Cineworld's Failure @ CRM

One key factor that companies should have in their Marketing Strategy on how they will gain competitive advantage, is how they plan to enhance their customer's experience.  Take the example  of Cineworld Movie Theatre, they offer customers unlimited viewing of movies for flat monthly rate.  When this was first launched, Cineworld was the only movie theatre in the area that offered this service so they had the competitive advantage over their competitors.

 As you could imagine this would soon change and the other cinemas would also adapt a similar movie watcher's club.  If you are a  Cineworld customer and have been to the cinema's lately, you would notice that after each movie preview, there's an advert to promoting membership for their unlimited card.  It is quite evident that the company's current strategy is to focus on boosting unlimited card membership as this would provide a constant review stream and help increase their profit margins.  A customer who signs up as a Cineworld card holder is locked in to a contract for a 12 month period.  If you typically go to the cinema at least 3x a month, then you would have gotten your money's worth for the membership.  The company would then also have customers locked in to their cinema vs their competitors.  Using myself as an example, whenever I go out with my friends to watch a movie, my only criteria is that we go to Cineworld.  This is because I refuse to pay for a movie ticket else where when I've got a monthly membership with Cineworld.  From that aspect the card is a wonderful things so this blog is not about the concept of the card, I am supporter of the programme.  It's the behind the scenes aspect that this blog focuses on.

There is no added value in having the card other than you can get unlimited movies, to some customers, this might be enough, but to others it is quite far from enough.  Take for example AMC vs. Cineworld,  AMC have rolled out a movie watcher's club to compete against the unlimited card offered by Cineworld, but AMC have been offering their users perks under their moviewatcher's club programme for quite some time.  The card was aimed at offering customers who regularly visit the cinema perks to entice them to visit the overpriced concession stand. See what these companies fail to realise is that there is a "movie watcher's experience" that plays into the whole reason why people go to the cinemas versus watching movies at home.  For instance, Cineworld changed their tickets to a new flimsy paper and I was totally devastated.  The guy at the check point rips it in half without a care in the world and no clue as to how he destroyed a little bit of my movie watching experience.  The little things in every relationship matters -- personal and business the common denominator is that you are interacting with people.

So what do people want to keep that spark alive in the customer relationship between Cineworld and their customers, i.e - me?  I would like for this company to start understanding what's important to me as their VIP customer.

As a loyal Cineworld customer for the past three years and a budding Marketeer, I've decided to request a meeting with the manager at my local Cineworld to raise my concerns about their CRM strategy.  Now I did not expect her to do much other than when there is a conversation with her higher up regarding their objectives with gaining more unlimited card members, for her to recall my comments to say that a customer actually went out of her way to meet her to raise some concerns that they should and could be doing more.
The take away from the meeting is that there's definitely some things in the pipeline regarding how the unlimited movie watcher card (duh, there's an advert after every preview pushing the join now message down our throats) so basically she said to watch this space and we'd loooove to hear from you when we've made the implementations (really so you'll call me by mysteriously using high tech tracking to find out how to reach me-- don't make me laugh).

So here's what I am going to do.  I am typing this lovely blog (as required for my Digital Marketing assignment) and will discuss the CRM strategy (as required for my Customer Relationship Management course) and send a link to Marketing team at Cineworld who I hope is scouring the internet to keep abreast with the online chatter about their brand -- watch this space for an update.

As Nic always says, think about the Customer's Journey!  So let's look at some loop holes that could use some attention (there are others that I am not going to go too in-depth into - knowledge is power and also not free).

1) Ease of Use
An unlimited card holder is quite limited with their options to purchase their movie tickets compared to a regular customer.  An unlimited card person cannot purchase their tickets through any other means other than the on site agents in which they must stand in a long line (depending on the time of day) to get served.   The kiosk machines, internet or even a phone app option to purchase is not feasible for the (why are we being punished) unlimited card holders.

Taking myself as an example, I am always going to movies on a spur of the moment and have often times bought my tickets after the actual scheduled time for the movie.  This data would be very useful to offer a solution to enhance my buying experience by offering a quicker check in option.  

2) VIP Treatment 

AMC offers.

Secondly, personalization is also important.  When I go to the desk, how difficult is it for the staff to use the person's name (it's not like they don't have the information - if it is not on the screen it is on the card).  People want to feel special.  

3) Waste of Data 

Cineworld should have at their fingertips what type of movies each customer typically likes to watch and should be able to create some marketing targeted to the customer and their likes. The company could have also developed a swipe system to log what type of foods were being purchased at the concession stand (guess no one thought of that and it's all about making the quick buck today -- get the transaction over with and forget about the relationship).

The theatre doesn't even track how frequent a customer visits the cinemas, well if they do, they have failed to use the data for the benefit of the customer which is once again the transactional point of view --- as long as that check clears for the £14 a month, who cares if they come or not.  See someone in the marketing team should start raising the point that we should care because this risks cancellations.  What are these customers now doing why they aren't coming?

Take myself as an example, I have not been to the movies in several months and each month that I have not attended, I've looked at my bank statement and considered contacting them to cancel my membership.  In fact, it would be 2 memberships because I pay for my little sister's movie card as well.  Basically, I have gotten to the point where I found the value of the card decrease and my £30 a month could be better spent else where.  

So many brands focus on customer acquisition, but forget to tighten up their customer retention process as well.  Its like filling your hands with sand and the sand is slowing seeping out through the cracks.  So whilst Cineworld focuses on gaining more customers on their unlimited card programme, I hope that their Marketing team also have taken into account a strategy to enhance the customer's experience by reviewing each element of the customer's journey within their customer relationship module and stop wasting valuable data.