Are You Watering Your Merchant-Funded Loyalty Program?
Watering Your Merchant-Funded Loyalty Program Merchant-funded loyalty programs are not fire and forget All too often we see brands go to great lengths to design a best-in-class merchant-funded loyalty program, focus a lot of energy on the program design and launch strategy and then completely flounder when it comes to ongoing consumer engagement. Why go through extensive processes of competitor analysis, concept design, rounds of creative revisions, platform optimization, hand-selecting merchants to appeal to your Read more …
Casinos and the Loyalty Experience
Casinos and the Loyalty Experience As consumer behavior evolves, loyalty and rewards programs must change their ways. Nothing is static. Every touch point needs to be dynamic and interactive. For the customer, the loyalty program is becoming about the experience … the loyalty experience. People like having a voice that is heard with customized and tailored interactions. A good program also has to reach people across all channels, providing a unified experience. Although push marketing is Read more …
Your Loyalty Program Should be Fun and Interactive
Your Loyalty Program Should be Fun and Interactive Loyalty can be so many things that it’s hard for some people to process the tools which can help to create a successful loyalty program. It’s one of those things; if you are in the industry you suddenly notice all the different programs and become a fan or a critic. What some people find difficult to understand is that a loyalty program isn’t just points or tiers. Read more …
Loyalty Program Best Practices
Loyalty Program Best Practices Building a program which creates commitment and longevity Building an engaging program that wins with customers takes planning, budget, and strategy. The business rules and objectives behind your program affect everything you do from cost, points, communications, image, and engagement. Your vision and business rules must be consistently carried out through the program in its entirety. Supporting the customer experience no matter when or where you are engaging with them is Read more …
Make Your Loyalty Program an Experience
Make Your Loyalty Program an Experience Your Loyalty Program should be an experience. Customers expect rewards to be instant, and they want an experience out of it. Most ecommerce experience is limited by data and technology, and most of you would agree that a customer experience in your current program is fragmented. A customer’s online experience and offline experience can be very different, and quite frankly may not even resemble the same program. Add Read more …
Budget Season
Budget Season In business, we have five seasons, not just the normal four. We have winter, spring, summer, fall, and BUDGET. We are now in budget season, and it comes in two parts. The first part is trying to figure out what your plans for the next fifteen months or so should be, and what it will cost. The other is the “use it or lose it” part. You Must Budget for Marketing In my Read more …
Big Data and Loyalty
Big Data and Loyalty By Linda Butcher, Chief Business Development Officer We’re all collecting data on our customers. We know all about their behavior, age, income, geography. We know the products they use, how they search, their payment source, sex, nationality, email, source, brand, spend, and the list goes on. But what does it actually tell us? Can you really change behavior by looking at analytics? Data Offers Profiles, not Predictions What the data does Read more …
Thank You, Loyal Patient – The Doctor Will See You Now
Thank You, Loyal Patient – The Doctor Will See You Now Medical care is a business like any other. There are goods and services exchanged for money. There is the supply and demand of healthcare services. Most importantly, people ask others for recommendations before they choose a doctor, hospital, lab, or other medical service. Because of these things, loyalty is just as important to the medical field as it is to any other industry. It Read more …
Is a Simple Thank You Enough?
Is a simple Thank You enough? We have all gone crazy over the next best thing, analytics, predictive tracking, integrations, wonder widgets, and behavior modification. Does it really matter, and can we actually make changes in customer behavior through these tools? Could it be as simple as saying “Thank You”? We know from all of our surveys that a customer is likely to change brands or services because of service or lack thereof. If a Read more …
Loyalty Isn’t Always About Frequency
Loyalty Isn’t Always About Frequency I spent a good part of my weekend getting ready to send my son back to school next week. He is going to be in second grade this year. I asked him what he was most looking forward to. His answer was a two-parter. First he was excited about recess, so he could see his best friends. I asked him who his best friend was and he proceeded to name Read more …