News

Study: Billions wasted on loyalty efforts that bomb

February 20, 2017

Retailers and restaurants invest a lot in loyalty programs but a massive study from Accenture reveals a lot of that money is wasted as programs often miss their mark, according to a news release.

The study — which gauged loyalty program experiences and attitudes of more than 25,000 consumer globally — took place this past July and August under the title of the Accenture Global Consumer Pulse Research. It was designed to identify the effects of current loyalty efforts in business worldwide, while also identifying factors influencing customer relationships and driving brand loyalty.

Although more than 90 percent of all businesses worldwide invest in some kind of customer loyalty program, quite often programs don't achieve their goals and sometimes even work against customer loyalty. Findings of the research include: 

• Approximately 66 percent of consumers spend more money on brands they love, but at the moment 78 percent of those customers are switching their loyalties to other businesses and that same percentage of customers now say they switch loyalty much faster today than they did just three years ago
• More than half of those polled, in fact, switched brands in the past year which is greater than the percentage that did so the previous year
• A majority (81 percent) of consumers feel good about brands that get to know them and what they want, while 59 percent of consumers say small "tokens of affection" from brands, like personalized discounts and loyalty rewards increase their loyalty and 44 percent say "thrills," like getting the chance to co-create products or services, enhance loyalty
• Brand attempts to engage consumers' loyalty actually turn off about 8 percent of consumers