Mistakes not to be made when launching Rewards Loyalty Program in Singapore

When we talk about customer loyalty programs, there are some critically important factors we totally need to consider. According to a recent survey done by our Novatise’s team, those customers who belong to retail customer loyalty programs generate far more revenue for the retailers, than other customers do. Also, one cannot simply ignore the fact that retailers nowadays are inclined towards the potentially wrong things that could not only wreck their customer loyalties but also their business. Here are the common mistakes which you should completely avoid when you are launching rewards loyalty in Singapore.

• Turning a blind eye to ROI measurements

According to a study conducted, less than 20 percent of the retailers focus on measuring ROI in evaluating the success of their loyalty programs. Instead, a greater percentage of these retailers focus more on metrics like growing and retaining membership for the corresponding loyalty programs.

Estimates say that around 45 percent are focused on the growth rate of the membership, some 42 percent on the percent of transactions of the loyalty members and around 36 percent focus on total number of transactions by the loyalty members.

No doubt, this is definitely a good idea. However, having a consistent ROI measurement can help keep the investments made to keep the loyalty program up and running can actually prove quite beneficial in the long run. Always make sure that you assess the costs of the loyalty program launched, including the finances for maintenance and compare the same with the resulting sales. This inevitably guarantees better financing possibilities for the growth of the organization on the whole.

• Failing to differentiate your loyalty programs

Most retailers do not understand the importance of differentiating their loyalty programs from those of their competitors. What they simply do not understand is, having a loyalty program just for the namesake, isn’t going to keep them in the lead. At least, this is not quite the obvious way.

You need to figure out ways to keep your program unique and differentiated from the rest of the competitors in the market. Otherwise, why would a customer particularly resort to your customer loyalty program, when there is nothing better or relatively new that you can offer compared to the existing providers in the market.

If you are looking for a possibly cool idea, the first and foremost thing you would want to do is to research out the whole market. If possible, try to sign up for the programs either directly or indirectly, and acquire the details of the inside working of these loyalty programs. This will not only give you detailed insight into what you might be missing out in your program, but also give you new and specific ideas that will help you put you in the lead, amongst the already tough competition in the market.  Once you are thorough with your loyalty program ideas, you would now need to strategize every move to get in touch with the customer and convince them to sign up for your program.

You would want to use your different marketing techniques like promoting it on print ads, email marketing, direct marketing, etc. Always remember, your efforts must be directed towards letting your customers understand your business as well as knowing that your rewards loyalty program is definitely the best they can get in the present market scenario.

• Lacking in knowledge of the latest technological developments

Another of the most common mistakes that retailers indulge in: they fail to keep up with the technological developments of today. With the whole world gone digital, shopping and other essentials have transformed quite drastically for a more digital experience.

According to some estimates obtained, 4 out of 10 retailers still find it quite a struggle to keep up with the digital loyalty programs on the mobile component. This is not a favorable idea, considering the fact that major part of the population is now well equipped with the Smartphone technology and digital standards.

The best you can do is to research out the possibilities of launching digital loyalty programs targeted towards a specific audience. It is up to the retailer to decide whether the product he is launching involves a lot of the young generation or not. For, as you know, the generation of now is totally into tech which is sure to take a revolutionary idea into the future as well.

However, if your target customers belong to the relatively previous generation who are not that much into the Smartphone idea, you might actually not need a mobile component or an app based loyalty program. If you are considering a long term business strategy, the next best thing you can do is to launch your very own digital loyalty program.

• Resorting to immense complexities and stingy payouts

Most customer loyalty programs nowadays are filled with complicated business jargons that the customers do not totally understand. Sadly, the idea of ‘confuse them when you cannot convince them’ is not going to work in this scenario. What most retailers tend to miss out is that, customers, when faced with a difficult term or agreement, they tend to overlook the overall idea of the loyalty program in general. Hence, in an attempt to get customers to sign up for your program, you are actually driving them away to your competitor’s business.

The possible solution for this would be to resort to simpler and minimalistic terms to help your customers understand the whole concept of the loyalty program that you are offering. Also, it would be better if you can resort to some generous payouts.

This will help you win the trust of the customers and keep them hooked onto your program in general. Consider this from the perception of understanding a particular math problem in the childhood days. The simpler the problem, the greater is the confidence level of the student in solving it. Make it a tad bit difficult and the downright tendency would be to give up because it seems all too complicated!