“Rather than casting the net wider and wider, marketers who are active in the loyalty space have to begin to look inward, and they have to ask themselves if they have done the best job they possibly can at mining new insights about their membership,” says Kelly Hlavinka, a partner with COLLOQUY and a co-author of the 2009 census report. “They have to be re-enforcing their loyalty communications at all touchpoints… on their Web site, in e-mails, in their merchandise selection and in person.”
Hlavinka uses the example of Hilton Hotel’s “My Way” loyalty program, of which she is a member. If, for instance, she told the company that she would be most interested in traveling to the Caribbean, future e-mails and other correspondences typically would contain information about hotel deals in the islands.
“With a loyalty program, you have to do everything you can to make sure your members are engaged and spending as much as possible with you,” she says. “Targeting is going to be the key. You have to find who your best customers are and what it is that they want most.”