How to Prepare for a Successful Loyalty Program This Festive Season?
Once the festive season arrives, every company tries to amp up their game especially the commercial consumer brands. Each brand aims for higher engagement with their audience and customers in any form and medium. They plan events and programs that help in promoting their brand or products to their target group which in turn increase sales of their product. Festivities also mark a stark rise in the social media pages or websites of different companies which are often carried out with the end goal of reaching out to more favourable customers.
Most of the companies focus on collaborating with other brands in order to offer a combination of rewards and festive gifts that may be further booked in bulk by major corporates for festive gifting as well as in the form of loyalty programs that can be redeemed as per the receiver’s whim. Many corporate companies tie up with F&B companies to avail sweetmeats and decorative gifting options. Although corporate gifting is a major trend amongst big companies, it is also very common for them to offer their employees with attractive vouchers, gift cards and loyalty program offers that provide them with an opportunity to redeem them according to their preferred time and avail items that meet their requirements.
Below mentioned are a few ways in which companies can create a successful loyalty program for the festive season:
1. Cashback is in
It’s a natural psychology of people to get attracted to offers that allow them to get a percentage of their money back in the form of hard cash or even virtual money; that’s precisely how one can cash onto a large section of the working class people. It allows them to shop for a certain amount and receive a fraction of their expenditure in the form of cashback. Tieing up with clothing brands or restaurants that offer a cashback on purchase from them can prove to be a healthy collaboration for both the employer and the employee.
2. Discount Vouchers & Coupons
Everyone is in a festive mood when any of the big festivals arrive and shopping for their desired clothes, accessories and appliances become a must for many, which is particularly when a company must collaborate with electronic companies, clothing brands, etc as it is highly likely to pull crowd once they see a discount on their favourite item of choice! Coupons also work in a similar way as they help people get a discounted price when they apply a specific coupon applicable to their purchase. Rewarding employees with vouchers and coupons that enable customers to avail a certain discount based on the net purchase amount usually works great and even greater during the festive season!
3. Freebies & combos
Having a loyalty program that allows you to choose from a variety of products and then getting a free product along with it makes people extremely happy and allows the retailers to sell more items at a fairly good rate. Freebies also encourage people to share good reviews about their shopping experience and also helps in getting free PR from their customers! This can work particularly well if teamed up with restaurants as people are highly likely to eat out during that time and free meals or happy hours, etc. work great during this period.
4. E-commerce
The world is now run online and thus, it is imperative to be conscious and strategic in placing yourself with the right type of E-commerce website as it is likely to fetch great returns if done the right way. Companies can collaborate and offer their employees codes or referral links to avail a certain product or reward on their partner E-commerce website, which allows the employees to shop straight at their homes or desks without the hassle of travelling to brick and mortar shops to purchase festive articles. This technique projects the company associating with them in a good light along with their own brand which was chosen as their partners. It’s a win-win situation, most of the times!
Loyalty programs can be a great way to encourage people to buy from a particular brand or channel and it also helps in trust building factor or employees towards their company itself. This occurs due to the choice of loyalty program made and the offers made are generally very attractive. The festive season, in general, is a great time to pair up loyalty programs as they make everyone feel like they are getting something extra and are rewarded for the same!
How to make your Loyalty program addictive
Today Loyalty programs form a major component of engagement with all the stakeholders in business. Their significance is of prime in retaining existing customers and thus reducing higher cost inputs. Similarly, improving the B2B partner relations or motivating employees is crucial and is made easy with Loyalty programs.
B2C
Giving Rewards while empowering the customers
For any business, empowering customers helps developing confidence in them about the business. Customer should be given a platform to review the products/services. This should be achieved actively by offering loyalty points to the customer for a single review that they provide for the product or service received. This eases feedback taking and incentivizes the customers to review.
Special occasion rewards
The loyalty programs can be offered at special occasions for the existing group of customers with higher discounts or amplified rewards than on the regular days. For instance, a gift card and 10% cash-back or an online shopping coupon & 100$ cash-back on minimum purchases. Reminders go a long way in keeping the customers hooked especially on the special events in their life such as birthdays or anniversaries
Bundled offerings
Businesses can bundle their products into a packaged offerings to the customers such as Amazon Prime. It offers unlimited free delivery of products coupled with free music & movie streaming on Prime Music and Prime Video respectively and numerous flash deals.
B2B
Successful businesses today rely on cordial relations with the existing trade partners/ clients. It takes a great amount of effort in building the relation and trust and even greater to maintain it. The partner loyalty program ensures that the partners are engaged in work with the businesses for long run. The best strategy to develop client relations through loyalty programs is to start organising business conferences, meet-ups or other similar events and offering VIP passes.
Once the ground of trust is laid along the way, businesses can offer their partner hotel bookings & trips to various destinations for profits realized together, as part of the Loyalty program.
Employees
Digital endorsement
This programme will make an employee feel a pat on his back by way of being endorsed online. For every achievement the employee can be given digital pat on the back. This means the employee is rewarded by the addition of credit points into his account which can be redeemed later on and any product worth those points can be obtained.
Ultimately, all stakeholders desire to get tangible rewards by getting a free service/product or a cash-back. Whether rewards are given digitally or by manual methods, the loyalty programs dispense interface has to be simple and comprehensible such as the one created by Sephora beauty brand for their customers. And lastly the terms and conditions should be part of the loyalty program which could be in the form of FAQs to make it self-explanatory for the customers.
5 Trends to Influence Next-Gen Loyalty Programs
Loyalty programs have become the part and parcel of almost every company or brand. Engaging customers has become all the more difficult at this point in time and introducing innovative and exciting strategies to engage and bring more consumers to purchase products from partnered brands has become crucial. The tried and tested methods of gaining attention of target audiences has now shifted to a different tangent hence, learning about the new trends that are influencing loyalty programs is highly recommended. On looking deeper into this subject, these 5 trends mentioned below seem to be the most influential strategies in the realm of loyalty programs.
User-Friendly Features
There are several kinds of philosophies in terms of redemption of rewards. Some reward loyalty programs by different hospitality companies are extremely straightforward, as they say on their schemes are clearly slated on website like“Accumulate 14 nights, get 1 night’s stay free.” This is to ensure that customers are redeeming their rewards instead of expiring rewards, blackout dates and continuous degradation of the value of the reward points assigned by the loyalty programs, that may discourage the customers.
Premium Program
Nowadays, we get to see a plethora of premium reward loyalty programs. The main reason why premium loyalty programs are becoming extensively popular is because the members want the advantages and benefits that a premium program offers and are willing to pay for it as well. In a recent consumer study from the former year, 62% of the subjects admitted that they would consider joining a reward loyalty programthat was fee-based if the provider or retailer was of their choice.
Next-Gen Rewards
Introducing rewards that have the ability or capacity to evolve into another offer or reward or could be combined with other offers, would make reward loyalty programs much more appealing and attractive to existing and new customers. Allowing a guest to trade their offer with something that suits their requirements and preference can definitely boost a loyalty program. The concept of combining of unused rewards into a bigger and more appealing reward can be a great hit amongst loyalty program consumers.
Chatbot and AI
Though chatbots or artificial intelligence cannot technically replace an actual human interaction, chatbots seem to be the most effective medium when a customer is trying to resolve common trivial issues. Chatbots reduce the need for customers to visit the website or store, etc making it faster and more efficient due to the increased chances of reduced human errors.
Predictive Personalization
The ever-growing consumer industry has been growing and changing their strategies for years. It has tried to break through from a tier-based system to a more personalized loyalty program that caters to specific sections of the target audience. In this new archetype, you would receive a reward based on your previous purchases or will be tailored to your specific needs. One loyalty program member might wish for an exclusive event entry and another might require the best suite with the fastest wifi and giving a reward based on their personal requirements would gain their attention more than generic mass-planned loyalty programs.
Trends are often a fast-moving phenomenon and is driven by various factors and the aforementioned are the biggest trends that are likely to reign in the world of reward loyalty program. They are an estimated vision of how the trends would influence the Next-Gen loyalty programs.
Importance of Green Loyalty Card Schemes for a Better Living
We all agree to the fact that sustainable living leads to a better environment. Our global future entirely revolves around how we use our natural resources. Usage of solar power, eating locally grown foods, consuming less fuel are some of the few things that can lead to a sustainable future. To encourage this, loyalty card companies also have come up with various schemes that reward their customers to shop for more goods and services that are considered environment-friendly.
There is nothing better than an incentive plan that rewards its customers for a better future. Green card loyalty card schemes are basically an ethical way of rewarding people for a sustainable living. These schemes encourage people to purchase and use services that are more eco-friendly that include travelling by sustainable moods of transportation, consumption of locally grown fruits and vegetables, usage of solar panels and lightning etc.
A loyalty program company implements the same concept of loyalty schemes into green card loyalty programme by purchasing which customers can collect reward points, and spend them with the partnering companies to purchase environment-friendly goods and services. There are various educational programmes and campaigns on sustainable living but the question is what’s in there for the customers to follow it. The answer is awareness and it acts as a motivational factor for consumers to adapt sustainable living.
After the implementation of these programmes, consumers are slowly inclining towards ethical consumption of goods and services, the growth is slow but constant. The loyalty programme companies choose their partners who are basically manufacturers of sustainable goods and services who also have attractive ways to present them in front of their customers.
The schemes have become popular in retail, travel industry and consumers have started using more organic products and services than artificial counterparts. For example, more and more people are purchasing solar panels, solar heaters, solar cookers, solar chargers etc. to use more of sunlight generated electricity.
This initiative taken by the Loyalty programme companies also has a huge contributing factor in achieving a nation’s financial goals since sustainable living helps saving up natural resources. And thus it helps build a stronger economy for the nation. There is a collective benefit in making greener living choices. The change Is slow but it’s progressive leads to a better future for sure.
How IoT Will Influence Customer Loyalty Programs in Future!
One of the important sources of competitive advantages nowadays from a service provider point of view is customer loyalty. Many companies are investing in rewards and incentive programs to encourage customer loyalty. But given the ever-increasing competition, keeping customers loyal to your brand is no easy task. So how do brands build trust, drive engagement and create value for their most prized customers in today’s fast-paced world?
The Internet of Things (IoT) can help!
Today there are a multitude of objects and devices connected to the Internet of Things (IoT). The number of connected devices is expected to exceed 40 billion by 2024. Considering the proven value of Internet and such promising growth trends, it only makes sense to ride the wave of opportunities that the IoT will provide.
Let’s see how it works!
Innovate using IoT insights
Creating innovative experiences that remain true to the brand is one way to engage customers. We talk about virtual reality changing the landscape of customer engagement. Let’s see how it works. Virtual reality enables customers to ‘try before they buy’ products online. Now if brands tie this into their loyalty program, what will happen? Their loyal customers will have a richer experience when shopping with the brand, which will certainly move the graph upwards.
Create a new level of personalization
Internet technology can dramatically increase the ability of firms to serve and develop intimate relationships with their customers. Using analytics, brands can create an entirely customized rewards program based on individual customer preferences, history, location and more. Automated emails related to customer actions are a great way to do that.
Gain the necessary competitive advantage
In a rapidly changing competitive environment, skillful use of technology can really help you establish a niche for yourself. Let’s use the seemingly simple mobile as an example. Your customers are connected to their phones, so if you really want to differentiate yourself, use your loyalty program to go where they go most often. An example of this is Sephora’s targeting of those who use their beauty insider app. Their beauty insider app allows for a seamless omni-channel experience where one can browse online, check store selection and pick up in store, all while collecting points.
A word of caution!
The IoT experience is the most exciting technology of this decade. The use of IoT has given businesses the NEW opportunities to interact and engage with customers, as well as introduce never before realized revenue streams. Be mindful, however, of customer privacy. Remember, with IoT we are also dealing with huge amounts of personally identifiable information. IoT is all about data and insight. We must, therefore, ensure that effective consumer privacy protections are in place to protect individuals.
Above said and done, we believe that IoT has the power to change the face of loyalty programs. Given the growing use and acceptance, the loyalty program of the future will offer more relevant, personal and rewarding brand experiences.
Will AI Replace Traditional Loyalty Programs?
The face of customer loyalty is changing constantly with the increasing cut-throat competition between companies. There are a hell lot of retail options available to customers. So what makes a person choose one over another? And there comes the most basic customer retention techniques- rewards for their loyalty. They have made themselves as Loyalty Rewards Company – a give-away reward to retain their customers. But is it the future? Do customers really want to be engaged in this way only?
The future is Artificial Intelligence. AI will help in gaining a foothold in this very competitive environment. AI consists of speech recognition, natural language understanding for creating better intelligent assistants. They will help customers with accessing information and completing tasks. AI will result in better business processes and customer orientation. The urge is there from customer side to make it more personalized and nothing can do it better with Machine Learning, which is a part of AI. Companies like Nectar are leveraging upon the technology giving their customers more personalized offers and they are very successful. As more customers use their Loyalty Rewards Programs and other digital channels, the better the machine learns about what is relevant for them. Customers are more likely to shop with retailers that deliver more personalized experiences.
Machine learning will totally eliminate the guessing work, it uses the data & analytics to provide the most likely predictions. Loyalty Reward Management programs basically will be utilizing the customer’s prior behavior on certain set of rules. For example, AI facilitates virtual assistants that can monitor the customers on the basis of their engagement in good behavior and then they could be rewarded for it. This reward would lead to more loyal behavior, and all of this will be done without any human interference. Further, this will significantly reduce the marketing cost since they would be targeting only the most relevant customers.
In the very future only, machine learning and AI would be touching every industry and customer loyalty is no different. A Loyalty program company which will use AI and Machine learning will no longer have different teams working on different campaigns for designing and managing offers schemes and discounts for their customers. So, with the help of Machine learning, they would not have to push 200 offers to everyone, but to push 20 offers for 20 type of audience which would have a higher conversion rate with low cost.
Also, the ability to deliver real-time personalized offers based on the ever-learning algorithms will completely replace the traditional loyalty programs. AI will disrupt business functions in nearly every industry. Different loyalty rewards companies are heading towards adopting this technology for better retention of their customers.
Blockchain – Redefining the Future of Customer Loyalty Programs
Loyalty programs have slowly made their presence felt across travel, retail, financial services, and other business sectors. And since technology is progressive in nature, they are seeking for some kind of disruptive innovation that would turn them more consumer-friendly. Currently, companies are trying to implement new technologies that would suit their ever-growing needs. Blockchain is the next level innovation in this aspect and according to experts, it will bring the same change to banking what internet bought to media. Blockchain has become the first native digital currency for peer-to-peer value exchange.
It acts like a redemption for consumers since it provides them a single platform to access multiple loyalty programs. For example, imagine keeping only one wallet for all loyalty points and you don’t have to hunt for different options, limitations and redemption rules. Apart from that, there are a host of benefits for which Blockchain will redefine the future of all financial transactions in near future. Let’s explore.
1. It’s fast
The decentralized approach of blockchain diminishes the complications between buyer and merchant. Many stakeholders make e-commerce transactions unnecessarily complicated by involving parties that makes the process complicated by adding additional function and bureaucratic steps. Blockchain eliminates the need of a centralized authority, so the money can travel instantly in real-time.
2. It’s cheap
Blockchain reduces a lot of costs. All kinds of loyalty and financial transactions run through a lot of complex network of vendors, banks and payment processors. Blockchain removes all unnecessary third parties by allowing cheap and timeless peer-to-peer transactions. For any online transaction, a consumer ends up paying somewhere around 7% extra which can be minimized by switching to alternative mood of payments.
3. It’s Transparent
Transparency is one of the most salient features of Blockchain. Since it follows a distributed public ledger system, it’s possible to track every bit of information of a transaction. In e-commerce, marketplaces and brands usually keeps all information by themselves and charges the trader to pass them. Blockchain solves this issue by making all data visible and allows all involved parties to access data for free.
4. It’s secured
Blockchain uses certain security system which is decentralized and immutable in nature. In case of any kind of data loss, it can be traced back easily.
5. It’s easily accessible
Blockchain is digital in nature and by implementing it, a lot of additional costs can be minimized. By nature it’s less costly and has lots of potential to divert people’s minds to purchase and participate in global economy. And since it’s decentralized, the same loyalty points can be used for various purposes.
Blockchain is almost similar to the existing loyalty and transaction programs, except that it is cheaper and faster. In a country like India, it’s still early to declare it as the ultimate redemption for the existing loyalty programs since Indian government has not completely legalized it yet. But its transparent nature is a major step towards democratizing economy and bringing the power of economy back to people.
How loyalty is acting as a game changer in the e-commerce industry
The e-commerce industry has revolutionised the way consumers think and purchase items. People love to shop online for all the convenience and benefits e-shopping brings with it. Consumers can shop anytime and anywhere for everyday or luxe products, save fuel cost, avoid traffic jams, and bypass crowded payment queues. The list is just endless. On top of that, a good customer loyalty program — that is simple to access — keeps the customers motivated and hooked for a substantial period of time.
The old patterns of consumer behaviour do not hold true in today’s digital age. So a customer loyalty program, that is constantly evolving according to millenials’ demands and industry trends, is definitely the way to go. A successful loyalty program depends on how effectively the consumer data is studied. With the right approach and proper discipline, a set of new benefits excites customers to shop at a reasonable cost. The old benefits, that are no longer serving any purpose, are eliminated from the program.
A game-changing loyalty program not only leads to an increase in sales but also results in new customer acquisition and better reputation for the business. A better brand image is definitely a good sign for overall business operations.
According to studies, it is the idea of a reward that makes most customers happy. The idea of saving money only comes after that. Since any great loyalty brings with it new customers and ups the sales, it helps the brand to reduce marketing costs to a great extent. On top of that, existing customers are far more likely to buy from the same brand again and again. Therefore, to keep them loyal is far more handy than to target new customers. Also, since these customers are already familiar with the company’s products and services, they are more cost-effective to serve! Reduction in cost to company and honest feedback are the two things that a business can rely on their loyal consumer base for.
Although many e-retailers understand the concept of customer loyalty fully and how important it is, many of them are lacking in effort for a sustained loyalty program. So there seems to be a disconnection. Still others don’t keep an accurate tab on how these programs are performing, even after they have been set into motion. The idea is to recognise the prime market and construct a plan that makes new customers loyal and keeps the loyal ones excited and looking forward to the brand’s new products. This has also proven to be helpful in beating competitors — that serve the same products and services — thereby gaining an edge over them!
Millennials as Customers and How to Gain Their Loyalty
It is the age of the millennials — also commonly known as the Gen Y. This savvy generation not only comprises smart customers, but also include decision makers in top firms. Holding the largest share in the consumer marketplace, they have taken it hands on to change the rules of how brands engage and conduct their customer-experience design. It’s both easy and difficult to gain millennials’ loyalty. But the job is half-done once their tech-savvy psyche is grasped!
1. Customer-facing technology can’t be slow or complicated
Millennials have always embraced and aligned themselves with technology. So a user experience that is not friendly, simple, fast and advanced, is generally frowned upon by consumers. Companies should be careful not to present an obsolete process or a complicated system to consumers that will keep them away.
2. Smartphones have been the norm for millenials
Millennials are used to getting everything immediately and experiencing everything in real time. The queries need to be attended to as soon as possible and in an authentic language; otherwise, the customer moves on to someone else who understands him/her more.
3. Purchasing, for millennials, is a social experience
Engaging on social media is a part of everyday life for millennials. Often, these posts concern their consumption activities, their next purchase or what they might be looking for. This greatly affects businesses — as the opinion and review of one consumer could influence another.
4. Millennials seek an authentic and engaging experience
Which is why the company website should include a FAQ page — how to go about making a purchase, detailed repercussions of what could go wrong, or any sort of guidance. This can be done either through articles or videos — where customers can discover quick-fix methods and find instant solution to all their problems.
5. Interference or help from customer care is considered tedious
This means that they are self-reliant too and do not need customer-care executives getting in the way, just to mess up their whole experience. More often than not, they would prefer self service.
6. Surprisingly, they also want to co-exist
They’re open to new experiences and want to associate with the brand more than with just a transaction. To speak plainly, millennials are adventurous and seek the same from the brand. For example, a cause supported by a favourite company would also be supported by the loyal customers.
The bottom line is that — nothing with the millennials can be taken for granted. The skeptical approach of the previous generations also needs to be done away with. They move fast, like to experiment and are prone to changing loyalties only after one bad experience. It would also be good to know what the target audience is, in order for customer service to be innovative, seamless and top-notch on the whole.
The Growing Needs of Social CRM
Customer Relationship Management
This is the name for any system or model, accustomed to manage a company’s interactions with its current or future shoppers or customers.
This system could be a piece of technology designed to manage, organize, change and synchronize the entire client-facing areas in your company — from sales and marketing to client service and technical support.
It offers you time to develop the different areas of your business, while providing you with the assurance that you’re not losing your existing shoppers. It helps you in responding to new inquiries in an economical manner.
It also permits you with the time and freedom to target different areas of your business, while you are assured with the knowledge that an automatic system is keeping you and your team up-to-date and totally conscious of your clients’ needs.
There are more advantages of adopting a great CRM . As of now, simply keep in mind that keeping the client at the soul and heart of your business strategy is that the key to success.
CRM in the social world:
Of course, ancient channels like telephone or email aren’t any longer the sole channels, whenever conversations between the company and client happen. People are contacting brands for everything — from general queries to compliments and complaints via social networks.
The digital world is getting complex and we’re seeing a lot of broader fragmentation in the way that customers are using different channels.
It makes things terribly difficult for the client service team. Customers hop across varied channels so as to complete even the simplest of tasks, whether or not it’s shopping for merchandise from a brand or checking the opening hours of a retail shop.
However, chances are, all the channels are operated by different folks with different agendas and priorities. It’s entirely easy for a client to move across channels and have a totally different experience with each channel.
Therefore consistency is a must.
Early days of social media
Here’s a neat summation of the early days of social media.
As social media channels became popular, they were embraced by users to support conversations with brands and different customers. Customers were not passive recipients of data. They had unrestricted access to data and content from their peers.
Brands had no direct management over these conversations and would, at best, intervene in them at an opportune moment, e.g. create a post during a forum discussion thread.
The default communication dimension was client to client and therefore the primary goal of the social CRM model was engagement, resulting in an increased customer experience — with a deal being a secondary consequence, not the first goal. The shopper was currently in full control.
It simply goes to point out why it’s a must for each brand to observe mentions of itself on Twitter.
Current days of Social CRM
Brands must incorporate social media into their CRM strategy in response to their customers’ adoption of the same.
Social interactions might not directly lead to immediate conversion. However, they can promote engagement which will indirectly generate leads, produce authoritative relationships and build confidence within the brand, eventually driving future sales.
Every touch point should be recorded in a CRM system. Thus, all the knowledge concerning any last purpose of contact, notwithstanding channel, is created out there to anybody at within the organization.
Differences between CRM and social CRM
Understanding the variations between social CRM and traditional CRM models will facilitate marketers’ approach toward the social CRM program style.
Best practices of social CRM
Social CRM is regarding client engagement, not management, because brands and marketers are not in control of conversation anymore.
Social CRM thus sees a shift — focused from sales to relationship-building conversations — lead by a belief that enhanced client experiences with engagement can ultimately drive sales. The key to success is to give the choice to shop for as a secondary instead of the first focus.
Use the regular contact opportunities afforded by social media as a way of staying somewhere close to the front of customers who aren’t ready for purchase yet.
In the meantime, keep them engaged with helpful, valuable content and knowledge. Keep in mind that ‘valuable’ will mean many various things though. Amusing, academic or informative content is effective. A fast response to a relevant question is effective. Connecting customers with people or brands which will be relevant can even be valuable. And something that may either make a shopper feel special or save him time, cash or problem will definitely foster a deeper sense of brand name loyalty.
Social CRM is regarding being patient and organized. Customers take smaller steps down the sales funnel. However, the long-term gains are often far more rewarding.
This is clearly a totally different sales model to the normal sales-orientated processes. The foundations of engagement are modified by social media because of its omnipresence in people’s lives and therefore the expectations that have changed with it. Grouping social together with your existing CRM strategy can mean your company matching those expectations and hopefully surpassing them.
‘Experiential Rewards’- The Key to Future Loyalty
A memory can be a very powerful thing. Our lives are defined by our memories, the experiences that we have. These experiences count not only in our personal lives but also in our professional ones. Loyalty programs have long been a practice of materialism; however, the trends seem to be changing. The key is the term “experience”.
No matter the industry you belong to or are interested in, everyone seems to be discussing this somewhat subtle way of rewarding your best customers.
You probably don’t remember how you spent that last bit of cash in your wallet (groceries, diapers, gas for the car?) but you do remember that first time you got up on water skis, or that gorgeous sunset from your last beach vacation, or the time you sang your favorite song at karaoke and actually killed it
Almost everyone has taken a picture of a meal and posted it on Instagram, Snapchat or Facebook in the last month. That’s sharing your experience with your social circles—and in a small way, makes you part of the experience economy. The experience economy was coined in the late 90s but continues to remain relevant—even more so today based on other economic changes.
The experience economy occurs when a company intentionally engages individuals in a way that creates a memorable event. That includes consumers like in the example above and extends to all people you’re looking to engage and motivate.
Let’s take a closer look at why experiential rewards are the way forward:
1. Personalization Is Key
Personalization is tailoring a service or a product to accommodate specific individuals. With the emergence of artificial intelligence and other machine learning capabilities, consumers expect to be treated like the individuals they are. The more we know about our customers, channel partners and employees, the easier it becomes to offer rewards they trust and value.
Put yourself in their shoes.
How do they want to receive rewards?
Is it a digital experience?
Do they prefer a gift delivered to their home where their family can take part in their achievements?
These are just a few examples of the myriad of ways we can stay in touch with participants today with the reward experience.
2. Experiential rewards are personal and become part of our identity
We enjoy telling stories. Above all, experiences help to create stories which are inherently shareable. The human brain is wired to compose, remember, and share stories. And so, a reward or a recognition ceremony that lends itself to a story is more likely to be shared and remembered. Who would not find it interesting and comfortable to share stories about a recent vacation, a hand-pottery or night-trekking experience, vs. their last purchase? The stories that a unique or indulgent experience can generate, might even become a part of your organization’s lore, gaining a life far beyond the actual award itself. And in fact, experiences also offer high social currency, photos or videos for social accounts of the millennial workforce. Studies show that millennials prefer experiences over consumer goods.
3. Experiential rewards although by nature are short-lived but create healthy long-term happiness
There is actually a hell lot of difference between offering a discount and handing over a customized gift worth to your customers. Though the monetary value of both the rewards is same, the experiential value is significant in the latter case. Simply because you are giving them what they have been aspiring to the most. Apart from creating a huge treasure trove of memorable experiences, it is making their lives a tad better in terms of happiness.
Ultimately, the power of experiential rewards is the combination of inspiration and aspiration. Experiential rewards inspire your best customers by giving them positive associations that last much longer than a transactional reward.
These unique, shareable experiences will also help you build a brand community that gets customers excited, expanding your marketing reach and further solidifying the idea that your brand really is the ultimate solution.
5 Loyalty Trends to Look Out for in 2018
Planning to introduce new loyalty programs for your customers in 2018? You may want to consider these…
2017 came with a bang and we have hardly witnessed so many changes in recent years. The recent digital evolution was hard to imagine and it has resulted in speedy progression of consumer awareness. Gone are the days when a huge newspaper ad could convince your consumers. A new age of business emerges and it has been bringing remarkable changes in every aspect of modern marketing ethics. When information are easily accessible everywhere, you can’t sit back and wait for your consumers to knock on your door. You need to be one step ahead to maintain long-term consumer loyalty. The line between public and private sector is slowly evaporating and everyone from SMEs to big corporate honchos are trying to introduce new and technologically advanced loyalty programs to attract their consumers.
The future looks innovative and if you are planning to introduce a new set of loyalty programs for your consumers then you must check the following 5 trends.
1. Transcendental Consumer Experience
New age consumers don’t want to purchase a product, they want to experience it at a personal level. Lives are moving at dizzying speeds and people tend to forget things that aren’t right in front of their eyes. Being present and constant in day to day life has become important and consumers want to be addressed as the same person by the brand across all channels of communication. Brands have started realizing the fact that they need to become their client’s friend through their e-commerce, social media pages and loyalty platform. You need to count each and every available information about your consumers and create a personalized out-of-this-world experience that will make feel special and eventually it becomes easy for them to remember you.
2. Careful Utilization of Visual
Every social media platform has started their own live streaming services. Be it twitter, facebook or instagram. Visuals will surely replace the static mode of communication in the foreseeable future. But you need to utilize it carefully since the competition of scrolling content is getting fierce. With ads popping up in almost every network, advertisers are living in a fear of ad fatigue. We recommend using short and crisp videos that don’t trouble the viewers.
3. Impact of Machine Learning
Currently, businesses are using machine learning for four different purposes. To create user-generated content, to build meaningful conversation with consumers, to predict consumer behavior and to help consumers find products. With rapid generation of data and capability of massive computing power, machine learning has become the most useful way to detect anomalies. Machine learning is very useful to gather appropriate data, introduce personalized reward points for your consumers. It helps gather accurate information in real-time.
4. Instant Rewards Points
We know alerts are annoying but no one can deny the impact of reward point texts from their favorite shopping destination. Millennial are extroverts and they mostly explore the market on their own. They always tend to question the traditional ways and prefer notifications than call on their phones. For example, a push notification to remind insurance renewal is necessary but 20% cashback along with the renewal is an attractive prospect.
5. Travel Experience as Reward Point
Just go through recent promotional offers by 10 different brands, and you will find at least four of them offering luxury gateways to their consumers. Millennial are experimental in nature and they are always ready to explore a new place. Traveling has become easier than before and short city breaks appeal consumers more than cash reward points.
Technology and internet plays vital roles in changing the course of a business in recent years. Don’t hesitate to hire someone if you don’t know the current trends and updates. Your consumers are smarter than you and they know how to explore the market better than you. Keeping pace with changing times is the only way out there.