“How can you say you have a loyalty program for your best customers, when, like Sears, RiteAid and GameStop, you have millions of customers in that program? What’s driving this trend and should I consider expanding my program/member criteria?”
That’s the gist of a question I was asked to answer by Loyalty Management Magazine in their May 2011 issue.
My Answer?
A great benefit of having millions of registered program members is having the means to communicate directly with them in an acceptable Expert-Query-How-Big-is-Too-Big.jpg, voluntary channel. Although those customers are all in one program, the goal should be to differentiate the experience for each customer segment to maximize the effectiveness of the loyalty strategy and drive incremental behaviors (increases in total transactions, average transaction value, top-line revenue, profits, web site visits, etc.).
The right balance of rewards, benefits and communications delivered by the customer experience will lead to measurable program migration: fair/borderline customers will become good; good customers will become better; and best customers will maintain their level of performance or become even more engaged.
Can an organization have 45 million best customers? Not likely. But can 45 million identified/registered program members be valuable to the organization? Absolutely!
To read more and to review how other loyalty SMEs responded, please follow this link.
