You can break open a loyalty program fortune cookie (or 5) and hope that the wisdom revealed will become your reality.
Alternatively, you can focus your energy, time, team and investment on these five actions to help you realise the loyalty program fortune you desire:
1. Create a vision for your loyalty or rewards program.
Every business has a vision (should have).
A vision focuses on the future.
It's an inspiring statement of intention or outcome. It provides a purpose and direction.
A loyalty/ rewards program also deserves a vision to inspire your team to the intended outcome.
Have a read of the business vision statements in this article to inspire your loyalty program’s vision.
Complete this vision statement:
We want our loyalty/rewards program to be….
2. Leverage any one or all of these three levers of a program's top-line revenue success.
The 3xV’s are the key levers and measures of success to increase a program’s top-line revenue.
V1 = Volume = increase the number of members (a pure quantity measure).
Note: ‘Active’ membership is a quality measure of success and increasing activity is part of a program’s engagement strategy.
V2 = Value = increase your members’ spend (transaction value or basket size).
V3 = Velocity = increase your members’ frequency of spend or visit.
V1 x V2 x V3 = topline revenue from program
Which of the three levers = Volume, Value or Velocity will you increase in 2019?
3. Add vitality to your program structure with a blend of the five benefit layers.
A program’s benefits need constant review and revitalisation.
In 2018, I developed a model for building best-in-class loyalty and rewards programs with a blend of five benefit categories.
Refresh your memory here.
Which of the five benefit layers will you revitalise and enhance in 2019?
4. Be pro-active and overtly sensitive with how you leverage your members’ data.
Are you using the loyalty program data you have to enhance your members' program experience or invade their privacy?
Have a look at the four areas of data use (enhancers vs invaders) we defined and researched in ‘For Love or Money 2018’ and this article to identify a member’s sensitivity to how their data is used.
Assess your member’s data sensitivity based on these four data uses (or define your own) and be pro-active to reduce the ‘invaders’ and leverage the ‘enhancers’.
5. Build a team of loyalty champions.
Your team are critical in delivering the delight (or demise) of a program!
Here are the 3 E’s for building a team of loyalty champions:
1. Excite 2. Explain 3. Expect.
- Excite: invite your team to be involved from the beginning (ask them for their views on what works, what doesn’t and how to improve it). Excite them with the vision of your program. Take the vision to the level of practicality so that they know how the program makes a difference to them, to the business and most importantly to their members.
- Explain: ensure they understand all aspects of how the program works and the benefits to members so that they express it clearly and quickly (benefits explained in 10 seconds or less).
- Expect: set the relevant program metrics of success for them to achieve. Ensure they understand how achieving these has an impact on the greater success of the program and the business.
Build a team of loyalty champions!
Have a happy loyalty year!