How Quickly Can You Launch A Customer Loyalty Program?

Once companies decide to pursue a loyalty program, several questions arise: how much does it cost? What resources do we need? How do we determine what to offer for rewards or benefits? How do we budget for program operations and maintenance?

Most predominantly, how long is all of this going to take? 

When it comes to determining exactly how long it takes to get a loyalty program up and running, the answer again depends on factors such as budget, resources, your brand and customer base, your goals and objectives for launching a program, etc. The build process and timeline for your loyalty program can vary depending on your answers to these topics. 

Understanding Low, Mid, and High-Complexity Loyalty Programs

It’s worth pausing here to specify that the typical loyalty program build process lasts from the start of program discovery & design to launch day. While you could theoretically use out-of-the-box solutions to spin up a loyalty program in a day, realistically, your teams will spend more time than that putting some actual thought into how your loyalty program will look, feel, and function. Or at least you should.

At the core, though, the answer to how quickly you can launch a loyalty program lies in what kind of program you want to create:

A low-complexity program might take 1 to 3 months.

A mid-complexity program build timeline would likely take around 3 to 5 months. 

A high-complexity program build could take 5 months or more. 

The differences in timelines might seem dramatic, but they make sense when you consider the varying levels of time, effort, and manpower required by different programs.

Low-complexity loyalty programs are designed to launch quickly and typically feature a simple design and format, basic rewards offerings, and fewer customer engagement opportunities. 

High-complexity loyalty programs take longer to launch but benefit from a more tailored, strategic design customized to the brand. They can also offer members more extensive rewards offerings and features, along with personalized user experiences and interactions. 

This isn’t to say that low-complexity loyalty programs aren’t good options or worth building. Many businesses across industries have achieved great success with low-complexity loyalty programs, precisely because of their ease of use and lower costs. The elements of a low-complexity loyalty program deliver exactly what those businesses need to provide their loyal customers with benefits and rewards without overwhelming their resources or budgets.

Again, it's all about choosing the loyalty program that best fits your brand. 

Here, we’ve compared some of the ways low-complexity and high-complexity loyalty programs differ—such as rules, integrations, and rewards—and the pros and cons of each. To keep it simple, we focus only on low- and high-complexity loyalty programs.

However, if you’re curious about how a middle-complexity loyalty program would compare, keep in mind that that type of program would fall somewhere between the two, having a few more features and capabilities than low-complexity programs but not at the same level or extent as high-complexity programs.

1. Loyalty Program Rules

One difference between low- and high-complexity loyalty programs is how program rules operate. Loyalty program rules determine how customers can earn points and rewards, the payout amount, and what they can spend their points on. 

A low-complexity loyalty program would include basic point rules that allow users to earn and redeem points for purchases and for simple non-transactional actions, such as referring friends, following social media accounts, or opting into SMS/MMS texts. 

The downside is that a brand may struggle to reward customers for actions outside standard transactional and non-transactional events. Low-complexity programs typically don't allow the creation of more sophisticated earning rules that could support specific goals, such as rewarding customers for particular actions or behaviors. 

A high-complexity loyalty program can include more detailed, customized rules, such as point multiplier events for higher-tier members or the ability to reward points for specific customer actions. If you wanted to drive sales of a particular product or product category, you could create unique earning rules that give members special bonuses for making an eligible purchase. 

Higher complexity programs also allow brands to use API integrations to capture and reward customer actions across third-party businesses or partner brands. Partnerships between credit card companies and different hotel or airline brands are a prime example of how this works: a customer earns points with their credit card when they pay for a hotel stay, but they can earn even more points or special perks by choosing to stay at a specific hotel partner brand. 

2. Loyalty Program Integrations

Integrations are a key necessity for loyalty programs because loyalty programs work best when they are connected to the different parts of a business, not kept in a silo. 

Low-complexity loyalty programs will likely include basic integration capabilities. Many software tools and services offer API integrations that work alongside loyalty program software. 

The downside is that out-of-the-box integrations might not be enough to provide the data sharing or features you need. Rather than a seamless integration, you might find yourself creating workarounds or fixes to get the results you’re looking for from your integrations. This can negatively affect your program's data quality or hinder your plans to upgrade it with new features or capabilities. 

A high-complexity loyalty program is built to share and accept data easily. Because higher-complexity programs are designed to have more functionalities, features, and tools than lower-complexity programs, their integration capabilities are much more extensive. The provider of a high-complexity loyalty program should be able to build custom integrations for specific objectives to ensure the loyalty program works the way you need.

The downside of using a high-complexity loyalty program with more customized integrations is the time and effort required to set them up and test them to ensure they work as intended. You’d likely need to loop in your IT team to work with your loyalty program provider and help determine the exact integrations you need and how the integration process will happen. The more bespoke the integrations are, the longer it will take to build. 

3. Loyalty Program Rewards

Low-complexity loyalty programs utilize basic customer rewards or simple redemption options, such as allowing users to redeem points for free products or cash. The upside is that this is a simple universal format that almost any business can utilize. A simple redemption process also makes it easier for customers to use the program, boosting loyalty program participation rates.  

The downside is that the limited reward options might not appeal to every customer; some customers might want more variety or be able to personalize their rewards. Another downside is that this format typically doesn’t always allow brands to incorporate more high-value or exclusive reward options for their higher-spending VIP-type members, which can negatively impact participation among this customer segment. 

High-complexity loyalty programs can offer more in-depth customer rewards, such as a full rewards catalog with a variety of digital and physical items, gift cards, experiences, and more. The upside of more robust rewards offerings is that users can redeem their loyalty points for rewards they find valuable and relevant to them. More valuable rewards also increase the value customers receive from your program, making them more likely to continue engaging in it long-term. 

Best Practices For Launching A Loyalty Program: Simple Yet Scalable

While the options we’ve presented here might seem like all-or-nothing choices, in reality, deciding on a program build and type doesn’t have to be so black-and-white. Successful loyalty programs aren’t meant to be static and unchanging. It’s better for them, from both a design and a financial perspective, for them to grow and evolve. 

One loyalty program trend gaining popularity is the use of soft launches for newly built or redesigned programs. Soft launches allow brands to release their loyalty program to a limited audience and test different elements before opening it to the broader public. 

Another best practice for building a successful loyalty program is to design it to be scalable from the start. Rather than waiting to launch a loyalty program until all the desired bells and whistles are included (which can delay or set back the build process), there's an established design plan to grow and add to the loyalty program in phases. The loyalty program launches with core features and functionality, and the brand continues to roll out new program updates on a planned schedule.

Each phase expands the loyalty program’s offerings and features in a structured and sustainable way. Not only does this allow for faster-to-launch timelines, but it also dramatically increases the likelihood that the loyalty program will continue to perform and deliver on ROI long-term, rather than fail and be shut down (a common fear among businesses about loyalty programs).

What To Consider When Evaluating The Right Loyalty Program to Build For Your Brand

Ultimately, what’s most important about building a loyalty program is that brands choose the right program type and tailor it to their business. Like Goldilocks and the Three Bears, brands need to determine which program type and complexity are ideal for them and for their customers (who will use the program). Other factors brands need to consider include their budget, resources, staffing, and industry competition.

More companies are creating loyalty programs, giving customers more options. If your loyalty program offers less value, benefits, or personalization than your competitors', you'll struggle to differentiate it as the better choice. 

For example, suppose you’re an enterprise brand with hundreds of thousands of customers. In that case, you’ll likely need a more complex program that offers more customized tools and features for data analysis, integration, and user customization. You might like the low-complexity option because of its faster-to-market timeline, but you’d likely soon run into issues as your business needs outpace the program’s limited design and functionality.

Wrapping It All Up

So, how quickly can you launch a customer loyalty program?

The answer to the riddle is: it depends!

However, now that you know the potential timelines for low-, mid, and high-complexity loyalty programs, you can start laying the foundations for your future loyalty program. 

At Brandmovers, we have years of experience designing, building, and launching loyalty programs of every size. If you're looking for more information on creating and launching a loyalty program for your brand, we can help! Reach out to us today.