The operation of a loyalty programme is similar to a relay race. A particular kind of incentives programme may be your starting point, but another may be what gets you to the finish line. But your brand will succeed if you work to provide clients with a memorable experience. In order to improve your current software, don’t be scared to restructure it. We’ll go through all the best practises (and errors to avoid) for revamping a loyalty programme in this article.

What Is the Difference Between Loyalty Program Revamping, Replatforming, and Restructuring?

There are several names for the process of rebuilding one’s loyalty programme. Without being too technical, there are three main groups that merit highlighting:

Restructuring a loyalty programme occurs when the fundamental idea and logic of the programme are altered, but the loyalty platform or software is kept the same.
Replatforming the loyalty programme is a more complicated scenario in which the business changes the platform and changes the vendor of its loyalty technology.
Redesign of the loyalty programme – Combining the two, a business changes the fundamental logic of its loyalty programme, adds new features and rewards, and upgrades to a new tech stack.

The distinction between these three is frequently hazy in reality because businesses that choose to replatform but make no other adjustments still see some improvements. As a result, we’ll refer to revamps throughout the text, but the ideas and justification can be applied to all three groups in general.

The Big Question: Should We Delete or Redesign?

Rebuilding a loyalty programme is undoubtedly a time- and money-consuming task. The board of a firm is equally likely to decide to discontinue the rewards system due to the additional expenditures involved in overhauling a loyalty programme, particularly if the programme falls short of expectations or the company is searching for cost-cutting measures.

But it’s important to note that maintaining a loyalty programme is a worthy endeavour. According to the Global Customer Loyalty Report 2022, positive ROI is achieved by 93.1% of businesses who track the effectiveness of their loyalty programme. While it is true that loyalty programmes are long-term solutions, discontinuing one in the midst of a crisis can spark backlash among members and harm the brand’s reputation at a crucial moment.

The ASOS Case Study: Why Discontinuing Your Loyalty Program May Not Be a Good Idea

Even in a stable economy, ending a loyalty programme can have serious repercussions. The UK-based apparel retailer ASOS made the decision to discontinue its A-List loyalty programme in 2018. They thought their alternative standalone business, which provided free shipping in exchange for a monthly fee, could take its place. Customers were quite dissatisfied since A-List (and the coupons it offered) had been a community favourite and even though it might have been a fair trade-off, fans had loved it.

Additionally, the decision by ASOS to end its loyalty programme just before Black Friday didn’t help. The community’s lacklustre engagement at the time even caused the fashion retailer to issue a profit warning and experience a 38% drop in sales. Although many factors have subsequently been discovered, the absence of a robust incentive programme to support the Black Friday deals undoubtedly hurt the business.

Steps for Starting to Redesign Your Loyalty Program

We have now reached the technical part of redesigning a loyalty programme. But keep in mind that putting your vision into action will be a major undertaking. In Forrester’s article on loyalty programme ROI, it is stated that increasing customer loyalty is an enterprise-wide duty, meaning that the entire organisation, not just the marketing team, should make decisions and contribute. This is particularly true when redesigning your loyalty programme, which requires collaboration between the CMO, CTO, and even the CFO.

Without delving into all the specifics, here are the key actions you should take to make sure your renovation process runs successfully.

First, develop the idea for your new loyalty programme.

Even if you are just replatforming your loyalty programme, creating a concept document is an essential first step. Starting with the idea paperwork and any other pertinent data from your initial loyalty programme is the best course of action. This will significantly hasten the implementation process.

Even if you intend to completely restructure the loyalty programme, you should still utilise the initial documentation as a starting point to detail the various programme kinds, awards, features, and so on. And keep in mind: the idea Always make your documents longer than a page!

Utilize an RFP to find the best provider of a loyalty platform.

This article’s main lesson is that a lot depends on the capabilities of your loyalty technology. Because of this, selecting a best-in-class platform supplier should be a significant undertaking. We strongly advise putting out an RFP for this.

It takes a lot of effort to create an RFP, but in this instance it’s necessary because you have to outline all of your requirements for strategy and technology. As a result, it will be much simpler to evaluate your applicants and come to a wise business conclusion.

Implement the data migration.

Once you’ve signed a contract with a technology provider, it’s time to start participating in the action. It’s important to note that starting a loyalty programme a second time is substantially easier because brands have previous experience with each stage of implementation and are aware of potential problems.

However, data transfer is an additional step that appears during a loyalty programme redesign. Your current loyalty data must be transferred to your new supplier. Depending on the amount of data categories you wish to relocate, this process necessitates detailed data mapping and could take some time. Migration of customers, rewards, point histories, and transaction histories is the ideal procedure.

Final Thoughts Before the Major Change

The best thing you can do while reviewing your loyalty strategy when upgrading is to adhere to best practises and make advantage of your prior expertise. Don’t panic, though, if you don’t have the personnel or records from when your loyalty programme was first introduced. You might contact a consultant to look through the idea for your programme. Researching the trends in loyalty programmes is also not harmful. Without a sure, the implementation process will go much more quickly and smoothly thanks to your thoughtful planning!

We hope to have clarified the challenging but essential process of rebuilding your loyalty programme. If you’re prepared to update your loyalty programme, the professionals at Antavo would be delighted to hear about your idea and go over how our technology might work for you. Send us your RFP or schedule a demo.

Additionally, don’t forget to download Antavo’s Global Customer Loyalty Report 2022, a comprehensive study that outlines current and projected market trends. You can traverse the world of next-generation loyalty programmes with the aid of these trends.