How To Optimize Your Loyalty Program Using Data Analytics And Reports

Like with all marketing strategies, successful customer loyalty programs and loyalty marketing do not follow a “set it and forget it” plan. They are monitored, measured, and adapted based on a number of factors - customer feedback, company objectives, changing markets and environments, and of course, program performance. 

A loyalty program by itself provides a mountain of valuable data that range from simple transaction counts to actual insights into customer behavior and trends. Yet oftentimes marketers struggle with finding or understanding their program data at the level needed to make beneficial decisions due to the lack of adequate program analytics tools. This is why modern loyalty platforms need to possess a wide range of data analytics and reporting capabilities. Not only do they help evaluate ROI on current loyalty efforts, but they also provide actionable recommendations for optimizing different aspects of your loyalty program. 

While dozens of different types of analytics reports exist, here are just a few examples of useful data reports to include in your loyalty program:

Digital Experience Metrics

User experience is vitally important. Customers today expect omni-channel experience with quick and easy-to-navigate sites and platforms, even for loyalty programs. Reports showing user experience insights such as total visits, length of visits, average site time, social media engagement, and more can help you understand how members are interacting with your program and potentially identify problem areas that need improving. 

Member Reporting

Personalization is by far one of the most important drivers of successful marketing efforts today. Utilizing member data reports that collect and breakdown key user info such as member demographics, tiers & levels segmentation, active vs. inactive, and account engagement behavior can help you develop more targeted offers and tailored experiences that assist in building customer loyalty.  

Transaction And Redemption Reports

Having clear and up-to-date reporting on the transactional aspects of your loyalty program -- such as number of transactions, UPC/QR/Receipt image submissions, item redemption ratios, and earned & redeemed points --  provides a number of benefits. You can monitor program performance, identify new opportunities, and easily measure success and attribution rates for new initiatives, such as a product launch or updated reward options in your catalogue. 

KPI Reports 

While each brand or company will have their own key performance indicators (KPIs) there are some universal KPI reports that are also used in a customer loyalty program. Repeat Purchase Rate (RPR), Customer Retention Rate (CRR), Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), and Net Promoter Score (NPS) are just a few useful KPIs that can help you track and measure your customer loyalty efforts and provide insights for improvement. 

Want to learn more about how to track, measure, and improve loyalty program key performance indicators? Check out our free KPIs guide here.

User Progress Displays

Even though they’re not the typical data reports used by program admin, progress displays specifically for users are a good idea to include in a loyalty program. Member engagement in a loyalty program is key to building long-lasting customer loyalty. This is why successful loyalty programs use strategies such as tier-based member statuses and gamification tactics to drive members interest and activity. Providing interactive data visualization reports like leaderboards or infographics lets users see and track their program accomplishments such as:

• Tier progression
• Earned badges and honors
• Completed challenges
• New and in-progress missions
• Attended events
• And more

Progress trackers like these can help motivate users to regularly participate in your loyalty program by both giving them a picture of their accomplishments thus far, and giving them goals to work towards in the future. User progress displays can also come in handy for loyalty marketers who want to monitor the response to specific campaigns, such as a new series of missions or challenges. 

Ensure Your Loyalty Program Is Set Up For Success

There’s no lack of useful data in loyalty programs, there’s just a need for effective data analysis tools and reports that bring the data together in a clear, understandable manner. You can ensure you’re getting the most out of your loyalty program data by utilizing the right data analytics like the reports listed above.

Partnering with a loyalty vendor can also help you advance even farther in your data analysis efforts; a loyalty vendor can help you create custom reporting modules for your specific brand goals and objectives, or integrate your loyalty program data with data from other organizational departments to get a more universal and in-depth understanding of your customers.