How a food business translates the one-to-one concept to work online

The 51-year-old Schwan Food Company, which today serves some 5 million households in the U.S., was built on one-to-one, personal interactions with its customers. So it faced a real challenge in adapting that model for the online world when it launched its b2c web channel, Schwans.com, in 1999. Just how Schwans.com met that challenge will be the focus of a roundtable presentation “Winning customer loyalty and achieving sales objectives through a multi-channel CRM strategy,” by director of Internet and advanced technology marketing, Glenn Bader, at the upcoming eTail 2004 conference.

Compared to face-to-face interaction, “The online space is by its very nature impersonal, so we had to counter that in translating our business online,” says Bader. Increasing personalization on the site, which offers premium frozen foods and meal solutions, was one factor in boosting online sales by 30% or more since a site re-launch last year, but Schwan’s multi-channel CRM strategy goes beyond what’s transacted online. “We use what we know about the customers to make every interaction relevant to them, whether it’s through web chat, a direct mail piece, e-mail campaign or the web site,” says Bader. “And all of that information feeds back to work together, whether it’s one of our route managers at the customer’s door with his handheld, knowing what the customer’s orders have been, or the web site speaking relevantly to each customer.”