Customer Insight Group Reveals Three Strategies to Optimize Loyalty Program Results

Denver, CO, May 19, 2016 --(PR.com)-- Customer Insight Group, Inc., an industry leader in customer loyalty and reward programs, reveals 3 strategies that loyalty marketers can use so their loyalty program works harder, achieves sales and profitability goals and keeps their customers out of the competitors’ reach.

A 2015 study found that American households are members of an average of 29 loyalty programs in retail, financial services, travel and other industries, but are active in just 12 of them. "Just because customers enroll in your loyalty program, doesn’t mean they will actively participate," said Sallie Burnett, president and CEO of Customer Insight Group, Inc. "So how do you cultivate long-lasting and profitable relationships with your customers? Start with these three strategies."

Three Strategies to Make Loyalty Pay…

1. Align Your Loyalty Program with Business Objectives
The loyalty landscape has changed. The current economic woes have fueled changes in consumer spending attitudes, shopping behavior and brand loyalty. New competitors have been introduced. It’s time to step back and look at your business goals and how your loyalty program supports it. Are you leveraging customer insight as a core business asset? Is there an opportunity to build strong relationships with high value and high growth customer segments? Do you need to expand your marketing channels? Are you proactively managing customer migration and customer retention? The answers to these questions will help you align your loyalty program to support your business goals.

2. Build Customer Relationships Based on Relevance
Develop a multi-channel communications plan that includes in-person, social media, website, mobile, email and direct mail. Make sure your messages are relevant to the membership lifecycle (new versus long-term member); season and customer purchase cycle and have a synergistic message across channels. A 2015 Colloquy loyalty study found that the top two reasons consumers participate in loyalty programs are: easy to understand (81%) and rewards and offers are relevant (75%). For example, triggered and personalized email campaigns can ensure that the right content will be delivered to the customer at the most right time, optimized for a device that works for them (laptop, tablet, mobile etc.).

3. Make Rewards Attainable and Realistic
The top two reasons consumers stop participating in a loyalty program: did not provide rewards/offers that were of interest (56%) and too hard to earn points for rewards (54%) according to a 2015 loyalty study. “In our experience, relevancy is the key. The perceived value of the reward is more important than the size of the reward and the frequency of which the member will use them,” explains Sallie. By design, a loyalty program is a balancing act between low-cost, easily attainable short-term rewards that are redeemed early in the program, and more highly valued, aspirational (and more costly) rewards that can be redeemed once customers spend more. You need a mix of hard benefits (rational) and soft benefits (emotional). It’s the soft benefits of your loyalty program that improve the customer experience and build the emotional connection.

Looking for proven loyalty marketing and rewards program strategies? What's working? What are the trends? Read Customer Insight Group’s loyalty blog and sign-up for our e-newsletter, Customer Connection.