Owned by Groupe Aeroplan, a Canadian publically listed company, Nectar Business was launched in 2005 as the first large-scale UK business-to-business loyalty programme. It allows small and medium-sized businesses to collect Nectar points on their business expenditures through a range of participating brands (sponsors).
Integrated agency The Crocodile has worked with Nectar Business for four years, helping the programme to use creative and effective marketing solutions to meet its business objectives.
Strategy: broader business challenges
Nectar Business allows collectors to collect Nectar points on their business expenditure with a range of great sponsor brands. Points can amass quickly but business oweners’ priorities mean they often have limited time to discover what their Nectar points can be spent on. Despite many collectors building up high points balances, not all of them take the opportunity to spend these points.
Nectar Business tracks general customer satisfaction throughout the year, but in this case undertook specific research to identify why these high-value collectors were not spending their points. The customer research highlighted that a key barrier to spending points in that small business owners are often “time-poor” and therefore don’t have the opportunity to search and select rewards to redeem.
If collectors do not spend points, they are not getting the true value of participating in a loyalty programme and potentially could become disengaged. Nectar Business has a key challenge to keep valuable collectors engaged by encouraging point redemption.
Objectives of the campaign
Make spending points even simpler: Time-poor small business owners can call and discuss any reward ideas with a helpful Nectar Business representative making it simple and quick to spend their points.
Excite collectors to spend points: Silver Service offers valued collectors a one-to-one personalised concierge reward service enabling them to spend their points on anything they would like. The campaign focused heavily on thinking of a dream reward to excite and engage customers to call and spend their points.
Keep collectors engaged with Nectar Business: Collectors that redeem their points for rewards are more engaged with the programme. By encouraging high-value collectors to spend their points through a hassle-free channel we are therefore also driving engagement.
When collectors spend points, they are experiencing the full benefits of their loyalty to the sponsors and the programme, and are more likely to continue to be engaged. Engaged collectors are good for the business as they are more active with sponsors, generating revenue. They also become advocates for the programme, creating strong positive word-of-mouth.
The target audience
Audience: Silver Service is targeted at collectors who have been active for over 6 months, with balances of more than 75,000 points.
Why this audience? Established collectors with high points balances deserve to be rewarded for their loyalty. This audience has shown to be “time poor” and was selected to ensure they experience the benefits and the value of their Nectar points, and remain engaged with the programme.
Collectors with a high points balance have by definition spent money with Nectar Business sponsor brands, and are therefore also valuable customers for these sponsors. It is important to the programme to keep these customers engaged. (See the Appended ‘NB Engagement Score’ document for full details)
Media, channels or techniques used
The November 2009 Silver Service campaign was sent as an eDM to around 2,800 high-value collectors. An additional 1,500 high-value collectors received a Silver Service direct mail. This split was based on collectors with and without email address.
Collectors call a dedicated telephone number and speak to a Silver Service representative, providing a one-to-one service for collectors to spend points with. The representative can also provide ideas and recommendations for how collectors can spend their points.
Silver Service offers collectors the opportunity to spend points on anything they like, including redeeming outside the current redemption partners available within the Nectar Business programme. Once the collector has decided what they would like to spend their points on, the Silver Service representative sources the reward at the best available price, and arranges for it to be delivered to the collector.
Silver Service meets the challenge to ensure spending points is hassle-free and easy. It achieves this by enabling collectors to discuss reward options, sourcing the reward for them, and delivering it directly to them, smoothly and quickly. It secures and strengthens the relationship between Nectar Business and its most valued customers.
Timescales of the campaign
Results
Response rate is a measurement of collectors who have spent their points and is key performance indicator of the campaign’s effectivenes. The campaign achieved strong results:
Results from email:
Among targeted collectors, the email delivered 80 per cent uplift in the number of collectors redeeming and 87 per cemt uplift in the number of points redeemed.
Results from direct mail:
Response 13 per cent
Among targeted collectors, the direct mail encouraged 192 per cent uplift in the number of collectors redeeming and 441 per cent uplift in the number of points redeemed.
Client testimonial
“The Silver Service campaign has allowed us to create a strong new kind of relationship with our most valuable collectors. By offering a very personal level of service, we have engaged, motivated and inspired these collectors to redeem their points” Amanda Auld, marketing manager, Nectar Business
