{{item.videoDuration}}
{{item.title}}
{{item.text}}
{{item.videoDuration}}
{{item.title}}
{{item.text}}
Beyond the Benjamins: Giving your customers what they actually want in a personalized loyalty experience
Insights from PwC’s Customer Loyalty Surveys
Providing a personalized customer experience. Building a community. Winning brand loyalty. Whatever you call it, fostering loyalty between you and your customer unlocks value for your organization and increases profitability, from direct monetization to driving unique brand experiences at scale and influencing customer behavior.
“Loyalty is a growth engine. Not only are our rewards members repeat visitors, they spend more when they return and they return more often. They also have a higher affinity to say to friends and family, ‘You should be staying at these brands, too.’”
Our PwC Customer Loyalty Executive Survey 2023 shed light on the business practices that are winning — and losing — customer loyalty. Asked what they thought were the top reasons customers keep buying or using their brand, one in four executives (26%) said “The experience feels personal and created just for them” — trailing only behind to providing high quality, reliable and consistent products and receiving good value for the price. So how can you improve your loyalty programs to increase your returns?
What do customers want from a personalized experience?
In our survey, a majority of executives said personalizing the customer experience is a high priority when activating customer loyalty. However, many companies struggle to find the right mix of benefits. Discounts or rebates are by far the most commonly requested benefit, but plenty of other perks also interest customers. Finding the right balance of community, delight, ease, uniqueness and value is paramount when creating a loyalty program with the flexibility to satisfy a diverse clientele.
Are you prioritizing the right parts of the experience? Easy or fast access to products or services topped the list of what businesses offer customers, provided by nearly half of companies. But only one in five consumers said that was the most important part of a personalized experience for them. Meanwhile, cross-brand partnerships are provided by more than a quarter of businesses, but just 7% of customers said that’s important in personalized service.
“There are a million different apps available and we're competing for space on the phone. There has to be something valuable and engaging around your experience that's beyond just rewards — beyond giving away free things — that creates that deeper connection.”
What customers want can also vary significantly by industry.
- Discounts or rebates are always popular, but especially among grocery store customers.
- Flexibility in rewards is most treasured by airline and hotel patrons.
- Being known by employees and receiving offers based on their information are most popular among financial services and banking customers.
Customers still value discounts, with experiences growing in influence
Q: Which of the following personalized experiences does your company provide to customers? (Select all that apply.)
Source: PwC Customer Loyalty Executive Survey 2023: base of 410
Q: When it comes to getting a personalized experience from a company/brand, which parts of that personalized experience are most important to you? (Select up to three.)
Source: PwC Customer Loyalty Survey 2022: base of 4,036
Source: PwC Customer Loyalty Executive Survey 2023: base of 410
Q: When it comes to getting a personalized experience from a company/brand, which parts of that personalized experience are most important to you? (Select up to three.)
Source: PwC Customer Loyalty Survey 2022: base of 4,036
Are you standing out in the market?
Most executives agree that their loyalty programs offer unique benefits compared to their competitors…
…but a substantial majority also say that their loyalty programs are similar to those of their competitors. In fact, 91% across industries agree they should provide more member rewards or benefits, with even higher numbers in certain sectors.
Q: To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statements?
Source: PwC Customer Loyalty Executive Survey 2023: base of 410
Source: PwC Customer Loyalty Executive Survey 2023: base of 410
Age isn’t just a number. Are you chasing the right demographics?
There’s a big disconnect between how much personal data businesses collect from their users and how much data those users are willing to share to get a better customer experience. Across industries, 44% of executives said customers sharing their personal information with a brand shows loyalty. This share was as high as 57% for banks and as low at 27% in media and entertainment. But just 19% of consumers told us this is one of the ways they show loyalty.
While only 4% of businesses say they don’t collect personal data, nearly one-fifth (18%) of consumers say they’d be unwilling to provide it in exchange for a more personalized experience. This number is driven by older consumers. Nearly one quarter (24%) of baby boomers would not share any data whatsoever, but that number is just 15% for millennials and drops to 10% for Gen Z.
Interestingly, younger consumers tend to be less generous with certain data: Gen Zers are least likely to share family information (like number of children in the household and their ages or genders), marital status or income — as much or more so than even baby boomers. Younger generations are also more likely to engage with or support a brand, and typically drive the market for subscription services
“Consumers today are thinking much more about the choices they have, and they choose to do business with brands whose values align with them.”
Q: Some companies offer subscriptions that allow a person to make payments at regular intervals for access to a product or service. Which of the following types of subscription services do you use? (Please select all that apply.)
Source: PwC Customer Loyalty Survey 2022: base of 4,036
Source: PwC Customer Loyalty Survey 2022: base of 4,036
Why do companies discontinue their subscription services?
Most executives cited poor performance, high costs or low returns.
What you can do
- Be compelling. All the benefits in the world won’t get a customer to subscribe to a subpar product. Crossing the subscription chasm requires having a compelling enough product — that requires a frequent enough purchase — for your customers to justify a repeat expense. And that subscription should be easy to access and use.
- Know your customer. How do you provide a personalized customer experience? Make sure your benefit offerings and the personal data you’re collecting align with what your key demographics value. Leverage your uniqueness to stand out in the market.
- Lean into first-party data capture and activation. Your customers are telling you directly who they are and what they want. Use the depth and breadth of that data to personalize customer engagement for a better experience, more relevancy and continued growth.
- Think about your ROI. You can’t be everything to everyone, but with a little resource reallocation you can offer a wide range of benefits to all your customers. Prioritize your most popular rewards, but maintain a healthy balance of secondary perks depending on what interests your customers.
About the survey
PwC surveyed 410 executives across a range of consumer-facing companies between October 15 and November 22, 2022. Respondents in the online survey included C-suite officers, business owners, upper management, directors and corporate board members in the US. Roughly two-thirds (64%) of respondents have sole responsibility for business decisions on customer loyalty or customer retention, and one-third (36%) share influence with others regarding business decisions on loyalty or retention.
The PwC Customer Loyalty Executive Survey 2023 follows the PwC Customer Loyalty Survey of 4,036 consumers in the US in May 2022. Respondents in that online survey were adults 18 and older, with demographic weighting to achieve census representation on age, gender, race, US region, income, employment status and marital status.
{{filterContent.facetedTitle}}
{{contentList.loadingText}}
{{contentList.loadingText}}
Contact us
Follow us
