MobilePawn Mania: Full Webinar, Transcript, and Chapters

MobilePawn Webinar Introduction0:06

Rachel Monean: You are awesome. All righty, well, welcome, everyone. My name is Rachel Monean. I'm the Director of Marketing here at Bravo, and I've got Christy here with me today, our Chief of Staff and resident MobilePawn expert. We'll be recording today's session, and we'll send it to you after, along with some resources. If you have any questions while we're working through this, please feel free to chime in in the chat. We'll keep an eye on it while we're working through everything.

Rachel Monean: We're excited to share with y'all MobilePawn Mania and how you can utilize all the features MobilePawn has, and the resources that are part of MobilePawn, to really help grow your business. Today we'll cover the basics of MobilePawn, the latest innovations that we've come out with over the past year or so, how you can leverage the app to get the most out of it, and the resources available to use associated with MobilePawn.

MobilePawn Basics and Results1:13

Rachel Monean: So, the basics. What the heck is MobilePawn? It's a Bravo-exclusive app that allows your customers to find your store, shop your inventory, chat with your store, initiate loans, and make loan and layaway payments without having to come into the store.

Rachel Monean: MobilePawn allows you to expand your reach, attract and retain new customers, drive growth without piling on costs and adding more bodies to your store, and stay ahead of your competition, because having MobilePawn is a big differentiator.

Christy: Probably one of the most exciting things I look forward to every January is running the numbers to see how these products actually help our customers and what direct impact they actually have. Watching MobilePawn numbers grow throughout the past four years we've been tracking it has been awesome. Every year, year over year, it continues to outperform itself.

Christy: We look at all of the Bravo customers who have been on our platform for one year, and specific to MobilePawn, they had to have taken in at least 50 payments. Then we compare those customers against customers who don't have MobilePawn. The result is that MobilePawn users process more transactions. They collect up to 50% of their payments through MobilePawn.

Christy: MobilePawn users actually increased their loan balances by $70,000, where customers who didn't have MobilePawn last year had flat loan balances. That is a big difference between being flat and having an extra 70 grand loaned out. MobilePawn users, on average, also sold a lot more inventory because of the shopping within the app. The number one thing customers do after they make a payment is go shopping.

Christy: Consumers last year saved about 1.3 million hours in drive time, assuming everybody who made a payment drives 20 minutes to and from the pawn shop. That is 1.7 million gallons of gas and $26 million in gas and time combined, assuming they're making 15 bucks an hour. Beyond helping you, it is extremely convenient for your customers.

StoreFinder and MLA Loan Checks4:36

Rachel Monean: There are a lot of MobilePawn features that have been added that people don't necessarily know about or haven't had a chance to explore. We wanted to highlight some of those for you, ones that can benefit you and ones that can really benefit your customers as well.

Rachel Monean: First up, StoreFinder. StoreFinder is so customers can connect to stores near them. After connecting, customers can be added to your system automatically. They don't need an activation code from you or anything like that. We launched this in late February, and we've already had 12,000 customers added to Bravo users' stores since launching StoreFinder.

Christy: On the top left, I'm going to select the hamburger icon, then StoreFinder. I've allowed MobilePawn to geolocate me. Based on my location, Reno, Nevada, pawn shops closest to me pop up first, followed by distances away. You can also put in your ZIP code, select search, and pawn shops within that ZIP code start showing up.

Rachel Monean: These are shops that have MobilePawn. If you don't have MobilePawn, you won't show up in this list. Twelve thousand customers have been connected to stores since we launched this three months ago.

Rachel Monean: Next, MLA check. This prompts users to come into the store to make changes to their loan if their status has changed since they initially got the loan.

Christy: When a customer selects My Pawns and chooses to make a payment, they see the interest, any fees due, and amount to pay. If they select that they are an active-duty military service member or the spouse of one, then choose checkout, Bravo stops them and says, "Please come in and visit in person so that we can help you with your MLA loan."

Christy: This is to help you so that customers who are not qualified do not suddenly become qualified in MobilePawn and have their interest rate drop down to 3% per month. We prompt the customer to come in. If they make a payment without that box checked, they are allowed to proceed forward.

Multi Store Switching and Customer Support8:42

Rachel Monean: The next thing we're going to show is pawn shop swap. Customers can now switch between stores. If they're customers at multiple pawn shops on Bravo, they can swap between stores in MobilePawn, which means they can make payments, shop inventory, belong to multiple stores, and switch between them easily.

Christy: In the hamburger menu, fourth from the bottom is Pawn Shops. Right now, I am on the Bravo test store production. Let's say I want to switch over to Capital Pawn and shop their handbags. Now I'm in their company-branded website shopping their handbags. If I don't find what I'm looking for, I can go back to Pawn Shops, switch to the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop, and shop all of their inventory. You can make payments at every location.

Rachel Monean: The final thing to demo today is customer support. Customers using MobilePawn can now go into MobilePawn and open a support ticket. It opens a support ticket for the Bravo support team, the same as when you open a support ticket with us.

Christy: This was direct feedback from the MobilePawn user groups last year. Stores were getting a lot of calls from customers and could not help them out, or did not even know what the problem was. We added support right into the app.

Christy: In the hamburger menu, scroll down to Help FAQ. The top button is Request Help. We also included frequently asked questions so customers can self-serve if their issue matches one of those. Otherwise, they select Request Help, choose from the most popular subjects or help reasons, describe their problem, hit done, and submit. That ticket is directly sent to our support team, where they will reach out and help your customer.

Marketing and Inventory Opportunities13:01

Christy: With StoreFinder, instead of putting in a ZIP code, customers can enter a store code. This is your six-digit store code that identifies who you are in our system. You can share it with customers in advertising, whether that's radio, print, or whatever you're doing. If you don't know your six-digit code, give us a call and we'll give it to you.

Christy: Customers can enter your six-digit code, and it will only display your store in Pawn Shop Finder. This allows you to directly market to the customer, encouraging them to download the app and connect directly to your store.

Christy: If they don't have a loan or layaway, they're now connected to your store and they're a customer in your store. They can shop your store and chat with you. What we're seeing a huge adoption rate in with MobilePawn consumers is the Sell, Borrow, Quote. They can take pictures of items they might want to get a loan or a buy on and submit them directly through the app. Consumers are crazy for it. They really like it. What we actually need is more pawnbrokers to start adopting this technology.

Christy: All of the items you're listing on your company-branded site are going into the shopping button. When we're tracking how consumers interact with the app, we're finding the thing they're doing after they make any payment is they start shopping your store. It doesn't necessarily result in online purchases, but it does result in more in-store purchases. They're finding the items and then going into your stores and making those purchases.

Christy: Sell, Borrow, Quote is about disrupting peer-to-peer selling, especially with Facebook Marketplace. It is the perfect opportunity to get in there. I'm not going to a parking lot to meet somebody to sell anything, and I'm not inviting them to my house, but I'll walk down to a shop or drive to any pawn shop where I can get immediate cash in a safe environment.

Customer Invitations and Store Resources16:57

Rachel Monean: Another powerful way to leverage MobilePawn is that Bravo will send your customers invites to MobilePawn if you request it. We send them that initial text to get them to download the app at no cost to you. Bravo foots the bill for that initial text to get them engaged in the app, making remote payments, and using the app.

Rachel Monean: Last year around this time, we mailed out in-store marketing toolkits. That includes stickers, display case cards, counter displays, flyers, and posters. We sent those out to everyone who had MobilePawn activated at the time, and I send them out monthly to everyone who has activated since then.

Rachel Monean: This is a great way to encourage customers to download the app while they're in your store and put items on layaway while they're there. These are free resources. I'll also be sending the files if you want to print them again. You can send them to your local printer, and they're print-ready files. We also have retractable banner files available, including a design where you can put your logo at the top to brand MobilePawn with your store.

Rachel Monean: If you follow Rick Harrison of Gold and Silver Pawn and Pawn Stars fame, he has a very large social media following. His store uses MobilePawn, and we got him on video talking about how much he, his team, and his customers love MobilePawn. Every time he shares those messages, we see an uptick in MobilePawn downloads. Feel free to share those posts from his channels on your own store's social pages.

Push Notifications and Mobile Marketing19:53

Rachel Monean: The last part of resources is push notifications. Text messaging is getting more and more restrictive. It's harder to send text messages and harder to get everything worded correctly. Push notifications with MobilePawn are a great way to message your customers without those restrictions.

Rachel Monean: We also send out free payment reminders via MobilePawn. Custom push notifications are two cents per notification, versus seven cents for a text message, so it is lower cost. There are no content restrictions, so you can talk about guns and loans and not have your text flagged.

Rachel Monean: We also have a webinar coming up in a few weeks about mobile marketing, push notifications and SMS texts with Bravo, how to send them out easily, who you should be sending them to, and how you can leverage the data in Bravo to make those messages effective.

Sell Borrow Quote Demonstration21:32

Christy: In MobilePawn, I'm the customer and I want to submit an item. Let's say I want to sell it, so I'm going to select the Sell, Borrow, Quote option and choose sell. First thing, it is going to pop up my camera. I'm going to sell this Chanel handbag. I pick one to three pictures that I want and choose next.

Christy: It geolocates me. If you are a multi-store location, it is going to connect your customer to the location nearest them. I enter what I'm selling, which is a handbag, enter a price of $500, choose the category, add a description, select the store, and post.

Christy: You're immediately notified in Bravo Shopkeeper. When I go into Buy, Loan, and Quote, there is the item we just submitted. At this point, we can see where the customer is located. At the bottom, there is Accept or Decline, and in the middle there is Send Message or Chat. Perhaps we want to ask more questions or get pictures of the inside of the bag or the stamp. We can message back and forth with the customer, and that is immediate.

Christy: I'm going to choose Accept. It doesn't lock in the loan. Let's say it does come in and it is just not in the same condition. It doesn't mean you can't negotiate. There is nothing locking you in to buying this bag for $500. When you choose Accept, it moves the item in Bravo Shopkeeper to accepted items. You can also scroll through and see everything that's been completed, including items people submitted that were brought in for a loan or purchased, or items that were declined.

Christy: Back at MobilePawn, the customer has been informed. When they walk in your store, they pop up this barcode, and you're going to scan this barcode into Bravo's Smart Search. It automatically brings in the customer, their information, images of the item, and the dollar amount you all agreed upon. It makes it really fast, customers in and out the door in no time at all.

Christy: MobilePawn consumers are submitting thousands of items every month. What we want on the other side is you guys to start looking at them, accepting them, and chatting with them. These are customers who want to come into your store. Some of them might have never taken a step in a pawn shop before. This helps them get that first foot in the door.

Sending Firearm Push Notifications27:14

Rachel Monean: Billy asked if he can send a MobilePawn text and talk about firearms. Yes, you can send a push notification through the app and talk about firearms without the restrictions, without dealing with the headaches. Text messages are getting more and more restricted, so having this app established as a channel of communication with your customers gives you one more avenue to talk easily back and forth with them.

Christy: In Bravo, go under Customers and choose Schedule Mobile Event, then Add Event. It comes down to Custom, where you can name your event. The important piece is the dropdown. Auto means first we're going to send it to your MobilePawn customers. If they're not a MobilePawn customer, then we'll send it SMS, and those would be restricted.

Christy: To make sure you have no restrictions on these messages, drop all the way down to MobilePawn. Now you can talk about firearms and loans. Just make sure it is set to MobilePawn. If you accidentally leave it at Auto, the messages are not going to go through because we will stop them with our word blocker.

Webinar Closing29:35

Rachel Monean: We wanted this to be a quick session. If y'all have any questions, feel free to send them my or Christy's way. hello@bravosystems.com is a great email to reach all of us. I'll be sending out all the resources we talked about, as well as the recording of this webinar, later on this week.

Rachel Monean: Thank you all so much for joining us. Thank you for supporting MobilePawn and being great users of it. We're excited to see the growth that's happening on the customer side, too. Twelve thousand just since February is huge, just in StoreFinder. Thank you all so much for being with us. We hope you all have a great rest of your day.