When Harlequin, a Toronto-based company that publishes women’s fiction, including 17 different romance series, was developing its loyalty program, Lucy Scinocca, Director of Loyalty and Customer Insight, said the company conducted customer journey mapping to make the customer’s reading life easier and more enjoyable, while focusing on developing 1-to-1 relationships.
Scinocca discussed the Harlequin My Rewards loyalty program during her session, “Harlequin My Rewards Delivers Tangible Business Results with Receipt-Scanning and Personalized Recommendations,” at the 9th annual Loyalty Expo, presented by Loyalty360 – The Association for Customer Loyalty.
“We wanted to provide benefits that would ease some of her pain points, like finding her next great book to read,” Scinocca explained. “One of the key benefits from our rewards program is providing personalized recommendations based on a reader’s genre preferences. We provide recommendations each month. Since our members are very avid readers, it is essential that we understand their preferences so that we can provide them with more great reading experiences.”
Knowing Harlequin readers are voracious, the company wanted to simplify their lives.
“We did research to find out what they most wanted to see from a loyalty program and focused on the features that they most wanted to see,” Scinocca said. “We wanted to understand what their current experiences were like and what their needs are. Before we officially launched the program, we beta-tested it with a consumer research panel. Based on their feedback, we made some minor tweaks and launched Harlequin My Rewards in June 2015.”
Harlequin’s loyalty platform is powered by Stellar Loyalty.
The Harlequin My Rewards loyalty program stands out in the publishing world as it is the first and only one in the industry, complete with dedicated shelves in Walmart stores.
“Harlequin is the Baskin-Robbins of romance,” Scinocca said.
Besides romance, Harlequin offers fiction, suspense/thrillers, and paranormal books. Its core reader, Scinocca said, focuses on family, faith, and community and her average age is 47.
“She’s very optimistic, helpful to a fault, and, on average, reads 2.3 books per month,” Scinocca said.
After the Harlequin My Rewards loyalty program launched in June 2015, Harlequin became the first and only publisher with a loyalty program, complete with dedicated shelves in Walmart stores.
Harlequin’s main focus during the developmental stages of the loyalty program was to be customer-centric.
“A key benefit from the loyalty program is receiving personalized recommendations,” Scinocca said. “What kinds of heroes do they like in romance novels? Cowboys? Martial artists? Based on profiles and purchases, we can send them personalized recommendations through predictive analytics. They can purchase books in various places (pharmacies, grocery stores, online, retail stores).”
Receipt-scanning, which is now centralized, is a key part of the program as well.
The innovative Harlequin My Rewards loyalty program lets readers send images of Harlequin novel receipts from any retailer through email or they can upload photos of receipts to the mobile-optimized website to receive points. The multi-platform program ensures a wide range of options for its customers, allowing them to develop more personal and lasting relationships with Harlequin.
“They are awarded points for the purchases they make, no matter where they are made,” Scinocca explained. “We also reward them for engaging with us online. They can earn points through Facebook activities and surveys as well other proactive efforts like providing book reviews. We’ll be personalizing our member experiences even more with the Stellar Loyalty platform. The opportunity we have with personalization is to gain a better understanding of our members’ preferences and leverage those insights to provide more meaningful and relevant 1:1 experiences.””
Weekly book challenges (answer surveys, watch trailers, go to particular pages, read excerpts) have become so popular, Scinocca said, that they will be held twice a week now.
“On Facebook, members can vote for their favorite covers,” she said.
Scinocca noted that program metrics are based on: Business value, business experience, member value, and member experience.
“The more active a member, the more likely to make a purchase, which we’re very happy to see,” Scinocca said. “They spend 1.5 times to 1.9 times more than non-members.”
Founded in Winnipeg in 1949, Harlequin was owned by Torstar Corporation, a broadly based media company and one of the largest newspaper publishers in Canada from 1981 until purchased by News Corporation in 2014 and made a division of HarperCollins.
The Harlequin My Rewards loyalty program includes Reader Profiles where members can answer questions about what they enjoy reading.
“From that, we are able to see what types of genres they are most interested in,” Scinocca explained. “As their interests change, members can update their profile. This helps us keep pace with what they like to read most. Our loyalty program is omnichannel and we can connect with all of our readers no matter where they shop, either online or offline. Consequently, we can develop and cultivate that 1:1 relationship no matter where they shop.”
Scinocca concluded the session with lessons learned:
-More work involved than you think
-Document details
-Close to 30% of members have redeemed a reward; 10% of redeemers are multiple redeemers.
-Average points earned per member is 7,000
-35% of members engage each month
-Engagement levels of members continue to increase
-Positive member feedback: (Eight out of 10 are satisfied with the program; Nine out of 10 most likely to r-recommend program to a friend)
-Most requested improvements (More earning opportunities; more surveys; more rewards)
-Add online book repository and harness data