Going the Distance: Four Ways to Build a Better Customer Loyalty Program for Your Brand

It’s easy enough for a customer to join your loyalty program, especially when you’re offering an incentive such as discounts. All your customer has to do is give out some basic information, and voila! They’re in the fold, a brand new loyalty member with your company. From there, it’s happily ever after. You offer the perks; they stand solidly by you, bringing you their continued business. Simple. Or is it? In reality, just how many of those customers are act ively participating in your loyalty program? Do you know? Sure, loyalty program memberships are on the rise according to market research company eMarketer, having jumped 25 percent in the space of just two years. However, that figure may be a bit misleading. The truth is that, while loyalty program sign-ups may be more numerous, active participation in such programs is actually in decline. At the time of the study, the average US household had memberships in 29 loyalty programs; yet consumers were only active in 12 of those. That’s just 41 percent. And even that meager figure represents a drop of 2 percentage points per year over each of the preceding four years, according to a study by loyalty-marketing research company COLLOQUY.

When discounts just aren’t enough

So what’s a brand to do? How can you make your loyalty program worth your customer’s while—as well as your own? After all, gaining a new loyalty member doesn’t mean much if your customer isn’t actively participating in your program. Consider this: Does your customer loyalty program offer members anything different from what your competitors are offering? Chances are your program includes discounts. That’s a given. And what customer doesn’t appreciate a good discount? But when every other company out there is providing this staple benefit in comparable amounts, it becomes less and less likely that customers will remain loyal to any one particular brand. Frankly, it’s all too easy for customers to get lost in a sea of loyalty member discounts. They’re everywhere. In fact, just under half of internet users perceive that all rewards programs are alike, according to a 2015 eMarketer survey. The key to success, then, is to differentiate your business from the crowd. If you can offer your customers something unique and valuable beyond the usual discount, chances are they’ll be more likely to stick with your brand. Here’s some inspiration from companies who get it.

Virgin: Reward more purchases with more benefits.

That’s not to say you need to get rid of discounts entirely. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Customers still love a good discount. The goal is to be creative in terms of the loyalty perks you offer. Take the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, for example. As part of its loyalty program, the airline allows members to earn miles and tier points. Members are inducted at the Club Red tier, from which they can move up to Club Silver and then Club Gold. Here, it’s not just a discount. It’s status. And people respond to feeling important, elite. Still, even where the rewards themselves are concerned, Virgin is motivating loyalty customers with some pretty attractive offers. At the Club Red tier, members earn flight miles and receive discounts on rental cars, airport parking, hotels and holiday flights. But as members rise in tiers, they get even more. At the Club Silver tier, members earn 50 percent more points on flights, access to expedited check-in, and priority standby seating. And once they reach the top, Club Gold members receive double miles, priority boarding and access to exclusive clubhouses where they can get a drink or a massage before their flight. Now that’s some serious incentive to keep coming back for more. Discounts are still part of the equation – but they are designed with innovation and personal value in mind, elevating them to more than just savings.

Amazon Prime: Pay upfront and become a VIP.

What if your customers only had to pay a one-time upfront fee to get a year’s worth of substantial benefits? It may not sound like the smartest business idea at first glance. But take a closer look. Amazon Prime users pay a nominal $99 a year to gain free, two-day shipping on millions of products with no minimum purchase. And that’s just one benefit of going Prime. It’s true that Amazon loses $1-2 billion a year on Prime. This comes as no surprise given the incredible value the program offers. But get this: Amazon makes up for its losses in markedly higher transaction frequency. Specifically, Prime members spend an average of $1,500 a year on Amazon.com, compared with $625 spent by non-Prime users, a ccording to a 2015 report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.

Patagonia: Cater to customer values.

Sometimes, the draw for consumers isn’t saving money or getting a great deal. The eco-friendly outdoor clothing company Patagonia figured this out back in 2011, when it partnered with eBay to launch its Common Threads Initiative: a program that allows customers to resell their used Patagonia clothing via the company’s website. Why is this program important to customers? And how does it benefit Patagonia? The company’s brand embraces environmental and social responsibility, so it was only fitting that they create a platform for essentially recycling old clothing rather than merely throwing it away. The Common Threads Initiative helps Patagonia build a memorable brand and fierce loyalty by offering its customers a cause that aligns with deep personal values. OK, so their customers get to make a little money, too. Everybody wins.

American Airlines: Gamify your loyalty program.

If you’re going to offer your customers a loyalty program, why not make it f un? After all, engagement is key to building a strong relationship with your customer. And what better way to achieve that goal than making a game of it. American Airlines had this very thing in mind when it created its AAdvantage Passport Challenge following its merger with USAirways. The goal: find a new way to engage customers as big changes were underway. Using a custom Facebook application, American Airlines created a virtual passport to increase brand awareness while offering members a chance to earn bonus points. Customers earned these rewards through a variety of game-like activities, from answering trivia questions to tracking travel through a personalized dashboard. In the end, participants earned more than 70 percent more stamps than expected – and the airline saw a ROI of more than 500 percent. The takeaway: people like games.

Stand out from the crowd.

Your approach to your customer loyalty program should align with your overall marketing approach. Effective branding is about standing out, not blending it. Being memorable is key. To this end, keep in mind that loyalty programs are no longer a novelty. That means that yesterday’s strategies won’t work moving forward, so look for ways to rise above the noise, setting yourself apart from the cloying drone of countless other cookie-cutter programs.

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What Does the Demise of Internet Explorer Mean for the Future of Website Design?

On January 21, 2015, web developers everywhere let out a great collective sigh of relief. Why? Because that was the day Microsoft announced that Windows 10 will ship with a brand new browser, code-named “Project Spartan,” thus effectively signaling the inevitable demise of the old stalwart Internet Explorer. According to Microsoft, Spartan is designed to provide a more interoperable and reliable experience with advanced features including the ability to annotate web pages, a distraction-free reading experience and integration of Cortana for finding and doing things online faster. While this all might sound appealing to the average user, it is particularly welcome news for web developers, for whom Internet Explorer has long been regarded as the very bane of their existence. You see, each browser interprets code in different ways, and each has different versions that offer different capabilities. While Chrome, Firefox and Safari do have their differences, for the most part they have the same capabilities. However, Internet Explorer, or IE, has historically been the odd one out, notorious for causing issues for website designers due to its lack of capabilities, especially in older versions like IE7 and IE8 (which, for example, does not support such simple design elements as rounded corners and text shadows). But while web devs are raising their glasses to toast IE’s impending downfall, you’re probably left with more than a few questions. After all, since IE has been the standard Windows browser since the mid-1990s, that little blue “e” icon has become synonymous with the Internet for many everyday users. So what exactly does Microsoft’s decision to do away with Internet Explorer mean for you – and most importantly – for your website? Let’s explore (no pun intended).

The challenges of IE

On today’s Web, the various browser manufacturers have agreed on a certain set of standards that they will all obey. This is incredibly important for web designers (and, by extension, for businesses that have websites), because it means that as long as your website conforms to those agreed upon standards, it should be displayed in a fairly consistent manner no matter which browser a visitor uses to access your site. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. In the mid-to-late 1990’s, Microsoft was engaged in a heated race for market share with the other most popular browser of the day, Netscape Navigator. Instead of agreeing on a singular set of standards, these two companies tried to outdo each other by adding proprietary features to their software that would interpret and display websites differently. This created a lose-lose scenario for web designers and businesses, as it meant that you either had to develop two different versions of your site (one for each popular browser) or dictate which browser visitors should use (this is why it became commonplace to see disclaimers on sites reading something like “Best viewed in Internet Explorer 4”).  This exclusive approach is what led some companies to build the software they use to run their business for those specific platforms. Even now, almost 20 years later, companies that continue to use that software may still be dictating that their employees must use a woefully outdated browser. This is where IE begin to falter, especially in the court of public opinion. As newer browsers, such as Google’s Chrome – which now ranks as the most popular according to many studies – began to enter the market, people started using them at home. They quickly discovered that these modern browsers were not only much faster but that they also included many new features and capabilities. It didn’t take long for consumers to develop a strong preference for these newer browsers and to begin pushing back against their IT departments’ requirements that were keeping them shackled to antiquated versions of IE at the office.

Microsoft realizes the problem

You might think that Microsoft would love any scenario in which people are forced to use their browser. On the contrary, however, it has created a major PR problem for them. The same IT departments that would not allow employees make the switch to a new browser also prevented them from upgrading to newer versions of Internet Explorer. The reality is that those new versions of IE are very capable browsers that, like the others on the market today, conform to the standards that are an important part of modern web design. Microsoft wants customers to begin using these new versions of their software because the continued use of versions that were originally released 10 years ago or more has created a vey negative perception of their product in the marketplace that has tainted the Internet Explorer brand as a whole.

The struggles of web designers

While old versions of web browsers certainly pose problems for consumers, they are doubly challenging for web designers and for the companies they build sites for. Testing newly developed websites in legacy browsers to ensure reliable backwards compatibility  is a critical step in the process that requires significant time and effort, creating overhead that adds to the timeline and budget of every project. Exactly how many people are visiting your site with those outdated browsers? It depends on the nature of your business. For instance, my company works primarily with IT professionals, and our traffic numbers indicate that the majority of our audience uses newer browsers (including many on mobile devices). As a result, we don’t need to develop and test for very old browsers because our visitors simply aren’t using them. However, if your business serves a more broad base of consumers – and especially if many of your customers are likely to be older and/or less tech savvy – it is important to ensure that your site performs equally well on new and old browsers alike. A good place to start is by examining the analytics data for your site, which can tell you which browsers are being used to access your site. One of the nice things about newer browsers like Chrome and Firefox (and even current versions of IE) is that they auto-update. This means that they automatically download and install their own updates so we no longer need to worry about radically outdated versions of the software. However, older versions of IE do not do this, which is why we still struggle to support software that came out over 10 years ago. With Microsoft’s new browser – which we expect will include auto-update approach – we may hopefully have arrived at a point where even that legacy software is forced to be rewritten for the new age and we can all say a final goodbye to outdated browsers.

Better days ahead

So what does the emergence of Project Spartan mean for your business and your website? In the short term, you may not feel an immediate impact, but you likely will begin to reap the benefits in the not-too-distant future. If Microsoft succeeds in its objective of transitioning customers away from old versions of IE and adopting their new Project Spartan (or other more current and capable browsers), by the next time you are ready for a redesign, the amount of time required for browser testing may be significantly reduced because the browser landscape will have gotten less diverse with the continued shift away from those legacy browsers, which can only mean good things for your project budget! Another benefit will be a greatly reduced potential for users to encounter problems on your site due to browser compatibility issues, which of course means less chance that a frustrated visitor will need to call your company for support (best-case scenario) or will give up on your site and go elsewhere (worst-case scenario). Finally, the release of a new, more capable option from a company that has been at the forefront of browsers for years (despite popular opinion, Microsoft remains a power player in the world of the Web) is a great thing because it gives users more options. And if Microsoft is successful, their competitors will inevitably up their game as well – and that is good news for everyone!

Don’t throw dirt on IE’s grave just yet

While there is certainly much to look forward to with the future release of Project Spartan, unfortunately, we can’t call time of death on IE yet (as much as we might like to). As AdWeek’s Krista Monllos explained to NPR, Spartan is in for an uphill battle: “By introducing a new browser, you're asking people to change their daily habits. If someone is used to Chrome or used to whatever it is they use, they probably don't want to change.” After all, Internet Explorer still accounts for almost a quarter of the present-day desktop browser market, and IE8 is still used by almost seven percent of people in the United Sates. Therefore, moving forward, it will be important to keep a finger on the pulse of the shift in these numbers – as well as any changing trends in your own analytics data – in order to ensure that your site is designed and tested to serve the needs of your users, no matter where they may fall in the continuum of browser evolution.

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Website Design for a Multi-Device World

The array of devices through which people interact with online content is larger and more diverse today than ever. To underscore the point, try this little exercise – take a look around your house and find every device you own that can access the Web. For me, the list looks like this:

• Desktop computer
• Laptop computer
• Netbook computer
• iPod touch (x2, each a different generation)
• iPad
• Kindle (x2, each a different version)
• Android phone (HTC EVO)
• Gaming system (wii)

Each of these devices has a different screen size, and the experience of accessing web content is different on each.

That’s why, if you want to ensure that your website will provide an experience that truly engages your audience, it must be designed specifically for this multi-device world in which we all live today.

The multi-device user

The multi-device world is populated by multi-device users. While a staggering variety of devices are, indeed, being used to access web content today, it’s also important to remember that the same user is often using multiple different devices to access your website – and they expect that site to work well regardless of which device they happen to be using at the time.

To illustrate this point, let’s consider the scenario of an average everyday activity that occurs on the Web: mom planning the family vacation.

As she starts her day, she does a quick search on her iPhone and starts to peruse a few sites that strike her interest as she enjoys her morning coffee. Later she takes advantage of her lunch break to continue her research. She visits many of the same websites as she did before, this time reading more and delving deeper each one now that she’s seated comfortably in her chair behind her desk and has more screen real estate to work with. That evening she shares her findings with the family, flipping between sites on her iPad as they unwind on the couch. In each instance, she visits many of the same sites, and she expects them to perform just as well no matter which device she has in front of her.

More than just mobile phones

You have likely been introduced to the concept of “mobile websites” and have been told that your company needs one, but as the scenario above illustrates, the multi-device landscape encompasses much more than just large desktop monitors and small handheld phones. There are many devices and screen sizes in between, and your website must be equipped to work well on all of them. That’s why a separate “mobile-only” site is not the best way to serve the needs of the multi-device user.

A mobile-only solution relies on technology that detects when your website is being accessed via mobile phone and redirects the user to a completely separate version of your site – one designed specifically for the typical screen size of a smartphone. These mobile websites often feature less content and fewer features in order to minimize both navigational complexity and load time.

The problem with the mobile-only approach is that it only addresses the needs of one specific type of device. Large desktop computers get the “normal” browsing experience while mobile phones get a smaller, more streamlined version.

But what about the multitude of devices that fall between these two extremes? How do we serve them effectively?

Going responsive

There are a number of deficiencies with a mobile-only approach, but the inability to serve today’s broad array of devices is the most detrimental.

If the mobile version of your website offers less content and fewer features than your desktop site, you run the risk that a user will be looking for content that you have decided to eliminate from your slimmed-down mobile site. This is a problem, because when a user comes to your site looking for something specific and they can’t find it, their natural response is to go looking for it somewhere else – which usually means your competitor’s site.

After all the effort your put into attracting users to your website, anything that drives them away – like a user experience that is not optimized for the device they are using – runs counterproductive to your goals. So how can you embrace this multi-device world and ensure that your website can succeed in it? It’s time to go responsive.

What is responsive web design?

Responsive web design is an approach that has gained much favor and momentum in the web industry in the past few years – in part because it offers a solution to many of the limitations that mobile-only websites face.

A responsive website is one that intelligently rearranges its layout based on the size of the user’s screen. For instance, let’s say your site normally presents its content in three columns. The smaller a screen gets in size, the more problematic this layout can become, as the columns become so narrow that their content is unreadable and their buttons are un-pressable.

With responsive design, when a visitor is using a tablet in portrait mode or a laptop with a very small screen, those three columns reflow into a two-column layout that is better suited to the dimensions of those screens. For handheld phones, the design shifts to a single column of content with text and links that are large enough to be easily read and touched even on a very small screen. In this way, you have one website that “responds” to the multi-device user, adjusting its layout based on the particular device they are using – hence the name responsive design.

The benefits of responsive design

Efficient maintenance

It’s hard enough to keep one website updated with timely, relevant content; updating content across multiple websites is even more challenging.

When you go the mobile-only route, you end up with multiple websites to maintain. With a responsive approach, however, you have only a single website to manage. This makes it easier to keep your content consistent, because anytime you make a change to your website, that change is seen by all visitors regardless of the device they are using.

Zero gaps

As we saw earlier, supporting the multi-device user means being able to accommodate more than just large desktop screens and small handheld devices.

A responsive web design approach does indeed address these two extremes, but it also fills all the gaps in between, adapting its layout to perform seamlessly on the widest range of screen sizes and devices possible. This is especially helpful for those users that jump from device to device, as described earlier, because the site will adjust to their needs and present them with a consistently good experience regardless of their choice of device.

Adaptability

Because a responsive website design will reflow based on the screen being used to access it, your website will be equipped to support not only those devices that are popular today, but also those that we don’t even know about yet.

As new devices are released – some of which will undoubtedly also introduce new screen sizes or resolutions to the market – you can rest assured that your responsive site will do its best to present an optimal experience by “responding” to whatever type of screen it might be presented with.

Go big

While much attention is paid to how your website will handle smaller screens such as those on smartphones, there is another end of the spectrum to consider: large devices.

A responsive website can not only reflow its layout to present an optimal experience for small screens, but it can also do the same for very large screens. Large screens are often neglected in website design because even sites that are engineered for desktop monitors are not built to suit many of today’s widescreen displays. However, a responsive approach can allow your site to stretch its legs a bit in order to better fit bigger screens, making use of the additional space to better communicate your organization’s message.

Cost effectiveness

Since responsive design means you need only a single website, deploying this approach can often be much more cost effective than developing separate websites for different devices. This cost effectiveness is compounded further over time as you save the added expense of having to update, maintain and host separate sites for desktops, mobile phones, tablets, etc.

The challenges of responsive design

While there are a number of advantages to responsive design, there are a few challenges as well.

First, responsive design is not a feature that you can simply tack on to your existing website. To be done right, a responsive approach requires you to redesign and redevelop your site from the ground up so that responsive logic can be built into every aspect.

Another challenge of responsive design is that, if not done properly, it can result in loss of performance for users on devices where bandwidth is a concern. Often the small-screen version of a responsive design does away with some of the elements that exist solely for aesthetic purposes (large background images, for example). When such elements are “turned off” for smaller devices, if not configured properly, they might still be sent to the device anyway, meaning those devices are required to download excessive and completely unnecessary data that negatively impacts performance. To avoid this pitfall, make sure you’re working with a team that’s experienced in responsive design and has the technical expertise necessary to ensure that your site tailors both its layout and performance to deliver an optimal experience for any device.

Embracing the multi-device world

Traffic to websites from devices other than desktop computers has risen dramatically in the past few years, and industry analysts predict that number will continue to soar in the coming years. Looking at the hundreds of websites that I help maintain and manage, I am seeing an average of about 30 to 35 percent of all traffic coming from mobile devices of one kind or another and even a few sites where mobile traffic is nearing 50 percent.

As we head toward a future where more than half of our website traffic will come from visitors not using a traditional desktop computer, now is the time to ensure that your website is armed to compete effectively in a multi-device world.

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