Loyalty Rewards Program Archives

Digitized Loyalty Rewards for Channel Partners & Contractors

Team o4s on September 21, 2022

Consumer Brands swiftly move products from manufacturing facilities to end users facilitated by channel partners. Most brands recognize channel partners as the key element to succeed, and they need to ensure that they are highly motivated.

Existing Incentive Programs are Invoice-based Discounts, Rebates, Bulk Discounts, Lucky Draws, etc., which results in limited engagement with Channel Partners. The Trade Schemes of these brands are inflexible and do not cater to the needs of Channel Partners.

On the other hand, some brands are revamping their Loyalty Program with Technology. Digitized end-to-end Channel Loyalty and Engagement Platform with specially curated channel design and strategy, rewards, program management, and analytics to help drive measurable results and build profitable relationships with the channel partners.

Channel partners are responsible for a large percentage of revenue, making partner rewards and incentives a crucial consideration for brands. With a digitized loyalty program, brands can create, execute, and personalize Channel Partner Loyalty Programs that lead to more engagement, higher channel sales, and improved brand experience to motivate Channel Partners to perform better.

Building better Relationships with Channel Partner using Digital Loyalty Platforms:

Personalisation & Tailored Rewards – Digital loyalty programs allow businesses to add a personal touch to loyalty programs and strengthen partnerships with channel partners. A highly personalized reward engine motivates channel partners to sell more of the brand’s products.
Monitor Channel Partner Purchasing Behavior with Real-time Analytics – All loyalty transactions are collected in real-time, so it becomes easy for businesses to monitor trade campaigns and loyalty management. Brands can gain vital insights about their distribution network’s purchasing behavior on an analytics dashboard.
Scalability & Adaptability – Digital reward program gives an ability to upgrade and capture the market at scale with the help of the latest technology and predictive analytics. Digital Programs that support current business and scalability for future growth are preferred over obsolete rigid incentive structures. This helps brands adapt even in the face of future technological advancement.

Embedding Gynger Platform to your Channel Partner Strategy!

With O4S’ Gynger Platform, Brands launched Channel Partner Loyalty Programs in a digitized format. Gynger Platform automates the loyalty management and rewards offered. Brands such as Akzo Nobel and Honeywell have launched the loyalty platform to run targeted loyalty schemes for channel partners across various countries. Gynger has more than 400k channel partners engaging with more than 50k loyalty transactions daily. These brands get real-time updates and data analytics on scheme performance, reward claims, and disbursals. With a DIY format for loyalty and rewards management, Gynger is one of the most efficient platforms for digital loyalty programs.

Know more about the digital transformation of contractor rewards at AkzoNobel and Honeywell usingO4S-Gynger SaaS platform, here.

Higher Sales with Digital Contractor Loyalty Program

Team o4s on September 21, 2022

Every business starts and runs with the primary objective of earning profits in perpetuity. However, evolving industry trends, business requirements, inflation, consumer preferences, channel communication, and increasing competition push businesses to keep testing waters and implement new ideas to streamline operations and stay at par with the competition.

A lot of focus has been put by consumer brands on engaging with consumers as they are a direct source of revenue. For instance, businesses spend nearly 11% to 27% of their revenues on Consumer Loyalty Programs which contributes to a 5% to 10% increase in revenues. But brands often miss out on the underlying opportunities i.e. indirect revenue generators or the industry influencer i.e. Contractors. A few prominent brands such as AkzoNobel and Honeywell have been early movers in the space and have already implemented Digital Loyalty Programs for their Contractors/Technicians, Retailers, and other Channel Partners. Check out their platforms here Dulux Connect & Genetron.

The contractor community comprises hundreds and thousands of small business operators who spend millions of dollars to buy supplies, equipment, and material to perform their jobs. The complexity lies in understanding their purchasing and consumption patterns. The primary objective of a Contractor Loyalty Program is to create additional value for channel partners and dealers while driving certain behaviors that not only push top-line growth but also decrease the cost to serve.

According to Drilling Down: 2022 Contractor’s Loyalty Report, 40% of contractors prefer purchasing online while 60% opt for in-store or via distributors. ~90% of contractors want to be rewarded for every purchase irrespective of the purchasing channel.

The primary driver of enrolling in a program is the benefit aligned with it, which could be winning a cash prize, travel trip, non-cash items such as e-learning modules, webinars, etc. The brand has to ensure that it covers a range of benefits that could encourage contractors to participate in your Loyalty Program.

Points to consider while creating a Contractor Loyalty Program:

Lock the Objective of the program: Before launching a Contractor Loyalty Program, be very specific about the purpose whether it is driving sales, engagement, loyalty, or participation. You may also assign percentages or targets in case you have multiple objectives.
Simpler Program for Higher Adoption: This aspect is very crucial as often contractors opt out of a Loyalty Program if the contractor is not able to properly understand it or find the Loyalty Program task heavy. Simple participation steps, proper dissemination of information, easy redemption options, and instant access to reward points, along with timely notifications are essential for higher engagement and participation.
Versatile Benefits: Brands should not restrict themselves to rewards, instead, they should offer e-learning/training opportunities to contractors to improve their knowledge and skill set. It is a known fact that humans are complex and every individual has their driving force, one contractor might prefer rewards while the other will prefer non-cash items. So, as a brand, you need to make sure that there are ample options to choose from.
Gamify & Engage: It is advisable to add a Gamification element to Influence & Motivate beneficiaries’ behaviors strategically. Brands can enhance engagement by introducing different kinds of game elements such as Spin & Win, Polls, Scratch Cards, Lucky Draws, Leaderboards, Live Scores, etc.

Trends in the Contractor Incentivization Landscape

A slow and steady shift is expected to take place in the incentivization process with a growing preference for online channels, quicker access to information, and instant gratification, among others. Moreover, the pandemic has changed the dynamics of the industry with increasing migration to the online channel. For instance, Forrester’s research suggests a 200% increase in recognizing e-sellers/retailers and a 571% increase in rewarding non-transactional referral partners.

A steep incline is observed towards the adoption of digital rewards such as Visa/ Amazon vouchers, prepaid gift cards accepted by multiple brands, OTT subscriptions, or various other discount coupons, among others.

Moving away from Invoice-based Incentivization

O4S-Gynger helps organizations digitize their channel partners’ Incentivization Loyalty Programs to incentivize their trade partners to directly maximize sales of their brands. On the Gynger Platform, brands can create and communicate schemes directly to the channel partners and track the effectiveness of these schemes to ensure that the reward for incremental sales reaches the intended beneficiaries. It closes the information and incentivization loop between the brand and channel Partners by connecting them directly. Moreover, it provides a data-driven approach to running trade promotions with real-time analytics to review performance.

O4S-Gynger allows businesses to view their trade promotion effectiveness: rewards disbursed, total participation (engagement & participation), best-performing scheme, and sales generated, among others in a single view. Businesses have experienced unprecedented growth in their incremental sales with 10 times higher participation along with 80% higher MAU.

Know more about the benefits offered by the O4S-Gynger SaaS platform, here.

Influencing Technicians to Boost Revenue using O4S Loyalty Program

O4S on June 14, 2019

Influencer marketing has been the buzzword of 2019 with brands increasingly looking to leverage the growing phenomenon. It is anticipated that influencer marketing will reach a market size of USD 5 billion to USD 10 billion by 2020. The rise of social media and content platforms have created influencers across various niche market segments with a loyal following. This allows brands to collaborate with “social media influencers” to reach a highly engaged target audience. The rise of social media influencer has amplified a well-known fact about word of mouth marketing.

According to a research report, 23% users on Facebook and 34% users on Instagram purchased something on the recommendation of an influencer or blogger. Surprisingly, lesser percentages of people on each platform bought something on the recommendation of a celebrity influencers. This pattern clearly indicates that influencers who have a direct connection with their followers have higher capability of influencing their decisions. What if these influencers had one-to-one contact with your potential customers?

Technicians are Biggest Influencers

While this “new influencer marketing” may have caught the attention of marketers, influencers have always been around us, impacting our decision-making process. The social media influencers may generate phenomenal results for electronic gadgets or fashion apparel companies, but a consumer would not buy paint or wire because some kid in their 20s said them to do so on Facebook. The user does not know which cable is fire-resistant or if 1 mm wire would be ideal for the gadgets to be connected. The situation is even grim when it comes to awareness about the ideal plywood or companies providing premium plywood.

So, who influences your end consumer? Is your end consumer even the decision maker? The average consumer relies heavily on the recommendations provided by the contractors, carpenters, painters, electricians, and plumbers. For any company selling products such as paints, wires, plywood, or pipes where the end consumer is not responsible for setting up the final product, the technicians are your biggest influencers.

It is essential to understand that the term influencer has been glamorized leading to a perception that someone with millions of followers and an entourage of photographers & videographers is an influencer. However, anyone who can impact the decision making of other individuals can be considered an influencer or at least a micro-influencer. According to a report by ResearchGate, 27 out of 28 respondents agreed that there were unable to differentiate between different brands of paint once they were applied on the wall.

In the same research, 24 out of 28 respondents agreed that they consulted painting contractors before making a purchase decision. The situation is not entirely different for electricians or carpenters, where the end-user is not even aware of most brands along with technical aspects of the products. So, who advises the end-user on the products they should purchase, and which product will be perfect for their requirements?

O4S Technician Loyalty Program

It becomes extremely crucial for companies to connect with the right influencers and incentivize them for their recommendations. Since the influencers are not directly part of the transaction, it becomes difficult to reach all the key influencers and formalize the entire process. With the technician loyalty program offered by O4S, your organization can boost sales while gradually improving brand loyalty. Some of the top features offered by O4S are as following:

Identification: One of the most challenging aspects of engaging with technicians is the identification of the right stakeholder. Our program will allow you to reach technician influencers selected using market studies, benchmarking, and outreach programs. Our verification feature ensures that only the right technicians promote your brand.

Automated Program: Using our automated program, influencers can enter their code for purchases made via their referrals. The loyalty points are automatically updated in the influencers’ account which they can access anytime. The automated program also lowers cost while increasing efficiency.

Flexible Redemption: There is no point in offering loyalty reward points if the influencers will be unable to redeem them as per their wish. We offer multiple redemption options such as coupons, vouchers, gifts, etc. ensuring something is available for everyone. This keeps them motivated to promote your brand and earn more loyalty points.

Analytics: The data generated can be used by your analytical team to identify the top performing influencers and offer them better incentives. It can also be used to identify weaker performing locations and products to boost them accordingly.

Communication: With O4S technician loyalty programs, you can connect with your brand influencers using push notifications, emails, and alerts. This direct communication can be leveraged by your marketing team to engage with the influencers and motivate them with new partnership incentives.

Promotions: Having understood the buying behavior of the influencers, your marketing team can craft an effective promotion strategy and influence the buying behaviour of the influencers. Our platforms make it seamless to integrate all these features and target the right decision makers.

Ease of Use: Our mobile App is easy to use making it hassle-free for the contractors, painters, carpenters, electricians, and other micro-influencers to understand the schemes along with other product launch details rolled out by your organization.

Complete Control: The O4S technician loyalty program gives you complete control of product catalog management, rewards catalog management, leader boards, loyalty status management, and more to enable you to leverage the service to the fullest.

Is Loyalty Program a Long-term Solution?

As access to information grows with the rapid advancement of technology, the attention span of the consumer decreases, and so does the trust in celebrity promotions. Organizations will have to evolve in their marketing approach or anticipate losing customers to other companies who employ an innovative approach.

With a technician influencer loyalty program, your organization can reach the right audience and create a long-term association. This direct connection will help you improve brand recognition and brand loyalty. Once you engage the right audience, there are multiple opportunities that your marketing team can explore. From sending out a new product broadcast to offering extra reward points on a particular product, the influencers can be influenced in multiple ways to accomplish your company goals. Get in touch with our executives to know more about the O4S technician loyalty program and the wonders it can do for your organization.

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