Recyclebank is an organization that encourages green environmental practices through such strategies as education, content delivery, selling sustainable products, partnering with municipalities to drive recycling efforts, and rewarding members with points for green activities—which can be used for discounts and products.
Changing behavior that leads to customer engagement and customer loyalty is at the core of Recyclebank’s mission.
As a result, Recyclebank was named a finalist for the 2015 Loyalty360 Awards in the Best Loyalty or Rewards Program.
Awards will be handed out at the 8th annual Loyalty Expo presented by Loyalty360 – The Loyalty Marketers’ Association, which will be held April 27-29, 2015, at the Loews Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Orlando in Orlando, Florida.
Simon North, Senior Director, Rewards, Recyclebank participated in a compelling interview with Loyalty360 to discuss the company’s approach toward customer loyalty.
Can you talk about Recyclebank’s customer loyalty approach, as far as what is involved, and why you think it resonates so well with your customers?
As a behavior change platform, our approach has always been about providing valuable and personally relevant rewards to our members for the positive actions they do, whether it is household recycling or pledging to do other green actions. What we have found that really elevates the relationship with our members from being primarily a transactional one to becoming a true brand and sustainability advocate is how we help them understand what impact their positive actions have on the broader environment. By letting members know directly how much waste they have kept out of landfills and by translating that into easy to understand metrics at a city level members feel vested in the program and engage more deeply with us and their community.
What are your customer loyalty goals and how have the results matched or exceeded your expectations?
Our goals are set at the micro engagement level with us tracking the number of times and with what action a member engages with us, whether it be how frequently they told us they recycled, how often they redeemed, or how much online content they have interacted with. In addition, we look at data from the recycling hauler on how often a resident has put out their recycling cart and the weight of the recycling collected. Our results consistently exceed our baseline expectations although we do see material variations by city and geographic region.
One of our long-term goals is leveraging the data at the member level to drive increased engagement and loyalty that closes the gap between the developed recycling rates of the West Coast and the rest of the USA. We are moving the needle in the right direction, but still have a ways to go!
How do you define Customer Loyalty at Recyclebank and how does Customer Feedback impact that theme?
We define loyalty as how often our members are engaging with us in a net positive way and customer feedback is an essential element to gauge that. As the program is fairly unique with very little industry competitors to benchmark against, understanding the needs of our members and how we manage their expectations in an effective and personal way is critical to overall program success. Members are motivated to join the program for a number of different reasons so how we ensure they are all getting what they need from it is the most important part of the equation – whether that be coupons at national chains, discounts at local merchants or simply knowing they are contributing to a greener planet by their actions.
With an abundance of technology solutions available in the marketplace, how do you know which ones best fit your customers and their expectations?
When we think of technology options, we focus on what will provide us the most efficient way to connect with our broad and diverse member base. That can take forms such as ensuring we have mobile apps that work on all platforms enabling us to reach members without a PC or investing in the tools that ensure we can touch the member with the right message at the right time through the right channel. We are a lean organization so finding the capabilities to give us a virtual digital marketing army is key.