The Strategic Evolution of Loyalty Programs – The Loyalty Post
Article Synopsis :
In the age of the customer loyalty strategies are key to keeping customers engaged.
The Loyalty Post March Issue is a compendium covering a wide range of topics related to customer loyalty including customer focus, marketing, future trends, a cover story, customer experience, loyalty and analytics. Highlights are:
(I) Consumer Focus:
- Brands should stop looking at technology as a tool to merely identify trends, using technology as a tool to meet expectations. Brands should not only meet current and emerging customer expectations but also create new expectations by devising innovative new solutions.
- Do the right thing for customers by understanding them and adding real value as they define value. To this end, an eight-point plan is suggested to help maximize customer-centricity:
- Identify who your primary and secondary customers are.
- Identify the products and services they consume and through which channels (web, call centre, bricks and mortar and so on).
- Work out where the crucial ‘points of addition’ occur in adding value to those products and services.
- Make sure each of the business areas involved in these points of addition know how they – the business areas – add value to these products and services.
- Align the organisational structure to support these points of addition.
- Minimise the activities that don’t add value to what the customer is getting from the organisation.
- Ensure that the correct measurements maintain and improve the processes.
- Support where appropriate with technology solutions.
(II) Marketing Features:
- Customer expectations have changed and they now require more engagement from retailers including real-time updates on new offers. Integrated multi-channel communication is key to understanding customer expectations.
- Privacy and security in enterprise communications is essential and can be achieved cross-organization through a sound IT framework straddling different hierarchies within and outside the organization.
(III) Future Trends:
- New rules of customer loyalty engage and reward customers and measure customer loyalty through the use of applications to build long-term relationships.
- “Mobile Wallets” can boost sales, differentiate brand, reduce costs and improve customer service.
(IV) Industry Updates:
- Key trends include: Integrating online into offline, Webrooming v. Showrooming, and an emphasis on free delivery.
- Several non-insurance examples around customer loyalty are provided in this section.
(V) Cover story:
- Loyalty programs in India particularly have not changed much and there is a need to evolve with changing customer and technology landscapes. Five recommended steps include:
- Assess alignment with evolving company KPIs – Link KPIs with concrete business targets.
- Assess the competitive ‘white space’ that you can own over time – Explore technologies to develop and exploit these capabilities.
- Assess evolving customer needs and ‘pain points’ – Understand customer wish lists and problem areas.
- Diligently assess cost/benefit tradeoffs – Weigh the costs and benefits of programs in the harsh light of reality.
- Assess the best validation and implementation roll-out plan – Ensure the plan meets organizational financial goals and customer needs and is deployed at the right time.
(VI) Customer Experiences:
- A survey reveals customers go first to the call centre and then the website depending on the complexity of their issue. Channels such as mobile, text, social and webcam apps are increasingly popular among youngsters.
- Eight best-practices for customer experience management include: build relationships; integrate support channels; engage customers in real-time; coach agents for performance, empower and engage employees; devise real customer-centric metrics; drive customer experience from the top; build data-delivery capabilities for better decision making.
- Strong analytics are required to identify pain-points in customer service, identify cost-savings, and maintain optimum customer service levels in changing times.
(VII) Loyalty & More:
- Key advice is rendered here for marketers deploying customer communication strategies including communication frequency, repeat purchase rates and need for future products/services.
- Three key trends impacting loyalty marketing include creating a multi-channel experience, further integrating loyalty into everyday transactions and personalization.
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Digital Insurer's Comments
Insurers have historically connected with customers at three touchpoints: the payment of a premium, filing of a claim, and broad-based advertising. The proliferation of digital channels places new demands on insurers in these three areas and also in new ways.Digital technologies create new opportunities to better understand customer behaviours. Big data and analytics, Internet of Things (IoT), and wearables should be viewed as new tools to build better personalisation and customer-centricity. Although the business case for these technologies isn’t always straightforward the promise of best-in-class customer loyalty is (or should be) a powerful driver.
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