Stronger Loyalty Programs with Salesforce Commerce Cloud

One of the trickier puzzles of digital branding strategy is managing an effective loyalty program in an age of heightened competition.

In such an environment, Salesforce has recently rolled out a brand spanking new product which is going to allow both B2C Commerce Cloud brands and B2B Commerce Cloud brands to provide loyalty programs.

“Organizations with high levels of customer loyalty outperform their competition,” said David Schmaier, the CEO of Salesforce Industries. “So it’s critical that they provide their customers with valuable and memorable experiences to build trust,” which is exactly what Salesforce’s new Loyalty Management offers.

So what exactly are brands getting with Loyalty Management?

The new system makes it much easier to construct and manage loyalty programs from the Salesforce Customer 360 Platform. “Loyalty Management allows companies across industries to evolve their loyalty programs,” added David, “from transactional to human-centric by delivering personalized, relationship-building moments to each customer.”

Fostering loyalty has been a slippery fish to catch given the current environment. With more and more companies jumping onto ecommerce, digital consumers have been spoilt for choice. So much so that almost half (45%) of consumers have changed allegiances and swapped brand preferences during the pandemic. With better delivery options, healthier stock levels, and clearer customer communication, many of us discovered these strengths in new or forgotten brands – putting down our Nikes and starting to walk with Adidas, so to speak.

Loyalty in the age of the pandemic has made it as difficult as ever to retain customers, and build on that by encouraging a closer connection to the brand. And this is what Loyalty Management is expected to boost.

“While loyalty programs can help companies develop long-term relationships with customers and drive growth,” added David, “many rely on outdated, fragmented technology that fails to provide integrated experiences and are unable to evolve with industry trends.”

As one example, there are too many companies that are continuing a points-based loyalty program tied to airline miles – something of which has become highly irrelevant in the last 12 months. Brands that have benefited in the past year have swapped rewards to things such as exclusive products or exclusive experiences.

“Loyalty Management is built on the Salesforce platform,” said David, “so businesses can design a variety of different programs that meet their unique needs, whether that is a tiered membership program or points per purchase.”

As an example, a hotel chain could benefit from customizing their rewards that are fixed to each location they are situated in. So, at one hotel location you can offer experiences that are localized to that place, for example Hotel A that is located in the mountains provides hiking, climbing, and skiing experiences, while Hotel B that is located on the coast offers surfing opportunities and boat trips.

With these localized offerings, brands could then be able to evolve them based on the season, or popularity, or a combination of both… without the need to rewrite any code. Salesforce’s Loyalty Management can also personalize the offerings depending on the specific type of customer.

PS: ArganoUV is one of the world’s leading Salesforce B2C Commerce Cloud dev shops. Contact us to see how we can work together.