Retail TouchPoints: Assistant Vice President of Cognizant Business Consulting Provides Tips to Retailers on Reimagining and Building an Omnichannel Loyalty Program

“Amid the proliferation of personalization and CRM technologies, customers have come to expect retailers to know who they are, what they purchased, and their preferences for interaction, but to not go so far as to invade their privacy and sense of security,” writes Shannon Warner. “As new customer experiences continue to rise, there is a significant increase in demand for omnichannel services. Customers not only expect to connect with retailers seamlessly across channels, but also expect personalized communications and targeted offers.” Excerpts from the article:

“The 2013 Cognizant Shopper Study revealed the top three personalization factors that influence purchase behavior: special treatment based on loyalty, acknowledgement of status, and personalized offers. A successful omnichannel loyalty program has the ability to deliver on all these expectations by breaking down silos across the enterprise. A true omnichannel loyalty program will engage the customer at the right time, at the right place, through the right channel, with the right message.

Omnichannel loyalty programs engage customers with relevant promotions, earning opportunities, offers and communications across every channel throughout the entire shopping experience. A true omnichannel program delivers everything traditional loyalty programs promise—behavior tracking and analysis, improved customer engagement, customer acquisition, larger transactions, repeat purchases—and much more. Additionally, these programs inspire cross-channel engagement that deepens customer engagement and encourages a broad range of positive behaviors—anywhere and anytime customers want.

When executed correctly, an omnichannel loyalty program can help identify customers, connect online and offline data to better understand indicators of purchase, deliver timely and relevant experiences, and motivate and reward customers for key behaviors that drive sales.

Although it may seem overwhelming to transition a program to the omnichannel paradigm, building an omnichannel loyalty program does not require a complete reboot of an existing program. Incremental adjustments to an existing loyalty program have the potential to generate substantial gains. In order to enable an omnichannel loyalty program, retailers should:

 - Enable loyalty functionality such as enrollment, accrual and redemption across all channels

 - Reward customers for shopper activity that go beyond purchase alone (such as social interactions)

 - Stay connected with customers through social media, local and mobile technologies

 - Ensure a seamless experience and consistency across all loyalty interactions

 - Make loyalty offers and communication relevant and compelling through sophisticated use of data

Retailers must ensure they are focusing on strategic goals when implementing an omnichannel loyalty program. Through a unified view of the customer, retailers can deliver differentiated messaging in the most cost-effective way, improving profitability and competitiveness.”

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