When people think of Michigan, they think of Detroit. The Motor City. We’re known for the auto industry. And while GM is back on the rise, most people outside of the state don’t realize that Michigan is home to some of the most innovative, influential and entrepreneurial minds.
Now, we don’t have a San Francisco, but with Twitter opening an office in Detroit and Quicken Loans CEO Dan Gilbert snatching up property, the city and the state are poised to become a hub of tech innovation.
Not far outside of Detroit is the University of Michigan and its had a recent string of outstanding young entrepreneurial innovators. As I was writing my first post about the student-centric professional network truApp, I stopped into one of my favorite restaurants to get a bite to eat. It was there that I discovered another innovative product out of Ann Arbor: FlockTAG.
What is FlockTAG? I’ll let them explain it.
“FlockTAG is a universal loyalty card network that brings new advantages to 
independent neighborhood businesses.
By blending smart cards, smartphones, and smart software and data, FlockTAG offers local business owners a better way to attract new customers and reward loyalty. With FlockTAG’s unique collaborative commerce network, your business can better compete with larger chains.
Finally, a loyalty program that makes the most cents for you and your customers.”
Coolness. I was in just up I-96 in East Lansing and I was curious as to how many other places were using this. As it turns out, FlockTAG, like truApp, is making its way around both Ann Arbor and East Lansing.
FlockTAG’s website refers to it as “collaborative commerce”, and when I spoke to co-creator David Lin, he explained it in a little more detail.
“FlockTAG was created as a marketing platform for local businesses. They work closely to one another, but very often don’t have time to market their own businesses. We wanted to help.”
While Lin was understandably mum on specific technical information, he did tell me that they are currently testing lots of new features that will help businesses grow. In its current state, here’s how it works:
- The customer gets and registers a card, good at any location using FlockTAG
- The customer uses the card at all participating locations to rack up “tags” and rewards
- The customer keeps track of their account details on a mobile app
- And if the customer ever loses their card, no worries! All of their purchases and information are kept electronically, so they can get a new one and be on their way.
So that’s great for the customer and all, but how does it help businesses?
For one thing it saves cost on paper. FlockTAG is available for a monthly subscription that includes the kiosk (an Android tablet was what I saw), software, card reader and cards. Businesses will also benefit because they can customize the parameters of their rewards program. And once this catches on with a block of local businesses, customers will no doubt love the convenience of having one card to keep track of their rewards for all of their favorite places. And you don’t want to be left in the dust, right? Do yourself a favor and get FlockTAG now.
Do you use FlockTAG? Are you a customer or business owner? What do you think? Let’s chat in the comments.
Brandon Manson 