The other day, I came across this article, Loyalty Programs: Get Points For Thinking Beyond Points. It’s a commentary on how a B2C customer loyalty program can benefit from rewarding loyalty points for more than just loyalty. While not exactly our realm, as we deal with B2B loyalty here on this blog, I drew some parallels that I think are worth bringing up and discussing here.
The author, Dave Andreadakis, talks about three common practices that we promote here at HMI and certainly work for both B2C and B2B programs. When trying to get people to care about your loyalty points, you should consistently promote the value of not only the points, but the program as a whole.
What behaviors stand out to you about your #1 customer? Learn what you can do to make more #1 customers by downloading our ebook, B2B Customer Loyalty and the Share of Why
Additionally, make your program easy to understand. Dave brings up two points: that “one in four shoppers won’t join a loyalty program if it requires too many purchases to earn and redeem points” and “26% of customers won’t join a loyalty program if it asks for too much information or takes too long to register.” Complicated earning structures only serve as a bar to entry.
Finally, compelling purchases based on price is the most basic form of loyalty. For many B2B companies, competing on price can be a hole you’ll find yourself struggling to get out of quickly. Instead, strategies like surprise and delight, where loyalty points or another reward are handed out at random (or seemingly at random) can be great ways to improve engagement throughout any stage of your loyalty program.
Conclusion
Give Loyalty Programs: Get Points For Thinking Beyond Points a read. It’s well worth your time if you’re launching a program or hip deep in one already. It’s always good to get back to the basics.
If you’re interested in other customer loyalty strategies, check out our solutions page, here.
Sources:
https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/333379/loyalty-programs-get-points-for-thinking-beyond-p.html
https://www.mediapost.com/publications/author/7743/dave-andreadakis/
https://giphy.com/gifs/5VKbvrjxpVJCM/embed
Photo by Lukáš Kováčik from Pexels
