Your 7-point Checklist: How Enterprise Brands Choose Loyalty Platform Providers

4 minute read

Why loyalty marketing is getting more attention

Statista calculated that the global loyalty management market will be worth 5.57 billion U.S. dollars in 2022. Market studies anticipate the loyalty management ecosystem’s size exceeding $24 billion by 2029, propelled by a 23.5% CAGR.

As economic headwinds rise, loyalty programs emerge as a lifeline for companies to retain customers, drive growth, and weather the storm. This has given impetus to the growing number of loyalty marketing vendors and partners worldwide.

Increased difficulty in selecting a loyalty platform vendor

With various vendors to choose from, it has become increasingly difficult to select the right one for your business, especially when you’re a large-scale enterprise and a seasoned player. Established businesses already have a strong foothold and a large customer base to work with. Large-scale businesses demand bespoke loyalty solutions due to size, customer expectations, and competitive pressures. Advanced experience vendors are essential for success.

To help you out in your search for a good loyalty partner, we’ve created a loyalty partner checklist especially designed for large-scale enterprises.

#1 A loyalty software provider that creates customized solutions (vs commoditized)

Market giants with established identities need a configurable loyalty solution that reflect their unique brand DNA. Your loyalty program needs to reflect your brand identity. It should seem like an extension of your marketing strategy that focuses on improving your customer experience.

An experienced loyalty provider understands this and partners to design brand-aligned strategies that deliver both marketing and business objectives. A competent and results-oriented loyalty partner will analyze your customer behavior and preference and design programs that appeal to their taste.

#2 A loyalty partner who’s committed to privacy

To keep up with the changing times and to become a part of the global data privacy movement, you need to have loyalty vendors and partners that are good stewards of customer data. With Google phasing out third-party cookies, loyalty and referral programs have emerged as a popular medium to collect zero- and first-party data.

With the help of a competent loyalty partner that adheres to global data privacy laws you can safely, legally and ethically collect customer data and even design customized programs that yield a higher ROI.

#3 A loyalty partner that has gold standards in security and compliance

Security and compliance are non-negotiable, especially when it comes to online businesses. The bigger the enterprise, the larger the customer base; and for such businesses top-level security and compliance is imperative.

Large-scale enterprise brands need a loyalty platform that’s proactive rather than reactive to emerging security issues. Your chosen loyalty partner or vendor must have detailed operating policies, procedures and processes and SOC security and compliance standards. Compliance to SOC security standards means the vendor fully meets the established security criteria and is competent to prevent unauthorized access to data.

#4 A loyalty software partner that thinks beyond legacy architecture

Although having a tangible and expansive legacy infrastructure is necessary, in today’s world it simply isn’t enough. The loyalty vendor you choose to partner with needs to have robust and advanced digital architecture in place besides its data center infrastructure.

Cloud-based infrastructure that’s fully equipped to recover data and restore service in the case of a disruption is what you need. Your chosen vendor also needs to have an expert team to ensure smooth operations 24×7.

# 5 A loyalty platform that gives you access to monitor status and system health

An experienced and efficient loyalty provider should oversee and monitor system health and status but it’s a good practice for you to periodically, if not regularly, check on the system. It’ll keep you abreast of the performance and even identify any potential issues. Requesting access to monitor status and system health is a standard course for preventative maintenance, leaving no room for discrepancies.

#6 A loyalty software partner that ensures a quick and efficient launch process

To ensure a smooth and seamless customer experience, you need vendors that follow proven processes to ensure smooth implementation. This includes integrating your loyalty program platform with other technologies like eCommerce, payments and even customer experience platforms. Running a loyalty program in isolation, that’s completely disconnected with other applications and programs, may not yield desired results. To maximize the potential of your loyalty strategies, focusing on integrations is a must. A vendor that provides you with the technology and the bandwidth to integrate your loyalty and referral program is the right choice for your brand.

#7 A loyalty software provider that offers robust APIs for implementation ease

One of the prime characteristics of a good loyalty program is customization. A rich set of APIs can help you build custom extensions and offer various features to your customers for enhanced customer experience. Your loyalty platform must be robust and dynamic to incorporate custom extensions. With the help of your loyalty partner’s expertise, you should be able to incorporate custom extensions in your loyalty marketing platform.

Why enterprise brands work with Annex Cloud

We reviewed many other solutions and [Annex Cloud] was the best. Their team is very responsive and helpful. We use their loyalty program, reviews & marketing tools. Overall: Higher retention. Easy implementation.

WS. S
COO

(Source: Capterra)

With a strong presence across the globe, Annex Cloud has more than a decade of experience in delivering results-driven, high-performance loyalty strategies and platforms to large and medium scale enterprises. Annex Cloud has the approval stamp, not only from our clients but from industry leading analysts and has emerged as a dominant name in the loyalty industry.

Annex Cloud’s commitment to data privacy, security and compliance leaves no room for common disruptions and discrepancies. Our cloud-based infrastructure is designed to be highly efficient and configurable, exactly what global enterprises need. With Annex Cloud’s next-gen capabilities and 125-plus integrations, loyalty sits at the heart of your tech stack enabling you to deliver the omnichannel experiences your customers expect.

For more details on choosing the right loyalty vendor, read our full guide. Contact us to explore how you can leverage our SaaS-based loyalty solution to improve your customer experience and drive better engagement, revenue and loyalty.

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