, 2018, then-Deputy Secretary of Defense and current Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan signed legislation for a task force established to determine if the consolidation of four major entities in the commissary divisions of the military would be worth it. The task force, headed by retired Army Maj. Gen. Keith Thurgood, has completed a major report detailing its analysis. The proposed consolidation of commissaries could bring about major changes for active military and veterans alike.
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