4. Card linking:
Card linking technology offers a number of advantages for the loyalty sector. First, this process eliminates the need for a separate loyalty card to identify the customer, as the customer is identified by the transaction made with their payment card. This means that no transaction is ever lost, and the solution is well suited to the concept of omnichannel retailing. The customer journey is carried out without the customer even noticing, as their behavior and interactions are collected and analyzed easily and naturally.
In the retail sector, it is even possible to go as far as the items in the shopping basket, providing a picture of the customer's specific purchasing behavior. This can also be extrapolated to the travel segment: room type, F&B services, wellness, etc. All this information enables highly targeted and personalized communications, improving customer loyalty.
Card linking has spread rapidly in the world of loyalty programs, especially in the banking sector, although we are now seeing more and more applications for linking cards to retail and even travel. The data collected through this option allows offers to be generated in a very precise manner: to the right customer, at the right time, and through the preferred channel, based on their previous behavior. To achieve this goal in your company, the most reliable option today is for an aggregator or bank to manage the program, mainly for security reasons and to ensure that these three requirements are met:
- Registration of the cardholder in the card-linking program, e.g., AMEX.
- The company will provide and pay for the offer published and linked to the card.
- Have quality data for each transaction that can be used to match and merge the cardholder and brand transaction.
In summary, the benefits of adding card linking would be as follows:
a/ Create a seamless payment experience, as the payment card becomes your loyalty card. This creates frictionless, real-time engagement for the customer and saves on the cost of producing and replacing loyalty cards.
b/ Collect high-quality, segmented transactional data, both online and offline, and gain a better understanding of your customers' purchasing behaviors.
c/ Offers linked to cards within a loyalty program provide more flexibility for the customer. Vouchers or discounts active in the profile can be used and automatically applied to the card, and engagement and activity are easy to measure.
5. Towards a more emotional program
With digital transformation in full swing around the world, companies have more channels to reach their customers than ever before. However, the question of how to build loyalty is just as important as where to build it.
In short, at a time when customers have access to a wide selection of online stores and retailers, a brand has to win customers' hearts, not their credit cards. The differences are very small, and therefore discounts are now less effective than rewards that have a emotional componentAccording to Capgemini, "86% of consumers with high emotional engagement say they always think of the brands they are loyal to when they need something, and 82% always buy the brand when they need something."
But what do business leaders think about "emotional loyalty"? In the survey conducted by Antavo, only 20.7% of existing program owners classified their program as more emotional than rational, while 53.6% of companies in the process of launching or relaunching their program specified that their program would be more emotional than rational, indicating that in the future, many more loyalty programs will focus on generating "emotional loyalty."
It is worth noting that emotional loyalty does not exclude all the more traditional elements. It can still have transactional elements, such as coupons and cashbacks... but the aim is always to add a couple of features and rewards that emphasize emotional attachment and the "wow" effect. For example, invitations to exclusive events for members celebrating their brand's anniversary, privileges that make the customer journey smoother. In short, "experience-based rewards."
6. Gamification
Gaming has always been part of our lives: board games, cards, slot machines, bingo, betting... The new digital era incorporated this option into its online offering from the very beginning, starting with PacMan-type games in 1980, solitaire, online poker, PlayStation Plus, Minecraft...
This concept has even been taken further in the world of sports. Under the premise that "the way we experience sports has changed, and that's why we have to revolutionize traditional sports; young people can't sit through an entire game and are more interested in social media, alternative channels, or multi-screens," a new project called the "King's League" of soccer has been launched. Gaming is considered a new form of entertainment and, as such, can be included as an additional ingredient in any type of business and loyalty program. The concept remains that of rewarding through play.
The incorporation of gaming into the program creates a new link with the customer to keep the relationship "alive" during periods when there is no transaction with the company that owns the program. Keeping the brand "top of mind" would be the key objective, and gamification is a good tool for achieving this.
Photo by charlesdeluvio on Unsplash / Image from Pixabay
