07 Mar Enterprise Radio: Simplifying Customer Loyalty with Ray Clopton of Wilbur
Originally published at epodcastnetwork.com.
Ray Clopton, President and CEO of Smart Transaction Systems (STS), a leading provider of innovative technology and accessible solutions for small businesses joins Enterprise Radio to discuss customer loyalty.
Listen to host Eric Dye & guest Ray Clopton discuss the following:
- What is Wilbur and what makes it different than the other loyalty programs out there?
- Why is Wilbur the ideal option for small business owners?
- What makes Wilbur effective for increasing customer loyalty?
- Data privacy is a huge concern among consumers these days. What kind of data does Wilbur collect from customers and how is that data used?
- What’s new in the world of customer loyalty programs?
- ”What trends are you seeing in customer loyalty programs? Anything new on the horizon in the year ahead?
As President and CEO of Smart Transaction Systems (STS), a leading provider of innovative technology and accessible solutions for small businesses, Ray Clopton is as devoted to building the small businesses his company serves as he is to the success of his own organization.
Clopton is a firm believer that every business should benefit every customer it serves, whether directly or indirectly, and his goal is to ensure each solution STS offers is easily understood, convenient and reliable.
His commitment to this mission led to the company’s latest big-business solution for small businesses: Wilbur, an ultra-simple, privacy-friendly loyalty rewards program built on 20 years of insights. Since its launch in 2018, the program has flown in the face of contemporary trends toward data collection and instead refuses to collect any customer data beyond a first name and phone number.
In April 2019, Wilbur sponsored a survey conducted by The Harris Poll regarding consumer sentiment regarding customer loyalty programs, the results of which were publicized in multiple niche media outlets including Retail Wire, Convenience Store Products, Loyalty 360, Customer Think, Specialty Food, Grocery Dive, and Pizza Magazine Quarterly.
Clopton is a leading payments industry and technology expert with more than 25 years of experience who has been a featured speaker at conferences and trade shows throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Prior to founding STS in 1998, he founded Clopton & Associates, a consulting firm that specialized in helping companies in the bankcard, healthcare and telecommunications industries bring new products to market. The firm’s clients included Visa, VeriFone and Merchant Link.
Today STS serves more than 11,000 merchants, providing them with access to technology, loyalty programs and distribution channels that help grow their businesses. As a result, STS simultaneously supports the local economies and communities in which each small business is located.
One of the company’s highly successful distribution channels is LocalGiftCards.com, a division of STS that makes it easy for customers to purchase email, mobile and physical gift cards from small businesses online. The division also enables merchants to sell gift cards on their websites and Facebook pages.
Another tool STS provides to help small businesses succeed is GiftCardSupplyStore.com, which provides promotional materials and display units that empower merchants to sell more in-store gift cards.
Clopton’s business management philosophy can best be summed up by this George S. Patton quote: “A good plan, executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.”
In his free time, Clopton enjoys traveling with his wife and dog — (yes, the dog is a surprisingly good traveler) — and working on the family’s property in the mountains of Colorado.