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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Mythbusters: Website Edition

As a web designer, I routinely speak with business owners and marketing managers who are in the midst of a website redesign project for their company. During these conversations, I am always amazed by the myths about user experience and interface design that they mistakenly cling to. Many of these misconceptions are the by-product of previous website projects – leftover relics from an Internet of old. Others are more baffling, as their tenets are not now and never were true. So in the interest of championing the best practices and principles of modern website design, we’re channeling our inner myth busters and blowing the lid off five of these most persistent myths (dramatic explosions not included):

Myth #1: Visitors need/want instructions on how to use your site.

The Internet is no longer a new and unfamiliar medium, yet many companies still populate their websites with content that seems targeted to someone who has never actually navigated the Web before. When you include instructions for visitors about how to use to your website, you are adding a lot of extra words, which in most cases only serve to weigh down your pages with unnecessary visual clutter. In fact, the goal of any good design is to create an interface that is so intuitive that no instruction or explanation is necessary to help visitors move from one page to the next and complete routine processes such as making a purchase or signing up for an account. As a result, if you feel instructions are necessary, that inclination is a major red flag for serious design flaws that must be addressed in order to provide a quality experience for your user. To be fair, there are certainly instances where some level of guidance is needed. Complex interactions or applications that are truly unlike anything that has come before on the Web will require some level of training for your users, but the vast majority of websites do not fall into this category. If your site is, well, just a website (and there’s nothing wrong with that!), forego the instructions and have faith that your users are savvy enough to know and understand the well-established conventions of using the Internet.

Myth #2: These days, everyone has a high bandwidth connection.

Over the last few years, the average size of a webpage has doubled, largely due to our profuse use of images. Current design trends that call for giant, page-spanning photographs combined with the drive to deliver high-resolution images for retina displays mean that the file size of the images we are using continues to climb. Many people argue that this is acceptable because, as the size of our webpages grow, so does the bandwidth speed of our Internet connections. But is this really the case? It is true that the number of people with access to high bandwidth connections continues to increase, but the belief that all visitors have the benefit of a lightning-fast connection is nothing more than wishful thinking. There are still many areas of the country and the world that are shackled to the type of slower connections that are only a distant memory for many of us. Also, keep in mind as well that mobile visitors may be operating on a network that is either unreliable or has data download limits. In both of these instances, a website that is bloated with large content (i.e., giant videos, unoptimized images, etc.) will pose a problem. Ensuring that your website is optimized for performance is as important today as it has ever been, regardless of how fast connection speeds may be. After all, no one has ever said, “Wow, this website loaded TOO quickly for me!” Better performance and faster downloads improve the quality of experience for all users.

Myth #3: There may be some users visiting your site on a mobile device, but not that many.

Years ago – when the iPhone was still a novelty and everyone and their 12-year-old brother didn’t walk around with a smartphone in their pocket – this may have been the case. But today, visitors are accessing your website on a wide variety of devices with a range of different screen sizes. Examining the hundreds of websites that we manage reveals that an average of 30 percent of all traffic to those sites comes from mobile devices of one kind or another, and for some, it’s as high as 50 percent or more. This is consistent with the forecasts of industry analysts, who predict that by 2015 – that’s next year, folks! – the majority of all Web traffic will come from mobile devices. Additionally, not only are visitors accessing your site on mobile devices, but the same visitor is likely using multiple devices to access your content. We call this the “muti-device user”. As we covered previously in our article “Website Design for a Multi-Device World”: 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. Gone are the days of “mobile users” coming to your site only to locate your phone number or directions to your office. Today’s mobile users – and multi-device users – expect convenient, on-demand access to the same content that they can find on the desktop version of the site. Clinging to an outdated belief that “no one has a reason to visit my website on a mobile device” will quickly translate to “no one has a reason at all to visit my website at all.” Read more: Website Design for a Multi-Device World

Myth #4: You should open off-site links in a new tab/window.

This is the most common myth that I hear from clients, who insist that all links that lead to another site must open in a new tab or window. This request stems from a belief that if a visitor leaves your website to look at content somewhere else on the Web, they will never find their way back. By opening that link into a new tab, your website remains open in the user’s browser for them to return to at any time. Or at least, that’s how it works in theory. Unfortunately, I have seen this practice backfire on a number of occasions. Why would this be the case? Think of the Web as a linear experience. You move from one page to another and another. You can travel seamlessly to and from any point along  this timeline by using the browser’s back and forward buttons. But when you open a link in a new tab, you start a new timeline for the user. Having observed many website users over the years, I can tell you that the back button is a feature that they are intimately familiar with. If that user clicks a link and visits a new page, and they then want to return to your site, they will intuitively click the back button until they get there. However, if you’ve opened the off-site link in a new tab or window, then the back button eventually leads to a dead-end for that visitor. Your site, which they want to return to, is not part of their current timeline because it is open in a completely separate tab. Of course, all the user needs to do is close the current tab, and your site will be in front of them again, but I’ve seen many visitors who are unaware of or confused by this. Instead, when the linear experience of the back button doesn’t bring them to your site as they expected, they instead type your website’s URL into the browser’s address bar, thinking that something went wrong along the way. They now have two instances of your website open, so in your efforts to “help” them easily get back to your site, you’ve actually confused the user experience. Does this mean you should never open links in a new tab or window? No, it doesn’t. For example, it’s a good practice to open PDF files in a new tab because these documents feel like they are separate from the linear experience of browsing a site. Additionally, opening links in new tabs is not “wrong,” per se. It is an acceptable solution, but if you choose to use that approach, do so for a reason other than the mistaken belief that if visitors leave your site, they will never find their way back. The linear experience of web browsing – and using the back button to return to a webpage – is a well-understood convention, so don’t be afraid to let your visitors explore in the manner that is most natural to them.

Myth #5: Visitors absolutely will/absolutely will not complete a form.

The final myth we will debunk concerns web forms. Interestingly, I hear competing opinions from clients regarding forms on their websites. Some believe that visitors will not fill out a form no matter what. Others think that their users will gladly complete a lengthy questionnaire for almost no reason at all. As usual, the truth lies somewhere in the middle of these two extremes. Gathering information from website visitors is a valuable exercise. It allows you to understand who is coming to your site so you can follow up with them, engage with them and hopefully convert them into paying customers for your business. Just asking for visitor’s information is not enough, however. Very few people will be willing to complete a form unless they have a clear understanding of what they will receive in return – and what they receive needs to be of greater value to them than receiving more marketing from you. This value can come any number of different ways, such as receiving a free whitepaper or application download or registering for an event or webinar. In each of these cases, there is a legitimate reason for your site visitors to complete a form that gives you their personal information. If, however, your form simply says, “Sign up for updates!” without any further information about what those updates entail, how frequent they will be delivered or what potential value they hold, then there is a slim chance anyone will be inclined to complete that form. Creating a valuable offer is step one. Step two is the design of the form itself. Asking for too much information will be a roadblock for many visitors, who will either perceive a form with a large number of fields as being too cumbersome or too intrusive to complete, so the best course of action is to ask for only the information you need. If you never intend to call someone, then don’t ask for their phone number because that’s one less obstacle you’ll have to overcome. The more concise and easy your form is to complete, the more likely your visitors will do so. Website visitors will fill in forms, as long as you make those forms easy to complete and provide value to them in exchange for sharing their information with you.

R.I.P. myths and misconceptions

The Web and the behavior of its users are constantly evolving. Since the last time you engaged in a website redesign project, there have undoubtedly been a number of shifts in trends and tendencies, and what you learned through that experience even just two or three years ago may not be applicable today. Because of this ever-changing landscape, the importance of working with web development firm that keeps pace with these changes and the best practices of modern website design cannot be understated. Such a partnership will ensure that the decisions driving the the design of your site are relevant to today’s Web and are not relics of a time gone by.

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Playing for Keeps: 11 Ways to Create Customers for Life

Reality check: You’re not special.

Here’s a cold, harsh truth about business growth and the nature of competition: Your products and services are not unique. There are plenty of other choices out there, and thanks to modern search engines, finding those options can be done in a fraction of a second.

“But wait!” you protest, “We are the only company that offers this product with this particular combination of features at this exact price!”

As accurate as that statement might be, your customers don’t have the time or the desire to keep track of all those finer points. You live and breathe the details of your business; your customers do not. They know that you sell widgets and your competitors sell widgets. To them, one widget is the same as the next, and one widget provider is just as good as another until proven otherwise.

So how do you not only create a preference for your widget but cultivate an unyielding loyalty to your company as the only one they want to be in the widget business with?

The answer has much less to do with convincing your customers that your widgets are special and irreplaceable and much more to do with convincing your customers that they themselves are special and irreplaceable.

Nothing erodes the relationship between a customer and a company faster than when that customer feels unappreciated. If they perceive that you don’t care about their business, they’ll happily buy their widgets elsewhere.

On the other hand, if you recognize that your customers are your company’s strongest asset and treat them accordingly, your brand will become as indispensable to them as they are to your brand.

Here are 11 ways to create customers for life:

1. Reach out and touch someone.

The process of winning a new customer is like dating. Everyone puts their best foot forward, and there’s lots of wooing and romance involved in sealing the deal.

After the sale closes, the shine can fade from the relationship a bit. Your focus turns to the coal-shoveling work of fulfilling your agreement, and the niceties of your courtship period tend to fall by the wayside.

However, if the only time your customers hear from you is when you’re trying to sell them something or when you’re trying to collect payment for your services, they’ll know exactly where they stand with you, and they won’t think twice about taking a call from your competitor who’s willing to pull out all the stops to steal them away.

Be proactive in your customer service efforts and make personal contact with your clients at least a few times a year. Don’t just sit back and wait for them to call you, and don’t assume that if you don’t hear from them that everything is peachy keen. Reach out to them, ask how they’re doing, feel out their level of satisfaction with your products or services and be a sounding board for questions, complaints or feedback.

By taking the initiative, you’re demonstrating that their value to your company goes far beyond their signature on a contract.

2. Put a human face on your brand.

Even in today’s mile-a-minute, everything-on-demand world of automation and convenience, one simple fact remains unchanged: people want to do business with people.

As a result, one of the most effective ways to make doing business with your company a pleasure through and through is to give your customers one point person who will take ownership of ensuring that their every need and concern is addressed.

There’s nothing more aggravating to a client than being passed from one person to another when they’re trying to get the answer to a question or resolution to a problem. When this happens, it’s easy for the customer to become angry and disenchanted with what they perceive to be a faceless brand and simply give up and go elsewhere.

However, you can save them the trouble of finding a new provider while simultaneously repairing the relationship if have the right customer service structure in place. Potentially deal-breaking issues can be easily resolved when there’s a real, knowledgeable human being on the other end of the phone or email who has a name, a face and a passion for providing a swift, helpful response.

3. Create a culture of service.

If you’re really serious about cultivating long-lasting relationships with your clients, customer service can’t be relegated to a policy manual or a department. It has to be an integral part of your company’s DNA.

Every single person within your organization is in sales, and every single one of them is in customer service, too. Like CEO Tony Hsieh has said on many occasions, Zappos is a service company that happens to sell shoes.

From the receptionist at the front desk to the junior-level guy behind the scenes doing the work that your clients will never see to the accountant that generates the invoices, each action and decision that these individuals make has a cumulative effect in defining your brand.

The key to creating a culture of service that permeates every level of your organization is empowerment, which means you need employees to whom you can entrust this level of responsibility.

Take great care with every hiring decision and seek out individuals who understand the importance and value of their role in shaping your customers’ experience of your brand. Most people can be trained in the nuances of a specific job role, but there’s no orientation program that can instill charisma and work ethic where it does not exist.

Passion is contagious. When your employees project genuine enthusiasm for their job and take ownership of providing the highest caliber service, your customers will feel that they’re more than just a number on a spreadsheet.

4. Reward good behavior.

If you find yourself constantly discounting your products or services to keep your customers coming back for more, you’re training them to love your brand based on price alone. Coupons and sales offer your customers a one-time benefit, and their appreciation for such concessions is as short-lived as the promotion itself.

Your marketing efforts should increase the perceived value of your goods or services, not undercut them. Rather than sacrificing your bottom line to reel in bargain hunters, why not incentivize your best customers to continue doing they’re already doing?

Developing a customer loyalty rewards program – whether it’s based on the longevity of their relationship with you, how much they’ve spent or how many referrals they’ve sent your way – is a great way to reinforce behaviors and actions that help to advance their relationship with your brand.

The key is structuring the program so that the reward is something that holds value to your customer, the initial payoff is attainable within a few months of participation and redemption is an easy, hassle-free process; otherwise, your loyalty program will have exactly the opposite effect.

5. Ask, listen and respond.

Soliciting feedback is a win-win customer relations strategy: it’s an easy way to demonstrate that you care about their needs and desires, and in return, you get valuable insights straight from the source.

After all, who has a clearer view of the ways you could potentially improve what you do or what you have to offer like the customers who use your products or services day in and day out?

In addition to proactively requesting input from your customers, it’s also important to monitor what they’re saying about you. Make sure to keep tabs on your reviews on sites like Google Places and Yelp, and use tools like Google Alerts and Social Mention to stay on top of the conversations that are occurring around your brand across the blogosphere and social media networks.

Certainly you can’t change the course of your business to meet the whim of every customer. But if you see certain requests being made repeatedly, that’s a red flag that there are prime opportunities waiting to be seized to create more robust relationships between your business and your customers.

6. Be one with your tribe.

Take a genuine interest in your customers and their well-being beyond the depth of their pockets.

Keep tabs on key developments in their world and celebrate milestones with them. Give them a shout-out on Facebook or Twitter to acknowledge their accomplishments and help them spread the word.

If your client maintains a blog, follow their posts, share great articles that they publish with your own network and leave thought-provoking comments that spark further discussion or debate.

If a customer comments on your blog or Facebook page, by all means, make sure you respond. When they take the time to actively engage with you, don’t ignore their advances, or they won’t bother to continue.

These small gestures will cost you little time and no money, but they show in a big way that you’re paying attention to the things that matter most to your customers and that you’re invested in their success.

7. Help them advance their goals.

Always have your antenna up for opportunities to help your customers in ways that go beyond your direct product or service offering.

For example, you could call their attention to an insightful article that pertains to an issue of interest to their business. Share links to their blog posts with your fans and followers. Send good job candidates their way. Look for chances to make connections between your clients to facilitate networking and mentoring. Make referrals on their behalf as often as you can.

All of these actions demonstrate to your customers that they’re constantly on your radar and that you’re a true business partner and not just another widget seller.

8. Practice random acts of gratitude.

It’s standard practice to send tokens of appreciation to your customers around the Christmas holidays. This is always a nice gesture, but it’s not exactly mind-blowing.

Don’t make your customers wait 12 months for a demonstration of your gratitude. Do unexpected things throughout the year to show them how much their business means to your company.

You don’t have to break the bank to do something that leaves an impression; it truly is the thought that counts. For example, in today’s instant-gratification-seeking, social media-obsessed culture, think about how great an impact a simple, handwritten note of thanks from the CEO of your company could make.

9. Strive for perfection.

Each and every encounter between your customers and your company plays a role in defining your brand. Take the time to map out every opportunity or instance where your customers do or should come into contact with your business and look for ways to ensure that the experience you offer them is truly remarkable. How can you make it easier, faster, more convenient, more effective, more efficient, more valuable?

Bring everyone in your company together, and ask for their feedback. What tools can you give them to help them serve your customers better? Allow them to be candid about what they see as vulnerabilities and weak points. If there are cracks in the foundation, your customers will notice, so be proactive and aggressive in addressing any issues and ensuring that everything – from the integrity of your products and services to the quality of day-to-day interaction with your employees to the resolution of your customers’ problems or complaints – reflects an unwavering commitment to delivering nothing but the best possible experience.

10. Be honest.

While you should always strive for perfection, any organization run by human beings will inevitably make human mistakes. And in truth, your customers don’t expect you to be infallible 100 percent of the time. They do, however, need to know that they can count on you to make it right.

When problems arise, you have a real opportunity to step up to the plate. Be honest, be humble, be apologetic. Make sure that your actions show that the mistake was an honest one and that you’re sincere in wanting to right the wrong.

If you’ve built a reputation for quality and service, your customers will almost always be willing to forgive a small misstep, as they’ll know it’s the exception and not the rule. In fact, according to a recent Harris Interactive study, 63 percent of respondents said they would go back to a company after a negative experience if they received a follow-up apology or correction from a person in charge.

While you can’t always be perfect, you can always be honest. Transparency is the key to maintaining a solid foundation of trust that is the cornerstone of every long-term customer relationship.

11. Never stop selling.

Genuine customer loyalty must be earned one interaction at a time. You must approach every phone call, every email and every personal encounter like a sales opportunity, not because you’re constantly pushing something else at them but because you must continuously resell yourself and build a case for why you’re the one who can make their lives better and to whom they should entrust their precious dollars.

Happy customers not only keep the cash flowing, they’re your best prospects for additional sales and a vital source of referrals and word-of-mouth marketing.

If you put these principles into practice, you can transform your brand into one of the coveted elite few who have passionate, loyal, vocal customers who not only continue to buy but who do the job of selling for you. Customers who love companies love helping them grow.

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