Paula: Welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty, an industry podcast for Loyalty Marketing Professionals.
I’m your host, Paula Thomas, and if you work in Loyalty Marketing, join me every week to learn the latest ideas from loyalty specialists around the world.
Thank you.
Welcome to Let’s Talk a Little Loyalty, my new shorter show for loyalty marketing professionals.
In today’s episode, I’m summarizing my interview with Mike Capizzi, loyalty industry expert, Dean of the Loyalty Academy, and also he is the creator of the Delphi Report, the second edition of which was released in 2019, entitled Why Do Loyalty Programs Fail?
The report identifies and explains the top 10 reasons for the failure of loyalty programs.
And the insights are the result of inputs from 34 global loyalty experts, including me, who together boast a combined total of over 500 years of loyalty marketing expertise.
Mike believes that it’s as critical for us to learn from failure as it is to celebrate success.
So, in this episode, we discussed the top 5 reasons for the failure of loyalty programs in detail.
His report was researched and compiled in the fall and summer of 2019, well before the global pandemic emerged.
And yet the contents remain as true as ever.
So with these insights, we have an extraordinary opportunity to learn lessons for success.
Some of the key reasons for failure center around the inappropriate use of data, with Mike clearly advising that loyalty marketers should not collect data unless they’re going to use it.
Too often, brands feel compelled to try and learn as much as they possibly can about their customers.
But they don’t then reward the customer with a truly personalized experience in return, leading to disappointment for the member and, by extension, for the brand.
As well as data, Mike talked extensively about the lack of clarity and measurement around the KPIs of loyalty programs, which should always include clear performance measures across all members’ activity, including transactional shifts and softer behavior changes, such as social advocacy.
The lack of clear KPIs then often leads to questions from senior management teams as to whether the loyalty program is actually working.
A question which Mike says should never need to be asked.
We discussed the role of clear, powerful, and compelling communications, including insights around how much more welcome loyalty emails are for members than other more commercial or offer-driven or even service-led emails that we all receive.
And then finally, Mike shares a super analogy, comparing our relationships with our members to our personal and family relationships in life, and shares his view that if you treat your customers like a member of the family, they’ll reward you with greater loyalty long term.
That’s it from this episode of Let’s Talk A Little Loyalty, a powerful episode to help you avoid the potential pitfalls from 34 global experts in the industry.
If you want to listen to the full episode, it’s letstalkloyalty.com, episode number 11.
This show is sponsored by The Wise Marketer, the world’s most popular source of loyalty marketing news, insights and research.
The Wise Marketer also offers loyalty marketing training through its Loyalty Academy, which has already certified over 170 executives in 20 countries as certified loyalty marketing professionals.
For more information, check out thewisemarketer.com and loyaltyacademy.org.
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Publisher’s Note:
This transcript was generated with the help of AI and podcast publishing tools such as Apple Podcast’s transcription service.
In the interests of efficiency and minimising our costs as a small business, it has not been checked by a human.
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