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Top 10 Coolest Things Going On In Loyalty

October 24, 2012

By Mark Goldstein

Loyalty programs are changing faster than ever. Here are my top 10 cool things you need to think about in 2013 when putting together a loyalty program:

10. Big is Good…Bigger is Better

mobile apps

If you are going to launch a loyalty program, go for the gusto or don’t go at all. Firms putting in less than 1% of their marketing budget and who don’t have 100% C-level buy-in will not succeed.

Winning example: McDonald’s Play At McD

9. You Aren’t Alone

There are now 8000+ national loyalty programs. Most of your customers are members of at least 50; it used to be maybe five. Now you join a loyalty program or two every time you go to a local farmer’s market and pay with Square.

Example: Jay’s Cheesesteaks

8. Awesomeness Is Expected

The storytelling, loyalty rules (tiers, thresholds, award types), and functionality of loyalty programs are increasingly available out of the box. Services like PunchTab.com allow any merchant to look and perform like a mature million dollar program.

Examples: Starwood Hotels and PunchTab


7. APIs and Easy Connections

There are no loyalty islands. Not deeply integrating and connecting through Facebook, Twitter, PayPal, Janrain, Shopkick and, perhaps most importantly, Apple Passbook, is loyalty suicide! It’s not just about you and your program, it’s about what you are connected to.

6. Find Your Signature Insight

What do you bring to the market that’s truly different?  Focus on your unique attributes and build from there. Are your members bald, Yankee Fans, or super cheap? Make your program standout for them first and foremost.

5. Game Mechanics

Game mechanics are today’s rocket fuel of loyalty programs. You want LTVs and more revs? Think gamification. It used to be social, but social is now an assumed ingredient.

Examples: Badgeville.com client implementations by TaskRabbit, Prosper Loans and ActiveTrainer.

4. Payments Are the New PLCC (Private Label Credit Card)

The days of the PLCC are over — today is all about ACH. Don’t be seduced to tying your program to a PLCC, unless your target customer is in their late 50s.

Examples: Starbucks’ mobile apps, the Square Wallet, LevelUp, PayPal wallet, Google Wallet, and increasingly features inside Apple’s Passbook.

3. POS is Dead: Long Live the New ‘Invisible Payments’

Hello, cloud-based computing. Previously, 90% of your time designing a loyalty program was around the closed POS in-store. Now, you put 90% into designing, building, and iterating your loyalty program that runs across all your consumer touch points.

2. Be Ready to Move Fast

In a day where celebrities can acquire a million Twitter followers in a day, you need to be ready to reward and monetize out of the gate. Now, the lifespan of a loyalty program member is maybe 20% of what it was 5 years ago. You have less time to fully execute and need to be ready to crank it 24×7 out the gate.

1. Traffic Is Everywhere

Find the consumer Internet play that most closely aligns to your business. The band Green Day found make-your-own music powerhouse SoundCloud.  SoundCloud’s million of registered uniques powered Green Days’ Numero ¡Uno! Fan program to incredible heights.

00. Real-time is the real deal.

There is an event-based transformation going on in loyalty. Members expect to be rewarded in real-time, anytime anywhere. It’s called sense and respond, not campaign marketing, and it means you need to reward and provide real-time surprise, real-time magic. Vivek Ranadive’s book The Power of Now details how companies are changing it up and providing incentives to engage all the time. Read it!

Executing in loyalty today means you need to conduct an orchestra, but it doesn’t mean you need to buy a concert hall, pay 75 full-time musicians and instruments and negotiate with a union. It’s more like electronic music where you need to be Deadmaus5, have your headphones on and an iMac in hand. Yes, you need to get CRM, coupons, samples, third party site integration, gamification, email, POS and mobile all working really well together, but the Internet makes it both harder and easier to execute. You simply need to collaborate with all the amazing tools, sites and connected possibilities you can, and be ready on day one to wholly execute on an incredible scale. It’s a great day to be alive in loyaltyland—and it’s a whole new world.

 

Mark Goldstein founded and was CEO of Loyalty Lab, now a part of TIBCO Software, the technology provider behind many of the nation’s biggest loyalty programs. He has had his hand in launching over 100 national loyalty programs. Mark got involved in the loyalty world in 1999 when he Co-Founded and was CEO of Bluelight.com, a business formed by Kmart and investors to find multi-channel customers nationwide. Follow him on Twitter: @markgee.

Download the full version of Mark’s Top 10 Coolest Things Going on in Loyalty.

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Social Loyalty: How To Do It Right

October 18, 2012

“Going social” no longer seems like an optional component of the loyalty marketer’s arsenal. Whether you’re engaging with your customers on Facebook, Tweeting out exclusive offers to your followers, or simply promoting campaigns, sales, and products via an opt-in email list, the social realm of loyalty marketing is steadily growing, and continually proving its worth with excellent results.

It’s clear that social is here to stay, and if you haven’t jumped on board, now, more than ever is the time. But the need to implement social in your loyalty program doesn’t mean you should take a one-size-fits-all approach. The ins and outs of social marketing are as delicate and subtle as any other branch of a finely tuned loyalty program — it’s more than email blasting at will, or signing up for a Facebook page and going after as many followers as possible.

We addressed this issue at length in a recent whitepaper with the aim of showcasing the best ways to address your social loyalty needs. In addition to addressing the overridingwhy (traditional media is in a tailspin of a decline, while web, mobile, and social are on a fast-moving upward trajectory), we spotlighted ways to move beyond the obvious means of interacting with your customers across social networks.

Facebook may be one of the most powerful tools to consider when implementing a social side to your loyalty program. The go to approach is to get customers to like a brand, like a campaign, or like a product. But one of the best things about Facebook and loyalty is the ample room it leaves to get creative. We’ve created Facebook campaigns for clients like Nine West with the base strategy of getting customers to like a page or fill out a short questionnaire with points, but further built this out by encouraging customers to really interact on Facebook, fostering a sense of community.

Another valuable Facebook tactic is building a brand program around an app that allows customers to interact with their friends and families while simultaneously promoting the brand, like Kraft’s Mac N Cheese app. By having an opt-in request come from someone you know, you not only build the connection to existing customers, you reach a whole new group of potential buyers.

While Twitter is a giant in the social sphere, and one that should not be ignored, the limited scope of its content makes it less of a fit than Facebook for really exercising creativity in your social loyalty. Still, it’s an important tool for alerting customers of flash sales, presenting exclusive deals and offers, and fostering a casual, back-and-forth level of engagement around certain products, keywords, or events.

Curious to learn more about the TIBCO Loyalty Lab approach to social? Read more about our thoughts and examples of some of our great clients at www.loyaltylab.com/clients. 

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When the Big Event Isn’t a Sale

October 5, 2012

by Chris Taylor

We’re heading into Columbus Day Weekend in the U.S., giving us a great chance to look at the fundamental changes that technology is bringing to retail. The new game is event-based marketing.

Big Sale!

A quick look at the LA Times shows who’s in the old game. The pages are full of merchants using discounting as impersonal enticements to come out shopping. The merchants want to move overstocked merchandise, maybe, but more likely are hoping people will buy non-sale items while in the store.

But this isn’t an efficient model. The stores have to re-compete each time for the same customer using ever louder advertisements on the web, emails, print and broadcast media. This is a dead-end game and a broken process but the standard model for those who haven’t invested in loyalty programs. And as a recent article pointed out, loyalty programs are about much more than discounts.

Loyalty’s real purpose

Preceding event-based marketing was trigger-based marketing, and it would be worthwhile to look at what that means: Rather than choose a date like Columbus Day and discount of x%, trigger-based marketing involves really knowing and understanding the actual customer, not just their demographic group. Knowledge of the individual allows key events in the customer and business lifecycle to combine with measurable changes in customer behavior, ‘pulling the trigger’ on specific marketing activities.

Types of triggers include transactional (a purchase or question), recurring (birthdays and other life events), behavioral (initiating new accounts, changes in spending levels), and threshold (amount spent, limits exceeded). Each of these has implications for retention, up-sell and cross-sell that drive profitability.

These triggers are monitored in technology systems that continuously watch for predetermined patterns and enable delivery of marketing activities with the best timing and highest relevancy. Getting those two things right involves doing things, not after the ideal moment has passed. It means reacting to the customer when their actions and business conditions indicate, not before and not after.

But we can do even better.

Anywhere, everywhere

We’re in an omni-channel world…social, , mobile, web, physical location (0nline, in or near store) and already moving beyond trigger-based marketing to event-based. Real-time, mobile and event processing technology takes the trigger idea much further. For example, a customer visits a website, puts things in their shopping cart but then abandons it. If they are within a distance of a local store, they receive an offer delivered to their phone for the things left in the cart. As you can imagine, the response rates are much higher when the system works one-to-one and not one-to-many.

While these sophisticated systems have a cost, it involves up front investment that has recurring return, unlike the traditional advertising model. Where graphic art and a holiday once dominated, information flow, predictive analytics, cross-channel integration and process automation are the new tools of effective retail. Where we once shouted, we now understand, anticipate and act.

Find more by Chris Taylor at his blog, www.successfulworkplace.com and @successfulwork.

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How Can Schools Raise Student Engagement? By Using Loyalty Tactics.

September 19, 2012

Last week, we looked at ways that college students can benefit from a number of excellent loyalty programs as they make their way back to hallowed university halls for the start of the school year. Furthermore, we highlighted why college students are an ideal demographic for brand marketers.

This week, we’re turning our back-to-school thinking around, on the universities themselves. While there’s plenty to be learned at these fine institutions, we believe that colleges could take a lesson from loyalty programs when it comes to engaging their students.

The thing is, higher education has been making attempts to better connect with their students over Twitter, Facebook, and other social media outlets. But according to a recent article from Inside Higher Ed, schools aren’t making progress when it comes to measuring success. What’s more, they don’t seem sure of what they’re looking for.

We think that we have some answers for them. Imagine if universities were not only to increase student followers, but also actively increased their participation in on-campus activities, bettered their study habits, and made them an even more loyal, active, and dedicated members of the university community?

Go Mobile

Mobile is clearly at the forefront of effective loyalty practices these days, something that Loyalty Lab has embraced wholeheartedly as of late. And no one is more attached to their mobile phones than students. Universities should take advantage of  location-based technology by offering students deals when they are near on-campus dining locations, campus bookstores, and even the library.

College football fansBy encouraging check-ins in class, at extracurricular clubs and activities, and again, at that often avoided library, students could earn points to receive free cups of coffee, discounts on textbooks, or University-branded swag.

Get Spirited

When you start talking about encouraging ‘loyalty’ among students, it begins to sound a whole lot like encouraging school spirit. Getting students excited about and involved in school events, performances, and athletics will not only enrich their college experience, it increases the likelihood that they’ll be loyal alums post-graduation.

Tweeting at dedicated hashtags, checking in at games, and showing serious spirit could allow universities to reward students for their involvement. Imagine discounts on season tickets for basketball, great perks at on-campus restaurants and coffee shops — real, tangible rewards for students who show that they are dedicated members of the community.

Ask for Feedback

Sure, kids may head to college to learn a thing or two, but often, they’re savvier than we are. Especially when it comes to the kinds of rewards they want, and the kind of engagement they’re willing to participate in. So, ask them! Similar to our great loyalty programs that request customer feedback, universities should find out from their students just what it is they’re looking to gain. And make these inquiries worth their time, too — allow them to benefit from promotions or be entered into contests for answering your questions and bettering your understanding of how to best engage.

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The College Student: A New Kind of Loyal Customer

September 12, 2012

Ah, September. The leaves begin to change, the air grows crisp, and there’s an electric crackle of anticipation as the kids head back to school. For some, that means yellow school buses and lockers; for other it means a cross-country flight and an empty dorm room to decorate.

College students may not be the first demographic that comes to mind when considering loyalty programs, but we think they’re a prime audience for some of the great offerings that loyalty programs can provide their members.

Think about it. College students never have enough money. And furthermore, they’re in a position to take their first steps into independent adulthood, when making smart choices both financially and personally becomes some of the most important things to learn.

Whether you have a college student of your own flying the coop or want to rethink your marketing strategies, here are a few ways that some loyalty programs are perfectly suited to the university-bound among us.

  1. More and more kids are going to school’s far from home, making now the optimal time to joining Virgin America’s Elevate program. In addition to servicing major US cities, Elevate will allow students to earn points every time they fly home, use points to book flights even during high-traffic holiday times, and be updated on flight deals to the best spring break locations (LA, New York, Cabo…).
  2. Empty dorm rooms, campus apartments, and houses filled with friends are a surefire way to spark the decorators bug in your college kid. Orchard Supply Hardware’s Club Orchard can help give kids a head-start in putting together their new homes, without being too painful on their budgets. Club Orchard offers points back for every dollar spent purchasing products in-store. Plus, Orchard Supply employees will take time to show your ever-ready-to learn students how to assemble their new dresser or even teach them to repair that hole they put in the wall during a particularly aggressive ‘study session.’
  3. A not-so-glamorous part of college life is the, hmm, less than sanitary conditions. So, it’s not so surprising when kids find themselves getting sick a little more frequently than they did back at home (especially when dorms are more or less a 100-person sinus infection waiting to happen). Pharmaca’s Feel Better Rewards Program will help your kids make sure they have the best products to help them feel better, plus a number of in-store experts to help them become more informed and aware about their own health. Pharmaca’s rewards programs will also get them discounts on products, which will make them (and their parents) feel even better.

While Loyalty 101 may not be in the course catalogue, now is the time to get college-age students involved in your loyalty program. Help them make the right decisions for them, and for their bank accounts. Let’s put it this way — as soon as they realize they have more money for beer (uh, we mean books?) they’ll be as glad to be your loyal customers as you’ll be to have them.

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The Changing Face of Airline Loyalty

August 9, 2012

Having spent this week talking about Virgin America and their stellar Elevate program, we want to step back a little and take a look at the airline loyalty space at large. What we’ve noticed across the board: considering this has been an industry that has seen its fair share of turbulence over the past few years (record-high fuel costs, plunging budgets, a constant stream of bankruptcies), maintaining customer loyalty may be a challenge, but it’s a necessity to survive and to thrive.
virgin america

Loyalty programs provide airlines with an area of influence they can control. American Airlines pioneered this concept, and set the stage for loyalty programs in the late 1980s. These early programs focused around simplistic flyer rewards by tracking miles and rewarding frequent flyers with upgrades and free flights. The success was immediate and evident, and before long, airlines like Delta and United had jumped on the loyalty bandwagon.

Over the last 30 years, the loyalty landscape has evolved into multi-tier programs with rewards stretching far beyond upgrades and free flights. Attracting and retaining members is no longer a formulaic one-size fits all program: airlines must get creative to stay in the game. 

This summer, approximately 140,000,000 Americans have travel plans, with 22% using rewards from loyalty programs to finance those trips. According to an American Express finding, active loyalty participants have increased by 25% since 2011. This increase has contributed to an already competitive market, forcing airlines to discover new ways to innovate, paving a path for younger airlines like JetBlue and Virgin America to drive the industry toward new loyalty standards.

These newer players are disrupting the loyalty space with innovative programs giving older, more established programs like American Airlines’ AAdvantage a run for their money. The key difference with programs like JetBlue’s TrueBlue and Virgin’s Elevate is that they offer additional perks aside from the standard free checked baggage or priority boarding.

We discussed the building blocks of the Elevate program earlier this week, including a no blackout date policy, and the new Red-Silver-Gold tier system. But there are plenty of other highlights worth mentioning. Virgin’s offerings include chic lounges in select locations, enhanced social rewards, and to top it off, the “ultimate round-trip flight award”. The Elevate member who earns the most elite qualifying points between August 8, 2012 and August 7, 2013 will earn a sub-orbital space flight on Virgin Galactic. With the largest frequent flyer population of 1.8 million it is clear Virgin is doing loyalty right. It is unique perks like this that add a competitive edge to airlines willing to step outside of the traditional loyalty box.

The Aberdeen Group addressed this very issue in a recent report. They found that loyalty programs that incorporate mobile technology, engage consumers with social media, and implement a centralized cross-channel loyalty platform are more successful. When incorporating innovative ideas to these basic building blocks, customers are more likely to stick around and take advantage of such well-rounded offerings.

Fresh innovation drives industry forward. A steady stream of creative, technology driven advancements are increasingly important as consumers become more accustomed to loyalty perks and expectant of convenience and technological innovation. It takes robust, cutting-edge loyalty programs to shake things up and provide a unique experience worth returning for time and time again.

Read more about our work with Virgin America and the success of Elevate in our Customer Success Story, here. And keep up on all of the great things Virgin America is doing by following @virginamerica, @richardbranson, and @loyaltylab.

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Virgin America: A Loyalty Program That Elevates Above the Rest

August 6, 2012

At Loyalty Lab, we’ve been lucky to work with some of the most interesting and innovative clients around. We’d like to showcase what makes them, and their loyalty programs, unique. Kicking things off is Virgin America and their Elevate loyalty program.

Creating a loyalty program for a brand like Virgin America is why we love what we do. Talk about a cool airline: since they launched, Virgin America’s young, fun attitude towards flying was pure Richard Branson, and seriously stylish. Purple lights in and lounge music in the cabin? An in-flight interface that allows you to chat the good looking woman in seat 12A? Flying Virgin America reminded us of a time when flying was a glamorous activity worth looking forward to, rather than a frenzied hassle of shoe removal, lack of legroom, and running to make connections.

What’s more, the team at Virgin America made it clear from the beginning that they wanted their Elevate loyalty program to stand out from the rest. Which means that the Loyalty Lab crew got to roll up our sleeves and really think about what other airline programs our lacking. What were our priorities when booking air travel? What would make us want to come back, again and again?

The three major initiatives we came up with, and implemented using TIBCO software, have proven to be hits, considering Virgin America’s loyalty program is the fastest growing one in the industry. And the solutions seem so second nature, it’s no wonder.

First: there are no blackout dates or restrictions. You want to use your Elevate points to book a flight over Thanksgiving weekend? Go for it! Blackout dates over high-traffic travel times may make sense for an airline focused on profit and profit alone, but not for an airline looking to build their customers’ loyalty. Plus, every seat is fair game for points redemption, not just those middle seats in the back row. What good is it to be in with the in-crowd if you’ve got the worst seat in the house?

Second: point values are transparent and dynamic. Your Elevate balance will flourish whether you fly to LA or to Cabo; you earn points when you use your Virgin America credit card, book a hotel room or rental car, or shop with one of our partners. You know exactly how many points you have, and how many you earn. And if the dollar fare goes up, so do the number of points you earn.

Third: redemption is a painless process. Hate sitting on hold, trying to get an airline representative to explain why your points aren’t working? So do we! Never again  with Elevate. When booking travel, you can view the cost of each flight in dollars or points. The more a flight costs, the more points are needed — there’s no hidden restrictions here.

Using these three points as our foundation, we’ve loved seeing customers respond positively, and have also taken the opportunity to listen to their feedback. Elevate members expressed a desire for ‘tiers’ in the loyalty program: if you’re earning 50,000 points per year, you certainly should be rewarded.

Starting August 8, Virgin America is introducing Silver and Gold levels to the Elevate program, and will include perks such as upgrades, priority booking and boarding, and complimentary checked bags. Virgin is also stepping up their mobile game: Elevate Elites will be able to benefit from making use of social media. By checking in to gates and terminals on Instagram, Twitter, or Foursquare, they’ll earn double points. Really, the tiers are Virgin America’s way of showing love to their loyal customers — which is exactly what we like to see.

Virgin America has generally proved to be ahead of the game when it comes to today’s airlines, and the success of their loyalty program speaks to this. They seem to have a better insight into what customers need: choose-your-own-adventure entertainment choices, fresh and healthy meal options, wireless access in-flight, and a clean and usable mobile interface. This kind of creativity is exactly what loyalty programs need, according to a recent report done by the Aberdeen Group.

The Virgin America experience has always aimed to make everyone who flies feel like a VIP. But we love just how much their Elevate program emphasizes this: entry to exclusive events, great deals on flights, and the freedom to use your points as you choose. If the customer is meant to be king (or queen), Elevate actually delivers on this promise by making its loyal fliers feel like royalty.

Read more about our work with Virgin America and the success of Elevate in our Customer Success Story, here. And keep up on all of the great things Virgin America is doing by following @virginamerica, @richardbranson and @loyaltylab.

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The Pillars of Customer Engagement – Where to Influence and How

August 1, 2012

The classic corporate marketing view of loyalty is very long term – acquisition, conversion, retention – and is very different from the customer view.  For consumers, every decision is independent.  Brand loyalty will have influence, but choosing a product or restaurant or hotel or airline tends to happen quickly. Customers have the ability to learn quickly and make a snap decision, and even after that decision has been made, the ability to go back and change if a better offer comes along.

Just a few years ago, the decision-making process was much more predictable.

Customers might do a little research online or elsewhere, then go to the store and make a purchase, maybe with a little influence along the way by a radio or billboard advertisement. Now they might research an item and choose a product while in the store, check reviews and prices online, and end up buying elsewhere after physically examining a store’s inventory. The process is much tougher for retailers given the sheer quantity of potential distractions or better offers.

Winning the initial battle is no longer enough. Brands have to carry their message through beyond the purchase, into support and post-purchase satisfaction.

So if you be realistic and assume customers are just as technically savvy and mobile as you are, then the whole conversation changes.

The need for brands today is to compete effectively in this real-time mobile-dominated world.  We’ll touch on more areas around this theme soon.

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Enabling Technologies for Customer Engagement, Conversion, and Retention

July 26, 2012

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.

Leading Loyalty Technology Components
Leading Loyalty Technology Components

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.

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The New Detail of Retail

July 20, 2012

by Chris Taylor – TIBCO

Retail has gone through enormous stresses in the past decade, with more to come. Just the normal ups and downs of local and global economies, supply chains and personal taste are a huge challenge. Add to that mix the increasing maturation of concepts like e-Commerce, Big Data, RFID and mobile.

Each of these would be a whopper to digest and together are changing the foundation of an ancient industry.

New ways to sell

Traditional in-store sales are combining with web, mobile and social. While the social channel may not be ‘here’, it is expected to become viable within a few years. This combination of channels can’t be managed as silos, as branding and look and feel need to be consistent for the customer (ie. mobile can’t just be dumbed-down Web) and for internal maintenance cost.

In the store or kiosk, Near Field Communication (contactless communication between devices) is the simple way to speed purchasing and is used extensively already at Starbucks in combination with their loyalty app.

How much does speed of checkout matter? Studies show it makes a huge difference. I know my wife and I choose ‘self-checkout’ even if it’s slower simply because we feel don’t like standing in a line, dependent on someone else. We only have ourselves to blame and that’s fine.

Selling needs to take place at the time, place and pace that a customer desires.

New forms of loyalty

It was always a great idea to attract a customer once and sell to them many times. Loyalty programs were a way to lower the cost of customer acquisition. Today, loyalty programs offer something even more meaningful…contextual information about the customer.

Not just what they buy, but when they shop, demographics, product preferences and more. If you think Safeway gives discounts because you’re a loyal customer, think again. There’s a transaction going on when you give information that is just as valuable for them as when you buy.

What do they do with that information? They create a context for commercial transaction that has several benefits:

  • Manages customer satisfaction more closely with direct (experience surveys, requests for feedback) and indirect (purchase patterns) measurements
  • Understands and confirms your loyalty patterns
  • Cross-sells and up-sells other products to increase revenue per transaction. This goal depends on getting the right offer to you in the right moment and through the proper channel to make your buying easy and natural/non-clumsy.

Click here to read more.

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