LOYALTY PROGRAMS: HOW TO MEASURE CUSTOMER LOYALTY?

Loyalty programs are designed to change the way customers interact with companies in terms of purchasing value, retention and repetition. The monetary perspective lays at the foundation of every loyalty system, designated to measure the transactional side of the client's loyalty. However, the serious decline in retention rates and low customer commitment due to lack of relevance and value pushes today's loyalty marketing into anachronism. Our approach to loyalty programs will analyze the emotional side of customer loyalty, in today's Internet driven social platforms environment, which is set to generate a switch in paradigm. Customer loyalty models need to focus on brand values and interaction, on meaningful brand experiences worth sharing. Loyalty metrics should focus on creating and inspiring more valuable customers, willing to share their seamless experiences with others. We will analyze the impact of transactional operated loyalty programs against loyalty programs built upon customer expectations, inin order to identify meaningful loyalty models generating brand attachment in tomorrow's economic environment. Our focus will be on assimilating the loyalty performance model into a new transparent loyalty paradigm, built upon brand values, customer insight, innovative contribution to brand growth and ethics, as opposed to bargain hunting, promotions and retention metrics.