Personalization is a massive buzzword in today’s loyalty marketing world. Angie’s List is leveraging personalization in an exemplary fashion as individualized incentives drive its AngieCash loyalty program.
Robert Jewell, Chief Revenue Officer, Exchange Solutions teamed up with Jon Buck, Head of the AngieCash Program, Angie’s List for a session titled, Inside the AngieCash Program: How Individualized Incentives Can Deliver Increased Customer Lifetime Value, Retention and Profitability, during the 8th annual Loyalty Expo presented by Loyalty360 – The Loyalty Marketers’ Association, which was held April 27-29, 2015, at the Loews Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Orlando in Orlando, Florida.
Jewell said incentives are a critical component of the personalized messages being sent out through the AngieCash loyalty program.
The AngieCash loyalty program was created to members can take advantage of offers to earn rewards. Personalized offers are posted on the website and are sometimes sent via email. Users earn AngieCash for completed offers.
Angie Cash is deposited into a user’s AngieCash account once the offer has been fully completed and approved. Earned AngieCash can be redeemed for items from the company’s Rewards Store (i.e. e-gift cards, movie passes, etc.)
Buck, Director of Member Engagement and Retention for Angie’s List, said retention is a key part of the loyalty program. Angie’s List’s four targeted behaviors within the program include Renew-Refer a Friend-Review-Buy.
“We wanted to take steps to drive this behavior,” Buck explained. “We wanted to be unique and different, and be valuable to the user. We needed an innovative approach to loyalty.”
The result was Intelligent Customer Engagement.
Individualized incentives, Buck added, drive incremental behaviors across the customer journey. Increased conversion rates across targeted behaviors have been “a big win for us,” Buck said.
How does AngieCash work?
Real-time listening posts and nightly data feeds to uncover customer behavior gaps.
Intelligent rules to target behavior gaps with individualized incentives.
Interaction management to coordinate delivery of 1:1 messages, in real time, across multiple channels (web, email, call center).
Continuous learning and optimization through Big Data and machine-learning.
The results?
Increased conversion rates across all behaviors.
Lower costs due to optimization of marketing spend on low propensity behaviors.
Expansion of the program to more behaviors across the customer journey.
A valued currency used throughout the organization, including customer service and promotions team.
Buck offer six key learnings:
Start simple and pilot quickly
Optimize program
This isn’t just another project (touches several departments)
The pay-for-performance model creates differentiated relationships from fee for service
It’s important to be flexible and nimble
Know what you want to achieve with the program
“We felt the word ‘cash’ resonates a little bit more with users,” Buck said. “We’ve been in the market almost two years. We’re considering partnerships to expand reach. The goal is to drive marginal behavior from both groups, but we are focused more primarily from the group that is not as engaged (yet). Those users who are already doing the actions we want don’t need to be incented to do them as they do them organically.”
Driving marginal behavior is imperative for the loyalty program.
“We are very focused on driving marginal behavior,” Buck said. “If we are truly driving marginal behavior with the program, then we know that the money we are spending is driving marginal business, thus its money well spent. If we spend money that does not generate marginal behavior, we would then be spending money on activities that would happen on their own.”