The other day we were looking to see whether there was an App from Keurig; and we couldn’t find one – at least not for our trusty iPhone. Perhaps Keurig has missed a trick here, as we found one for Starbucks, Costa, Pacific Coffee, Nespresso and a number of other coffee houses and cafe chains.
We were a little surprised there wasn’t an App available. A company that turns over $3.4 billion a year and doesn’t have an app for its customers to interact with it? hmmm …. we wonder why that is.
So what could they do with an App; how could it be used as part of the company’s marketing efforts. Well, looking at what others were doing with their presence in the app store, there seems to be three main functions served; we’ll look at each in turn.
First, an app could provide an easy means for a Keurig Customers to purchase their favorite K-Cups. A customer could select from a scroll down menu, or from a previous saved order, selected favorites or by using their phone’s camera and a scan of the bar code from the pod itself or the box it came in, and thereby bringing up the desired selection. This type of functionality would be particularly useful for Keurig and consistent with their attempts to strengthen the direct marketing and supply channel of their customers using only their K-cups rather than going to third party providers. In addition this approach would provide convenience for their customers; the ability to order quickly and simply while on the move to us would be a nice service to have. And would keep Keurig on their toes when it comes to being competitive on price. If they can’t bring the benefits of bulk discounting then who can?
Second, the provision of detailed information about their Brewers and coffee range would provide their customers with details at their finger tips. So for example, if out and about and thinking about upgrading your brewer and you wanted more information about a specific machine or a comparison between several, an app could provide this information easily and quickly. From our experience, not all staff at outlets where Keurig Brewers are sold have a good knowledge of the machines and the ability to compare and contrast the different models. Keurig in effect could provide that more detailed information straight away, helping their customers make the right choice.
And lastly, an app could be used as a general portal to the firm’s main website where much more detailed information can be found. So in addition to purchase and product information mentioned above, the app could provide easy contact details to their customer service and then links to details such as warranty coverage, return policies and even downloadable manuals and care guides.
We would develop this app for them, but we suspect this wouldn’t go down well. We had to change domain names a while ago because Keurig wasn’t happy; and this is despite many sites still using Keurig trademarked names in their URLs.