The numbers prove it: loyalty programs are popular among Brazilians. Whether they are consumers looking for discounts, benefits, and other advantages, or business owners and companies who see loyalty as a way to improve their relationships with customers and bring positive returns to the business. Data from ABEMF (Brazilian Association of Fidelity Marketing Companies) indicate that the number of sign-ups for these types of programs in the country grows every year. There are already 320 million registrations, according to the latest study released by the association (3Q24).
With this market excitement, companies looking to invest in loyalty often wonder which path to take. What kind of program to adopt? How to actually turn relationships into businesses? The answer to all these questions is: it depends.
Before implementing a loyalty program, the recommendation is always to study your business, outline and understand your goals and objectives, and get to know the profile of the customers you have and want to have. Although the characteristics of a good loyalty strategy are specific to each business, there are some general rules that can greatly assist those starting on this journey, or even those who already have a loyalty program and want to make it more effective. Here are some of the items that cannot be forgotten along the way.
Engagement – A loyalty program can have various goals. Bring more people to the store, increase the number of items in each purchase, gain recommendations and brand promotion on social media. What they all have in common is summed up in one word: engagement. In the end, what a loyalty program needs to do is engage and influence behavior in a way that is profitable for the business. So, always think about your customers’ behavior when planning loyalty strategies.
Data Collection and Analysis – With so much technology available, there are countless tools that can help a company with data, information, and insights about the business. Regardless of which platforms you will use, keep in mind that you cannot stop monitoring the progress and results of your program. Is your program really changing behavior? Are customers buying more? Has the frequency increased? Who are your most loyal customers? What are their preferences? All of these are questions that cannot be left unanswered if you want to succeed in your loyalty program. In addition to measuring impacts, this type of information can help correct course in case of strategy failures.
Communication – As in any relationship, presence and dialogue are fundamental to the success of a loyalty program. Remember that engagement is built over time and needs to be “fed”, through frequent interactions, listening, feedback. But not just that. Communication needs to be relevant. Use the data you collect to establish this relationship. Show the customer that you know them, that you have prepared offers, conditions, and personalized experiences for them, or even that you are attentive to their needs and desires.
Rational and Emotional – The ideal value proposition of loyalty needs to bring together both rational and emotional aspects. It is important, of course, that the customer feels the benefits of participating in the program “in their pocket”, through discounts or redemption of a product with points/miles, without having to spend more for it. But it is also essential that they feel recognized, be part of a community, perceive exclusivity, and have good experiences.
Segmentation – People are different from each other and have distinct behaviors. Do not forget to take this into consideration and take care of the segmentation of your program. The possibilities are many. You can consider transactional, demographic, and even generational aspects. But never judge your consumers as people with a single profile.
And one last tip: no loyalty strategy can help you correct fundamental business problems. There is no loyalty program that will fix it if you have a bad product or service, if customer service does not work, or if the brand does not deliver what was promised. So, pay attention to these points to avoid harming the relationship with the public.
*Paulo Curro is the executive director of ABEMF – Brazilian Association of Loyalty Market Companies; Fábio Santoro and Leandro Torres are loyalty specialists, responsible for the loyalty training course, a partnership between the association with Loyalty Academy and On Target
