You may not recognize the name ACI Worldwide but it’s extremely likely they have helped you make a bank transfer, sell a stock or buy a camera online. Their integrated suite of electronic payment software powers more than 75 billion online transactions each year. That’s a lot of UPS Tracking #’s to keep track of.
In December ACI retained Wakefield Research to conduct an online survey of more than 1000 adults across the nation, representing an accurate demographic and psychographic sample of the web population. The topic? Affinity/loyalty/reward programs.
Surely such findings will grab the attention of every retailer or provider of online consumer services, igniting enterprise-wide improvements. Or maybe not?
49% of the respondents have pretty much opted out of using loyalty and reward programs because they are just too much of a pain in the mouse to deal with. SO much for creating loyalty.
78% said that if it were easier to derive a meaningful benefit from a rewards program they would shop more frequently with those sites which honor it.
Only 53% initially select websites where they can earn their hypothetical discounts and rewards, before surfing on to look elsewhere.
52% would prefer using a single card that can hold all their memberships.
32% would rather use a consolidated key chain card or “fob.”
17% want to download a mobile app that would aggregate all their programs.
So you don’t need a degree in statistics to reach a conclusion here. From an ROI standpoint, the effort, money and time large companies invest in their loyalty programs is a coin flip at best.
Here’s the rub -- major online providers must know all of these figures by now. It’s not like they can’t tell that half of their members could care less.
Even though this study clearly says better affinity programs would grow top-line sales, the companies must have crunched the numbers and decided that fulfilling more effectively on these programs won’t benefit their bottom lines. Please let me know if you think I am way off base here cause it’s the only conclusion I can reach. The airlines and retailers would rather create the illusion of rewards to entice new customers. After all, who doesn’t love Capital One’s commercials?
I’m sure the bean counters have all of this nicely boxed up in Excel. As a passionate believer in the power of branding I beg to differ. We all know it costs less to retain a customer than recruit one. Creative agencies like DSPR benefit when companies are constantly chasing new customers because that means more commercials and mailers for us to make. After all, loyal customers don’t need to be marketed to nearly as aggressively.
In a world where social media connects each of us to millions of other consumers, can these companies really claim they have figured out how to measure the positive or negative impact of WORD OF MOUTH?
Remember that Faberge shampoo commercial in the 80‘s --- “And she told two friends...and she told two friends...and so on and so and so on." Why not just improve your loyalty program and keep some more friends?
