Loyalty and incentive programs are powerful tools. Used effectively they can generate habitual behavioral loyalty, increase sales revenue, decrease customer churn, increase share of wallet and limit variety-seeking behavior.  Many of these results have been empirically tested in academic research and in award winning case studies.

The future of loyalty programs is mobile. This mantra has been reiterated across many loyalty marketing industry trend reports. It is a mantra that clearly has face value. In fact, it is a no-brainer, as much of our life now revolves around our little handhelds. Most loyalty programs are migrating to mobile platforms, allowing their members instant access any place, any time. Being able to check your points balance, the latest reward additions or quickly swiping through a learning module in a client’s parking lot definitely ups the convenience factor. But, it does not guarantee an engaging mobile program experience. That is why a number of forward-looking brands have started to engage their members by inviting them to share their ‘must-share-moments’ with the brand and explore the face value of the mobile camera.

In our conversations with organizations that are assessing B2B loyalty and incentive programs, a number of negative perceptions inevitably surface.

Here are the top 5 myths about loyalty programs and our evidence as to why they simply aren’t true. 

Over the past 20 years, the structure of B2B loyalty programs has grown from simple sales incentives that reward for achieving sales targets to rewarding for profile performance.  Profile performance is the concept of creating the ideal participant profile and rewarding for all behaviours that a participant demonstrates in adopting this profile.

There are many variables to consider when creating the ideal channel loyalty program participant profile and these are broadly classified into the following 5 types of loyalty program participant profiles:

Our research has shown greater loyalty (measured by sales and other valued added behaviours) amongst program participants who are active in enablement tasks, compared to those who are not.  In looking at correlations between those participants who have undertaken enablement tasks, versus those who have not, we have observed three traits....

Technology is now defining the route which companies need to take in order to stay relevant and is changing at a rate so fast that organisations and to some extent, society is struggling to keep up.

And whilst digital transformation can start with the introduction of new tech, business transformation is inevitable, which can mean a complete overhaul in a company's products, positioning and ultimately, business goals.

Are you thinking; "do enablement & incentive programs build loyalty with Channel partners and resellers?" 

If so then here are some key questions to consider if you're thinking about launching a B2B Loyalty Program or even how to re-engineer an existing one

Many loyalty and incentives programs have built status tiers to segment and reward their most active, profitable, engaged and loyal participants.

However there are a number of pit falls that destroy the integrity and motivational pull of loyalty programs if the tier strategy is not properly planned. Here are our 5 tactics to manage downgrading participant tier status...

Motivforce recently undertook a study looking at the most appropriate and effective way to respond to a B2B Loyalty Program participant’s feedback – particularly in the social media environment but with direct implications to contained environments. The results revealed that the most effective response is when help desk employees put themselves in the shoes of the customer before they respond.

How does your company approach enablement with your resellers and is your incentive strategy driving the right performance behaviours?  

Business Partner Loyalty. 10 questions you need to consider.

Think of yourself and your company as a Sherpa and the role you play when it comes to ensuring your business partners achieve their goals:

• Are you prepared to help your partners navigate through challenging business conditions?
• Do you understand their strengths and weaknesses?

How do we attract members to our loyalty program without having to invest hugely? How do we boost the business from acquired members that justifies the generous spend on those mid-tier members in our program? These are questions that keep C-suite executives awake at night. At Motivforce R&D we are introducing a new approach that we call loyalty hacking. What’s with the hacking you may ask?......

Getting the balance right between the hard and soft benefits of your B2B loyalty program can be the key to its effectiveness. Dr. David Cox - CEO writes why soft benefits are the key to keeping participants loyal to your program.

In January 2016 we predicted the top 10 trends that B2B loyalty marketing would witness during the course of the year. But did we get it right? Let’s take a look back ….

Personal development is recognised as the most effective way in which business relationships with business partners can be nurtured. And while business schools are having trouble to keep pace with these developments, this is presenting a very bright business future for online enablement. It is proven that certified business partners sell more...

Most companies have come to realise that offering online education modules continues to be an important driving force in establishing successful channel partner relationships. At Motivforce R&D, we often are asked to come up with a convincing business case that outlines how clients will start earning by learning, simply by making the switch to online enablement. These are the four key benefits on which we think such a case can be built:

In today’s markets, your company’s success depends hugely on the motivation and abilities of your business partners. Willingness is often fuelled by elaborate incentive structures, but ability is a different cookie. More and more firms are experimenting with online modules across multiple (mobile) platforms, so there are ample and innovative opportunities to work on your business partners’ tech, marketing and sales skills. Yet, we often see that the message cannot keep up with the medium. In other words, content is offered that is out of line or, at best, loosely coupled to strategic channel objectives.

Follow our 5 step process:

Most loyalty marketers focus on rewarding customer or business partner behaviour. Yet, there is another important side to the loyalty coin and that is recognizing the performance of employees. There is a so-called profit chain that links employee motivation and behaviour with customer loyalty. We have witnessed an important shift when it comes to employee recognition programs; the focus is no longer on incentivizing individual employees, but on rewarding the performance of teams. 

The Pokémon Go craze, which is based on a killer app that has got millions of people leaving their computer screens. Responding to Nintendo’s call to action to 'catch Pokémon in the real world...' Strange as it may seem, there is a very, very important lesson for your loyalty program.

Our loyalty professors Ko de Ruyter and Debbie Keeling share their latest research and how to avoid channel partners having mixed feelings about your loyalty program. How does this impact program ROI and what can you do about it?