Is your business planning to introduce a Loyalty program? Do you know how these initiatives help offer elevated customer experiences (CX)? Ever wonder why Costco, Amazon, Nike, and Apple focus on CX? The answer is simple. CX can help build loyalty via customer value. It lasts longer than loyalty built solely on coupons, discounts, or gifts.

With an apt loyalty management solution, your brand can leverage unexplored opportunities. Here’s a brief look at eight ways your affinity program can offer a value proposition.

1. Connect with a charity that suits your brand values and consumer base

Contributing to society gives shoppers a purpose to buy more. It helps establish a deeper level of connection between the consumer and brand.

Does this strategy sound unfamiliar to you? Airlines, credit cards, hotels, food retailers, and even cosmetics companies allow Loyalty Program members to turn rewards into charity donations.

Identify a cause or charity that can appeal to your consumer base. Then, let members convert value points or rewards into donations towards the cause.

You want to offer each member the best practical purposes and charities. No worries, reviewing customer responses to previous initiatives can help. 

2. Improve the loyalty factor with continuous investment in securing members data

Certain firms improved personalization relevancy and speed with AI and ML-based segmentation. In addition, automation has helped them improve accuracy and timeliness for targeted messages. Yet, such companies fail in something basic like securing consumer data. And it goes without saying that they lose consumer trust down the line.

Ransomware attacks and data breaches are challenges that even biggies cannot escape. So, maintaining the highest data security standards at every touchpoint is vital.

Remember, your consumers trust you and expect the firm to keep their data secure. Thus, the brand must keep shoppers well-informed about cyber security initiatives. Show them you use their data in the right way, for the proper purpose.

Here’s a look at primary data security measures that go with most loyalty programs: 

• Multi-factor authentication
• Frequent password changes
• Loyalty program metrics analysis for suspicious activity tracking
• Role-based access to loyalty program data within the organization
• Data transfer using SSL protocol

3. Search and listen

The strategy involves analyzing loyalty program data to track inactive or dissatisfied consumers.

Loyalty programs data offers a glimpse into both green and red flags. You certainly have tools to track green ones. But, red flags are those that need immediate attention.

Ever noticed shoppers who suddenly stop encashing rewards or opening loyalty program apps? These individuals are likely to move elsewhere. Advanced loyalty program platforms highlight such inactivity with alerts. Put simply, data points always talk, and you should remain vigilant to listen.

Let your retention team connect with such consumers to re-establish the relationship. Offer a value proposition to such persons. Also, reward the behavior if they respond to communication after prolonged inactivity. Your customers would appreciate such proactive communication.

You wish to cut down on new customer acquisition costs, don’t you? Attending red flags on time can help you retain customers. And this ultimately helps control costs.

4. Respond by appreciating the increased participation in loyalty initiatives

The increase in the level of participation indicates your rewards offer value. Yet, your job does not end there. You should appreciate their increased participation. The organization must continue analyzing loyalty program data.

Listen to consumers, and hear their needs. Then, make your products or services even more relevant to cater to what shoppers seek. 

5. Present loyalty offers to customers while they shop

Integrating your loyalty platform with the brand website can do wonders. Consumers like to see loyalty benefits applicable to products they intend to buy.

For example, a loyalty program member ordering food would appreciate it if you remind them about using ** loyalty points to get a ** percent discount on the food bill.

Does this help in improving the average cart value? Yes indeed. Allowing them to use entitled loyalty discounts at the checkout motivates buying behavior. 

6. Offer a glimpse into loyalty status in all your emails

How would you react after receiving an email with personalized product offers along with loyalty points or rewards status? You might think of redeeming those points and buying the product immediately.

Transaction and marketing emails should provide information about upcoming rewards. They can prove the perfect spot to surface loyalty status.

Personalizing marketing and transactional emails is easy. Just integrate the CRM and email marketing software with your loyalty platform.

7. Try linking multiple brands together

Several businesses operate multiple brands. Their loyalty programs help members redeem rewards as goodies from all brands. The affinity program from Gap Inc. can prove to be a good case study. The loyalty program has helped the firm push brands that reported slow sales in 2020.

Similarly, if you have multiple brands, you can consider bringing them under a single roof. If you are lucky, customers might prefer redeeming rewards from across all brands. As a result, they might come back for more, which will ultimately result in more business for lesser-performing brands.

The strategy makes launching and managing loyalty programs easier for the organization. However, you cannot succeed without coordinated efforts between different units in the company.

8. Track and reward brand champions

Identifying brand advocates is easy. All that your loyalty team needs to do is analyze data retrieved from your omnichannel loyalty program.

Brand champions are individuals who will most probably share their joy with close friends and relatives. So, every organization must strive to keep such consumers happy. Brand champions will certainly appreciate surprises. Offering invitations to exclusive brand events and VIP rewards to loyalists can help in reinforcing relationships.

Besides generating positive word-of-mouth publicity, such targeted campaigns can also increase the lifetime value of shoppers.

The endnote: 

Affinity programs generate a data goldmine each day. And this precise, valuable data can help create tailored offers. Connect with team LoyaltyXpert. Let our specialists help you with platforms that can use existing data to your full advantage.

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