Rewarding Loyalty, Not Just Spend

Rethinking Loyalty: Beyond Transactional Relationships

You wouldn't want to have a personal relationship with someone who asked you for money every time you interacted with them, would you? Anyone with teenage kids reading this will understand how frustrating that can be. And the same is true of the relationships you have with businesses, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t still happen all the time.

Many traditional loyalty schemes are designed in such a way that the only way for a customer to get rewards is via spending money, and every communication they receive from that brand is simply trying to incentivize them to spend more…in order that they can earn benefits at a later stage. This "spend to get" model can often diminish the customer’s perception of the benefits offered, and doesn’t result in long-term customer advocacy. Loyalty is an emotion after all and therefore the true essence of loyalty has to lie beyond just the transactional. Customers should feel valued by the businesses they choose to frequent, beyond just monetary exchanges.

Introducing 'Social and Behavioural Actions'

That's precisely why we've introduced 'Social and Behavioural Actions', enabling organizations to reward their customers’ non-transactional behaviors. This doesn't imply giving away freebies indiscriminately; instead, it's about crafting strategic campaigns to drive desired behaviours effectively.

Non-Transactional Behaviours

What exactly do we mean by non-transactional behaviors? Simply put actions that don't involve monetary transactions. This could range from incentivizing customers to complete their user profile, connect their social media accounts, download an app, or make a digital reservation, for, for example, 100 points. These actions might seem straightforward, but simplicity is key – customers shouldn't have to be made to feel as though they’re always jumping through hoops.

Data Collection and Personalization 

While these actions may not directly generate revenue for the retailer, they serve as valuable opportunities for these businesses to get closer to their customers, gaining additional data points to deepen their understanding of individual customers’ behaviour which can in turn, be used to enable the business to provide a more personalized experience.

Endless Innovative Use Cases

However, data collection shouldn't be the sole focus, nor should the examples be limited to basic actions, the options to drive engagement by rewarding the behaviour you seek are endless. We integrate with many third-party platforms to unlock some pretty cool and more intricate use cases. For instance, imagine offering bonus points to customers who swap a product in their basket for a healthier or more sustainable alternative. This not only encourages positive action but also aligns with customers' personal health and sustainability goals with McKinsey finding that 70% of consumers want to be healthier and 60% value sustainable products. By not only incentivizing and rewarding this action, but by seamlessly integrating the technical solution into the shopping journey to be able to identify a swap opportunity, and provide suitable alternatives with no effort required from the customer helps to further foster emotional engagement.

Sticking with the personal health theme, retailers including Loblaws in Canada, have had great success with initiatives in this space. Examples include rewarding customers for completing cooking and fitness courses via their app, as well as linking fitness accounts to loyalty accounts, and setting step targets to reach in return for a benefit to help spur on customers through their well-being journey.

Rewarding True Loyalty

Taking it back to the title of this blog, 'Rewarding loyalty, not just spend', let's delve deeper into why this principle holds significant importance. Consider this scenario: while I may be the epitome of loyal, faithfully conducting 100% of my shopping with a business, my spending might pale in comparison to that of a family of four who only patronizes the business for half their needs. Despite my unwavering support, traditional loyalty schemes might favour the higher spender, leaving me feeling undervalued. As a loyal advocate of your brand, deeply engaged and committed, any gesture of appreciation resonates tenfold with me. It's time to re-evaluate how we honour our truly loyal customers; fortunately, it doesn't require much to show them they're truly valued.

Get in touch with Eagle Eye today to start rewarding loyalty.