The French are big fans of loyalty programs. Across all sectors of activity they are 76% are members of such a program, it’s more than 40 million people.
Loyalty cards are nothing new. They have been used for many years to reward customers who buy regularly from a brand, in particular through a points system that unlocks exclusive benefits.
With loyalty programs becoming more and more widespread, it is becoming increasingly difficult for brands to stand out from the crowd. Especially as, in the current climate, it costs much less to retain a customer than to convert a prospect.
To boost your retention rate, you need to innovate and create a loyalty program that stands out from the crowd. Here’s our advice on how to create a loyalty program to boost your customers’ loyalty through more effective experiences and rewards.
What do French consumers expect from a loyalty program?
Before optimising your loyalty program, it’s important to understand what consumers want from it.
The primary purpose of a loyalty program is to enable customers to make savings. This is especially true in times of inflation. According to a recent study by YouGov, 68% of French people join a loyalty scheme to benefit from financial discounts and 58% to receive rewards or gifts.
Right after financial benefits comes personalisation. Loyalty programs must propose personalised offers for 38% of French consumers. 18% also want the brand to offer them products than other consumers with similar profiles have bought.
Practicalities: the French are still attached to the physical loyalty card (for 37% of them). But the digital version is attracting more and more consumers (28%), not least because it allows them to track their accumulated points in real time.
The points program, is still the most popular (54%). It is closely followed by:
- cashback (39%), which allows customers to obtain vouchers based on the value of their purchases,
- and premium loyalty programs such as Amazon Prime (21%), which unlock exclusive benefits in exchange for a fixed fee.
How can you innovate to maximise the impact of your brand loyalty program?
But to achieve these objectives, it is crucial to adopt a more innovative approach to loyalty. Here are 4 innovation levers to explore to make your loyalty program more effective.
1. Gamify your loyalty program
An excellent way of making your customer retention program more attractive is to focus on interactivity and gamification. As such, loyalty already includes gamification mechanisms, such as the points system and moving up to higher levels.
But brands can go even further by making the process of joining, collecting points and unlocking rewards even more fun. Galeries Lafayette, for example, uses Playable Marketing to encourage their program customers to buy from the brand again.
Loyalty program members were asked to enter a code they received post-purchase (by e-mail) to access an exclusive game and try to win gift vouchers. In addition to maximising customer engagement, the gamified marketing campaign also achieved its commercial objectives. More than 2 codes were entered per participant, and as many purchases were made in shop using the loyalty card.
2. Offer experiential reward
Rather than just offering discount coupons and vouchers, brands can build customer loyalty by offering unique experiences. New consumers, particularly those in the GenZ, are keen to have exclusive opportunities to create a more human link with their favorite brands.
In a recent report by Antavo, 65% of brands that do not yet offer experiential rewards say they plan to do so in the next 3 years. This is the case, for example, of the Marriott hotel group. Its loyalty program enables customers to take part in exclusive events (culinary, sporting, etc.) in cities where the company has hotels.
3. Align your loyalty program with a social or environmental cause
Consumers also prefer brands that are committed to major causes. They are 90% prefer to buy from committed companies. To stand out from the crowd with an innovative loyalty program, they can align themselves with a specific cause.
It’s an ingenious way of raising the profile of your VIP program while encouraging customers to get involved in the cause. The TOMS brand has created the Passport Rewards program. It allows its customers to accumulate points for each purchase, recommendation or review. These points can then be used to obtain discounts, or to make a donation to a charity.
Consumers who choose the latter option will be able to track the impact of their donation on the application. It’s a simple feature, but one that allows you to strengthen the connection with the brand and the feeling of having done something good thanks to it.
4. Incorporating new technologies to improve your marketing of waiting times
New technologies are also effective tools for boosting the performance of loyalty programs. In particular, they make it possible to offer a better user experience, make it more fun for customers to wait for a new launch, and offer personalised rewards.
The main technologies to be used as part of a loyalty program include:
- Mobile wallets make it easier to keep track of points accumulated and choose rewards. The advantage of a loyalty application is also that it makes the program more accessible and makes it an integral part of customers’ daily lives;
- The machine learning. Companies can use AI to analyse the performance of their programs and the demographic and behavioral data of their customers. This information will then enable them to offer personalised prizes that are more likely to win the loyalty of their customers.
- Segmentations tools can also enable companies to better understand their audience and offer them personalised rewards. They make it easier to collect data and then activate it, particularly via retargeting campaigns.
The key to an engaging loyalty program: test & learn
Regularly awarded as the best loyalty program, Starbucks Rewards is the perfect example of how companies can optimise their customer experience.
The coffee chain was one of the first to develop a mobile application reserved for its loyal customers. But the company is not resting on its laurels and continues to introduce innovative new features. For example, it offers new rewards, integrated games and committed campaigns (to promote reusable cups) to keep customers interested and enrich their experience.
So don’t be afraid to test new features and continually optimise your loyalty program to keep your audience engaged.
Adictiz can helps you design a more innovative loyalty program based on gamification. offer your most committed cusotmers a fun and interactive experience with our wide range of playable animations.
Watch the replay of our webinar on reenchanting your loyalty program.
