The 30 major factors behind a successful customer loyalty programme
By Peter Clark (co-author, The Loyalty Guide)
Published by The Wise Marketer[1] in March 2006.
A good loyalty programme has the power to transform a business into a customer-centric pro t machine. Here, we offer a thirty-point list of the
major factors that directly impact the success and pro tability of a customer loyalty programme...
In this article, we've drawn guidance and data from The Loyalty Guide[2] report, to offer practical insights into using customer loyalty
programmes and data to increase not only customer retention but also customer lifetime value and pro tability by means of a long-lasting
customer relationship. We have purposely kept our focus on practical matters rather than merely expounding theory.
The case for loyalty initiatives
It is vital for the marketing department to contribute to the pro tably of the business, and it has to be able to measure and demonstrate its
contribution to pro ts, despite a the common misconception that marketing is a cost centre, not a pro t centre. But at the same time, the
marketplace is changing: customers are becoming more demanding, and competition is becoming more intense. It's becoming increasingly
dif cult to differentiate one business from another. Technology is providing some answers, but each answer brings more choices and more
decisions to be made. However, it is sensible to:
Focus on the best customers that you already have;
Optimise the pro t that can be made from them;
Increase the period in which they remain customers;
Be able to produce measurable results of success.
Bene ts of a loyalty programme
A well designed and run loyalty programme can do all of these things. But it is just one aspect of a comprehensive marketing strategy. Having
said that, if a loyalty programme is used to full effect, it should be the central pillar of that strategy. The theory of customer loyalty is quite
simple: a business that retains its customers for longer usually makes more money from them at lower cost than one that is constantly paying
to acquire new customers. The basic principles are simple, too: know your customers, and only reward them for behaving in the way that you
want.
Through a loyalty programme, customer and transactional data can be collected, and the intelligent use of that data will provide a much
clearer picture of the customer base - and this will lead to more pro ts from the beginning. A common question is "What proportion of
turnover should a loyalty programme cost, and how long should it take before it begins to pay back?" Well, although there is no de nite
answer, a good loyalty programme will pay back from the very beginning. (Tesco's ClubCard - arguably one of the biggest and best-run loyalty
programmes in the world today - actually made money from Day One.)
Thirty factors that make loyalty pay...
1. Focus on acquiring data, not just repeat visits
A so-called "loyalty programme" can't buy true loyalty - or even repeat visits - in any lasting way. This is a popular misconception. Early
operators thought that the reward would be enough to bring customers back time after time. But it didn't take long to become apparent
that they were mistaken. Customers simply carried many loyalty cards and collected points wherever they shopped. They were just as
promiscuous as before. The smarter operators used loyalty programmes not to buy repeat visits but to garner information from their
customers in order to learn more about them: who their most pro table and least pro table customers were, what they wanted, and what
changes or offerings would be most likely to make them truly loyal.
2. Target customer acquisition more accurately
A loyalty programme should attract new customers to the business. How effectively it does so will depend on how exciting and how
valuable the rewards seem to be to the target audience. Acquiring customers is no doubt essential to any business, but it can be expensive
if compared to nurturing existing good customers. But it should not be the central focus of the loyalty programme. However, the quality of
new customers acquired can be raised by careful use of the existing data from a loyalty programme, which can be used to establish the
demographic pro les of existing 'best customers', and then to target prospective customers with similar demographic pro les in
acquisition campaigns.
3. Move customers up the spend bands
By grading rewards (for example, offering extra points for exceeding a speci ed spend threshold in a time period), customers can be moved
up from one spend level to the next. A good example of this is how The Continuity Company (a provider of best customer marketing
programmes) skews its rewards in its Best Customer Marketing programmes (also known as 'continuity programmes') to encourage lowerspending customers to move up through the spend segments. In one of the examples, the top spending band's contribution to sales
increased by 41%, the next band down increased its contribution to sales by 45% and the lowest spend band decreased its contribution to
sales by 7% (because customers from the lower spend segments had increased their average weekly spend and moved into higher spend
segments).
4. Intelligent deselection of the least pro table customers
It can be more pro table to lose bad customers than to gain new ones. 'Cherry pickers' (customers who buy only your discounted lines and
nothing else) cost you money, as does any low-spending customer. They cost more money to service than they generate. Designing a
loyalty programme that rewards better customers without rewarding this segment at all gives these less-desirable customers less reason to
stay. In fact, the Syracuse, NY-based Green Hills Supermarket has observed that only around 30% of customers actually generate enough
pro t to cover the cost of servicing them. In Philip Kotler's version of a Pareto Principle chart, the top 20% of customers generate 80% of
the pro ts, while the bottom 30% of customers eat up 50% of the pro ts that the others produce.
5. Win back pro table customers that have defected
Customer win-back expert Michael Lowenstein (of Harris Interactive) says that the success rate in approaching 'lost' customers can be
three to four times as high as it is when prospecting for new customers. For example, the rate for converting prospects might typically be
5%, while that for reactivating inactive customers might be as high as 15% - 20%. In the book Customer Winback by Jill Grif n and Michael
Lowenstein, it is reported that there are several reasons why customer win-back has a greater chance of success than acquisition. You have
advantages with lost customers that you don't have with prospects, including: information about their past purchase history; where and
how to reach them; and their preferred communication channels.
6. Increase Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is increasingly being recognised as one of the most important measures of the worth of a customer. It takes
into account not only the customer's value now but the expected value over their projected lifetime as a customer. It is arguably the best
way a marketer can demonstrate unequivocally that a programme is working: the CLV of targeted customers will rise. Being able to identify
customers through a loyalty programme means being able to monitor long-term customer lifetime value, and being able to identify the
demographic, sociographic, and even purchase pro les that de ne the most pro table customers - and that knowledge enables you to
target and develop more of them.
7. Build real customer relationships based on relevance
Building relationships is crucially important but not always as straightforward as it might seem. It has been said that relationship
marketing is powerful in theory but troubled in practice - an unpalatable concept but probably one with which many marketers could
identify. Building a relationship with customers can lead to improved behavioural loyalty and thus to increased bottom-line pro ts. If you
examine the human elements of a long-lasting relationship you'll nd several elements, all of which can be approximated by careful
collection and analysis of loyalty programme data. The key element, trust, can be built up by always excelling at customer service and
problem correction, and by providing consistently good products and services that suit the customer's unique needs. Surprise and delight
can be achieved by delivering personal offers for the most pro table loyalty programme members, such as birthday discount shopping
days.
8. Set fairer tiered pricing policies
There was a time when manufacturers recommended a price for each item, and retailers simply charged that price. Any differentiation then
was purely on convenience, ambience, product range and quality of service of the retailer. But the data from a loyalty programme can help
formulate pricing structures. If enough best customers are happy to buy a product at a particular price there seems little point in reducing
that price simply to attract cherry-pickers. The effect of changing prices can also be studied - for example, which customer segments buy
signi cantly more or less. To help with differentiation, some retailers reduce the prices of key products to attract new customers (hoping
they will buy other products as well as the reduced-price ones). Other retailers try to "buy loyalty" to low pricing (EDLP or Every Day Low
Prices). Yet others use Pro t Up Front (PUF) pricing, where the customer pays to be a shopper but gets low prices all-round. Recently a
fourth way, called 'Access Pricing', has emerged, allowing customers to use loyalty points to 'buy' extra discounts on selected items in store
(e.g. US$9.99 for nappies, or US$3.99 plus 600 loyalty points).
9. Intelligent response to competitive challenges
A good loyalty programme's ability to tie purchases to individual customers allows quick and accurate identi cation of customers who
defect when new competition opens nearby. They can then be enticed back with customer-speci c special offers or even direct contact. In
his book, Loyalty Marketing: The Second Act, Brian Woolf describes how one fairly small, older store had to face up to a competitor
opening a much bigger store on the same parking lot. In anticipation, the small store was extensively remodelled, causing considerable
disruption. Over the period of remodelling (a matter of several weeks) turnover dropped by 40%. However, a loyalty programme enabled
management to identify regular shoppers and mail them a letter thanking them for their patience and enclosing some special offers. All
but 183 customers returned to the store. The store management team then sent handwritten invitations and a US$10 gift certi cate to
those 183 customers. All but three returned. After the new competitor opened, the smaller store's whole customer database was mailed an
offer containing US$5-off coupons for US$50 orders in each of the following twelve weeks. Any customer using all twelve received an extra
US$10 certi cate. The result was that sales actually rose by between 6% and 7% over the months following the new opening. The
competitor's store (which was approximately twice the size) achieved less than half the sales of the remodelled store. This shows the power
of knowing who your customers are.
10. Improving product range and stock selection
Knowing what best customers buy frequently helps choose which lines to stock and which lines to expand on. The owner of a small
suburban supermarket in the UK had some twelve months' notice that a large national supermarket was opening right over the road from
him. He realised that without major changes he would not survive. What he did was simple but clever. The suburb in which he was situated
was mixed, having mainly low-cost housing but also a very exclusive area. Many of his customers were low earners who bought their basic
requirements every day or two from him - in essence, what they could carry home in a couple of bags. He knew that they would migrate to
the lower prices and bigger ranges of the big chain. However, a considerable number of the more wealthy people would call in on their way
home from work to pick up bread and milk and a few odds and ends. He started noting what they bought, and what they never bought. Over
the months, he stopped ordering products that they never bought, and increased his range of things that they did buy. Over the year, his
store slowly changed from a small supermarket to a very big delicatessen. His wealthy customers told their friends and the composition of
his customer base changed from mainly low earners to mainly high earners. When the supermarket opened over the road, his low earners
did migrate, but he hardly noticed the difference.
11. Better merchandising and store layout planning
Basket analysis can identify what lines are bought at the same time, particularly by best customers, and planograms can be planned
accordingly to encourage cross-purchasing. The apocryphal story of a retailer discovering from basket analysis that men who buy baby
nappies also buy beer (the re ned version includes "on Friday evenings") may be true or not, but it does illustrate the potential of the
principle in its own (bizarre) way. Insights similar to this are used widely to plan planograms for store merchandising. Of course, on one
level, plain basket analysis without a loyalty programme is enough for this purpose. But add the dimension of knowing who the customer
is, how much they spend, and where they live and you can con dently decide whether it is worth putting a display of nappies in the beer
aisle on Friday evenings or not!
12. Reduce promotional and advertising costs
When you have a loyalty programme - and the detailed data that comes with it - your advertising can be targeted instead of untargeted,
and signi cant savings can be made. There is no need to send out thousands of yers that will be thrown away unread, or take pages of
newspaper space that is irrelevant to many of the readers. Better still, the response from such targeted advertising can be measured
accurately because the audience is known to you, and each offer can carry a unique identi er that ties the offer to both the customer and
the moment of redemption. The cost-saving advantage of targeting can be astonishing. In one instance reported by the DMA a few years
ago, a company mailed an offer to 450,000 of its 'better' customers. The mailing generated US$22 in revenue for each US$1 spent. On
analysing the response data, it was found that 97% of sales came from 13% of the ZIP codes. Imagine the difference that that made to the
pro tability of future mailings.
13. Geographical targeting for new store locations
Selecting a site for a new store is no longer a case of sticking a pin in a map, or choosing a site on a hunch. The loyalty card enables you to
pro le the demographics of best customers and - because it is often likely that the best prospective customers will have similar
demographics - choose new locations much more accurately. In addition, if the addresses of existing customers are known, they can be
plotted geographically and sites can be chosen where there are outlying pockets of customers or gaps in coverage.
14. Loyal customers directly impact company pro tability
There are many ways in which it pays to earn the true loyalty of customers. For example: Loyal customers buy more, and are often willing
to pay more, which means a steadier cash ow; Loyal customers tend to refer others to your business, saving you the marketing and
advertising costs of acquiring them as customers; Loyal customers are more forgiving when you make mistakes - even big ones (especially
if you have a system in place that empowers employees to correct errors on the spot, in which case even greater loyalty is usually earned);
A loyal customer's endorsement is more powerful to their family and friends than any ad campaign; Thriving companies with high
customer and employee loyalty levels are generally seen to outpace their competitors; Loyal customers become familiar with your way of
business, and are usually the rst to see and report opportunities for improvement; and of course an increase in customer retention can
boost bottom line pro ts signi cantly.
15. Developing a core offer that can't be refused
The companies that boast the highest levels of ercely loyal customers have built that loyalty not on card programmes or gimmicks, but on
a solid, dependable, core offering that appeals to their customers. These companies have focused intently on what they know appeals to
the type of customers they want to attract, and have determinedly concentrated on delivering what is expected every time. For example,
the North American retailer Nordstrom is well known for the extreme loyalty of its customers. It built this loyalty by understanding what
its customers wanted and then empowering its employees to deliver those needs consistently. The data from a good loyalty programme will
help improve this core offering by tailoring and moulding it more closely to the customers' needs and desires.
16. In uencing customer satisfaction levels
Clearly, satisfaction is important; indeed essential. But, taken in isolation, the level of satisfaction is not a good measure of loyalty. Many
auto manufacturers claim satisfaction levels higher than 90%, yet few have repurchase levels of even half that. The situation is stacked
against the business: if customer satisfaction levels are low, there will be very little loyalty. However, customer satisfaction levels can be
quite high without a corresponding level of loyalty. Customers have come to expect satisfaction as part and parcel of the general deal, and
the fact that they are satis ed doesn't prevent them from defecting in droves to a competitor who offers something extra. The point is that,
while high levels of customer satisfaction are needed in order to develop loyal customers, the measure of customer satisfaction is not a
good measure of the level of loyalty. The two are not measuring the same thing.
17. In uencing the elasticity of a purchasing decision
Elasticity expresses the importance and weight of a purchasing decision - effectively the level of involvement or indifference. This applies
to both the customer and the business. The more important your product or service is to the customer, the more trouble they have
probably taken in their decision to do business with you, and the more likely they are to stick with what they have decided. Most customers
would be highly involved in the category when choosing a new car, a new jacket, or a bottle of wine. However, when choosing a new pair of
shoelaces, involvement is not usually high. Businesses dealing in commoditised products and services cannot expect high involvement and
need to earn loyalty in other ways. The customer's level of ambivalence is also important. Few decisions are clear cut. There are usually
advantages and disadvantages to be balanced, and vacillation is unstable. Again, we see that the more commoditised a product or service,
the more dif cult it is to cultivate loyalty. It is only when points of differentiation are introduced that the customer has a valid reason for
consistently preferring one particular supplier.
18. Judging the marketplace's in uence on customer loyalty
The marketplace is a key factor in the development of loyalty. The elements most closely involved are: ease of switching, and inertia. If the
number of competing suppliers is high and little effort is required to switch, switching is likely. Conversely, the more time and effort
invested in the relationship, the more unlikely switching becomes. The level and quality of competition has a signi cant effect on how easy
it is for a customer to switch from any one particular supplier. When competitors are offering very similar products at similar prices, with
similar levels of service, some means of useful differentiation has to be found in order to give customers a reason to be loyal. But inertia is
the opposite: most banks enjoy a high level of inertia loyalty simply because it's often so dif cult and time-consuming to change to a new
bank and transfer direct debits and standing orders.
19. Using demographic data to predict loyalty
According to Jan Hofmeyr and Butch Rice, developers of 'The Conversion Model' (which enables users to segment customers not only by
their commitment to staying with a brand but also to segment non-users by their openness to switching to the brand), more af uent and
better educated customers are less likely to be committed to a speci c brand. They say that the commitment of less af uent consumers to
the brands they use is often unusually strong - possibly because they cannot afford to take the risk of trying a brand that might not suit
them as well. They also suggest that younger consumers are less committed to brands than older consumers. Interestingly, these
differences carry over into cultural groups as well: they nd that French-speaking Canadians are more likely to be committed to a brand
than English-speaking Canadians, and Afrikaans-speaking South Africans are more likely to be committed than English-speaking South
Africans. In their excellent book, Commitment-Led Marketing, they show how commitment norms for the most frequently used brand of
beer vary from country to country. At the two extremes we see both Australia and the UK (58%) and South Africa at 83% - a considerable
difference.
20. Increasing share of wallet
Share of wallet expresses how much of a consumer's total spend in a given category they award to your company. For example, if a
household buys US$800 worth of groceries each month, and they buy US$200 of that in your supermarket, your share of wallet for groceries
is 25%. As markets become saturated and customers have so much more to choose from, share of wallet becomes increasingly important. It
is cheaper and more pro table to increase your share of what the customer spends in your sector, than to acquire new customers. After all,
that's what loyalty is really about. Totally loyal customers would give you a 100% share of their spend in your sector. A loyalty programme
that's working properly provides enough data about consumers and their households to be able to reasonably estimate share of wallet.
There are complete formulae and data analysis tool-sets just for the job.
21. Promoting the brand to build customer loyalty
Every business must develop and deliver a consistently branded experience for its customers. The essence of the brand should be apparent
in every interaction a customer has with the company, enabling customers to form an emotional attachment with the brand. This includes:
training and enabling front-line employees who interact with customers; developing high-impact marketing campaigns; de ning the
brand's "promise"; and segmenting customers on the basis of value. The loyalty programme provides a truly multi-channel vehicle through
which to communicate this brand experience, and through which the consumer can become more attached to the company and its brand.
22. Becoming truly customer-centric
Most businesses are, by nature, either product-centric or service-centric. Remember the days when business owners knew their customers
by name, and knew their personal preferences - and just about everything else there was to know about them? Those who have realised the
value of a customer-centric approach have thrived: examples are the Tesco Clubcard programme in the UK, widely regarded as one of the
best loyalty programmes in the world, and the Nectar retail coalition programme, which very quickly signed up 13 million members,
representing half of the UK's households. But adopting a customer-centric approach generally involves changing several procedures,
including: marketing, sales and service applications must be merged seamlessly; differentiation based on products or services must be
changed to differentiation based on customers; reactive service must be swapped for proactive service; and data that's segmented by
products must be segmented by customers instead. Again, the loyalty programme's data is already customer-centric by its very nature, and
the implementation of a loyalty programme is a vital opportunity to merge cross-department data silos.
23. Ensuring the success of a loyalty programme
There are dozens of elements that are critical to the long-term success of any customer loyalty or relationship marketing initiative. First,
these programmes are de nitely not a 'quick x' for an ailing corporate bottom line. It takes time to build loyalty because loyalty is based
on trust- and relevance-based relationships with best customers. Accurately targeted marketing is a bene t of loyalty data, and is essential
if the programme is to be seen as 'relevant' by its members. Other secrets of success include: gaining consumer buy-in, knowing your
customers, rewarding only the right behaviour, rewarding and recognising customers in the right circumstances, spotting defection
patterns, insights into customer lifecycles, making sure rewards are attainable, recovering the programme's costs in a reasonable time, well
timed and relevant communications, keep the programme simple to understand and use, measuring campaigns and results continually,
acquiring new customers, having unique and uncopyable bene ts on offer (as a barrier to entry for competitors in the same space),
empowering your staff to make the right decisions under all circumstances, and of course making the customer's life easy.
24. Detailed planning and careful execution
The list of issues to consider and pre-plan when designing a loyalty programme is enormous: there are hundreds - sometimes thousands
(depending on programme complexity) - of individual action points that have to be worked through before a programme can con dently be
called "a success". Indeed, any failure to address some of the more important points could result not only in a failed programme but also
unrecoverable expenses, lost consumer good will, legal problems, and lasting brand damage. The loyalty consultancy and management
company ICLP uses a comprehensive list, of which the following are just a few of the more important issues to be de ned: Loyalty
programme markets and objectives; strategy (programme type, proposition, comms, partnerships, infrastructure, etc.); objectives, key
process ows, KPIs, rewards, bene ts, nancials, and timelines; desired behavioural changes; bene ts and rewards, type, tracking,
communicating, bonussing, reward currency, breakage, and liability; partnership details; tiers (both thresholds and management);
nancial and administrative controls; legal aspects; staff requirements and training; ROI; programme rules; system functionality;
ful lment process and costs; data requirements and usage; and the list goes on. There is much to be planned for a well-executed
programme.
25. Rapid market penetration with a coalition programme
Partnership in a coalition loyalty programme is often thought of (quite rightly) as a quick method of entry into the eld of customer loyalty
- however, there are disadvantages that must be weight up rst, such as the ownership and usage of loyalty programme and customerspeci c data, and potential competition of other programme partners in future markets you plan to expand into. Successful coalition
programmes have a major partner in several of the key consumer sectors in order to quickly capture a signi cant proportion of consumers'
spend. Ideally, this would be a major grocer, fuel retailer, bank or credit card, department store, and mobile telecoms provider. Proportions
as high 50% - 60% of the target market can be enrolled very quickly. This means that not only is the data collected more representative of
the target market but that the share of each consumer's wallet is also maximised. Most importantly, new partners joining the programme
after it becomes established will automatically gain the same degree of market penetration as the existing partners, and co-marketing
activities with the programme's operator will usually raise consumer awareness rapidly.
26. Successful CRM (customer relationship management)
The loyalty of customers stems from building relationships with them, and those relationships have to managed. This is where CRM comes
in. Whether the relationships are so nely tuned as to be one-to-one relationships, or whether they are in bigger segments or groups, the
principles of management are similar. Over the past decade CRM has come to be regarded by many marketers as being synonymous with
huge, costly IT systems. But many of the big companies have now passed through that stage, and are focusing more on explaining to both
employees and customers the bene ts of the system, and streamlining the laborious processes of data collection. CRM's reputation is
improving - it is making a come-back. Some of the key faults that can cause CRM projects to fail or prevent delivery of the expected ROI are
a reliance on technology as a global 'cure-all' and down-playing the importance of management level buy-in. But having the correct focus
and commitment can signi cantly improve a CRM initiative's performance. According to IBM's research, CRM should be run at the
corporate level or with a cross-functional perspective - and when this is the case, there is a 25-60% greater chance of success.
27. Using gift cards and store value cards for loyalty
The market for gift cards - many of which are pre-paid, stored value cards - is expanding rapidly. Clearly, the card is the mechanic: what is
done with it determines how useful it is as a vehicle for building loyalty to the retailer. Copious research has been carried out to show the
potential of the gift card market. Gift cards have been widely used in the US for longer than in other parts of the world, but the popularity
is now beginning to spread. Gift card merchants can use different types of promotions to increase the level of excitement. For example,
creating a swipe and win sweepstake when the gift card is redeemed is an excellent way to drive additional sales. Another opportunity that
can bene t both the merchant and the customer is the use of receipt coupons, or custom coupons, as part of a gift card programme. For
stored value cards that are a cash replacement and need customers to re-load their cards, a bonus can be given when they add value to the
card. And if something can be offered that is dif cult to put a price on - priority service, a backstage pass, a ticket on the 50-yard line at the
Superbowl - there is an opportunity to create 'extreme perceived value'. All of these are gift card-based ways of generating renewed
consumer engagement.
28. Use the six Ps of customer loyalty marketing
Loyalty programmes have become necessary due to vast customer bases and market sizes, according to The Allegiant Group, which
suggests adding two new 'Ps' to the well-known 'Four Ps of Marketing' (those being Product, Price, Place and Promotion). The two
newcomers that stand to bene t the customer loyalty marketer are People and Performance: People (and how they affect customer loyalty)
are an increasingly important part of the marketing mix, and the Performance of the entire enterprise, and its quality and consistency
therein, is increasingly critical to delivering products and services in a way that engenders loyalty and repeat purchasing behaviour. Other
critical success factors in the development and management of successful loyalty initiatives include: strategy and economics, the features
and bene ts offered by the programme, the methodology of the reward component, and the metrics and measurements used to track the
effect of the programme.
29. Building a database that can really create loyalty
There's a myth that says most companies have enough data about their customers to conduct successful marketing campaigns. But, in fact,
some of the largest rms in the world have not assembled the personal identities and key contact information of their largest customers
into a single database. Instead, the information resides in the minds, drawers, or handheld PDAs of their sales representatives. Rarely is it
warehoused as it should be. The amount of junk mail the average consumer gets today proves the point: despite talk of CRM, it hasn't
improved relationships between consumers and their suppliers. The problem is that properly implementing a customer database is far
more dif cult than ever imagined. A customer loyalty programme's unifying effect on data, if the data structure is properly planned based
on clearly set-out business objectives, forms the basis of relationship-based campaigns that start with "Fred, we see you've moved - here's a
map of your local stores to get you started" instead of mailers that start with "Dear Occupier".
30. Avoiding technological problems with loyalty platforms
If you're setting out to nd a ready-made or partly-customised loyalty platform, there are hundreds of points to consider before making a
nal choice. In 2005 a survey of the capabilities of over 30 loyalty programme platforms was conducted by UK-based MJA Associates,
nding that many of the solutions examined were merely "points engines" that could increment and decrement the points in a member's
account but were limited in the functionality required to manage bonussing, lifestyle data collection, surveys, partner management and
other fundamental operations. Most of the loyalty solution software platforms examined were lacking in many areas - particularly in terms
of bonussing, partner management, survey functionality, and contact centre information screens. Of the hundreds of factors, these are just
a few of the most important: Application and member number tracking; Archiving of programme data; Audit logs; Awards redemption
processing; Bonussing functions and exibility; Card management; Different currencies and languages; Events management; Interactive
Voice Response features; Fees management; Kits and cards processes; Location hierarchy; Member services provisions for call handling;
Member management, transaction and attributes recording; Partner management; Points expiration; Point types; Reporting; Security;
Development kits and APIs; Statementing; Surveys; Tiering; and Financial transactions and points management. It's important that the
system you choose has the features you need, not only for today but for the future development of the loyalty programme.
Where to nd more detail...
[3]The Loyalty Guide, our comprehensive guide to customer loyalty, explains every aspect of loyalty programmes,
best practices, concepts, models and innovations, all backed up with case studies, original research, illustrations, charts, graphs, tables, and
presentation material. Find out about the principles, practicalities, metrics, analysis, and bottom-line effects of loyalty, and gain the expert
guidance of dozens of loyalty and relationship marketing thought-leaders, worldwide.
It will show you exactly how to use customer data to increase pro ts, reduce churn, and increase frequency, spend, and share of wallet. See
how and why others have already succeeded, what works, and - more importantly - what doesn't work. The report's full executive summary,
table of contents, downloadable samplers, and pricing/ordering are all available online - click here[4].
Copyright 2006 Wise Research Ltd / The Wise Marketer
Loyalty marketing... for real facts, gures, research, case studies, best practices, practical how-to's, technologies & examples, The Loyalty
Guide is the world's most complete report that covers it all. Costing less than a single conference pass, details of this electronic report's
contents, free samples, pricing, and ordering are online now at www.TheLoyaltyGuide.com[5] - get yours now!
About the author...
The Loyalty Guide is brought to you by Wise Research Ltd, the internationally respected research organisation set up to provide specialist
business intelligence on the latest worldwide developments in customer loyalty.
Wise Research Ltd is the company behind The Wise Marketer, the online customer loyalty information source. The business was founded in
2001 by Robin and Peter Clark, both acknowledged thought leaders in customer loyalty and customer relationship marketing.
Peter is a loyalty systems specialist with over 20 years experience in designing, specifying and implementing database, customer marketing
and customer relationship management solutions, and 8 years of marketing journalism experience. Peter implemented his rst leading-edge
CRM system in 1997 and has continued to adapt, re ne, test and analyse the latest concepts, tools and systems for customer loyalty
programmes.
Robin was the editor of Customer Loyalty Today, the world's rst subscription journal on customer loyalty, from its launch in 1993 and was the
author of two editions of the best-selling Customer Loyalty Report in 1995 and 1997.
In authoring The Loyalty Guide, Peter and Robin have gathered, collated, analysed and presented in an easy-to-access format their decades of
specialist expertise, and have conferred with the world's leading experts to ensure this report provides you with the very latest and most upto-date market intelligence.
Looking for permission to reproduce this article?
We are usually pleased to permit the reproduction of our
Feature Articles in other trade journals (but not 'blogs').
If you would like to reproduce this article, you will need to
obtain written (i.e. e-mailed or faxed) permission from our
publisher (Wise Research Ltd)...
Contact the publisher by clicking here[6]
Please explain your intended usage in your request.
Links
1. http://www.thewisemarketer.com/features/read.asp?id=89
2. http://www.theloyaltyguide.com/
3. http://www.theloyaltyguide.com/loyalty-articles
4. http://www.theloyaltyguide.com/loyalty-articles
5. http://www.theloyaltyguide.com/
6. http://www.thewisemarketer.com/contact-us.asp?
subject=Article%20reprint%20request%20for%20%22The%2030%20major%20factors%20behind%20a%20successful%20customer%20loyalty%20programm