Many major retailers offer reward programs for their loyal customers. While this sounds as though it would be a good thing, a recent study begs to differ.
The findings from a study by Capgemini summarized by eMarketer found that when retailer rewards programs are discussed on social platforms, a shocking 93% of the comments are negative. Even if a consumer is overall happy with a brand, most feel that the rewards program or loyalty program falls short.
When analyzing the 160 retailer rewards programs, and the 40,000 comments made about rewards programs, the study found that:
- 44% of consumers found the reward to lack relevance or value—or that the terms lacked flexibility.
- 33% of consumers found a lack of seamless multi-channel experience.
- 17% had a customer service issue related to the rewards program
What may come as a shock is that retail rewards programs have a higher number of negative comments on social media then airline rewards programs at 88%.
Although 93% of social media comments regarding retailer rewards programs are negative—only 11% of overall retailer comments on Twitter and 13% on Facebook are negative. That being said, if retailers can improve their rewards programs, then they can drastically decrease the number of negative social media comments.