Yes, customers can be fickle, but it is rarely with any malice. It is also a noisy digital world with all manner of distractions that can divert or delay customers’ attention.

It is a well-recognized fact that the first few days in a new customer relationship are crucial where a companies performance will heavily influence the direction of any future relationship – up or out!.

It is also fair to say that thanks to Amazon, 24-hour order delivery expectation is the established benchmark in many countries.  Potentially compressing the grace period to 1-2 days. Interestingly as online ordering volumes have accelerated so has the volume of returns, thus adding another element to the customer experience journey. In 2019 online returns typically ranged from 15-40% of goods bought, with clothing and shoes bought online having the highest rates at a staggering 30% to 40%.

So there is no escape, the early day’s performance will always dictate how a company or brand is perceived in practice.

Surely a safe, on-time delivery and a positive customer experience should be reward enough?

Well yes and no. Yes, in that all the boxes have been ticked, but no, because an extra tickle can often turn a great experience into a memorable one.

Thanks to Mr Pavlov and his psychology experiments with dogs, it is established that fact rewarding behaviour reinforces that behaviour, and not just in dogs. Therefore, ask yourself when is the best time to reward a customer? Following the logic – as soon as possible after the act of purchase the better, to cement an immediate connection with the brand and the desired warm and fuzzy feeling.

Should every customer be rewarded for every purchase or every service renewal? Probably, the anticipation of pleasure is often stronger than the actual experience itself. The next question is then, what about affordability? Markets are competitive, margins are tight and marketing budgets facing competing demands.

This is where digital rewards be a very effective tool; delivery is fast and easy,  Choice is huge; the selection of movie downloads, games, ebooks, magazine subscriptions is vast and instantly consumable. Choice can be targeted or limited depending on demographics or local regulation.  The reward mechanism can be a one-off online voucher or a movie pass or a digital gift card.

Every company is aiming to build strong, sustainable customer relationships and connect them more deeply to ultimately reduce or minimise churn. The inherent challenge is that target is always moving and the market changes with increasing rapidity. Whatever program or campaign you may be running today you can be sure that it won’t be as effective next week, next month, or next year. So flexibility is key. With digital rewards,  reward-mechanisms can be refreshed and new approaches tried out rapidly and adapted depending on results and take up.

Using the right rewards partner such as Reward the World, no inventory needs to be carried, digital rewards are highly cost-effective when compared to the equivalent consumer rates, and the rewards platform handles all the digital product presentation, selection and redemption process.

We can have your program up and running within hours with a simple solution to prove the effectiveness of our method, or within days for a more bespoke and integrated solution.