How You Can Make Sure Customers Don't Lose Out On Rewards Points

Most people who join loyalty programs have experienced losing out on rewards at one time or another. The redemptions which go unredeemed. The punch cards which are never finished and are eventually thrown out. The forgotten points that expire and wither away.

In fact, a recent study showed a mind-bogglingly amount of loyalty points go unclaimed by participants — $100 billion loyalty points to be precise. That’s a ton of free rewards just left on the table!

Why do loyalty points go unused? And if you’re a loyalty program provider, should you care? After all, if no one is redeeming points then that means there’s no redemption cost to you. Is it better for customers to go on accumulating points and never spend?

Not at all.

While you do want to have some level of point breakage, little to no redemptions is a bad sign. When program members are signing up but not participating in the full process, it means customers are not engaging with your program. This isn't ideal when customer engagement is a critical program goal. Mostly because low participation rates eventually leads to full brand abandonment.

A loyalty program’s purpose is to support the consumer behaviors that lead to true customer loyalty and revenue growth. If your program data reveals your members contain a high number of points with very low redemption, you need to start looking into reasons why.

We have a number of strategies you can use to re-engage your participants and encourage them to redeem their accumulated points:

1. Make Your Point Redemption Easy To Understand

If your redemption levels are low, you don’t need to immediately begin a major overhaul and completely revamp your point structure or rewards. Start with simple fixes:

Your process should involve minimal steps and by clearly explained somewhere within your loyalty platforms. 

2. Make Available Points Available to Your Customers 

Customers are busy people with many demands on their time and dozens of other interruptions fighting for their attention. You shouldn’t expect your customers to follow their points balances on their own. The easier it is for participants to track their points, the easier it is for them to redeem.

3. Send Point Balance Reminders

As we said before, customers are busy people. Sometimes they just forget about their available points balance, or to check if there are any new products they want to redeem. It’s up to you to reach out to them with reminders.

Email marketing is far from dead. In fact, it’s one of the primary methods marketers use to engage loyalty program members. Take advantage of the opportunities email marketing offers.

Every good program regularly reviews their rewards offerings to make sure their rewards are still of value to their customers. When you make new additions to your rewards catalog be sure to send out notification emails to your members. It possible the new products are just what long-time participants were saving their points for.

Take This Into Consideration

To let loyalty points expire, or to not let loyalty points expire?

This is a frequently debated topic within the loyalty program community, with good points coming from either side. Whichever route you choose, make sure you have a few strategies in place for incentivizing your customers. 

If you choose to let points expire….

• Make sure you provide tons of advance warning – Make sure all relevant time periods are conveyed clearly to your program members. Provide them with plenty of advanced notice if their points are in jeopardy. Send members email reminders that also include solutions, such as redeeming for smaller items.

If you don’t choose to let points expire…

• Create special points redemption events – These types of events encourage members to spend their points. For example, you could hold a promotion where items point values are reduced by half or another amount. Customers who are wanting to get the most bang for their buck out of their points will leap at this opportunity to redeem. 

For most loyalty program members, the perks are the rewards. If your customers aren’t redeeming for rewards, you should take the time to evaluate your program. The solution might be simpler than you think. In the end, helping your customers with their redemptions will lead to happier participants and a more valuable loyalty program experience.

If you’re still searching for ways for your customers to utilize their points or want to learn more about how to drive customer engagement in your loyalty program, get in touch with us today!