A customer feedback form is a professional document which gives opportunity of tracking suggestions received from customer and also plays an important role developing a record which is favorable for any organization. Effectively, this form contains company name, date, logo, customer name, time of suggestion and remarks. Understanding overall trends in customer satisfaction over time. To identify overall trends in customer satisfaction, we first have to get a benchmark on how happy (or unhappy) our customers are today.Then we can ask the same question at set intervals to understand how our customer satisfaction changes over time.This will help us identify trends and solve new customer issues.
Zipcar, the American car-sharing company, is transparent in the way it communicates its rules to customers across multiple channels. The six simple rules are clear and concise: Report damage, keep it clean, no smoking, fill the tank, return on time and keep pets in carriers. Most rental car companies do the opposite; they hide the rules to try to make more in fees.
This level of openness represents one type of customer experience project that can make a difference.
In many industries, competition has eroded traditional product and service advantages, making CX the latest form of competitive advantage. For IT leaders supporting customer experience projects, it is important to audit and coordinate existing efforts to achieve better results.
“Although successful customer experience initiatives require a corporate wide commitment, companies have long had individual departments or business units working on it independently,” says Ed Thompson, vice president and distinguished analyst. “The challenge is that consumers have numerous touch points within an organization, so companies end up running multiple, uncoordinated CX projects in parallel with one another.”
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A typical $1B company will likely be running more than 50 CX projects. Companies need to place all the different projects on the table and then divide them based on complexity, impact on overall customer experience, business units and their dependence on technology.
Gartner classifies CX projects into seven types.
- Listen, Think and Do
Although 95% of companies have collected feedback from their customers for years, only about 10% use these suggestions to change their processes and improve customer experience.Instead of wasting this opportunity, companies should link the desires of their customers with the overall strategy. One way to do this is by consolidating direct, indirect and inferred customer feedback received through numerous channels so customer issues are resolved in real time. If multiple teams interact with customers, knowledge-sharing programs can also be used to remove departmental barriers and improve customer-facing processes. - From Out to In
Most customer-facing processes are designed from the inside out, which means they are built from the company’s perspective. The result is that customers have to learn the company’s processes. This adds unnecessary barriers to the customer journey, and companies must focus on minimizing customer effort as much as possible.The best way to do this is by flipping the perspective from inside out to outside in and “walking in the customer’s shoes.” Companies can then map the customer journey, conduct touchpoint analysis and identify customer pain points at each level of interaction. This data can then be used to improve processes from the customer’s perspective — whether it’s consistency, speed, completeness, flexibility or reliability. - Act as One
Consistency is important for a great customer experience, and the challenge for companies is ensuring that information received during one interaction is not lost or forgotten when a customer switches channels. But achieving multichannel consistency is a slow process because it involves breaking down departmental silos and, in most cases, significant IT workBy building a single, 360-degree view of the customer across different channels, companies can streamline information flow across departments and provide a more consistent customer experience. - Open Up
Openness and transparency is becoming an essential part of CX initiatives because customers feel they have better experiences when they trust an organization. The key element here is trust. Companies that are open and transparent to customers are typically better at creating positive customer experiences.For companies, the biggest challenge is striking a balance between legal concerns and the benefits of sharing information with customers to build trust. The growth of social media in the past decade has also helped companies interact directly with customers to collaborate in co-creating brands with customers. - Get Personal
Most customers prefer a personalized experience — if it’s done well. Poor personalization can actually damage the customer experience and increase complexity, so companies should be cautious when determining the degree of customization. Traditionally, customization of an experience was an expensive undertaking, but digital personalization has made it a much more affordable option. Digital products, bundles, pricing, offers and communications can all be personalized more easily than in the analog past.Customers are often confronted with multiple choices and have to put in time and effort to get to the product or service they want. This complicates the customer experience and ultimately lowers customer ROI. Personalization done well will make things simpler by limiting the options to those most relevant to the customer. - Alter Attitudes
Employees’ actions often have the most powerful and direct impact on a customer’s experience and, as a result, most companies focus more on this than on any other type of CX project type. Companies most commonly alter employee attitudes and behaviors through training, recruiting and policy change projects.The first set of projects involves educating employees on how their actions affect customer experience and what they can do to personally to help. The second set relate to recruiting the right type of employees — those with the personality that will benefit the customer experience, not just the job skill requirements. The last set are those that empower employees to use their judgment, take responsibility for resolving customer issues, and create a culture where this is not only allowed, but expected. - Design Better
Most companies have no plan or design for the overall customer experience, and it falls into place somewhat randomly. On the other hand, companies in the service, automotive, consumer goods and high-tech industries that focus heavily on brand management pay much greater attention to designing customer experiences. A brand sets high-level expectations of the overall customer experience and can be seen as an expression of the company’s reputation with customers. Design is a discipline that requires investment.
Turning customers into brand loyalists is no easy feat. For one thing, you need a predictable and repeatable strategy for incentivizing customers to buy from you over again…
And that’s where customer loyalty programs come in.
With the right initiative, you can turn first-time buyers into repeat customers, and keep your brand top of mind.
In this post, I’ll show you seven customer loyalty program examples from top brands that you can model to drive more sales, improves customer retention, and builds stronger relationships with customers.
Let’s dive in.
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What Is a Customer Loyalty Program?
A customer loyalty program or rewards program is a marketing strategy that rewards loyal customers that frequently engage with a brand.
By rewarding recurring engagement, you can increase customer loyalty and ensure continuous growth for your business. The idea behind an effective loyalty program is that the more loyal customers are, the more rewards they’ll get.
There are different types of rewards programs, and in this post, I’ll share seven you can consider for your online store.
1. The Points Program (The North Face)
The points system focuses on the principle that the more you spend, the more points you get in return.
Every time a customer makes a purchase, they get a certain amount of points depending on how much they spent.
One example of a customer loyalty program that follows the points program is by The North Face:
The North Face makes it easy for customers to understand how the rewards program works:
Customers earn 10 points for every $1 they spend online and in retail stores, and five points for every $1 they spend in their outlets. Then, customers can put these points towards future purchases.
To increase customer engagement even further, The North Face has also developed an app where users can manage their account, buy new products, check their point status, redeem rewards, and more.
By rewarding customers with redeemable points, you increase your customer’s average order value and encouraging them to invest in your brand—meaning they’re less likely to switch to a competitor.
Takeaway
Use software like Smile.io to implement a point system both online and offline if you have physical stores. Your points system must be easy for customers to understand and calculate (e.g., $1 is one point). That way, customers can see the immediate value and don’t need to calculate the number of points each purchase gives them.
2. The Paid Program (Barnes & Noble)
Paid programs involve inviting customers to pay a monthly or annual fee to join your VIP member’s club. For this type of loyalty program to be effective, you need to market it to existing customers or frequent buyers. After all, new customers are unlikely to join a rewards program unless you’re a big, recognizable brand.
Most importantly, though, a paid program must include member-exclusive benefits. Otherwise, it will lose its value.
Take Barnes & Noble, for instance:
Their VIP program costs $25 a year, and it offers discounts, free shipping, and other benefits.
But how do you get people to pay $25 to join a loyalty program?
By showing the value of your program compared to the cost, as Barnes & Noble do:
When the value of your loyalty program outweighs the cost, people will join. And if they don’t? You can give them a final nudge by using testimonials from existing members to trigger social proof:
Takeaway
When offering a paid program, show customers the program’s value outweighs the cost. It also helps to use social proof from existing members to emphasize that value.
3. The Charity Program (The Body Shop)
Not all loyalty programs include discounts.
You can incorporate your business values into a program to build a stronger relationship with your customers. In fact, if you structure a loyalty program around mutual values, customers are more likely to become brand loyalists.
The Body Shop has nailed this approach by making animal welfare part of their program.
Besides earning rewards and getting VIP benefits, members have another unique benefit:
They can choose to donate their rewards to Born Free USA (a charity for animal welfare).
Similarly, a core value of The Body Shop is environmental responsibility:
The Body Shop’s customers share these values, which makes the donation option even more valuable to customers.
This type of program creates a unique opportunity to connect with your customers on a deeper level, which strengthens your relationship with them.
Takeaway
When offering exclusive membership benefits, consider making your company’s value one or more of the benefits. If they’re important to you, they’re likely to resonate with your audience, too.
4. The Tier Program (e.l.f.)
The tier system focuses on levels of loyalty. Put another way, the more loyal your customers are to your brand (read: the more they buy from you), the greater the rewards they’ll receive.
Offering tiers in a loyalty program is a great way to engage customers and keep your brand top of mind. Further, tiers play on aspects of gamification where members reach higher levels, the more they “play.”
Take this example from e.l.f.:
Their Beauty Squad loyalty club has three levels:
- Extra,
- Epic; and
- Icon
The more points a member has, the more exclusive the rewards they can get.
If you want to motivate members to reach higher levels of a tier program, include percentages for each tier, indicating how many members have reached each level.
This drives members to reach a higher level to gain social status among members that belong to that tier and give them something to aspire to.
Takeaway
Create a program that allows members to ascend based on customer loyalty. Base your tier program on points, how often people buy, or other important engagement metrics. Finally, offer greater exclusivity and benefits the higher members ascend.
5. The Progress Program (Nike)
Progress is a great motivator.
The more people believe they are nearer to achieving a goal, the more committed they are to their efforts to achieve that goal.
This is known as the endowed progress effect, and it’s an effective psychological trigger you can use in your loyalty program to encourage repeat engagement.
A great example of this comes from Nike, who promotes an active lifestyle:
Nike has several different training apps to help members reach their training goals.
The Nike Run Club and the Nike Training Club apps reward users with badges and other rewards every time they reach a new milestone such as finishing your first 5k.
This is a great example of how you can use progress to encourage engagement.
Nike also knows that the more success their customers have with their training, the more loyal their customers will be.
Why?
Because people always link their success to the person or brand that made the difference.
For example, if you want to learn to speak a new language and you use software like Duolingo to do so, you’ll attribute any success you have to the platform.
Similarly, Nike helps customers get better training results, and their customers attribute these results back to the brand.
Takeaway
Encourage progress through your loyalty program and help users get closer to reaching their goals. It’s important that you position your product as a key “ingredient” in reaching these goals. When your product helps your members with their goals or challenges, they’ll buy more from you.
6. The Community Program (Sephora)
Customer Feedback Program Names Examples
When talking about customer loyalty programs, we can’t leave out Sephora.
Sephora has a comprehensive loyalty program (Beauty Insider) that offers many different benefits:
Besides using both a point system and a tiered program, Sephora’s loyalty program also gives members exclusive access to a community of like-minded people.
Customer Service Feedback
In this community, members can connect with each other, find inspiration, sign up for exclusive events, and more.
Sephora has used its loyalty club to build a brand community where users can interact with each other and Sephora.
By creating a platform like this, Sephora has access to a lot of consumer insights that they can use for product development as well as other aspects of conversion optimization.
Takeaway
Create a platform where members can interact with others to share ideas, get inspiration and feedback, and more. This type of program will work for any brand as long as you encourage conversations that are relevant to your brand and products.
Customer Service Feedback Examples
7. The Subscription Program (Bean Box)
There’s a new type of loyalty program in town…
…it’s the subscription program.
This is not your traditional loyalty program where rewards and benefits are offered.
Rather, you offer your products on subscription.
Take Bean Box, for example:
To increase customer loyalty, Bean Box offers different types of coffee beans as subscriptions, and customers don’t have to worry about running out of coffee. (I’ve seen what happens when the coffee machine at the Sleeknote office breaks down. It’s NOT a pretty sight.)
By selling coffee as a subscription, Bean Box increases the lifetime value of their customers. And as of writing, they use a “Save 20%” incentive to get customers to choose the 6-month plan over the one-month plan.
After all, inviting customers to commit for 6-months has more value to Bean Box than if customers only shop once.
Takeaway
If your product is suitable, offer it on subscription. Consumers are looking for convenience, and the quicker and easier they can get their hands on what they need, the better. You can incentivize prospects to choose a subscription over a one-time purchase by offering a discount on your subscriptions.
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Offering customer loyalty programs is a great way to get more loyal customers and keep your brand top of mind.
The key to making it work is understanding your customers and improving how you provide value to them.
What type of loyalty program are you using? Have you seen other amazing examples of loyalty programs? Leave a comment below.