Today I am rallying the loyal harmonixloyalty fans to see the fundamental flaws in the CheckPoints program. The CheckPoints program is completely customer facing and can potentially harm the business that probably pays big bucks to participate.

CheckPoints works like this. Customers use a nifty mobile app to scan barcodes on products in nearby stores to earn points for visiting these businesses.  Then you are supposed to put the item in your basket and check out. Right? Or you just put the item back on the shelf and continue scanning items in the store… am I the only one who thought of this, really?  The problem with this system is that it doesn’t record the points at the cash register – the point of sale. The CheckPoints system puts the burden (enjoyable task?) on the customer to scan each item to earn their points. Sounds like fun right? Even with a fancy iPhone app, customers are ultimately creatures with a short attention span. Once the next captivating shopping app comes out, customers will probably stop scanning for CheckPoints.

The solution is simple. Remove human nature from the equation and rely on the business to automatically record the customers’ points.  Say you’re at a grocery store; the clerk at the checkout register scans all the items in your basket and then asks you if you belong to the Rewards Program. You can either say no, and enroll on the spot, or say yes and scan your plastic card, iPhone app, or provide your email address.

From harmonixloyalty’s perspective, the business would receive far greater value if they collected their own data. This data would be usable and accessible through a Loyalty Operator’s reports for the business managers. There could still exist an iPhone app for the customer to check and redeem their points, but the store employee will do the tedious scanning since they already do scan each item.

From the Loyalty Operator’s perspective (i.e. CheckPoints), businesses would pay a premium to participate in the community program as well as the ability to offer their own Points promotions, especially one that were seamlessly integrated in their systems. The loyalty operator makes money like any other business through reward redemptions, participation fees, or sales based percentage funding.

To effectively compete with CheckPoints, the opportunity requires a PHP programmer to build on the harmonixloyalty API and a crafty front-end developer to design the marketing site and eventual iPhone app. Our team would be happy to combine forces with your team to create a smarter loyalty product. Just saying… we play nice with others (when we’re not picking fights).

This is just one of the endless number of ways that harmonixloyalty can help your business’ next (first?) loyalty project. Our technology and loyalty experts assist in the creation of amazing and powerful loyalty applications with the right people in mission control.  If anyone is interested in creating such a program, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We’d love to hear your crazy, out of this world idea—they’re the only ones that ever make a difference.

So your business now has a rewards program.  You can now check that off the list of things “recommended” to do by the marketing gurus you pay a lot of money to keep you up-to-date with the 21st century.  You then start to wonder if all you’re doing is paying fees and giving away rewards for something you would have been doing any way.  Besides, true branding is ONLY created through top-notch service and professional know-how, NOT marketing gimmicks, right?  Wrong.  Marketing is the way you inform people of your brand. It’s sort of like the chicken or the egg, not sure which came first.  It’s time to deploy the real weapons in your marketing arsenal and they all relate to Reporting Analysis.

Just as you’ve read about Google Analytics and how important it is to monitor the traffic on your website, you’ll now hear terms such as entrenchment and retraction that describe how well you’re keeping the clients you’ve already established a relationship with.  Entrenchment is a term that defines the ability to keep a client once they have begun to do business with you.  Retraction has to do with keeping the clients that might have fallen out of touch.  How much repeat traffic and business are you really getting out of each client and is there more that can be done to maximize revenues on a per-client basis?

This blog post was written with the idea in mind that a client’s behavior can be altered through strategic marketing.  Before you can even begin to analyze how successful your incentive levels are, you’ll need to determine what statistics and reports your rewards program offers.

First, I’ll give you a short example:

Jewelry stores have a few major Holidays and events that they direct the majority of their attention to: Birthdays, Christmas, and Anniversaries.  Let’s call this the Big 3 for Jewelry Store Marketing.  It’s not complicated to explain that a single household would have at least the Big 3 keeping them coming back to the marketplace to purchase jewelry every year.  What’s to keep them coming back to one single jewelry store rather than finding the next best deal?  Loyalty.  What type of incentive encourages loyalty? Rewards.  So, knowing this simple truth can bring someone to believe that the concept of reporting could be vital to a jewelry store’s retraction campaign right?  All a jewelry store has to do is look through their reports and test to see which of their clients are only coming in 1-2 times during the year rather than maximizing the Big 3!  Then, that business can target those clients that are not showing loyalty and test promotions to see if they can turn every client into a 3-times-a-year client!  That’s big money.

Once your business is up and running with a loyalty program and customers are beginning to recognize its benefits, you’ll need to take the time to analyze how successful your program is.

Anyone can tell you that advertising is not an exact science. It can take a lot of effort to keep the momentum of a successful business or grow a new client base while building a sound foundation for years to come.  The only way you’re going to know how successful your strategy truly is will be by running an effective and accurate list of reports.  You should first determine if the loyalty program you’ve worked so hard to establish is doing it’s job by checking to see if customers are not only earning points but spending them, as well.

Every single customer that comes into contact with your business should be immediately aware of what they can earn.  They should have two ways of earning points: purchases and referrals.  Neither reward generator is more important than the other, however, it’s a good idea to spend more than just a moment during your busy months to focus on how sales reports can bring you increased profit.

Big spenders are often unaware of loyalty programs.  Big spenders usually know other big spenders.  Depending on how high your margin is on your good or service, it may be worth it to spend specific time and/or attention on just these customers alone.  You could create a separate campaign for these big spenders so you could run a specific report just for them. A referral from a loyal client is always more successful than a no-name promotion.  Let your customers increase your brand recognition and your business will grow.

Once you’ve analyzed your rewards program through reporting analysis, it’s time to start analyzing your attendance and average sales revenue.  Your attendance should be somewhat evenly distributed from month to month but you will of course witness some spikes every once in a while.  Although it is great to have one outstanding revenue generator for your business, it’s more important to keep your products, services and staff for the long run–giving your customers the warm-fuzzy feeling they want. Whether a customer has been coming to your studio for a few weeks or several years, chances are they want to feel like they are a regular so they can get attention where/when they feel necessary.  Not only is it important to analyze attendance but average sales revenue will help you determine if your prices are set according to how often most of your customers make use of your business.  If you’re not making profit, it’s not worth running your business, period.  Even a non-profit can make revenue over what was planned; it’ll just serve to benefit your cause.

Call 704.516.2496 or email David at DL@harmonixloyalty.com for more insight on Reporting Analysis for Google and Rewards Programs.

You’re a Loyalty Business. Why start a blog?

The purpose of this blog is to attract creative thinkers around the world that inspire unconventional ideas. You don’t even have to be a loyalty fanatic like us.  Granted, we are most particularly interested in business, entrepreneurship, technology, world travel, and other remarkable findings, you need not be an expert in any field to contribute.  We aren’t setting any lofty goals, but we plan to keep this section updated bimonthly.  If you are a little less interested in reading any more than 140 characters, we don’t blame you, follow us on Twitter @harmonixloyalty.

Aside from SEO purposes that allow us to reference important words like Customer Lifetime Value and Brand Loyalty Strategies, we believe we have good general knowledge to offer inquiring minds.  We’ve had the privilege of speaking to literally hundreds of businesses, entrepreneurs, and organizations over the past 18 months and we’ve actually learned a thing or two.  For one, you can’t get away with wearing slippers all day if you have to go into a “real” office.   Real offices, however, offer the advantage of amazing espresso machines, comfy couches, and that voice on your one shoulder that shouts, “hey buddy, you came here to work and you ironed your best t-shirt so you better get to it.”

We’ve learned that there are lots people on this planet with brilliant loyalty ideas. People are creating businesses out of thin air by simply encouraging loyalty in a something that’s already in practice.  For example, want to encourage homebuilders to pay their vendor invoices on time?  Offer a rewards program that gives points for every dollar spent that can be used towards a dream vacation or a Flat Screen TV for the builder’s best employee.  More on this topic in another post, but David B. believes that one of our clients has discovered the perfect coalition program.

Stay tuned and we hope you aren’t shy. Love mail pays dividends.

David B.

Director and Rocketeer

Loyal customers not only spend more on each visit, but also are twice as likely to refer a new customer. Loyalty is the key to growth.

“Loyal customers not only spend more on each visit, but also are twice as likely to refer a new customer. Loyalty is the key to growth.”