Why Do Customers Leave Rewards Points On The Table?
At first glance, rewards programs seem to be doing fine. A whopping 80% of American adults are enrolled in such programs, pursuing perks like discounts, redemption rewards, tiered service levels, or other features. Well-built rewards programs can boost customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. A survey (2017) of customers in 400+ loyalty programs over 10+ sectors found that 81% of respondents said brands offering loyalty programs made them more likely to continue doing business with those brands, and 73% are more likely to recommend brands that provide good loyalty programs.
Yet, that same survey found that although the average respondent was enrolled in 14.3 programs, they were using less than half of those rewards wallets. Those inactive accounts cost companies administrative expenses while generating little value. Why aren’t customers using all of their rewards accounts? Companies tend to emphasize the benefits of their programs, but at ReChain, we think the answer lies in the value those token reward systems fail to deliver. Using blockchain, we’re setting out to rectify these significant obstacles to rewards redemption.
One-Size-Fits-All Programs
We live in the information-overload age, and consumers have learned to cope by tuning-out anything that’s not directly relevant to them. Some brands rationalize rewards programs by arguing that capturing a customer’s contact information and profile is enough, but they’re not doing much for the customer in return if they unleash a barrage of unhelpful emails. One survey found that 34.8% of customers unsubscribed from the loyalty websites email lists for over-frequent emails, while 20.8% unsubscribed because the content is irrelevant or not useful.
The code word here is relevant; customers pay attention to information when that information is pertinent to their lives. For rewards programs, the key to relevant offers is personalization. Someone who recently bought cat food may tune out a rewards program that offers unrelated merchandise but may take notice if the program is discounting cat toys and collars. On the ReChain platform, customers have one data profile — controlled by them — rather than individual accounts for different brands. Users earn points anchored to the blockchain for sharing information, turning off adblockers, and responding to personalized offers; these settings help brands offer fine-tuned, customized offers that customers will recognize as genuinely valuable.
Confusing Points and Rewards Schemes
You can’t blame rewards wallet owners for abandoning half of their accounts when it seems like every brand has an entirely different way of managing rewards and redemptions. Checking points balances, expiration dates, redemption rules, and more are often more hassle than most customers are willing to put up with. In the 2017 survey mentioned above, 57% of rewards program members didn’t know their points balance. When customers don’t know their rewards wallets’ point balance, they are hardly motivated to reach a redemption goal or go out and take advantage of a sale.
ReChain is making rewards programs intuitive again by creating a one-stop rewards program for each customer profile so that it can interact with several brands. The immutable blockchain ledger at ReChain’s core ensures that points genuinely belong to customers and can’t get “lost” when companies change policies. Customers can redeem points through the intuitive ReChain interface. The whole platform is accessible through the ReChain smartphone app, which means customers can get real-time rewards wallet points and rewards information whenever they need them.
Ignoring the Importance of Social Values
Millennial and Gen Z consumers care about saving money and accessing high-value goods and services from brands — similar to older shoppers. However, for Millennial and Gen Z consumers, there’s growing interest in making ethical purchases. For instance, 73% of Millennials are willing to pay more for sustainable goods. Promoting social causes through rewards programs can boost consumer loyalty by tapping into their morally-driven purchasing habits rather than their interests in savings alone, but too few brands pay attention to social causes in their reward strategy.
There are plenty of consumers who wouldn’t mind accruing and spending their rewards points if businesses could give them a cause they genuinely cared about. With ReChain, they can. Customers can redeem their points as donations to partner charities, which turns even a “neutral” purchase at a ReChain participating retailer into an “ethical” one.
Too many rewards programs today are expensive for companies and either irritating or quickly forgotten about for consumers; the result is that neither party receives the value these to are supposed to provide. ReChain uses the immutable transaction ledger of a blockchain to create a next-generation rewards program where customers can look forward to using their points.
