These days, it seems like every company has a loyalty program. However, not all loyalty programs are created equal. In the always-evolving marketplace, it’s important for your business to keep its loyalty program fresh and relevant, otherwise you risk losing your customers to the competition. By updating your loyalty program, you can separate yourself from other businesses, increase customer share and ROI, build consumer loyalty, improve data collection and your ability to market, and dramatically improve the profitability of your company.

 

How do you know when the time is right to make changes?

 

Review Your Loyalty Program Goals:

You created your loyalty program for a reason. If you aren’t hitting the following 5 goals you need to change something.

 

1. Increase sales and income
2. Increase loyalty program membership
3. Collect customer insights/information
4. Improve customer experience
5. Offer rewards that are relevant and worthwhile

 

Get Customer Feedback

Customer feedback is key. It may sound obvious, but a common issue with unsuccessful or partially successful loyalty programs is that, after a company launches a program, they forget about it and don’t give it a lot of thought and consideration. A company needs to continually review, nurture and tweak its rewards program in order to stay current with the needs and wants of their customers.

 

Just like any kind of relationship, you need to communicate and keep an open dialogue with your loyalty program participants. Ask them what they like, dislike, and how you can improve. Not only will you gain valuable insight, but you will also increase their loyalty to you because it shows you care!

 

Check Your Bottom Line.

At the end of the day, your loyalty program is meant to do one thing: improve your bottom line. If it isn’t, you need to look at making some changes.

 

What Is The Data Telling You?

Are your enrollment rates on the rise? Are new members signing up? What are customers using their rewards on? What products/services are being affected by the program? Who is using the loyalty program? All of these questions and more are available to you via the data you collect in your loyalty program. Use these valuable insights to your advantage and make changes when necessary to optimize your program.

 

Digitization Isn’t the Future, It’s the Present.

If you haven’t already digitized your loyalty program, it’s time to. Modernizing your program will open up new communication channels. Mobile loyalty programs allow for push notifications, email and SMS offers, and attention-grabbing loyalty campaigns that were previously unavailable to you. The ability to collect data from anywhere and target customers in real time with engaging and dynamic content is everything. Expanding to new technologies allows for greater accessibility and usability, ensuring that you keep your customers happy.