Loyalty Personas

Reward loyalty by badges, not points.
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Points are only one measure of loyalty.

The main problem with points is that they eliminate the ability to view and therefore engage different types of people different ways. Points can only be plotted on a single dimension, a line. Marketing personas allow for a multi-dimensional analysis to resolve into distinct clusters and each cluster may have different defining types of data. Why not also have a multi-dimensional view of loyalty: Loyalty Personas?

New data types are being added to CRM databases. Beyond social behavior there are also conversational and relationship data. These new data types should be presented with their unique analytics types, not reduced to only points. A conversational view of an individual should look different then a behavioral view. Reducing each one of these to points wipes out the ability for customer service to understand that the person they are helping is willing to post a negative review, their ability to take the review viral, and reduces the effect of the question, "if you are now satisfied will you make a post about this experience?"

A more sophisticated system would use a badges rather then points. Badges provide both a means to measure to the brand and an opportunity to provide appropriate goals to the customer. Loyalty Personas would be created from clusters of badges.

The goals of a brand are many and varied. Obviously there would be a badge for the top buyers of a brand’s products. There could also be badges for the top viral distributors of brand content, top contributors to charities supported by the brand, and top participants in new product creation. There could be bronze, silver, and gold levels for each badge. Platinum would not just be the top buyer, but also the most effective brand advocates.

Rather then attempting to reduce all data into a single type with a single measurement, badges allow for compiled measurement of data types and analytics techniques. If the buying cycle is no longer a funnel, then neither should be the loyalty program. People can be in various states and moving in various directions. Badges allow for analysis of this to be conducted from the original data rather then from an abstraction with reduced meaning.

The goal of Loyalty Pesonas is to recognize great customers whether they buy a lot or not. When a customer needs help or earns a reward, they would be recognized by their Loyalty Persona and served appropriately. Great customers would be recognized as those with the highest badge levels rather then simply to top point earner. Brands would have reasons to sustain contact with the customer. Customers would have the ability to earn recognition through more means then only their raw spending power.