LoyaltyLab

Enabling Technologies for Customer Engagement, Conversion, and Retention

According to the Aberdeen report Customer Loyalty 2012: Enabling Technologies for Customer Engagement, Conversion, and Retention, the top strategic action identified by omni-channel Leaders (top 30% of performers*) is expanding their use of digital channels to deliver targeted and personalized offers to their customers. The two main channels identified by Leaders are mobile and social. For 2012:

• 75% of Leaders are using or planning to use digital channels to deliver targeted and personalized offers.
• Leaders are devoting a full quarter (25%) of their marketing budget to mobile and social initiatives.
• Followers* are devoting 15% of their marketing budget to mobile and social initiatives.

The use of emerging channels (mobile, social) should be balanced by tried and true loyalty technology components (analytics, rewards), ideally in an integrated, omni-channel loyalty platform. Many retailers are still outsourcing the various components, which introduces complications of integrating data streams and technology. A centralized platform eliminates these risks by combining consumer insights, offer creation, offer redemption, and performance metrics reporting.

For retailers that are re-thinking, re-launching, or just entering the cross-channel loyalty space, the following are some of Aberdeen’s recommendations for success:

• Implement a centralized cross-channel customer loyalty platform for easy access to all loyalty related data. Retailers who do so report a 20% increase in customer retention rates (compared to 8% for all others).

• Ensure uniform data collection guidelines across channels for developing targeted loyalty offers based on customer information and affinities.

Use customer analytics for micro-segmentation of loyalty members for multi-tiered loyalty campaigns. Leaders are twice as likely to use analytics applications and reporting tools to track loyalty program redemption rates.

• Incorporate mobile technology into loyalty programs to reach consumers on the go with targeted, personalized offers. Thirty-six percent (36%) of Leaders, compared to 9% of Followers, have a mobile loyalty platform of some form.

• Use social media tools to engage customers in a two-way dialogue, and allow sharing of loyalty offers. These tools include social networks, blogs, product recommendations, user generated content, and microblogging.

• Take advantage of customers’ desire for immediate gratification by delivering real-time rewards and utilizing location-based messaging. The real-time connectivity between brand and consumer is one of the top sources of ROI from social media marketing / loyalty.

To learn more about how leading organizations are using social media, customer analytics, mobile loyalty, real time rewards and location-based messaging to improve customer retention, frequency, and re-activation, Download the full report, Customer Loyalty 2012: Enabling Technologies for Customer Engagement, Conversion, and Retention.

*Aberdeen used three key performance criteria to distinguish Leaders (top 30% of performers) from Followers in the January 2012 Omni-Channel report: 1) Current Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), 2) Current on-time order delivery and 3) Year-over-year increase in revenue.

You Might Like:

• Whitepaper: 2012 Trends in Loyalty Marketing
• Webinar On-Demand: Success with Mobile Loyalty
• Presentation On-Demand: Virgin America