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Customer loyalty is on the rise. With the uncertainty of today’s dynamic business world, consumers are becoming increasingly conscious about what they buy and, more importantly, where they buy it from.

Brands are going above and beyond to keep their customer’s trust and loyalty to ensure sustainable growth. Studies show that around 80% of the sales come from only 20% of your customers.

Hence, retaining your valued customers and gaining their undivided loyalty is a priority for most organizations. These trends will help you keep your customers engaged and stay loyal to your brand despite the competition. Don’t worry, we didn’t forget you.

These trends are primarily focused on how to convert your maximum customer base into your loyal customers. But along with that, we’ll also talk about how you can get the most returns on your investments in fruitful loyalty programs.

The top 7 loyalty program trends of 2023 are:

1. The use of loyalty technology

Technology has enhanced practically every aspect of the world’s economy, so it’s a no-brainer to take the technological approach for customer loyalty. Using the latest loyalty technology to effectively interact with your customers and improve customer engagement with your brand seems like the smart way to go.

For example, GiiftPay uses the latest technology for a turnkey solution that allows merchants to launch a loyalty program through their payment gateway and give points to consumers when they pay.

2. The dynamic gamification apps

Why not take advantage of the dynamic nature of gamification apps to spruce up your customer loyalty programs? The shift from your mundane, static approach to this more productive and dynamic approach is sure to give your loyalty program the attention it needs.

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One popular example of this is Starbucks Rewards where they have gamified the coffee-buying experience for Starbucks customers through their mobile app which has substantially boosted their sales.

3. Focusing on personalization

Personalization is more than just a trend. It is a necessity to a certain level. Customers usually receive non-stop marketing communications from brands. So much so that research by Forrester states that there will be a rise of a whopping 40% in marketing-related communication.

In such a prediction, personalization will not only encourage customer interaction with your loyalty program but will also help boost reward redemptions. Our client MTI Yokke is very happy with our GiiftBox which empowers them to create personal digital offers for their niche customer segments in just a few clicks.

4. Thinking innovation

“Innovation is the unrelenting drive to break the status quo and develop anew where few have dared to go,” says Steven Jeffes, Marketing & business expert.

Driving customer retention through customer loyalty programs is nothing new. They are still effective, but since everyone is using loyalty programs, an innovative approach is something that you should consider.

Speaking about innovation, GiiftPlum is great as it has automized the rewards system. It helps you delight your employees or customers by automating rewards & incentive programs across the customer lifecycle. Brands like Pepsi, Volkswagen, and more have seen incredible results through GiiftPlum.

5. Security and data privacy

There’s no doubt that privacy-related scams are becoming more and more prominent. Hence, taking the required steps and measures to secure your customer’s privacy and personal data seems like the perfect approach. Considering they are trusting your brand to register themselves to your loyalty programs, you should do the same.

At Giift, we consider our customers to be our top priority. In consequence, we got ISO 27001 certified a while back and just recently we also got SOC 2 Type II certified too.

So, we suggest you should give the same importance to data privacy for your loyalty programs or get someone like us to take care of your loyalty program needs.

6. Blockchain technology integration

Talking about your customers’ security and privacy, blockchain technology is another very valuable trend for loyalty programs going forward.

Blockchain technology can be easily integrated with loyalty programs and can be used to enable different loyalty schemes. This technology makes every transaction your customer does on your loyalty program immutable and encrypted.

Only the members with authorized access to the digital keys can read the data. KrisFlyer, a frequent flier program of Singapore Airlines has announced a miles-based digital wallet. With this, their customers could easily convert miles into digital shopping.

Singapore Airlines announced that their frequent flier program, KrisFlyer, will now be converted to KrisPay, a miles-based digital wallet that members can use to convert miles into digital shopping with other merchants.

7. Cost saving approach

Focusing on Customer retention has always been more cost-effective than customer acquisition. 

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The Harvard Business Review Report research shows that increasing your spending on customer retention by as much as just 5% as compared to customer acquisition, could enhance the business profits anywhere from 25-95%.

Also, designing your loyalty program and adapting a straightforward strategy that saves costs and improves the ROI of the program.

Loyalty technology is more flexible and accessible than ever before.

At Giift for example, we have loyalty platforms that are all-in-one solutions, yet personalized with easy integration and more. They address all your requirements and boost your customer engagement. Let’s start by talking about a few pivotal trends, perse the defining trends that will be the main pillars throughout:

• Loyalty should be embedded in all the facets of business

• More focus on personalization to include a wider audience

• Cost-effectiveness will also be a leading trend

‍The key takeaways here are that with time, your organization needs to evolve, innovate and succeed. Adopting these loyalty program trends into your existing customer loyalty programs or designing and creating your new loyalty programs around them will certainly help you. It will optimize your loyalty program’s performance and thereby optimize the ROI for the same.

So what are you waiting for? Our team at Giift is eagerly waiting to be of help to you and we assure you that our next-gen loyalty solutions to engage and reward your customers & teams will be the best decision you make.

We offer end-to-end Loyalty Program Management which is aimed at acquiring new customers, building lasting relationships, and strengthening brand loyalty all in one.

Guest Contributor