This site uses cookies to improve your experience. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country, we will assume you are from the United States. Select your Cookie Settings or view our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Used for the proper function of the website
Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Strictly Necessary: Used for the proper function of the website
Performance/Analytics: Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more: What role do loyalty programs play in enhancing customerengagement? How can companies leverage loyalty programs to generate additional revenue?
If you travel a bit, as I do, this app can be a lifesaver. It organizes all your travel information in one place, so when I land in a strange airport, I can check the app on my phone to remember which hotel I booked and not rely on my memory. Vocal customers offer valuable ideas. and the not so good. Think about it.
Travel and tourism can be difficult areas for retaining customer loyalty, with websites set up exclusively to pit brands against one another on the best deals for hotels and rock-bottom prices on flights. Many businesses in the travel industry have tried out loyalty schemes and rewardprograms with varied success.
Hotel giant Hilton recently dropped the H from its rewardsprogram , replacing the linguistically puzzling Hilton HHonors with an easier to pronounce version, Hilton Honors. The new rewardsprogram will be the first in the industry to allow members to combine points and money for a hotel visit. I like these changes.
Travel and hospitality companies have a difficult job. But even these leading travel brands can do better. Things are improving for the travel industry, but the biggest multipliers of customer satisfaction seem largely to be left behind. To accomplish this, they need to better manage their customer journeys.
For centuries, merchants have been offering special tokens that repeat customers could redeem for goods. Today, stamps, vouchers and coupons have mostly been replaced by apps and digital methods of tracking customerengagement. Does the customer journey flow smoothly? There are several considerations here.
While travel and retail brands have made a lot of progress in the last 24 months, the bulk of innovation has come from other consumer sectors – including media businesses, entertainment, and telecoms providers, which in recent years appeared to regard loyalty as a lost cause. What really stood out is which brands were pulling off these feats.
For a retailer, this might mean rethinking stocking practices so that customer feedback lets you keep up with the latest trends before they fizzle out. For an airline, it may be as simple as streamlining the boarding process, a major source of stress for travellers. Connect channel activities and customer experiences.
A restaurant can hire the greatest chef in the world, and still have poor reviews because of the service the customer receives. Include Customer Service Based Keywords Buzzwords in the customer service industry include things like active listening, customerengagement, supported, improved, solved or assisted.
The majority of existing partnerships at big loyalty programs are brokered with one goal in mind: creating more value for the most frequent customers. For airlines and hotel groups, frequent customers are business travelers, so their partner mixes are heavily biased toward fellow travel brands. I’m a case in point.
Rewardprograms still have an important part to play in this effort; but they are only part of the picture. YouGov data from the UK shows that even the youth demographic – supposedly disloyal – thinks that points programs “are a good way for brands to rewardcustomers and 59% think all brands should offer one.”.
The reality is that there are a lot of people slapping each other’s backs about incremental gains, while most brands still have less than 1/3 rd of customers active in their loyalty programs. A loyalty program should be relevant to 80% of customers. A useful set of segments might include: For Travel.
More useful loyalty currencies are appreciated by more people and will bring the hundreds of millions of people who are rarely active in loyalty programs back into the fold – because they can accumulate more useful value across a much wider spectrum of places they shop.
Even though Plenti failed[i], Amex’s effort showed belief in the coalition model by one of the biggest names in rewardprograms. The “Marriott More” program allows its members to earn and redeem points on everyday retail purchases[iii]. better customerengagement. solved a number of problems with V1.0:
Bribing customers is easy and, as with most easy initiatives, not very profitable. Banks have been in and out of rewardsprograms for decades – but their focus ebbs and flows depending on the economic cycle as well as the regulatory framework. Merchants across retail, travel, utilities, healthcare, etc.
Nobody with $100 in pesos leftover from a recent trip would travel back to Mexico just to spend them, but they might exchange them back into dollars. Many people who travelled regularly (until overseas card payments became the norm) collected coins and banknotes from dozens of different countries, holding them for decades.
Really, for those relatively few brands achieving impressive levels of customerengagement, it’s breath-taking how fast the industry has progressed in such a short time. Such data points imply who is traveling frequently, who is susceptible to an upgrade offer, and the extent of their personal or business excursions.
Such ‘loyalty’ programs today are actually just rewardsprograms: ‘you do this and I will do that.’ This is normally in the form of static rules which apply a flat 1%+/- reward across the board. In practice, most customers do not exchange out of a program, but they love the idea of having such freedom.
Broadly speaking, most of the chains’ loyalty efforts have been in proprietary, albeit digitalized versions of the original S&H program: collecting in order to redeem for rewards, some digital couponing, and pushing out offers via a mobile app. So this should be a warning for any big grocery loyalty program. utilities (AGL).
At its most fundamental, the Points Bank records earning and redemption transactions – so it’s more likely to be required if you have a points/miles based rewardsprogram. One study (admittedly sponsored by Blueshift, a vendor), identified a 310% increase in customerengagement in campaigns supported by AI.
Encouraging loyalty through programs and discounts Loyalty programs and personalized discounts are potent tools for maintaining customerengagement. Feedback analytics can pinpoint which incentives resonate most with your audience, ensuring that rewardsprograms remain relevant and impactful.
We organize all of the trending information in your field so you don't have to. Join 97,000+ users and stay up to date on the latest articles your peers are reading.
You know about us, now we want to get to know you!
Let's personalize your content
Let's get even more personalized
We recognize your account from another site in our network, please click 'Send Email' below to continue with verifying your account and setting a password.
Let's personalize your content