Have you seen The Customer Experience Factbook?

In this 180+ page report, you'll find all the information and support you need to build a profitable, effective CX Improvement Program that spans every part of your business. You'll be able to implement and manage meaningful and profitable change, and grow your bottom line despite a slowing economy.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)

Eleven key loyalty trends forecast for 2011

In today's crowded marketplace, creating loyal, engaged customers is more important and more challenging than ever before. As a result, Johnson has compiled what Loyalty 360 believes will be the eleven key customer loyalty marketing trends for 2011 and beyond, including:

1. Going beyond the points programme
   Marketers will increasingly understand that loyalty is not just a programme. In fact, it is a journey and a strategic business goal. While points programmes have been around for a while, from a strategic marketing perspective building true loyalty based on a total customer experience is still relatively new and a burgeoning area most brands. Loyalty initiatives will focus on engagement and building long-term relationships.
2. Focus on emotions, not just incentives
   Loyalty will focus more on emotions than on rational, incentive-based initiatives. Behavioral economists tell us that economic decision-making is 70% emotional and 30% rational. Which is why incentive-based loyalty programmes that tend to be rational do not work well. It's the emotional side of the decision making process that creates connected, passionate, engaged customers.
3. Engagement and loyalty come together
   Companies will increasingly look at how customer engagement and employee engagement work together to drive bottom line results. A 2009 Gallup quantified the impact of customer and employee engagement. They found that those in the upper half on customer engagement and the lower half on employee engagement, or vice versa, get a 70% boost in bottom-line results; those in the upper half on both customer and employee engagement get a 240% boost.
4. The voice of the customer gains importance
   Voice of the customer (VOC) programmes are an important strategy for brands and we expect to see greater focus on them in 2011. A recent IBM study with over 1,500 CEOs from across 60 countries and 33 industries discovered that "getting closer to the customer" is a top business strategy and area of focus for these CEOs over the next 5 years. In fact, 88% of the CEOs surveyed said this was a key area of focus, followed by 76% saying that "insight and intelligence" is also a key area.
5. Relevancy drives more loyalty
   Relevancy will be a key driving force of customer loyalty, engagement. Today's customers want loyalty programmes to be "about me" - that is, individual, relevant, and meaningful. Personally relevant deals are the second most frequently chosen reason for spending more with a company, mentioned by 48% of people, according to new research by Ipsos Mori and The Logic Group. Data collection and usage is extremely important in building relevancy. Brands need to use the information they collect strategically to show customers they're listening and give them what they're asking for.
6. Involving all the touchpoints
   Marketers will take a more strategic look at in-the-moment marketing, looking at how best to use all the customer touchpoints including mobile. ABI Research reports that businesses are poised to spend some US$1.8 billion on location-based advertising in 2015 as part of their overall mobile marketing budgets. However, with Congress looking to regulate net neutrality and cell phone marketing, marketers are going to have to take a more strategic, generational look at how they can most effectively use moment marketing including mobile. This is certainly not a one-size-fits-all communication channel. The most successful loyalty initiatives will be those that are relevant in terms of both messaging and communication.
7. Loyalty schemes designed to support engagement
   The main goal of customer loyalty initiatives will be to engage customers. Marketers now realise that although spend and number of transactions are important, customer engagement is the holy grail for loyalty initiatives. Because with engagement comes loyalty, advocacy, trust, and passion - the soft side of the customer relationship that directly impacts the bottom line.
8. Cause related marketing finds its place
   Cause-related marketing/corporate social responsibility programmes that are aligned with strategic corporate goals will effectively drive loyalty, especially with Millennials. According to a recent survey by Cone, while interest in cause-related marketing grew among the general population between 2008 and 2010, social and environmental causes had a significantly greater influence on the purchase decisions of millennials than other generations. If marketers are looking for 18-34 year olds' receptiveness to branding, social and green issues are a good place to start, with 85% saying they would switch brands because of such marketing and 73% saying they would try a new brand.
9. Restaurants look seriously at loyalty schemes
   The restaurant industry will be investing more in loyalty initiatives. Just-released research conducted by the National Restaurant Association in partnership with Loyalty 360 and rDialgue found that 84% of respondents plan to invest more in their loyalty initiatives because of their proven ability to drive business growth.
10. Debit rewards programmes set to develop
    The future of debit rewards is going to change. The demise of the debit card loyalty programme has been greatly exaggerated and the entire loyalty model is going to be dynamic and changing rapidly over the next few years. Expect to see growth in partnership programmes and a greater focus on the coalition model. The key to making any of these programmes successful is creating a currency that works.
11. Social gaming spreads into loyalty offerings
    Marketers will integrate social gaming into their loyalty initiatives. Social gaming has become a widespread activity across practically all demographics, with AllFacebook.com reporting that there are now 200 million people playing games on Facebook every month, and 24 games have more than 10 million users per month. Traditional incentive-based marketing does not drive the level of consumer participation that can be achieved via gaming, and it's this sought-after participation that builds lasting relationships, engagement, brand affinity, and brand loyalty.

Have you seen The Customer Experience Factbook?

In this 180+ page report, you'll find all the information and support you need to build a profitable, effective CX Improvement Program that spans every part of your business.

You'll be able to implement and manage meaningful and profitable change, and grow your bottom line despite a slowing economy. Grab this goldmine of easily adaptable and up-to-date strategies, walk-throughs, trends, technologies, research, suppliers and partners, plus all the supporting arguments you need to build a solid CX strategy.

While most marketers could list maybe a dozen key points for improving their brand's Customer Experience (CX), the researchers and writers at The Marketing Factbook have identified FORTY main 'CX Keys' which will help you drive your customers to new levels of delight, loyalty, advocacy and profitability.

The areas in which customers have direct contact with your organization are perhaps the most obvious places in which CX improvements can be made, and this report addresses all 24 of these 'Direct CX Keys', applicable to offline and online businesses alike.

At the same time there are many other areas that indirectly affect CX (such as the supply chain, policies and processes) in which every business can make simple but far-reaching improvements. This report guides you through the problems and solutions for all 16 of these 'Indirect CX Keys', many of which are often forgotten or under-played even in the best CX strategies.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)