Barouch’s startup conducted a study across 60 Starbucks stores across Australia, the US, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia over the past 24 months. Ten stores were studied in prominent cities in each country. By identifying location data embedded within publicly available social content, Local Measure was able to identify unique insights, images posted by customers and comments about their experience in Starbucks.
The inaugural social index was conducted by Local Measure following its recent expansion into Asia. Barouch says indices like this can help brands gain a competitive edge in analysing conversations in real-time. “There is an increasing need for businesses to mine social data that can be drawn from real-time, social media platforms to gain insights from a business premises,” he said.
Speaking at ad:tech Singapore on Friday, Barouch said there were 209,200 posts and check-ins by Malaysians. Smartphone users in Philippines were also active, with 188,200 posts and check-ins. Singaporeans and Australians emerged as the least active, with just 68,420 and 40,986 actions, respectively.
Barouch said his enterprise can give bricks-and-mortar businesses an Amazon-like data analysis. “With Local Measure, retailers can now use this feedback to improve their customer service and make changes to their products or services accordingly,” he said.
Other findings from Local Measure revealed that nearly 93 per cent of all social-media posts within and about Starbucks in Singapore tend to be check-ins. The busiest Starbucks store for Singapore was Liat Towers with 1,906 posts and more than 15,947 check-ins over the two year period. The busiest month for Singapore was March 2013 with more than 423 social posts.
Barouch said geo data plays a key role in enabling retailers to build a rapport with “super customers”—those who are not only repeat customers but also share their experiences with social followers. Brands can identify and reward these customers for their patronage by creating a deeper relationship with them.
He said the missing piece in the social-media puzzle is bridging the gap between social and offline behaviour. "Too few business can match their CRM to social profiles, and brands need to ask and incentivise customers to connect social profiles to their website and loyalty programs."
