Building loyalty in a click-and-swipe world
In a digital world that demands seamless, instant interactions, loyalty programs must be just as convenient as any service we use. After all, our wireless devices are the first things we reach for to make payments, get “face time,” and manage our lives.
The landscape of loyalty has undergone significant transformations due to speed of technological advancements, data availability, and customer expectations. Is your program keeping pace?
From fragmented to holistic
Today, your customers have multiple ways to connect with your brand – email, virtual meetings, texts, web- and app–based transactions, and social media platforms. This digital shift has made loyalty more about a customer’s overall experience rather than loyalty within a single channel. From a loyalty perspective, there’s an advantage to recognizing these channels and incorporating them as touchpoints in your program. Moving from a fragmented to holistic (omni-channel) approach helps increase customer engagement and build brand loyalty.
Make it personal
In the past, many programs relied on a one-size-fits-all approach to building loyalty with a mass-market campaign to drive awareness and participation. In contrast, today you have (or should have) access to data that allows you to offer a highly personalized experience based on your customer’s profile, preferences, and actions. Through deeper insights into preferences and behaviors, it’s now possible to fine tune your loyalty program so it feels like a customized, meaningful experience designed for each customer. This means tailoring communications, target goals, and promotions to the specific individual. It may seem like a daunting task, but today’s technology makes it manageable. The payoff is that customers are more likely to be loyal if you recognize and cater to their unique behaviors and characteristics.
Ease of use
Most loyalty programs require the customer to do a little work to participate. It’s not unusual to ask them to upload receipts or track their purchases in other ways. Today, automated point-of-sale data sharing is becoming more prevalent, and tracking can now take place behind the scenes while your customer goes about their day.
You certainly don’t want a passive loyalty program, but neither would you want your customers spending time on administrative details that detract from focused key behaviors and program satisfaction. Instead, connect data elements to make the customer’s input as seamless and convenient as possible to reduce friction and create a better user experience.
Align your loyalty expectations
Loyalty isn’t a fixed concept. It’s dynamic. Loyalty is earned as an outcome of the sum of all your customers’ interactions. Therefore, be proactive by using nimble, reliable technology, and program design that leverage real- or near-time information. Doing so will go a long way toward building a better experience for both you and your customers.
Your loyalty program is only as good as the technology and inputs that support it. So plan to continually review, adapt, and re-invest in the digital elements that support the user experience. With solid program design, technology, and maintenance, your loyalty program can become a powerful digital tool that encourages repeat purchases and drives long-term customer habits and brand affinity.
Embrace advances and win
Channel loyalty is no longer about a prescribed single, traditional method of engagement. Make use of multi-channel strategies, leverage data, and meet customer expectations for speed and convenience to drive success. By offering a flexible, personalized, and integrated customer experience, you can cut through and win your customers’ attention and loyalty. With these approaches, loyalty can be won in today’s increasingly digital-first world.
