With the dust now settled from CEM Africa 2022, which was held at the Century City Conference Centre in Cape Town last week, we can look at one of the more interesting panel discussions that took place on day two of the event.

That discussion centred around how to garner customer loyalty in a competitive industry, with customer experience (CX) and the development of loyalty programs being two major themes.

At the event, organisers for CEM Africa rounded up the following panelists:

• Mandisa Makubalo, Founder and MD, Unlimited Experiences (panel chair);
• Philip Moepya, Group head Experience Design, Standard Bank;
• Alistair Freeman, CEO, Freshtech Africa;
• JD Engelbrecht, MD, Everlytic;
• Lynne Blignaut, Group Loyalty and Customer Rewards, Dischem;
• Ajish Pillai, Commercial director, MEA, India and Pakistan, Insider.

Each offered up some insights as to the way they go about addressing customer loyalty in their own organisations, as well as some aspects to keep in mind for those still trying to find their feet in this regard.

The overriding idea, however, is that personalisation should be the key pillar in developing any kind of customer loyalty program.

Be intentional

Speaking about the purpose of a customer loyalty program, Blignaut, notes that it is important for organisations to understand what makes a great loyalty program for the customer, as they can easily choose to spend their money somewhere else.

She added that inside of the organisation it holds a lot of value in terms of data, not just in terms of gathering, but analysing it too, in an effort to understand what differentiates yourself from your competitors. 

The Dischem executive also emphasises that it is important to be open to feedback from customers, as South Africa is in the unique position where customers are quite vocal. Another important aspect is to understand what the purpose of a loyalty program – you need to have a clear objective, she stressed.

“You can derive a lot of your offerings from your findings,” advised Blignaut.

Looking at the next phase in customer loyalty program development, Freshtech’s Freeman notes that the key consideration is not the deployment of the platform or solution, but how it is personalised to your customers. 

He adds that you need to consider how to tailor experiences by asking questions like, how to do I queue customers better? Freeman also pointed out a need to understand their issues or past problems, such as when they last flagged a query or what their buying habits are. 

“There is a wealth of data out there, but to truly shine in CX, personalisation is crucial,” he highlighted.

Predict vs. React

Another interesting element to customer loyalty was raised by Engelbrecht, who spoke about the significance of balancing modesty and letting customers know that they are important. “Be a little explicit in showing them the value that comes with being in a loyalty program,” said Engelbrecht.

Building off of this was Moepya, who touched on education, as there is often confusion about what a customer actually gets from being involved with a loyalty program.

Make it known the benefits of your program at every turn, he explained, as the value proposition gets more easily communicated. When the notion of cost then arises, the customer knows precisely what they are paying for or why they have signed up to the service, the Standard Bank executive continued.

Using IKEA as an example, Pillai noted that many of the Fortune 500 companies that he works with don’t actually have a loyalty program. The reason for this is the fact that they know their customer so well, and start to predict habits and personalise touch points. 

Here he said that an end-to-end understanding of the customer is critical, along with knowing when, here and how to engage with them. This can always trump any kind of loyalty program as it breeds an innate loyalty, in his experience. 

With these insights, it is increasingly evident that any successful loyalty program is built with intention at its core and deep personalisation to offer value to customers.

[Image – Photo by Morvanic Lee on Unsplash]