There are few better words in the English language than holiday. They make kids giddy and adults relieved. A recent study showed that 63% of workers want to take a trip with their time off. Unfortunately, the same study showed that 1 in 4 workers see a holiday as financially unattainable.
With the job market not getting any less competitive and an increasingly aspirational society, often without the means to meet said aspirations, providing at least some semblance of a break is more valuable than cash rewards. This is why your customer loyalty program has the greatest opportunity to reward loyalty with something invaluable – experience.
We’re not just talking about fun in the sun or expensive flights to an exotic locale. There is a whole calendar’s worth of holiday fun to be had. With this you can work out how to reward your customers at a level which suits their loyalty and shows your brand in its best light.
Holidays holiday
Coming up to the end of the year, trying to organize the holiday season can seem like anything but a relaxing time. You have to have some part in getting presents ready, keeping a stocked home, organizing schedules and/or trying to squeeze in all the family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances which are demanding of your attention.
Finding rewards in your loyalty program to make this holiday season easier will help give your customers what they really want this year: time. This will depend on your resources, but there is a whole spectrum of holiday helper rewards with which to engage your customers.
For those in the food and beverage industry, you can make it something as simple as providing free delivery for a Thanksgiving turkey or giving away a dinner at a restaurant so that customers can have all the holiday fun without the holiday hassle. This will depend on the type of loyalty reward scheme you have decided upon, whether it be multi-tier, points based or another.
Multichannel holidays
With all of these holiday baubles customers have to juggle, making it easier to bring their different responsibilities together can be another invaluable reward. With previously online-only stores now jumping into meatspace and more brands finding their own E-commerce outlets, multichannel distribution is becoming imperative. Just because the customer is on holiday, doesn’t mean you can’t be there to provide for them.
This is why you not only need loyalty program software which can handle multichannel distribution, but you can provide a reward scheme which caters to all their holiday needs. If you are a travel company, you can make sure they get rewarded for loyalty on flights, rentals, accommodation, attractions and anything else which can make a trip the perfect experience.
You can even partner up with other brands to create a customer loyalty program which will meet their needs as well as providing mutually beneficial rewards. Having the right loyalty software means being able to keep all of these channels together to make it less confusing for the customer, any partners you might have and, of course, yourselves.
Appropriate holidays
While the holiday season can be a grind, it can also be contentious. The marketplace is diverse and ever-changing, with inclusivity essential to your brand profile. Your customer loyalty program shouldn’t be leaving anything up to chance. Data analysis features on loyalty software should mean you are able to build demographics as well as create individual customer profiles.
Steadily, customers are wanting rewards which not only provide for them, but which fit into their own personal lifestyle brand. With appropriate user data, you will be able to find out what your customers value and provide a holiday reward which suits them.
For example, Christmas is a public holiday which many enjoy, but certainly not everybody. You don’t want to push holiday rewards which don’t represent your customer’s values or belief systems. With the right loyalty software, you will have a better chance of tailoring rewards to the individual. This way, you can make them feel special without alienating others.
Social holidays
We might only see holidays as being enjoyable for those who go on them, but why don’t you find a place in your reward scheme which is mutually beneficial?
Social ambassadors are the future of marketing. They are able to use their reach to promote your brand to like-minded demographics and boost referrals by simply living out their lives on social media. Partnering up with your ambassadors, you will be able to find a way to make their fun your own reward.
On one end, you might want to provide the holiday to use promotionally. Use your loyalty software to find the right candidates and set them off on a trip which allows them to Instagram beaches, updated statuses with endless sunshine emojis and tell stories of how your brand can help provide these kind of experiences.
On the other, you can integrate their holiday experiences into your loyalty program. Provide points rewards for including related hashtags in their holiday updates or even create photo contests with their holiday snaps. There are many ways you can reward loyalty by either providing the experience or using your brand as a way to make it unforgettable. Promoting it on social media will mean others will see how unforgettable it is also.
Do nothing holidays
According to a summer report, the number one thing American’s want to do on vacation is nothing. Use your customer loyalty program to find ways to make this happen. Again, you don’t have to send them on a jet to help reward customers with a little peace.
If you are an electronics company, you can provide noise cancelling headphones to make sure peace and quiet is guaranteed. If you are an events company, you can find fun for the whole family on occasions which actually provide adults with a little time to themselves, occupying the kids with something they’ll love too.
Holidays are an attempt to take a break from the responsibilities which usurp so much of our time and energy. Spending time and energy to devise customer loyalty rewards which either provide or improve upon these holiday experiences means you are providing for one of our most basic needs; the ability to do nothing for a change.
If you want to learn how your brand can use loyalty program software, set up a free consultation with our loyalty experts today!
