Customer Favorite - Monetate!!
September 15, 2015

Customer Favorite - Monetate!!

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Modules Used

  • Merchandiser
  • Engage

Overall Satisfaction with Monetate

We use Monetate for testing and customization of our desktop and mobile websites. It addresses problems such as customer segmentation for site experience and messaging; providing more relevant products to specific buyers; helping to identify best actions based on multi variant testing; allows us to geo-target, etc. We also heavily rely on the tool to help workaround lengthy development times and costs. We are able to utilize the Monetate tool to do things such as mimic the experience of desktop site on our mobile site; add mobile optimized content/landing pages and product endcaps - which would take much longer to accomplish without Monetate.

Just starting to use email tool - currently geo targeting to help drive to closest stores and will use to test promo language.

Pros

  • Tool is very intuitive - easy to use right out of the box. Users can create tests starting day 1 AND it is so easy to build upon existing campaigns..feels like a limitless amount of things you can accomplish right away.
  • Analytics - again straightforward design - easy to access and take away learnings. For example - when we tested abandoned cart messaging (adding links to customer service, etc) with no offer - saw 22% increase in add to cart and 9% decline in bounce rate. Can utilize the Monetate summary dashboard or look at data directly.
  • Support team - consistent knowledgeable members who make the effort to understand client end goals - then help develop action/strategy plan to accomplish AND help execute. Whether providing / assisting with training to helping to troubleshoot to building in-house. Always accessible - whenever i've had a question/issue!

Cons

  • Engage email program isn't managed the same way as Merchandiser. While our team helped get us up and running with the tool and provided support in initial programs to test, we have to go through Monetate Support for additional help. Wish it was all in one place/one team.
  • As a small brand that is part of a larger corporation where other brands also use Monetate...think it's a good decision recently implemented to re-organize so that there is a team/acct lead for the corporation. There are a lot of good learnings that we needed someone to facilitate sharing across the different brands. It took a while to implement - but a good improvement.
  • Increased conversion - positive impact. For example - the use of behavioral endcaps on HP and in cart lead to increases in overall conversion rate
  • Increased efficiency - positive impact. Able to make changes quickly in order to support segmented messaging or user experiences. We schedule mutiple homepages across devices and updates take minutes (for example).
  • Increased omnichannel experience - positive impact. Able to get content on mobile site vs redirecting to desktop (poor user experience) by using Monetate.
Things to consider:
Do you have someone in place who has the time to manage tests - creating test plans, building/or working with Monetate to build campaigns and react to results? It is easy to use Monetate to make changes to site quickly (skipping internal development) and to skip the testing - you have to be rigorous in taking advantage of that piece of the tool. Otherwise..
Do you have a clunky development process - that makes it hard to make site changes? Monetate works well for emergency quick fixes (such as updating incorrect messaging/adding a disclaimer) as well as more developmentally intensive changes such as adding Paypal to minicart. It's so easy to use that we often rely on Monetate to manage content pieces on site and mobile.

Configuring Monetate

I give this a 9 because I've never had to actually contact the technical support team. My daily business management team has been able to assist and resolve any issues I've encountered. What especially endears them to me - is that the few times I've had emergencies and couldn't figure out why something wasn't working - account reps have ALWAYS responded right away and helped me figure it out. Whether it's been a Friday evening when everyone is leaving the office or over the weekend (which shouldn't be an expectation but they've always been there). Running a website that is on 24/7 - this counts big time.

Monetate Support

ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Problems get solved
Kept well informed
No escalation required
Immediate help available
Support understands my problem
Support cares about my success
Quick Initial Response
None
Friday evening - reached out because I couldn't see a banner that was only to be visible to a specific portion of the traffic. I thought I was screwed - reached out to my rep - literally with an "Are you there?" message because I was sure I wouldn't get an answer....he responded right away - and while he didn't have an immediate answer...promised that he would keep working on it till he figured out the problem - and he did! I got a confirmation email later that evening that it was resolved and screenshot showing it worked correctly. Now that's customer service!

Using Monetate

Part of what I love about Monetate is how intuitive the tool is. Very very easy to use - based on the basics - Who/What/When/Where concept. Anyone can jump right in and start using the tool. And very easy to copy campaigns and tweak to continue to build experiences. We recently added Monetate on mobile and similar experience - easy to jump back and forth between platforms. Also love the analytics dashboard...easily quantifiable and easy to get tidbits that are digestible for others not as familiar with tool.
ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Consistent
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
Familiar
None
  • Building campaigns/experiences
  • Seeing impact of campaigns using analytics dashboard
  • Scheduling content (like multiple campaigns over Black Friday!)
  • Sometimes Preview doesn't work as I expect it to. This was a challenging question as the tool is really very easy to use...this has just been one area that I've had to reach out for assistance to ensure campaign is working because I can't see. More driven by user knowledge than the tool.

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