If you’re looking to build customer loyalty, two things matter most in a program: value and ease of participation. But as brands rush to highlight their program’s value, they often overlook the ease part—leading to a lackluster customer experience.
Imagine you’re a loyalty member at a quick-service restaurant. The program initially enticed you. It promised to be worth the effort to enroll, learn how to earn and redeem points, and even move up the tiers. But over time, you realized it wasn’t what you expected. It was unclear how many points you’d get for which orders, and you had to fiddle with clunky software to enter each purchase. When you did earn points, it was never enough to get the award you wanted. It’s tempting to quit the program, go to a competitor or simply not engage.
As a program leader, you don’t want to let brand advocates slip away. So let’s look at how the best loyalty programs incorporate ease.
The importance of ease in loyalty program strategy
To better understand customer priorities and perceptions, we surveyed 5,000 loyalty program participants in 50 loyalty programs across nine industries. Our study found:
- Value is 3x more important than ease, but if a loyalty program is hard to navigate, it impacts the program’s overall experience and the perception of value.
- Value can’t overcome ease when something is so fundamentally broken or difficult to deal with that it creates extremely difficult moments in the customer journey.
- Problems with ease lead to frustration which can spark highly emotional responses like canceling an account or turning to another loyalty program.
Related: An end-to-end customer loyalty partner improves the six key components of a successful loyalty program.
The role of loyalty program software in overcoming loyalty program challenges
Functionality issues are some of the key burdens customers face when participating in loyalty programs. This often starts with evaluating your loyalty program software.
- Is your website and/or app easy to navigate?
- Does it enhance the user experience by making progress toward goals and program rules clear?
- Is the experience engaging and personalized?
Customers expect all these elements to be in place and for the technology experience to be seamless.
Going back to our earlier example of the quick-service restaurant loyalty program member:
You got a push notification that you have a surprise offer waiting in the app to say thanks for being a loyal customer. You were so excited you dropped everything to open the app and navigate through the different menus, only to find it was for an entrée you’re allergic to. Not only were you disappointed, but you’re a little insulted that the brand you trust doesn’t know you at all.
With the right loyalty program software, something like this would never happen. Loyalty members would have a chance to voluntarily give you zero-party data about their preferences and allergies (maybe for an incentive offer). Or your software could track their order history to know they never order certain items. The software would make sure all offers were relevant for the recipient.
New technology integrates many of these needs into one platform to provide streamlined, personalized experiences with limited administrative burden on your part.
Not sure where to start with improving your technology? Put yourself in customers’ shoes and walk through the loyalty program experience yourself. What gaps do you notice? If you find that your loyalty program software can’t keep up with customer expectations, it might be time to upgrade.
Related: Discover the capabilities of Horizon, our customer loyalty platform designed to increase customer engagement while simplifying the user experience.
5 ways to increase ease in a customer loyalty program (and 5 not to)
What are the elements of a loyalty program that create ease? Our study revealed the following.
- Enrollment is easy: No one wants to struggle with too many questions and screens. Be sure enrollment pages as well as preference settings are easy to navigate.
- The program is clear: Good writing makes a huge difference. Clear context must not only explain how to participate but also excite members.
- Redemption is intuitive: When redemption is easy, loyalty program members are pleased.
- Website and app are appealing: Do the website and app align with the brand’s positioning and promise? Keep customers’ brand experience consistent across platforms.
- Communication, awards and recommendations are personalized: Adding personalization and breakthrough touchpoints to your customer loyalty strategy help customers build strong emotional connections to your brand.
As for what aspects of a loyalty program might diminish ease, members consistently mentioned the following.
- It’s too hard to earn: Earning rewards should be fun, never a chore.
- Lack of transparency about how the brand uses customer data: Privacy matters. Be clear about all policies and practices.
- Tiers or levels are confusing or inconsistent: When members don’t understand what is being offered, what was a communications issue turns into a program ease-of-use issue. The words to watch here are clarity, simplicity and good writing.
- Technical issues with the program: Members have high standards and are accustomed to seamless, excellent experiences on other apps (gaming, entertainment, banking). They expect the same from a loyalty program.
- Digital fatigue: Too many emails and messages can be annoying. Communicate intentionally.
Balancing value with ease creates the best loyalty programs
When a brand adds more value and improves ease to its customer loyalty program, it creates advocates and drives long-term growth.
Looking to drive more results with your own program? Start by accessing your audience and current program. Use a mix of quantitative and qualitative research, trade-off techniques, and driver modeling to find out what customers expect and experience. If possible, benchmark your program to see how it measures up.
Next, address any barriers you discover that make it difficult for people to use your program. Focus on barriers to initial participation first, then look at functionality so existing members don’t abandon the program.
Once you’ve addressed barriers, layer in personalization. Leverage up-to-date loyalty program software to provide true 1:1 customization in real time. Brands can give customers in different groups/segments entirely different experiences based on personal preferences. This allows brands to create the right level of ease for the right customers at the right times.
Finally, differentiate your program by offering an experience that’s sustainable for you and repeatable for customers. Too many programs look and feel the same across industries. There’s real potential to stand out by offering relevant awards!
Steps like these are just part of what it takes for an end-to-end customer loyalty program to shine. Find out if your customer loyalty program offers what customers want.
Dive deeper into the customer loyalty program research in the “Transforming customer loyalty programs” ebook.