What ‘Keep Your Loyalty Program Simple’ Really Means

If you've researched loyalty programs or design, chances are you've run across the phrase "Keep loyalty programs simple!" But what does that mean? And how exactly do you make a simple loyalty program?

To start, a loyalty program's basic concept is simple: complete an action or purchase to earn points, then spend those points for rewards. Easy right?

But modern, successful loyalty programs have grown beyond the basic "earn and burn" formats. This evolution took place partly out of a need for brands to differentiate themselves from the competition and partly because customers today seek more from their loyalty programs than just earning points.

What customers want from their loyalty programs is an enjoyable experience that makes them feel good about what they're doing. Whether they're earning points, redeeming for rewards, participating in games or promotions, or just engaging with the brand online, customers want enjoyment, not frustration. The struggle begins when brands begin to overthink program design. They discover firsthand how easy it is to slip from "easy-to-understand" straight into "over-complicated" when creating loyalty programs.

To create a positive, enjoyable customer experience, specific core loyalty program processes and features need to be kept simple in both form and function.

1. Make It Easy To Join Your Loyalty Program

Please repeat after me: when it comes to enrolling new program members, less is always more. Ask any cashier who's ever had a customer at the register try to opt in or sign up for a program: as the number of steps or information customers are required to provide goes up, your odds of a successful enrollment go down. If enrolling in your loyalty program feels more like filling out a mortgage application, you must revamp your process ASAP.

You can keep your sign-up process simple by only asking for the information you need to get new customers started. Typically, this is a full name and email address. Maybe your customer’s birthday (if you offer something special like a discount to celebrate, this can be a good enrollment incentive). Truthfully, those 2-3 items are all you need now.

More in-depth customer information can be obtained later as new members complete their member profiles. Loyalty programs can be a powerful tool for lead capture, but no one wants to share their entire life story as part of the sign-up process. 

Bonus: If you’re looking to drive members to complete empty parts of their member profile (such as favorite products, address, rewards wishlists, etc.), offering free points for doing so is a great motivator. Everyone loves free points!

2. Make It Easy To Navigate

Have you ever gotten frustrated when trying to find a specific section on a website, only to either not find it or have to dig through multiple webpages to get what you need? You're not alone. A critical part of loyalty program design is ensuring that user dashboards or account views make sense and don't require a map to navigate. Key items like "User Information", "Points Balance", Transaction History", "Rewards Options", and more should be easy for the user to find. 

Sometimes companies fall into a "branding wormhole" when designing their loyalty programs.  

For example, let's say your company is a children's clothing retailer called Happy Frogs and you've just launched your full-fledged, branded customer loyalty program. When new users log in to their program accounts for the first time, they see a navigation menu with links such as "Total Lily Pads", "Happy Frog Log", "Past Lake Seasons", "Frog Helpers", and other head-scratching menu options. 

This naming scheme might align with your company branding, but it may not be very clear for new and even existing customers. They might not automatically make the connection that "Total Lily Pads" links to a points page where they can see their total earned rewards points. Or that "Frog Helpers" is the link to your customer service contact page. 

Branding is a great way to differentiate your loyalty program from competitors, which is why many companies make a point of including custom naming conventions for specific parts of their loyalty program. One great example is Sephora’s Beauty Insider loyalty program's tier names: Insider, VIB, and Rouge.

It's a great idea to incorporate some creativity and originality within your program. However, simplicity applies here too. Don’t get carried away with designing every part of the program so brand-specific that you end up confusing your customers. 

3. Keep Point Earning Rules Simple

Everyone loves getting points—bonus points, birthday points, points earned from purchases... etc. 

What they do not love is when their methods for getting points are too convoluted to understand. 

Customers have multiple demands on their time and attention. They do not want to have to memorize a complicated list to earn loyalty points. If you have various requirements to earn points -- these products don't qualify for points when purchased on weekends, purchases from certain retailer partners don't count, you can only earn points for these items if you buy them in a particular store, etc. -- your customers will quickly become frustrated at having to work around these rules. No matter how cool or amazing your rewards are, customers will disengage from your program in a flash if they can’t understand how to earn points for those rewards or if they believe your program isn't worth the time and effort required to earn redeemable points. 

Keep your earning rules simple and display them so customers can easily find them. The simpler your rules are, the better off you and your customers will be.

4. Make Redeeming Points Simple

If customers don’t like complications when it comes to earning points, then they definitely don’t like it when it’s complicated to spend points. There are two main reasons why challenging spending requirements are significant problems for customers:

Firstly, to revisit a previous point, customers have limited time and energy to allocate towards their loyalty programs. Making them jump through hoops to spend points creates another roadblock that hinders them from getting the most out of your program. If members only earn points and never spend them, that’s not a positive for your brand; it means customers aren't receiving the full value your program provides. Eventually, customers will recognize they’re not getting a good return on their time and money, and they’ll leave to find a better deal from a competitor.

Secondly, making it difficult for customers to spend their points causes your program to feel disingenuous. It gives customers the impression that you’re trying to prevent them from receiving those nice rewards you’re offering, even though they earned them fair and square. Customers today belong to several loyalty programs, so they know that redeeming points for rewards doesn't have to be difficult -- which makes them wonder why your program makes it so hard. Even if they love your company and products, customers won't want to stay in a program that gives them next to zero actual rewards. 

5. Keep New Updates And Launches Simple

Loyalty program technology today is much more agile and modular, making it easier for loyalty programs to scale and grow post-launch. Instead of waiting until every imagined aspect of the loyalty platform is designed and built before launching, brands can create their foundational program and continue expanding with new features and updates in measured phases post-launch. This is also a benefit because it allows companies to see customer responses to their current loyalty program, and then tweak their planning for future phases based on feedback and program performance. 

However, brands also need to be cautious about the types of updates they plan to incorporate post-launch. Each new aspect should feel like a natural enhancement to the current program, not a series of complete overhauls. For example, if you launch your program with a specific process for earning points, and then 6 months later introduce a new feature that invalidates that process and forces customers to do something completely different, you risk throwing off the momentum you've gained so far. Even if this new update is beneficial - maybe it creates a smoother and faster process for customers - you're still at risk of causing confusion or frustration among existing members who are already used to the former process. 

And if your planned list of post-launch updates is a series of situations like the one above, your program performance will suffer. Customers will have a harder time connecting with your program if it keeps changing drastically. 

This is why taking the time to thoroughly define and build your loyalty program strategy and design pre-launch is so important. It will give you the strategic foundation for your initial program build and help you create a roadmap for future expansions as your program grows and matures. Establishing a firm loyalty strategy will help you determine:

• What processes and features are most important to building customer loyalty for your brand?
• Which needs to be included in the initial program build?
• What formats should these features take?

Knowing what type of loyalty program your brand wants from the beginning gives you a stronger start. Instead of having to make a series of dramatic changes and updates post-launch, you'll be able to launch your ideal loyalty program from day one. 

Note: This point doesn't apply to situations where part of your loyalty platform is broken or repeatedly experiencing issues. If you need to make an update or change to fix a critical problem that is causing performance issues, then obviously you should! 

To Summarize

There's a lot of advice out there about the best type of loyalty program and which features really motivate customer behavior. In the end, simplicity always wins out. Customers appreciate companies that help make their lives easier, not more complicated, and this applies to loyalty programs, too. By keeping your program simple to use, you make it easier for customers to connect with your brand, which, in turn, sets the stage for long-term brand loyalty.    

If you're looking for a partner to help you craft the perfect loyalty strategy or loyalty program design, contact the loyalty platform experts at Brandmovers today!