Loyalty Marketing Isn't Hard — Hipkin's Hip Shots

Confusion and Trust Trust is a key characteristic of successful loyalty marketing programs. But you won’t get far saying “trust me.” Trust is something you need to earn. Customers are looking for practical evidence they can trust you. The easiest way to provide practical evidence is to make it simple.

When I worked on a major telco’s loyalty program we did some research to identify attrition motivators. It had to be more than price and we found that it was. Among lapsed customers “trust” metrics were very low. They didn’t trust the other carriers either but switched for a better offer. They switched for price. Among vulnerable customers “trust” metrics were also low. Not as low as the lapsed customers but low enough to test their willingness to stay. Give them a better offer and they are gone.

For our telco client we determined that trust and confusion were inversely correlated. The higher the level of confusion the lower the trust. Our client’s lost and vulnerable customers were confused by all the promotional prices and products. They just wanted to make a long distance call for a price they could understand.

Apple’s customers are loyal. Windows/Intel customers are trapped. Microsoft’s current campaign clearly demonstrates you can get a cheaper PC from a WinTel provider. So why don’t Apple customers switch? They trust the brand, which translates into loyalty. Why do they trust the brand? They aren’t confused. Apple’s products solve their problems simply, they are easy to understand and to use.

iPod wasn’t the first MP3 player. It was the most successful because it was simple. iPhone wasn’t the first smart phone. It’s the most successful because it’s easy to use. Apple greatly diminished music piracy by using iTunes to make it simple to purchase individual tracks for 99¢. Google was not the first search engine. But Google made it simple to search. I can go on …

Hip Shots

Make the solution simple. Take a hard look at your products and processes. Are they as simple as possible? Do they solve your best customer’s problem without a lot of fuss or bother?
Take the confusion out or your marketing. Make your pricing simple. 10¢ a Minute revolutionized the long distance category. 99¢ per song did the same for the music business.
Make it easy to buy. Amazon is successful because they make it easy to buy niche products. eBay as well. Amazon use the same strategy to get their share of blockbusters. Harry Potter’s latest novel delivered to your doorstep the morning of release. No waiting in line required.