The San Francisco Giants will try to increase fan loyalty and retention through a new online CRM program named the Pacific Bell Giants Rewards Club.
Fans who sign up at the Major League Baseball team's Web site, sfgiants.com, are enrolled in a loyalty program that rewards them with points toward prize drawings and game tickets. Pacific Bell, which owns the naming rights to the Giants' ballpark, is sponsoring the program.
Each fan who signs up gets a personal page on the club Web site that lets them view and change personal information and preferences and keeps a record of every contact the fan has with the club.
For example, a fan who sent a question to the club and received a response but forgot it, could go to the personal Web page and review the answer. The page also keeps a record of special offers the fans receive through the Rewards Club so they can return and take advantage of them later.
“The more you can create a feeling of intimacy with a prospect, the more likely that prospect will become a purchase,” said Heidi Frail, director of sales for TouchScape, the company that designs and hosts the CRM system used in the program.
The database so far has collected 22,000 names. It can be segmented so Giants marketers can e-mail specific offers to selected club members. For example, an offer of a free baseball cap on “Kids Day” could be sent only to female club members with children living in Oakland, CA. The team is using the system to prepare an announcement about Bat-Boy Day at the ballpark.
Phoenix-based TouchScape offers the CRM service for $15,000 a year. The system can be online in two days to two weeks, depending on how complex the client wants it to be, Frail said.
