Personalization and Customer Care Are More Important Now Than Ever

TORONTO and NEW YORK, July 25, 2024 /PRNewswire/ - Bond, a leading insights-driven customer engagement company, has released The Bond Loyalty Report in partnership with Visa. In its 14th year, the report unveils the brands that are winning by offering a strong loyalty experience and highlights new challenges and solutions for brands that have seen declines in consumer connection.

The Bond Loyalty Report deep dives into the current winning strategies and gaps in loyalty programs and how brands meet consumers' needs, providing exclusive access to data, insights, and the tools to steer brands through these challenges.

The 2024 report unveils insight into the way brands are choosing to execute loyalty strategies. As an example, Bond identified several brands that are pulling back loyalty earnings and benefits for higher-status members. These same brands are now seeing impacts as high as double-digit declines in satisfaction levels. Bond predicts that without demonstrating clear reciprocity with members, companies will continue to face challenges when looking to earn back consumer trust.

"Our data shows the importance of human moments of interaction and the significant impact they have on loyalty behaviors. Leveraging employees to recognize members and ensure they experience the value of the program will set these brands on a path to recovery," says Maegan O'Neill, VP of Strategy and Insights at Bond. The study found that big box retailers are also navigating customer loyalty execution. According to O'Neill, "A challenge we continue to see in the market is program benefits that are undifferentiated from the competition. Free shipping is so ubiquitous it does not act to ingrain loyal behaviors or a sense of being valued by the brand."

Not just focused on brand opportunities, the report also analyzes brands that are using loyalty programs well, like Bath & Body Works, Marriott, and Chick-fil-A. These brands have focused on personalization and superb customer care - both essential aspects of successful loyalty programs. According to the report, participants must be "recognized" to feel seen, leaning into the human-to-human connections that leave them feeling special.

The influence of loyalty programs on customer behavior is higher than ever with 79% of consumers being more likely to recommend brands with solid loyalty programs and 85% of consumers saying they are more likely to continue buying from the brand.

For the fourth year in a row, the study found that one of the top five drivers of loyalty is when program representatives make the customer feel special and recognized. Loyalty members are demanding more from their interactions, valuing simplicity and seamlessness, which will continue to shape customer expectations in the future.

The data also unveils details on the way brand loyalty programs are holding up in today's ever-changing market. Loyalty and customer marketing are expected to boost engagement and sales with fewer resources, yet enterprise-wide alignment on loyalty objectives remains spotty and siloed. The ever-expanding expectations and objectives being heaped on loyalty leaders further complicate the landscape. Adding to the complexity, the looming elimination of cookies creates insecurity in consistently identifying customers, making it challenging for brands to maintain a coherent loyalty strategy.

Additionally, with an increase in brands adopting loyalty programs, saturation muddles intent- promoting promiscuity among less predictable customers. A strong, clearly communicated loyalty strategy is needed as consumers now participate in a huge number of programs with 19 different loyalty programs being held by the average person.

The Bond Loyalty Report stands out amongst a sea of existing loyalty data as an actionable set of information customized specifically to meet brand's needs, and can be utilized as a living data set throughout the year. The data includes frameworks, AI capabilities, and third-party sources to give brands across numerous verticals a deeper understanding of consumer behavior and help them focus on what matters most to consumers.

"The Bond Loyalty Report is the longest, deepest, broadest, most useful, most in-depth, and most customizable version of this data that exists on the planet," said Sean Claessen, Chief Strategy Officer, Bond. "We aim to continuously provide brands with evidence and tools to help guide their business on what needs to be done to grow into tomorrow's landscape."

About Bond:

Bond is a global insights-driven, customer engagement company that creates growth by building lasting connections between brands, their employees, and their customers. Pioneers in Loyalty Science, Bond transforms brands to be more customer-centric by combining innovative AI technologies and rigorous methodology from behavioral science and human-centered design. Renowned for the Bond Behavioral Institute and the Synapze cloud platform, Bond is continuously recognized for its unique approach to tapping the incredible growth potential in known customer connections to create lasting customer growth.

Based in Toronto, Bond is powered by 800 people and operates across eight offices throughout North America and Europe. For more information, please visit bondbl.com and follow along on LinkedIn and Instagram.

SOURCE Bond Brand Loyalty ULC