How To Create Loyalty Programs Consumers Will Actually Get Excited About

Consumers can smell empty rewards points a mile away. Here's how to do loyalty programs that will actually spread some delight.

It is a customer conundrum that can put a marketer at wits’ end: While not all smart shoppers are loyal, all loyal shoppers are savvy.

This is not surprising, considering the technology out there, from smartphones to smarter transaction processing to smart mobile wallets. All of these innovations challenge the competitiveness of the loyalty cards in our wallet. Remember the quaint old days when winning customers required exceptional services and innovative products? Today, with an influx of loyalty programs penetrating almost every industry including health care and utilities, brands find themselves having to compete in completely new areas, from speed of reward redemption to delivering personalized experiences no other brand could promise.

In fact, some could argue that loyalty programs themselves may not generate loyalty at all, but instead condition consumers to game the system, using programs only when they expect to receive an immediate discount or other benefit.

We, as business leaders, have the ability to steer out of this. Think about it.

Source: How To Create Loyalty Programs Consumers Will Actually Get Excited About | Fast Company