Experience is everything. While rewards in the form of discounts may drive repeat purchases, they do not create customer loyalty.
Finding the sweet spot
Loyalty programmes need to be a carefully created and calibrated value exchange between a brand and its customers.
Loyalty is a two-way street. Brands need to see value from running a loyalty programme as much as customers need to believe they are gaining from its benefits – both rational and emotional benefits. Rational benefits are important as they put a tangible, perceived value to the programme rewards and with emotional benefits, it motivates behaviours and creates greater lifetime value.
With the growing digitisation of customer interactions, brands can leverage technology to enable real-time collection, analysis, and activation of customer data; thereby creating micro-interaction-moments. These highly-personalised, appreciated moments encourage customers to release more personal data, in turn allowing brands to get to know customers’ wants, needs, preferences and expectations on an increasing basis – further building bonds required for loyalty.
In a highly competitive landscape where loyalty can be fickle, it is important for brands to view it as a long-term strategy – one that is complex, integrated and a bespoke fit that is aligned to and led by the values customers hold.
Download our complimentary eBook – Beyond Points and Rewards: Why Status-enhancing, Value-aligned Experiences Win Hearts and Minds – to learn more about the steps brands can take to raise the bar to win loyalty in today’s world of choice-rich consumers.
