Loyalty Blogs

We all know the growing importance of gaining customer loyalty for brands to truly succeed. This means we are all familiar with loyalty points, rewards, cashback program, etc. and many even use them regularly. However, it has been noted that there are several loyalty programs in the market with reward offerings that participants are not able to fully utilize.

The big question is- why it is happening? Customers today have higher expectations and are constantly looking for new ways to unlock their purchases’ full value. In this blog, we have shortlisted insights shared by experts about the current landscape of loyalty, and how the right Cashback Loyalty Rewards Program can help brands unlock more opportunities for customers.

Tips To Keep in Mind While Building Loyalty & Cashback Programs

With stiff competition in the market today, building a successful loyalty program that your customers want can be a big task. Without knowing what they are looking for in the name of loyalty rewards, your programs cannot succeed in winning their loyalty.

A good Loyalty Solution Provider can help you understand what your target audience is looking for in the loyalty program, which will help you unlock better opportunities for your customers.

After connecting with the expert, Aron Alexander, Founder and CEO of Runa, the global digital value infrastructure provider, we have compiled some of the best tips shared by him that you must keep in mind while building a loyalty rewards program. Listed below are the points-

– Limitations of Existing Loyalty Programs

We know that loyalty and rewards programs have the potential to transform the way businesses engage with customers. A Prosper Insights and Analytics survey states that over 60% of customers actively become part of loyalty programs with retail brands and restaurants. However, some limitations restrict these programs from becoming fully successful.

One of the limitations of the programs is fewer redemption choices to specific categories of rewards based on predetermined merchant choices, leading to failure in meeting individual customer preferences. Another research says 61% of loyalty customers prefer rewards in the form of gift cards as compared to only 15% who prefer special discounts/promotions.

While coalition programs are funded by multiple merchants and involve several businesses but may frustrate customers when they lack interoperability. Gone are the days when customers were happy with one-size-fits-all rewards, they now look forward to tailored offerings based on individual customer preferences.

Another issue is being not able to spend rewards how they want along with reward expiration dates and usage constraints. Such inflexibility is bad for both businesses and customers. Businesses have the risk of customers switching competitors with better reward offerings and customers get frustrated on seeing the value of the rewards that they accumulated for long are left unused.

– Tips to Enhance Loyalty Programs Experience

To win customers’ hearts, enhancing the experience of these programs is essential, which can be done by improving speed and ease of use. More & more customers prefer the ease of earning rewards as the main factor when choosing the rewards program. If you are building a program, ensure that you simplify the rewards process without any complications to help customers gain benefits with a higher customer satisfaction rate.

As customers choose to become part of several loyalty programs, they consider choice and flexibility as the main aspects. Another research says 26% of customers are part of at least 2 programs & 15% of them are part of more than 5 programs. However, these programs are not being used fully due to interoperability issues making rewards remain trapped within siloed systems.

The key is to make sure that you build a program that enables customers to use and spend rewards where, when, and how they want, promoting a streamlined customer experience and a transparent overview of rewards value.

– Technologies/Trends Impacting the Future of Loyalty Programs

As technology continuously evolves, the way the loyalty & rewards businesses work has changed requiring programs that are aligned with the latest technologies. Personalized rewards are becoming the need of the hour helping businesses to retain their most loyal customers and offering customer satisfaction within loyalty programs.

AI technology has the potential to transform the whole loyalty experience with advanced data analytics and retailers can use AI to personalize rewards efficiently for each customer based on their preferences and spending habits.

Another thing is digital wallets enable customers to keep track of their reward’s digital value in one place and redeem them easily. This enables customers to view their rewards wallet as their bank accounts providing access just like cash.

Cashback program is another reward form that can be converted into digital value like cryptocurrency. Though every customer may not be aware of how to use and store cryptocurrency, facilitating the receipt of cryptocurrency as cashback with seamless storage in the digital wallet can be a great move while building a loyalty program.

– Importance of Flexibility & Value in Loyalty Program

Flexibility is another important aspect that is essential if you are upgrading your loyalty program. More than 50% of customers prefer loyalty programs that offer a seamless and practical redemption process.

Avoid complex earning rules and rewards with expiration dates to gain the attention of customers offering instant gratification and freedom to redeem rewards. As customers today look forward to earning more digital value, ensure that you spend additional costs to facilitate the real-time conversion of funds from one store to another, promoting interoperability across multiple rewards infrastructures.

Final Takeaways

After gaining valuable knowledge from the blog, you must have an idea that loyalty programs have huge potential to transform business goals enabling customers to unlock their digital value. Loyalty and rewards, if planned strategically and executed successfully, can have a huge impact on customers’ everyday lives.

If you are struggling to make a great impact on your customers’ lives and win long-term loyalty, ensure that you check out the innovative approaches stated above to help unlock real digital value. Being a renowned Customer Loyalty Program Platform, Novus can be a great help to brands that plan to build dedicated loyalty solutions and transform the way their customers receive and redeem rewards. Connect with our loyalty experts today and start delivering the value your customers deserve.