Customers Need Value in Exchange for their Information

Today, more and more companies aim to monetize the customer information they accumulate. They do this by targeting ads and promos based on customer preferences and history, or by sharing it with commercial partners. But before all that happens, the customer must first give their data willingly. How in the world will that happen? For starters, businesses must gain the trust of their customers first by ensuring that the advantages of signing up for a service, filling a survey, or getting subscription are clear for everyone. They must willingly give their data, and they won’t do that unless they see what’s in it for them.

Over the years, having detailed customer information has proved to be very powerful for many brands. Personalizing your campaigns leads to effective rewards program. In addition, with this data, you can make improvements for an overall improved customer experience.

Exchanging Value between Your Brand and Customers

Part of the basics of modern marketing today is the way businesses and customers communicate freely and quickly. There are three main points to creating this exchange that includes:

• The exchange of money for products and services
• Customers sharing information in exchange for a reward, freebie, discount or exclusive access
• The commitment and delivery of an enhanced customer experience

Making Customers See the Benefit

When you are collecting data for customer rewards, it is important that your target market see the clear benefit in providing and sharing their data with you. Of course, there are always others out there who aren’t comfortable with divulging their personal information and that is okay. Make it known as well that there is an opt-out option and providing their information isn't a requirement. Here are some tips to your customers see the benefit:

• Provide an incentive – this could be a free gift, discount, etc.
• Show proof of what you offer – you can do this through posting videos, testimonials, reviews, or images.
• Show a sample – giving customers a glimpse of the rewards they will get will excite them, and give them more reasons to provide their info.
• Make your privacy policy clear – reassuring customers that their information will be kept private will make them feel more comfortable about sharing their data.

Customer Research

Customer research is vital to getting the right information, along with offering the best experience possible for them. Your work doesn’t stop at just obtaining customer data. You need to continue to build trust and educate customers so that it is clear to them where and how their information will be used. This is a difficult task because not a lot of consumers see the benefit of filling out a form. You can change this attitude by giving them control on what information they choose to share.

Data harvesting for customer rewards will benefit everyone. As a company, you will be able to enhance customer experience by knowing customer preferences, and providing value added services based on their needs. The data collected will also enable you to plan strategies that will broaden your market. Customers, on the other hand, will gain from the rewards you provide and will benefit from the product improvements that you are able to implement from the details you acquire.

Photo Credits: Flickr Creative Commons

Consumers are Now More Concerned with Data Privacy, Study Reveals

In stark contrast with the drop in consumer confidence last year, consumer loyalty and trust is seemingly making a comeback, according to a recent study done by fast.MAP.

According to the research, which was collated last September, marketers and companies have regained trust on sharing personal information, especially in transacting online, with more than 80 percent of users saying that they are willing to provide personal information such as their name and address in online transactions. This is a remarkable improvement when compared with the 50 percent approval rating recorded in the previous year.

However, this surge in consumer loyalty and trust to brands comes at a hefty price – more and more customers are wary about data breaches and privacy hazards, and will only give out their personal information when they think it is essential to the transaction.

Consumers are now more concerned about giving out personal data that could possibly be used for nefarious marketing activities, and they are now more familiar about which information should be given out on particular instances.

For example, the study revealed that over half of consumers are willing to give their credit card details when they shop online, as they know that it is essential to complete the transaction.

However, when they know that providing personal information is more of an option than a requirement, such as when joining online groups and forums. According to the fast.MAP study, less than 2 percent of the respondents are willing to provide their personal information such as credit card details when requesting for samples, inquiries and price quotations.

Unlike before, consumer loyalty and trust has become more difficult to earn. More and more consumers are demanding transparency on corporate privacy policies, with most of them closely scrutinising marketing strategies that could potentially jeopardize their personal data.

Though more consumers are willing to provide private information, it is only limited to three essential pieces of information: name, email, and postal address. When companies ask more than the said info, consumers become suspicious and are not too willing to cooperate.

Such information may spring from a related data in the study, which reveals that more consumers this year have reported that businesses have compromised the personal details that they provided, from 21 percent in 2011 to 23 percent this year.

The recent data on consumer behaviour is a strong signal for companies to review their privacy policies and be more responsible on the handling and collection of consumer information. At a time when more people are wary of fraud and data manipulation, companies should focus on how to retain or regain consumer loyalty and trust, rather than engage in activities that could collect more data. New plans and strategies should be drawn to secure consumer data and become more transparent when they deal with consumers.

To regain consumer loyalty, businesses should take time to explain to consumers why they are collecting such data – in the simplest of terms – and assure them of the safety of their identity. They should also acknowledge that it is their responsibility to report any untoward incidents that may lead to data breaches.

As more consumers become concerned with data privacy, it is high time for businesses to be more proactive in protecting consumer data.

Photo Credits: Flickr Creative Commons

5 Tips for Designing Competitive Employee Benefit Packages

A new trend is growing among human resource professionals: providing competitive benefit packages to attract more employees.

In a recent reward risk survey in the United Kingdom, majority of recruitment professionals surveyed said that the provision of relevant benefit packages is now their top priority, even surpassing the concern for techniques on employee recruitment and retention.

According to the recruiters asked in the poll, more and more HR companies are worrying that employees don’t fully understand the real value of benefit packages offered by their individual companies. Such lack of understanding posts risks for employers, as it could lead to higher employee attrition rates and unsatisfactory assessments on their company’s workforce enhancement programmes. Companies unable to provide relevant benefit packages also find it hard to implement strategies for recruitment and retention, as potential employees nowadays easily get discouraged when they hear nasty rumours about bad benefit packages in their prospective company.

So how do you design competitive benefits packages that would ensure employee satisfaction? Here’s how:

1. Beat the competition – With many companies competing for the limited competent workforce available, it is important that you ensure your company offers benefit packages that are at par, if not better, with that offered by rival companies. To do so, you should be aware of what other companies are offering, and you should be willing to surpass the said offers.
2. Be relevant – Know what your employees really need and ensure that these needs are provided. The secret to better employee recruitment and retention stats is offering what the most pressing demand of the populace is. Listen to your employees and provide incentives that matter. Rewards that are only tangential to the needs of employees are as good as nothing. For example, a generally fit and healthy but cash-strapped workforce needs more cash incentives than sick leave benefits.
3. Offer small rewards – Be it big or small, in the world of professional reward structuring, every single perk counts. Offer free dry-cleaning on Fridays, or throw in occasional free lunches and tickets to certain concerts. These things may seem trivial, but employees appreciate them, and this could really boost employee satisfaction, recruitment, and retention.
4. Give out irresistible financial rewards – With the current economic situation, more and more employees are concerned with financial security. Reward employees that meet performance goals by offering substantial salary increases, stock options, and other financial rewards. Do the math: How much are you willing to dish out to ensure employee satisfaction? You’d be surprised that it’s relatively easy to strike that delicate balance wherein you can give out raises while still keeping the business afloat.
5. Hire a third party company – If you have a relatively large workforce, it is a daunting task to keep track of each of your employee’s needs. Putting someone with a high level of expertise on providing rewards could help you focus on other matters concerning the company and ensures that your business offers the best and the latest when it comes to benefit packages for employees.

Photo Credits: Flickr Creative Commons

Extend the Initial Success of Established Customer Loyalty Programmes

With the current state of the economy, it is but wise for companies to invest in customer loyalty programmes to keep their current customers. Unfortunately, most loyalty programmes are only effective during the first few months of its launch. Many businesses employ customer loyalty programmes that allow them to convert walk-in customers into loyal patrons, but most of these businesses don’t know how to maximise the benefits of such programmes.

Here, we’ll discuss three key factors that ensure the continued success of loyalty programmes:

1. Maximise the use of your customer data – One of the great benefits of having a customer loyalty programme is that you can easily gather essential information about your customers – their buying patterns, their preferences, down to their mailing addresses.
   
   However, not all companies maximise the use of such important data. Some businesses offer customer loyalty programmes that highly depend on discount offerings and premiums. However, it’s not as profitable in the end, as these types of loyalty programmes are just teaching customers how to save a few pounds. Usually, these loyalty programmes begin to falter when a competitor offers a loyalty programme that provides a more affordable option.
   
   To address this, companies should tap the gold mine that they already possess – the customer data! Find out how you could improve your services by looking into issues such as checkout speeds, store layout, and customer feedback and competitor information. Try to do short customer satisfaction surveys and see how you could improve your loyalty programme based on your patrons’ preferences.
2. Appeal to your customers’ emotions – Again, customer loyalty and satisfaction don’t rely solely on bonuses and discounts. Successful loyalty programmes engage customers as much as possible. A long-term programme builds an emotional link between your business and customers.
   
   The loyalty programme is only one facet of the whole branding and marketing of your business. The other facets include the quality of your actual products, the benefits customers get from being loyal to your business, and even the hospitality of your employees. Try to boost customer loyalty and satisfaction by making the whole business transaction a positive experience for them. Give loyalty cardholders the VIP treatment in your stores – provide special lanes for faster processing, extra discounts, early advice on sales events, and ask your employees address them by name. Successful customer loyalty programmes even go to such lengths as mailing loyal members gifts on important occasions, like Christmas and their birthdays. Such gifts need not be expensive; it’s the thought that counts!
3. Keep up with technology – Modern technology now offers many opportunities in which you can improve your loyalty programme. The technology that allows customers to pay through their smartphones, for example, could be tapped by giving additional discounts for loyalty cardholders if they use such technologies. With these new technologies, measuring customer loyalty and satisfaction has also become easier, as you can now monitor the frequency of purchases and other trends electronically.

You can never run out of ways to improve customer loyalty and satisfaction. Always be dynamic. What’s important to remember each time you try a new promotion is to think like the customer, and create ways to ensure that your patrons feel important every time they transact with your business.

Photo Credits: Flickr Creative Commons

Building Personal Relationships with Your Customers

A company without customers can’t be considered a company at all. All companies, regardless of size, know how important a role customers play to their business’ success. This is why enhancing overall customer experience is crucial for lasting success and survival in the industry. Remember it is easier to keep the customers you already have compared to acquiring new ones, so you need to work hard in building this relationship. Losing even just one customer can affect your business profoundly, so your best bet is to create a customer loyalty and retention programme.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

CRM is a company’s business strategy that is made to lower costs and boost profitability through enhancing customer loyalty, satisfaction, and advocacy. Accurate CRM combines information coming from various data sources in the company to come up with a complete profile of every customer. This will include basic personal information, spending patterns and previous service requests. These data will enable employees, who deal with customers directly, to make quick and informed decisions that will convince your customers to continue supporting your products. The key is to build on the foundation of your brand’s relation to the customer, so that they know who you are, why they need your product/service, and how you can help them.

Determining Your Strategy and Implementing It

So how can you avoid losing a customer? Can you keep all your customers by creating a good product or service? Yes, but not everyone will be happy with just that. You have to give your customers the whole package- a product + a reason to continue doing business with you.  Customer loyalty is earned and is something that you need to nurture. Here’s how you can do it:

1. Communication –Think about when you get in touch with your customers. Is it only to close a deal or sell something? You can change this by making your clients feel involved through newsletters, social media, and fun promotions. Make your customer feel that you care about them, not just about their purchases.
2. Rewards – Each company has different customer loyalty rewards programmes. These programmes are an easy way for the business to show their gratitude to their customers. In fact, they have grown popularity recently and are considered a great marketing strategy. These programmes are marketing tools, which are practical and measurable. Small businesses can use these to give customers an incentive to continue doing business with them. It is about understanding and recognizing your customers, especially since they are all different from one another.
3. Better Customer Service – Having quality customer service is crucial for customer retention as well. Customers want their issues fixed in a quick and orderly manner, so don’t make it complicated by making it hard for them to reach you. Good customer service may make or break your business, so take time to train your staff to answer questions and process requests correctly. Nothing irritates customers more than having to call back for the same request.
4. Show that You Care – Make an effort to interact with your customers face to face. Even knowing their names shows that you care.
5. Be Flexible – You have to be attentive and quick when attending to customer issues or complaints. It is important to address the issue or else your customer will simply bring their business elsewhere.

Customer loyalty is something your company will have to constantly work at. It’s not something you can easily tick off your checklist. By following these tips and implementing the right customer relationship management strategy, you will be able to retain more customers and grow your business.

Photo Credits: Pinterest

Loyalty Surveys- the Rewards and Incentive Industry has a Long Way to Go

Customer rewards programs have long been used by business establishments and credit card companies. Not only does it bring great return of investment to the company, it also serves as a ‘come in’ for new and prospective customers, too. Unfortunately, with the rate and stature of the economy worldwide, some companies are finding it tough to come up with freebies for customers.

Recent survey results from Swift Exchange shows that program liability and costs are the primary challenges faced by companies, who provide customers with loyalty incentive packages. Just last April of this year, the Swift Exchange conducted a Loyalty Pulse Survey, which highlighted many flaws in the services provided by the companies involved in the loyalty and incentive market.

The survey was conducted at the Freddie Awards, wherein Swift Exchange received an award for its sponsorship of a 1988 event. According to Richard Postrel, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Swift Exchange, “modern day loyalty programs have reached the limits of their current technology and methodology.” He added that, “fundamental macro-economic issues must be addressed in order to advance this industry into the next generation. What we are seeing is an industry that is ripe for transformation. This is a wake-up call for the entire reward and loyalty industry,” he concluded.

Companies involved in the rewards and loyalty business who responded to the survey spoke up. As much as 49 per cent of the companies in the industry claimed the liabilities and costs required to maintain an incentive program is “challenging”. The other 38 per cent resolved that managing the costs of their incomes and loses altogether has become “more challenging” (due to the economy).

There were also respondents who were asked to judge the current state of cooperation between reward providers and business owners. According to 58 per cent of responders, there is indeed a much higher need for a better partnership between reward providers and business owners. The two parties should work hand in hand to maximize profits while, balancing their loses.

According to Nancy Gordon, Chief Operating Officer of Swift Exchange, "the new Swift Exchange LoyaltyPulse Survey highlights what we've been consistently observing for a long time. It also brings to light the unprecedented frustration experienced by all industry constituents – consumers, merchants and reward providers alike. The bottom line is that there is a crying need for a new model that transforms the conventional approach to liquidity, transparency and usability of reward points and miles."

Indeed, customers are always complaining about the terms and conditions of rewards programs. Some say it’s difficult to earn the points, and much more complicated to claim the rewards. The typical complaint of merchants revolves around the cost to pay for such loyalty programs. The loyalty and rewards industry is promising, because more and more consumers are leaning towards brands who give them extra value for their money. However, if the industry is to prosper, merchants and rewards providers must create a better model to make the whole process run smoothly.

Reviving Employee Morale with Rewards

There are a lot of factors that affect an employee’s morale. However different the situation may be, the results are often one and the same in nature – a dive in business revenue. What employers sometimes fail to understand is the need to practice giving out employee rewards, just to boost a little bit of morale inside the workplace.

According to the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, individuals are always innately seeking for approval. This begins at childhood, and continues until the person eventually achieves the self-fulfilment stage. Self-fulfilment may be attained either at home, from peers, and at work. This is the psychological view that employers need to plan and understand carefully.

Common Cause of Low Employee Morale

Unfortunately, not everybody is lucky enough to land a job that they have always dreamed of. Most of the time, people settle for the immediate opportunities at hand, rather than continuously seeking out what they really want in the first place. Sometimes, employees lose their work morale due to lack of opportunities, while other times it’s just because of personal reasons. As a result, employees are not motivated to produce the best results. Hence, a far less productive employee can terribly affect business revenue.

How can you Motivate Employees? How can you Increase their Work Morale?

The answer to this is simple- rewards. When employees are rewarded for hitting their targets, they will be motivated to work together and harder, thus increasing the company’s stocks and profit.

There are other options in boosting morale aside from increasing an employee’s salary. It is most understandable, of course, that money as a form of employee rewards does motivate people. However, there are other things that can definitely capture an employee’s attention:

1.     Convenience Credit Cards- companies can better instigate responsibility and eagerness among their employees by awarding outstanding employees with a prepaid convenience credit card. This can hold money from $100 to $1000, depending on the company’s budget. The star employee of the month may be much privileged with this card, and he or she can decide where and when to shop. 

2.     In-Season Gadgets- of course, iPads, iPhone, netbooks, digital cameras or an LED TV may be too expensive as a form of reward. However, it can motivate your employees to strive harder, and achieve even impossible company targets. Since these items may not be as cheap as your average rewards, these rewards may be given as a year-end bonus to top performing workers. It can also be given as a reward for hitting a major company milestone.

3.     Restaurant Gift Cards- there is nothing more wonderful than eating at a fine dining restaurant without worrying about your bill! This reward will give your hard working employees a taste of luxury, without hurting their budgets. This gift card will let your employees taste the rewards of their hard work, and enjoy the company of their loved ones at dinner.

4.   A Wellness Program- these wellness programs can be structured and developed in a number of ways. They can be in a form of a free gym membership, nutrition counselling, alcohol and smoking cessation program, and weight loss packages. Healthy employees indeed perform better. Therefore, a company is doing both itself and the employee a favour by having a wellness program at hand.

A little creativity, and a good selection of rewards can dramatically increase your employee’s performance, and of course, your company’s revenue. This selection of rewards can help you do just that.

Photo credit to: RobinsonsMay