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Hi there! Since this is my first contribution to this blog, I'll shortly introduce myself.My name is Miroslav, better known to all as Kela. I've been a Bumblebee for almost two years and I’m currently working on this project as a senior software architect. My previous work experience is based on many different technologies and work methodologies.
A couple months ago we have started a parallel project, the BonusCard Program, in which I currently participate. So I'll tell you a little bit about it.
There are many customer loyalty programs on the market, and many of them are quite successful. Most of them are using very simple business models, which ensures customer satisfaction and ultimately gaining a higher profit to the company. The business model is not designed only to satisfy the current customer but to get new ones as well. In general that includes business models which have changed in time and are dependent on the current market situation. Loyalty programs are mostly driven by market analysis and marketing plans (loyalty marketing).
There are many concepts and models; some of them are using cycle of success and cycle of failure concepts. However, general investment in employees, their correct selection and training will create a corporate culture in which they are empowered, and that can lead to increased employee satisfaction and motivation. Such concepts will, in turn, likely result in better service delivery and more likely in better customer satisfaction. Customer loyalty will be increased as a result, improving sales levels and gaining higher profit margins. One of key elements to evaluate customer satisfaction and loyalty is through customer's feedback to a particular business.
Loyalty programs are marketing efforts that encourage and reward customers’ buying behavior. Customers are provided with loyalty cards, rewards cards, club cards or point cards which can be made out of paper or plastic. Those cards are usually identical in size to credit or debit cards, or even smaller, and they identify the cardholder as a member of a particular loyalty program.
Loyalty cards are mostly used by customers to gain discounts or to collect points that can be used for future services. In most cases, the card issuer requires the potential cardholder to provide a (most often) minimal amount of identifying data, such as name and address. Application forms usually entail agreements concerning customer privacy. Aggregate data is most often used internally (sometimes even externally) as a part of market research.
Those were some general facts about loyalty programs in general. Stay tuned for subsequent posts!
Posted by Miroslav Kelekovic on January 7th, 2010 --- Permalink --- Tagged in categories: Software Team --- Comments on Forum
