Loyalty without loyalty cards

In 8 steps

Loyalty cards have had their heyday… But for several years now, many brands have come back. In 2018, Decathlon thus announced the end of its points loyalty program. In a communication to all of its members, the brand declared that it was giving up its card system which caused frustration among its members, citing the tweet of one of its customers: “I have been a customer for years with the loyalty card. and that gives only € 6 voucher! There is something to be disappointed about. “New consumers want to receive offers and personalized messages and be involved in their relationship with brands. Transactional loyalty programs are no longer sufficient for consumers looking for emotions, experiences and relationships.

Loyalty without loyalty cards

8 tips!

In our #Workout 1 webinar with our partner Stratello (in French), we invited you to explore in 40 minutes the different strategies for setting up a loyalty program… without a card! Back to the 8 tips discussed:

1: Define your notion of customer loyalty

First ask yourself this question: who do you think are your loyal customers?

- Are they those who often order (frequency indicator) or those who spend the most (amount indicator)?

- It can also be your oldest customers or those with the highest customer value, as is often the case in the banking sector for example.

- Conversely, in the food distribution sector, marketers prefer to define loyal customers as those making a significant share of expenses in their brand.

- In the Multimedia and Press world, we will favor customer recommendation indicators to define loyal customers (number of referrals, posts, likes, etc.)

Loyalty indicators can thus be transactional, more global (customer profitability) or behavioral (likes, recommendations). Once this concept of loyalty is defined, it is a matter of sharing it internally so that it is identical to all business units (sales, marketing, customer relations, etc.). This will allow you to ensure the consistency of your loyalty strategy, which will be well oriented towards the same end.

 1: Define your notion of customer loyalty

2: Set loyalty goals

The idea is to objectify your loyalty strategy with concrete figures. Ask yourself the right questions: How much would you earn 1000 more loyal customers? An additional loyalty rate point? How many loyal customers do you currently have and how many do you expect at the end of the defined period? For what turnover, margin, ROI? From these answers, you can then deduce the part of the budget that you will allocate to your loyalty actions.

Keep in mind: Retaining a customer is 5 to 10 times cheaper than winning a new one. Hence the importance of allocating a substantial budget for the loyalty strategy (which you can compare to your budget allocated to the acquisition).

 2: Set loyalty goals

3: Set up key indicators

These key indicators are used to verify the achievement of previously defined objectives. These are portfolio monitoring indicators that allow you to monitor progress:

- RFM segments, customer value

- churn, retention and loyalty rates

- ROI of loyal customers vs ROI of non-loyal customers, average cost of loyalty

- ROI of activity / responsiveness of loyal customers vs. not faithful by analyzing in particular the opening rates, deliverability, commercial pressure, click-through rate ...

- customer satisfaction: satisfaction rate, Net Promotor Score, Customer Effort Score, etc.

 3: Set up key indicators

4: Identify your customers' expectations

In order to propose relevant actions, it is necessary to assess the expectations of your customers. Here are 5 major overall consumer expectations (to be specified according to your customers, your field of activity, etc.):

 A personalized experience  A personalized experience Background

A personalized experience

by proposing recommendations / offers adapted to their expectations, by recognizing your customers on all your brand channels.

 A smooth customer experience  A smooth customer experience Background

A smooth customer experience

the multiplication of channels means being able to follow the customer and his journey in an omnichannel fashion, without wasting information. The challenge is therefore to have a 360 view of the behaviors and actions of your customers.

 A simplified customer experience  A simplified customer experience Background

A simplified customer experience

by offering facilitating services (one-click order, quick and efficient processing of requests, after-sales service easily available, etc.)

 A reward for purchases made  A reward for purchases made Background

A reward for purchases made

with exclusive offers, promotional advantages based on purchasing behavior

 Closeness to the brand  Closeness to the brand Background

Closeness to the brand

a transparent, ethical relationship with a committed brand that offers content of interest and is able to animate its consumer community.

5: Determine the levers of action

4 types of levers can be activated as part of a loyalty strategy:

- Transactional lever: it will allow you to develop your turnover through promotional, exclusive offers ...

- The service lever: it aims to facilitate the customer experience by offering a quality service (free premium delivery, in 24 hours, one-click order, etc.)

- The relational lever: it aims to maintain the customer relationship through content, exchanges, which go beyond the simple transaction. This can materialize in the animation of an instagram page, a community on social networks ...

- The engagement lever: it is used to create an emotional bond with the brand. It is a lever that is growing in weight and that gained momentum during the health crisis. According to the Kantar Covid 19 barometer, 46% of French people (61% internationally) expect communications on brand values. This lever gives visibility to brands and allows them to show the values ​​defended, their raison d'être ...

5: Determine the levers of action

6: Analyze the data available to you

To meet customer expectations in terms of personalization, it is necessary to be able to collect the right data related to: - profile: socio-demographic data, preferences, contactability

- digital behavior

- purchase history

- commitment and customer satisfaction

- the history of marketing actions

- the history of customer relations

Once collected, it is a matter of aggregating them to activate them in the appropriate marketing automation tool.

 6: Analyze the data available to you

7: Define the key activation moments for your customers

Your data is collected, it remains to determine when to activate your customers. To help you, do not hesitate to build your personas and identify the key moments in their journey (welcome, thank you for your order, etc.).

- At what stage of the route?

- On what point of contact? (channel)

- Are there specific moments in your client's life that you will be able to reflect on? (birthday, marriage, birth of a child ...)

- What are the moments of contact with the brand that you will be able to trace and activate? (call, download a document, complete a contact form ...)

7: Define the key activation moments for your customers

8: Set up loyalty initiatives

We advise you to launch the first loyalty actions on your customer portfolio to observe their responsiveness. Depending on the ROI and the competitive landscape, do not hesitate to adjust your actions as you go. Here are some examples to inspire you with possible actions by lever:

 transactional leverage actions  transactional leverage actions Background

transactional leverage actions

Offer for the second order, up and cross sell, private or exclusive offers, voucher,% discount, 2 for the price of one, subscription offer, automatic order, special offers on moments of life, birthday contract / purchase, relaunch following a change in order rate, wishlist / quote re-launch, product availability alert, gift or retroactive end-of-year discount ...

=> Example: run a "anniversary of purchase" type scenario in the case of a travel agency. The agency recontacts all optin customers, recalling last year's booking to come up with new travel ideas, similar to the "anniversary" destination.

 Serviciel leverage actions  Serviciel leverage actions Background

Serviciel leverage actions

Invitation to create an online account, sending advice following a purchase, easy payment, premium delivery, free alterations, concierge access, extended warranty, personal shopper, 24-hour assistance service ...

=> Example: scenario promoting free delivery. For example, we target customers who have spent more than 300 euros over a given period to send them a communication indicating a free delivery for the next purchase. If no clickers / non openers, we can even consider a raise.

 relational lever actions  relational lever actions Background

relational lever actions

Welcome scenario, satisfaction survey after a purchase, invitation to events offered by the brand (workshops, breakfasts, customer club, etc.), content proposal (white paper, tests, advice, videos, etc.), partner offers

=> Example: scenario to maintain the customer relationship by sending advice. In the case of an online Garden Center store, we can imagine targeting recent lawn buyers and pushing them with adequate content such as "the importance of soil"; "respect the timing of sowing" ...

 engagement lever actions  engagement lever actions Background

engagement lever actions

It can be an invitation to give your opinion, testify, give a note, intervene on social networks ...

=> Example: you can create an emotional bond with the customer through an invitation to give his opinion, by completing a satisfaction questionnaire. If the rating is good, you can resend a campaign to thank your customer and encourage them to share their review with the user community. If the score obtained is lower, do not hesitate to invite them to contact you.

Check the video of the #Workout 1 in French