DECEMBER 20198ompanies come and go, what gives them the power to sustain and succeed is one of the most important and empowered assets -- the customer! One might argue that customers are not the only driving force behind the success of a company, and rightly so; they are not the sole determinant, but a game changer nevertheless. In order to continuously enhance one's customer base, retain, engage, and keep their faith intact, businesses have to work aggressively in coming up with means to satisfy the basic human nature ­ the need to be acknowledged and the desire to be appreciated. Businesses have, over and above providing qualitative products and services, always tried to increase their base of loyal customers by running programs to engage the customer constantly with their brand. Gifts, Benefits, Rewards and Loyalty programs (GRBL) have become such a common exercise with merchants and retailers across verticals that it has today, become an industry in its own right.Millions of companies across the planet are working on zillions of ideas to gain and maintain customer loyalty on a daily basis. Imagine the sheer amount of investment in the form of time, money, human resources that are spent on customer retention and engagement strategies. It is said that businesses that have loyalty programs are 88 percent more profitable than competitors who do not. This is probably why there are as many loyalty programs around in the world as there are companies. One can find benefits and loyalty programs ranging from airline companies' tiered points programs, which involve partnerships with rental car companies, hotels, restaurants, and shops, to Amazon's upfront fee program, Amazon Prime, which provides free shipping and allows members to apply rewards points from participating companies toward purchases. Amazon has an unbeatable record of retaining over 95 percent of their customers after just one year . Most businesses have evolved from spend-and-get models and have entered into the new generation of online rewards. They are adopting omni-channel and multi-channel programs that reward customers for every interaction they make with and for the brand ­ spend referrals, shares on social media and more. As many as 64 percent of brands reported an increase in their loyalty program memberships due to the level of sophistication that they had added to them. In the offline space, Starbucks is said to have revolutionized the business of coffee and it is not just the wide range of lip-smacking coffees and short bites that goes towards making them one of the best in their industry, it is their three-tier loyalty program, which has now been acknowledged as a best-in-class program. Post implementation of the Starbucks Rewards customer loyalty program, the company reported an increase in revenue of U.S. 2.65 billion. And when they went mobile. Today the mobile app generates around 6 million sales per month. In India, one of the best state-of-the-art loyalty programs, "First Citizen", crafted by Shoppers Stop, reflects the retail giants' focus on digitizing their customers' journey. Which is also what brought them to the ubiquitous mobile as a part of their broader omni-channel strategy, and today their First Citizen program is considered the best in business.While the industry is unquestionably evolving and growing, the age-old dilemma of accumulated points versus the number of benefits realized from these innumerable loyalty programs persists. It will continue HOW IS BLOCKCHAIN IMPACTING THE GIFTS, BENEFITS, REWARDS, AND LOYALTY (GBRL) INDUSTRY?By Raj N Phani, Founder, ZAGG ProtocolIN MY OPINIONCPassionate about exploring the blockchain eco-space, Raj has spearheaded the growth story in organizations such as PricewaterhouseCoopers and eYantra IndustriesRaj N Phani, Founder
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