Three steps to review, refresh and reposition your loyalty program for a new reality

As we plan for what a new reality might be in 2023, it’s an opportune moment to review, refresh and reposition your loyalty program.

Here are three steps to guide you:

Step 1: Assess to validate

Take the pulse of your program to validate its current state

Check the pulse of your leadership commitment to the future of your loyalty program: Are the leaders of your business still 100% committed to the loyalty program as an asset of growth for the business?
- If yes – why?
- If no – why not?
Complete a comprehensive health check on your program.

We have developed a 56-point health check diagnostic available for clients we work with. It covers our Seven Zones of Loyalty Program Performance strategic framework. Here are a few of the diagnostic questions to consider:

Zone 1: Business – review all relevant program measures of success versus targets set at the beginning of 2022 and traffic light their success:

Red - did not achieve target (why not?)
Orange - got close to or met target (well done – why?) and
Green - exceeded target (how did it happen?)

Zone 2: Members – assess your members buying behaviour (e.g. value segmentation and levels of activity (active vs inactive vs lapsed vs dormant), belief (e.g. trust score and NPS) and belonging (community and cause connectivity)

Zone 3: Program – how engaged were members across all layers of your program proposition (benefits earned and redeemed)?

Zone 4: Profitability – is your loyalty program financial ecosystem healthy, wealthy, and wise? Did the program achieve the most fundamental financial success metric – net profit growth?

Zone 5: Technology and Data – is your loyalty technology architecture fit-for-purpose vs fit-for-future. Is your data use and privacy clear and is your data security ready for possible breaches?

Zone 6: Dialogue – how did your personalised communications perform and where are the gaps?

Zone 7: Team – do your team (in-store and in-house) still believe and buy-in to the program? What’s their level of enthusiasm and excitement about the program?

Step 2: Adapt to reposition

Refresh and recalibrate for the new reality

NOTE: Adapting your loyalty program (and all seven zones) to reposition to the new reality needs to take into consideration the influences of the world we are living in - economic, social, environmental, health and wellbeing.

With the completion of Step 1: Assess to Validate, set new horizons for 2023 based on the gaps identified across all Seven Zones of Loyalty Program Performance

Zone 1: Business – set new targets for all measures of success especially those that were a green traffic light. Can you exceed those targets that were exceeded last year?

Zone 2: Members – did the health check identify new value segments and where are the opportunities to reactivate those members identified as inactive, lapsed and dormant (lots of ‘Jam on the Ground’ opportunities here).

Zone 3: Program – is there an opportunity to refresh the program proposition? Review your proposition against the Six Currencies Loyalty Program members care about.

Consider a Joyalty* Program!

Zone 4: Profitability – set up a dynamic financial model ecosystem for your loyalty program – profit and loss, cashflow and balance sheet. A ‘dynamic’ model will update in real-time as you change any of the program inputs (e.g. if you change a benefit, what’s the impact?).

Zone 5: Technology and Data – did Step 1 identify opportunities for data gathering and progressive profiling, security strengthening and an overall technology review? Start now!

Zone 6: Dialogue – set up a valid test and learn communication process to keep improving. Review all communications by type (marketing, mandatory, triggered) as well as tone of voice and frequency. Are all channels being optimized for member engagement?

Zone 7: Team – create a team of loyalty champions. This zone has the greatest potential to impact the success of your program.

Step 3: Activate to stimulate

Take action to stimulate the relevant response

Steps 1 and 2 are focused on strategy.

Step 3 is all about activation – making it happen. Implementation is the reality of what your members experience.

Launch the repositioned program to your team and members.

Summary

To successfully review, refresh and reposition your loyalty progam to a new reality requires the cohesive integration and dependency of the three steps ‘Assess to validate’, ‘Adapt to reposition’ and ‘Activate to stimulate’.