Meet our client: a leading pet supplies retailer in the US. with strong community connections and bragging rights as the winner of multiple outstanding retailer awards.

On top of selling popular pet products, they offer dog grooming, wellness check services, curbside pickup, a pet pharmacy, and delivery in most locations. (Everything a pet parent could hope for!)

Challenge

Here’s where things got tricky: the client was running two different loyalty programs at the same time. Both were popular, but the setup was confusing for customers and for employees.

It was clear that combining the two programs into one—and improving its offerings—would make for a better customer experience. Knowing our experience with the retail sector and loyalty programs, the client turned to Concentrix to make it all happen.

Solution

It’s expensive to have a pet! Reducing that cost for the customer was one of our goals from the start. Proprietary research told us that customers want discounts (don’t we all?)—but that discounts aren’t the only thing that matters. Loyalty program members want to feel a sense of belonging to something bigger. So we set out to answer the following question: How could this loyalty program reflect customers’ desire for meaning and value beyond just discounts?

Concentrix loyalty experts got to work, leading customer and competitive research to understand the gaps and opportunities. We listened and probed in one-on-one stakeholder interviews and workshops with the client’s executives. The client wanted to include their vendor and franchise partners in the design process, so we collaborated with a mix of stakeholders to create a program that would benefit all of them.

Everyone agreed personalization was a priority. Now, instead of sending blast offers, the client can send targeted offers to specific pet owners with unique characteristics. Members enjoy a personalized dashboard, with articles and videos specific to their type of pet. This valuable information is tailored to help them be a better pet parent—building trust and an emotional connection to the brand in a way that a $5 coupon just can’t.

Ultimately, the program design reflected a variety of important inputs: primary customer research, our deep understanding of loyalty best practices, the client’s long-term strategic business goals (including its franchise expansion plans), and its strong vendor relationship strategy.

The client experienced significant staff turnover during the engagement, but Catalyst team members owned the project from start to finish, launching on time and on-budget.

Outcomes

Despite hurdles, the loyalty program launched nationwide, on time, in all the client’s franchised stores and online.

Here’s what the refreshed program offers members:

• 5 points for every $1 spent, redeemable for rewards on future purchases
• Bonus points for taking polls and surveys
• Free products from select brands with qualifying purchases
• A gift on each pet’s birthday
• Early and exclusive access to events and giveaways
• The ability to donate points to support animal shelters or charities
• Personalized content on the program’s membership dashboard

As you may have guessed, the charitable donation benefit was huge with animal-loving customers. Many retail brands offer a benefit like this, but few execute it in a way that’s so meaningful. Not only did the offering score highly in initial customer research, but it was also something the client was doing in small ways already. Expanding on this made implementation even easier and gave the brand more credit for great things they were doing.

Together, these benefits are a big bundle of value for members—in ways that are monetary, charitable, personalized, and fun (basically the description of a winning loyalty program).
Thinking about loyalty beyond the one note of coupon, coupon, coupon makes all the difference.

Want to ensure your loyalty program is delivering a bundle of benefits? Let’s chat about Concentrix’ end-to-end loyalty solutions.