MediaLift

  By: Ray Chelstowski / Hilton Barbour You’ve likely heard the metaphor about the chicken and the pig discussing breakfast. The chicken says “I really like a classic bacon and eggs breakfast.” The pigs turns to the chicken and says “No doubt. You’re involved but I’m committed.” Simply put, successfully managing (and growing) any membership program boils down to two key considerations: member acquisition and member churn. Even more simply put: Increase the former. Reduce the latter. Put another way, do you have more (partially) involved chickens or more (fully) committed pigs? As we discussed last week the most urgent challenge that most loyalty programs face today is churn. So, before customers cycle out of these programs engaging them is critical. Here’s why: Engaged members stay 4 more years compared with non-engaged members. Engaged members spend 22% more than non-engaged members. Member engagement not only increases member loyalty, but also creates referrals. Prog...

  By: Ray Chelstowski / Hilton Barbour The Covid-19 pandemic dramatically accelerated technology adoption across all industries. According to one survey, 77% of CEOs reported that the pandemic sped up their companies’ digital transformation plans, and as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella noted in the early days of the crisis, “We’ve seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months.” With such a bewildering array of technology vendors and solutions, all offering an immediate silver bullet ROI, it can be onerous and tiring to ascertain which one makes the most sense. And which part of your operations will most benefit from a technology overhaul. To be clear, standing still is not an option but rushing in blindly makes little sense too. Domino’s is a great example of making sound bets and seeing them pay off. In a mature and competitive industry, the company moved its stock price from $3 in 2008 to a high of $433 in 2020 because a digitally savvy top management team created...

  By Ray Chelstowski Most research indicates that 2/3 of a company’s business comes from existing customers. That speaks directly to why retaining your current customer is so important. When customer churn starts to rise reversing the trend can be incredibly difficult, and sometimes it’s simply impossible. That can be avoided by applying a steady focus on best retention practices and doing that from the moment your relationship begins. Customer churn is the exact percentage of your average customers, clients, or subscribers who either end their subscriptions or don’t renew their subscriptions during a given time frame, divided by the total number of remaining customers, clients, or subscribers. So, how do you reduce customer churn? From the onset, from marketing to the initial sign-up, you need to set proper customer expectations. In an ideal world, every customer is going to love your product and take advantage of the best features it has to offer. But clients have different...

  By: Ray Chelstowski “Collaborative commerce” is a term that has been used for almost twenty years. Over that time its definition has evolved. Initially the concept was tied to having brands work together to source materials, goods and services in an effort to create greater efficiencies. Those benefits still exist. But today the vision for C-Commerce is much broader and taps into changing market dynamics and quickly evolving technologies. This is allowing brands to really establish an edge in a business environment that has become incredibly competitive. At Kognitiv, we look at C-Commerce as an opportunity to deliver more value to customers and achieve better business outcomes in the process. Often, that begins through loyalty programs. Through these platforms brands have been able to communicate in the moment with their best customers. This has become critical as online marketplaces tend to anchor the proposition between seller and buyer to price. Loyalty programs have the cap...