Over the past couple of years, Brands have come to the realisation that throwing a whole host of rewards at customers in the hope that it will make them more loyal, is not the quick fix that they had hoped for.
Get your reward mix wrong and you will have an expensive reward portfolio that does not incentivise customers to participate in your Loyalty Programme or drive the behaviour change that you desire.
It is vital that any Loyalty Programme or Customer Reward initiative, implemented by brands, is highly relevant to your core customers, authentically executed, and offers your customers exclusive access to carefully selected rewards and benefits that are relevant to your brand and the relationship that customers have with you. All of these considerations play a HUGE role in building true customer loyalty, trust and long-standing, commercially successful relationships.
Getting started.
At Chilli Pepper, we understand that the ambition of forging deep customer relationships, can at first seem a little daunting. And so, to help you with your thinking, here are some KEY things to consider when auditing, redefining, and refreshing your rewards portfolio to get maximum participation from your customers:
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Support:
Work closely with internal teams across all business areas so they understand the positive impact of your loyalty strategy, how it impacts them and how the current rewards portfolio is driving customer behaviour. It is critical to get their buy-in and continued support throughout the fact finding, development and implementation processes.
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Knowledge:
Use internal data and customer profiling experts to unlock real insights into who your core customers are, their life stages, needs and experiences, and how they engage and interact with your brand. This knowledge is fundamental in developing an enhanced loyalty strategy and creating a selection of relevant rewards that are highly tailored to your customers and the relationship that they have with you.
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The Customer:
Customers are King (or Queen) in this process and the loyalty strategy must be customer-centric and built around what they truly want. Invite your core customer segments to focus groups, get their feedback, understand what loyalty mechanic would benefit them most, and the type(s) of rewards that will inspire positive customer behaviour change. Customers will thank you for inviting them to play a core role in the future of the brand.
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Strategy:
A critical step is to take time out to develop a commercially viable and robust loyalty strategy outlining your objectives, the mechanic of the loyalty solution, how rewards will be communicated to customers, how it will drive large scale participation, and how this level of engagement will commercially benefit the business.
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Rewards Mix:
Develop and introduce a Balanced Rewards Matrix based on customer feedback and their loyalty triggers to deliver a selection of tailored rewards that are relevant to your brand, meaningful to your customers and gets them to actively participate in your Loyalty Programme.
Here is a sample Balanced Rewards Matrix for you to work from:
As customer perceptions of value continues to evolve, marketing professionals must remain agile and innovative in their approach to engendering loyalty, ensuring that their brand’s Loyalty Programme and reward mix are both commercially viable and emotionally rewarding for their members.
Revisiting and rethinking the structure and execution of your rewards mix within your Loyalty Programmes is not merely an option but a necessity in today’s competitive marketplace. By placing a strong emphasis on hyper-personalisation, authentic engagement, and a meaningful and relevant rewards matrix, brands can cultivate deeper customer relationships and drive high member participation – the holy grail of Loyalty!
At Chilli Pepper, we are ready to support you along this journey, helping to audit and redefine rewards offering to pave the way for sustainable loyalty success.