How to Boost Customer Experience and Retention With Digital Loyalty Programs

Digitalization makes implementing loyalty programs easy and effective. Many businesses are leveraging the benefits of new technologies to augment their brand experience while remaining highly relevant and competitive. Today's customers expect a lot from the brands that they choose - they want a satisfactory experience. The digitally-driven loyalty programs enable businesses to attract potential customers and retain them for long.

If you’re wondering why digital customer experience matters a lot, take a look at the below emerging trends:

• More than 65% of customers will pay more for a superior experience
• A strong emotional connection with a brand will hold the customers for long (even for a lifetime)
• Loyal customers are likely to recommend the brand name to others
• When a customer has an issue related to the service compared to a product or price, they are four times more likely to turn to a competitor

It’s clear that more than the products and prices, experiences will help businesses build a strong relationship with their customers. The brand-customer relationship will shape the buying patterns and brand loyalty. As the world moves towards all things digital, most customer experiences will be delivered via online channels.

Therefore, marketers worldwide must be aware of what works best for the customers, the loopholes and how to fix them and most importantly how they can craft an exceptional customer experience.

How to create a digital loyalty experience

Below mentioned are some of the most effective ways to enhance customer experience and boost retention using digitally-driven loyalty programs:

• Utilize new and latest technologies: Businesses must think bigger beyond stamp cards in today's digitally-driven marketplace. They must utilize digitally advanced technologies to drive better customer relationships. This is because about 95% of loyalty program members want to connect with their brand's program via innovative and emerging technologies. Therefore, businesses must implement the latest technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and others in their loyalty programs. In today's time, loyalty programs must offer customers various options that encourage repeat purchases and offer true value to members.
• Provide instant rewards: To turn shoppers into consistent ones, businesses must implement the strategy of offering buyers instant rewards. As today's customers expect instant gratification, offering loyalty members with instant rewards can help to improve the buyer's consistency of shopping with a particular brand. About 85% of retailers experience an increase in consistent shopping within the first week when they offer benefits to their customers from the start.
• Create a personalized experience: Businesses must utilize customer data to create a personalized experience for successful loyalty programs. Information can be gathered like contact details, mostly search data, mobile app access, shopping behaviors and other details that can help businesses provide customers with all they want. However, the data must be used carefully. Businesses must offer the ability to the buyers to decide what data they want to share.
• Push notifications: Businesses can also use push notifications to enhance sales. They can use location-based alerts to inform nearby loyalty customers about the current deals or rewards opportunities available for them. This will help customers conveniently shop for their desired products or service while enhancing sales for the businesses. Besides, in-store offers can further augment customer experience for about 85% of loyalty program members.

Final thoughts

To conclude, businesses must implement digitally-driven loyalty programs to enhance the customer-brand relationship. Buyers today crave attractive offers and deals without which they may move to a competitor's brand. Therefore, businesses must include digitally-driven customer loyalty programs in their marketing strategy. Not only will this help to improve customer experience, but it will also enhance your customer retention rate.