Written by Doug Press, The Incentive Group

The focus of 2020 will always be remembered as the year of COVID-19 and all of its effects on our lives and businesses. Nobody could have predicted month long quarantines, work from home set ups, and zoom calls as the day-to-day norm. This means that in 2021, the focus of the year should be coming back from the setback nobody saw coming — the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects.

Stephen Cook, board member of the Incentive Research Foundation, shared that in uncertain times, leadership must double down on retention. Using a loyalty program to build a fence around your current customer base will reduce the churn and allows you to reward your customer base for their loyalty during such unpredictable times. It is, however, important for leadership to realize that the recognition of the audience is the key to success when it comes to retention. The process of gaining back your desired audience may be more costly and less effective than creating a loyalty program to reward them in the first place.

Although we are not entirely out of the woods when it comes to COVID-19, hope is on the horizon with the implementation of three different COVID-19 vaccines becoming available to the public. Slowly but surely, we are bound to go back to our normal lives. Until then, the prominence of digital workplace environments is set to stay. This means the utilization of a white label digital reward platform is the key to reaching your audience during the recovery.

Being able to virtually fulfill rewards orders of gift cards, issue points or SPIFF funds to re-loadable debit cards, and send out mass communications to your participants is key. A digital platform can also provide you with groundbreaking reporting and key metrics when it comes to your audience. You can even use your platform to make your customer base your new sales channel by utilizing a referral feature, whether it be solely a referral program or an add-on to an existing loyalty program.

The time for recovery is now. Don't let COVID-19 set a precedent for your 2021 business year. Contact The Incentive Group to request a demo of our best in class white label platform, inGauge.

This week's #B2BTuesday Tip:

A B2B loyalty program gives you the chance to collect valuable customer data while creating opportunities to nurture the relationship between sales. This can be a competitive differentiator for your company.