[ DATA AND ANALYSIS ]
IMAGES: SCANRAIL1 / SHUTTERSTOCK. COM
Almost everyone I’ ve seen at the tills produces the distinct blue and white card. According to Steve Hoban, Smart Shopper general manager, it is“ South Africa’ s leading loyalty programme”, with more than 10 million Smart Shoppers who use the points system to get cash back to spend on anything at the retail store.
“ RESPONDENTS ARE MEMBERS OF NINE PROGRAMMES ACROSS THE SPECTRUM, WITH 85 % OF RESPONDENTS BELONGING TO FIVE OR MORE.”
IT’ S IN THE DETAIL
It’ s not just disembodied voices over a phone line that want your signature. In-store solicitation can catch most of us with our guard down. In this instance, one of two things will happen – the shopper will agree to sign up just to conclude the interaction and get away( that’ s me), or they will be abrupt and come across as unfriendly.
Dr Tshume says in-store clerks are not usually the best people to entice customers into signing up for rewards programmes and loyalty cards.“ We’ ve found that in-store clerks are poorly informed,” he says.“ This could be attributed to the high turnover of employees at retail level. As a result, we have field marketers who now, more than ever, engage directly with the retail staff at our various partners.”
A 2014 survey into loyalty programme consumer engagement and perceptions revealed that there are more than 100 programmes on offer in South Africa. The online survey, led by Illana Melzer from Eighty20, sampled 750 respondents across the country and found that they on average belonged to nine different programmes.
“ There is clearly a wide selection of programmes on offer,” reads the survey.“ On average, respondents are members of nine programmes across the spectrum, with 85 % of respondents belonging to five or more programmes. While this may seem high, given that some programmes demand time-consuming engagement by active members, it must be contextualised.
“ Higher-income consumer segments that dominate our respondent base would be regular users of financial services; they have bank accounts, credit cards, medical aid and other insurance. They will of course shop for groceries and spend on health and beauty. They are also likely to travel and spend a sizeable amount on entertainment. While an average of nine programmes is high, given likely activity levels across industry verticals, the base is by no means saturated.”
This assessment is completely plausible – at the last count, I was personally standing on 16 rewards / loyalty cards that have necessitated their own card holder. Out of all of that, I actively use three – two for groceries and one for the pharmacy. Most of the cards just sit in the holder in a rarely used bag, and are remembered around my birthday when the text messages for“ a special birthday discount of 10 % off” keep my phone buzzing for a week.
The Loyalty Box, a multichannel loyalty and analytics solutions hub, says companies can gain better insight into their loyalty customers’ transactional reports“ with the click of a button”, which will filter items, locations, rules, and more. This will enable the company to see their customerspend data and“ dramatically increase the success of promotions by using this data to make informed decisions about the type of campaigns you run and to whom”.
ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN COMPANY AND CUSTOMER
It’ s important to respond to fluid customer behaviour by“ consistently engaging with our clients, keeping a holistic approach to wellness and adding relevant partners that speak directly to our target market,” says Dr Thandu Tshume, head of Physical Wellness at MMI Holdings Limited.“ One of our chief objectives is to maintain client engagement.
We do this through multiple mediums( call centres, website, app, emails and SMS), by updating our members on new offerings and changes to the programme, and by updating their own personal achievements linked to our physical-activity solution, Active Dayz.”
An Eighty20 survey reports:“ Given that engagement is the primary objective and that members have multiple programmes, programme owners need to make it as easy as possible for consumers to engage. Clicks’ recent adoption of card-based point-of-sale redemption is a case in point. No doubt that retailer has seen a noticeable increase in redemption as a result of that innovation. And while some in the finance division might be a little disappointed to see a reduction in breakage, and with that a higher cost of rewards, no doubt the benefits to the brand are far more significant.”
There are more than 10 million customers registered for the Smart Shopper programme.
FNB’ s eBucks programme seems to have mastered this technique. Consecutively voted the Coolest Bank in the Sunday Times Generation Next Awards, FNB’ s Bavani Roman says they are“ working actively to ensure members have relevant earn and spend opportunities”.
“ With data, we have noticed that members’ behaviour evolves annually and that they are becoming increasingly smart about their banking and shopping behaviour, in order to maximise their rewards,” Roman says.“ With this in mind, however, members can easily be put off when they feel that businesses are watching their every move, and information is only structured to increase spending.
“ As such, this can help programmes if the information affords the business with the ability to streamline the data, making the programme more convenient and relevant to their members. Data is utilised to understand members’ spending habits. By analysing the information we have on our members, we are able to enrich our rewards and tailor marketing efforts, add relevant partners, and offer more value to ensure the ongoing relevance of the programme.” ■
“ While the benefits of Smart Shopper are really clear, we do have a comprehensive guide to Smart Shopper and how to use it on our website( www. picknpay. co. za),” says Smart Shopper General Manager Steve Hoban.
When all is said and done, businesses want to see their expansion to ecommerce yield results by signing on as many customers as possible to their loyalty and rewards programmes. Customers, on the other hand, want to maximise their benefits and be rewarded for their loyalty to stores and brands. What they don’ t want is to feel harassed and bullied into collecting more cards that will have little to no benefits.
As the research has shown, the act of redeeming points( or using benefits) is the most important signal of engagement.
“ We always encourage members to understand the earn potential from the products that they hold,” says FNB eBucks’ Bavani Roman.“ Earning should be easy. To help our members unlock value and understand their earn potential on their specific bank product, we have made the eBucks calculator available on www. ebucks. com to enable members to maximise their rewards. Members can then see the banking and shopping behaviour they need to adopt in order to boost their earning potential.”
REWARDS & LOYALTY SA 31