Creating a great customer experience (CX) requires a well-thought-out, multi-touch strategy that builds confidence in your brand. You have to optimize every interaction with your customers, regardless of the channel. That includes their communications with your marketing, sales, and customer service teams and may encompass everything from getting issues resolved quickly to collecting valuable feedback to rewarding loyal customers.
There is a common misconception that customer experience and customer service are the same thing, but service is just one piece of the overall customer experience. The customer experience refers to how your customers view your company based on all their interactions with you and your brand throughout their buying journey. That means your marketing, onboarding, support, and retention strategies are all part of the customer experience.
When you create a great customer experience, you give your buyers a better impression of your company, which in turn helps boost loyalty and advocacy. And by generating loyalty and advocacy, you’ll increase repeat purchases, renewals, and new business. But just one bad experience can have the opposite effect. According to PwC’s 2022 Customer Loyalty Survey, the top two reasons that buyers cited for leaving a brand — by far — were bad experiences with products/services and with customer service.
There are a number of steps that businesses can take to make sure they’re creating the positive experience that their customers want, such as:
Customers have made it clear that they like loyalty and rewards programs, and a good one can make a big impact in improving their experiences. Eighty percent of customers surveyed say that a good loyalty program increases the chances that they will continue to use a business, according to Bond, a provider of CX solutions. In addition, BHN’s recent study, done in collaboration with Aberdeen Group, shows that using promotions that offer rewards are more effective than discounts, resulting in 92% higher profitability per customer.
Loyalty programs also help you continue to personalize the customer’s journey after the purchase. Four in five consumers are more likely to use a business that offers those kinds of personalized experiences, according to Epsilon. Whether you use instant rewards, a community, or a points-based program for customers, you can build it with the flexible options and customized content that people are looking for.
Making sure that your loyalty program is easy to run and maintain is key to its success. Fortunately, a platform like BHN Rewards allows for the integration of loyalty rewards into existing customer engagement, marketing automation, and community tools. Integrating rewards with the software you already use allows for automated delivery, creating a hands-off approach to rewarding loyalty.
Another important part of implementing an effective loyalty program is finding the right rewards to offer. Customers must find the reward appealing before they’ll join and utilize your program. BHN research shows that 81% of loyalty program members choose to redeem their points for prepaid cards and digital gift cards.
In addition to their popularity, digital gift cards are an ideal loyalty program reward because they offer both sender and recipient a lot of flexibility, they are delivered instantly for free, they can be personalized to provide a better customer experience, and they can be easily tracked.
BHN Rewards offers an excellent selection of digital gift cards, prepaid cards, and e-donations to use in your loyalty program, all of which can be sent as instant rewards or redeemed as part of a points-to-rewards structure. Request a demo to learn more!
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4 Ways Rewarding Customer Loyalty Supports Your Lead Generation Efforts
