ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., April 20, 2023—SKUx, an innovative payments technology and consumer engagement platform, today launched SKUx Customer Care & Recovery—a trailblazing new way for companies to streamline and digitize their response to product recalls and individual customer complaints. SKUx Customer Care & Recovery radically cuts the time it takes for companies to distribute make-good offers and refunds, alleviates friction and logistical hassles, and dramatically improves the digital transformation experience to increase customer satisfaction and retention.
The new SKUx solution virtually eliminates fraud by making every offer response serialized and usable only once. Built on the company’s innovative and patented technology and consumer engagement platform, SKUx Customer Care & Recovery is an omnichannel solution that delivers payments directly to consumers via their mobile and computer devices for redemption in-store or online.
SKUx Customer Care & Recovery allows partners to respond to recalls and dissatisfied consumers instantly with serialized, trackable, digital payments to dramatically improve the customer experience while streamlining costly logistical fulfillment processes. The SKUx solution is already being used by a variety of major brand partners looking to advance their capacity to respond to customer needs. SKUx Customer Care & Recovery can also be integrated into leading CRM and customer experience platforms.
“SKUx is redefining the way brands acquire and retain customers by making digital mobile payments the new currency of promotions and customer care,” said Bobby Tinsley, co-founder and president of SKUx. “Our patented technology is bringing enormous new value to the entire retail value chain and is helping companies fast-track their digital transformation efforts. We are rapidly forging major partnerships across the retail and financial services ecosystem to ensure that digital mobile payments are the new standard for consumer engagement.”
The Consumer Care Challenge
Studies underscore the critical importance of improving customer care and experience in today’s increasingly digital marketplace. Some 80 percent of consumers say they have switched brands because of a poor customer experience1, and 92 percent are more likely to make another purchase after a positive customer service experience2. Some 74 percent consumers prefer digital payments over checks and cash3.
Meanwhile, product recalls are on the rise. According to the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), there were 292 product recalls announced by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission in 2022, an increase of 33 percent over 2021. Unfortunately, in most cases, reimbursement during a recall takes a month or more to complete, resulting in consumer frustration and customer churn.
“Consumer dissatisfaction and recalls around defective products and other problems are a major challenge for companies,” Tinsley said. “In today’s social media-driven world, a single disgruntled customer can cause real damage to a company’s reputation. In these situations, it’s paramount that companies respond quickly and decisively. SKUx Customer Care & Recovery provides the platform to make this happen.”
How It Works
SKUx Customer Care & Recovery scales to meet even the most massive digital disbursement challenges, such as major consumer product recalls, verifiably delivering the right offer or refund to the right customer at the right time with one-to-one precision. Customers can conveniently redeem any offer in-store or online as part of the normal payment process. Unlike coupons and vouchers, these digital disbursements can be redeemed only once. Merchants are reimbursed immediately as part of the daily payment processing and settlement process and no longer have to wait weeks or months for payment. Furthermore, all participants in the value chain have unparalleled visibility into redemptions and costs.
For individual or large-scale events, a company collects the email addresses or mobile phone numbers of impacted customers. Customers are then presented with a branded landing page to start the redemption process. The identity of each user is verified by device to ensure redemption is securely reaching the intended customer. Each consumer receives a virtual payment card with instructions on how to use it, including save to mobile wallet.
The SKUx platform requires no special integration by retailers or brands. It transforms promotions and customer care engagement into trusted single-use, serialized payments. Marketers have unparalleled and near immediate visibility into their campaigns, allowing them to optimize performance and manage their budgets.
1 (Qualtrics/ServiceNow, 2021)
2 (Salesforce, State of the Connected Customer 4th Ed)
3 (Onbe Future of Payments 2022 Report)