Brand loyalty insights—3 ways to make customers feel recognized and rewarded

A business acquaintance recently gathered with three friends at a favorite New York City restaurant. Touting a new loyalty program, their server said they needed to provide only their email addresses to enroll—and the first round of drinks would be on the house. All four declined. This story should serve as a wake-up call to marketers. When your target demographic thinks spending $18 per cocktail is better than the prospect of annoying promotional emails, texts and geolocation offers, there’s a problem. But it’s a common one. There’s a loyalty crisis in today’s marketplace. A recent SAP Emarsys study found a decline in the percentage of U.S. customers loyal to particular retailers—dropping from 79% to 68% in just one year. How did we end up with a loyalty crisis at a time when earning loyalty in a cluttered, noisy marketplace has never been more important? Because brands have been: Ad Age Small Agency Conference & Awards Join us July 23 & 24 in Boston Learn more here Mistakes such as these lead customers to conclude there’s too little value for them in the “value exchange” marketers talk about. I know the feeling. Some travel-related programs I’ve joined keep moving the goalposts, cheapening rewards, making me jump higher to cash in and letting their amenities degrade. Airport lounges for frequent travelers, for example, are now overcrowded, have so-so food and frankly, are worth skipping altogether. Marketers shouldn’t fret, though. The key to driving loyalty is making customers feel like a brand understands what they want and need. For me, this means making me feel like a VIP. A hotel chain that I didn’t particularly enjoy previously began offering new benefits and a personal touch, including personalized messages and gifts at check-in. The staff also provided perks to my extended family when they stayed with me, even though they weren’t part of the loyalty program. This makes me look good to my family—and makes me feel recognized and appreciated, which influences my spending choices. New and emerging tools can help marketers create personalized programs that go a long way toward making customers feel recognized and rewarded and earn their loyalty. Some ways to boost loyalty in a time of crisis: Offer hyper-personalization and relevance A McKinsey study found that 71% of consumers expect personalization and 76% are frustrated when they don’t get it. With AI, brands can quickly analyze and deploy data to deliver relevant messages and offers, even reducing the number of touches needed to earn a conversion. Retailer Marks & Spencer uses customer data to deliver personalized digital messages and AI to give website shoppers tailored outfit recommendations. And data can be used to create better real-world experiences. Did you order a martini at your favorite restaurant? We’ll make sure we offer you a personalized incentive to bring you back—and we’ll know your preferred brand of gin or vodka. Deliver seamless experiences Some companies require multiple enrollments or logins for their rewards programs, branded credit cards and other options. Companies with multiple brands with customer crossover often don’t facilitate engagement or purchases within the family of brands. And tying a loyalty program to purchases made on social channels remains a frustrating exercise for many shoppers. The solution is a unified suite of programs requiring a single enrollment that allows the customer to select or change options from an app or dashboard. And embedded finance can offer easy credit and payment options for offers tailored to what the customer might like or need. The experience to aim for is: “Welcome back! We know you and what you like, and we’re going to make your experience convenient and rewarding.” Offer next-level customer service While it’s important to wow customers online, the human touch matters more than ever. At the hotel I mentioned, the staff made it clear that I was known not just to the company’s database, but also to them. Of course, the best loyalty program in the world, perfectly executed, can’t overcome shoddy products, indifferent employees, depleted inventory or other things consumers find annoying. But technology can help: Daily Harvest, a packaged foods company, used AI to optimize its packing operations, which reduced damaged shipments and customer complaints. Many companies, of course, are using AI to launch a new generation of customer-service chatbots and omnichannel communications platforms, a vast improvement over “please hold” frustrations. Brands that get this right will find the loyal customers they need to succeed. In Marigold’s latest U.S. Consumer Trends Index, consumers overwhelmingly say that their favorite brands provide a consistent experience (regardless of the type of interaction) and use their data in ways that make them feel comfortable and special. When customers grow unreceptive to invasive, uninvited and irrelevant campaigns, they aren’t simply playing hard to get. They’re always on the lookout for brands that know them, communicate concisely and pertinently and deliver experiences that make them feel good—so good that they won’t consider taking their business elsewhere.

Brand loyalty insights—3 ways to make customers feel recognized and rewarded

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