Navigating Member Loyalty: Singapore's Innovative Approach and the Global Implications

Loyalty programs continue to play a growing role in tailoring the relationship between businesses and customers. After all, many in today’s complex world of many options want choices that are not just transactional, but built on what they perceive as special links.

Singapore's Loyalty Landscape: Navigating the Path to Customer Loyalty

This is particularly on the rise in Asia. Asian markets have proven to be innovators in crafting relationships with customers that keep them coming back. Singapore proves one such example, especially concerning how special rewards don’t just serve as one-off deals.

The loyalty market in Singapore is expected to see remarkable growth in the coming years. In particular, the loyalty market is expected to go from 475.8 million USD in 2022 to reach 832.9 million USD by 2027¹. How has the loyalty market close to doubled, then?

The secret to Singapore’s successes can be found in looking at the products and brands that have successfully made use of loyalty programs. The Green Party and Better Vision, for example, have opened the door to consumers joining by offering vouchers for new members, then working on maintaining relationships once customers have signed up.

Bose and Nimisski are examples of brands that have used tiered membership to structure relationships with customers. This can offer incentives for growing and further developing relationships, as well as structuring relationships according to need and desires.

Nimisski and Mobilestop, likewise, personalize relations with customers with special rewards for customers' birthdays. This highlights how it is important to have data on your customers to manage your reward system, in customizing it to them individually, This is how you build special relationships with your customers.

The Role of Data in Crafting Meaningful Customer Relationships

Indeed, one of the benefits of loyalty programs for businesses is to be able to gather data on your customers. This can allow you to refine your business, or otherwise be able to better understand your market.

Singapore offers many models you can take inspiration from or otherwise learn from. Or perhaps one can consider entering the Singapore market yourself! Certainly, there is still room for innovation in what is already a very innovative place.

Still, one has to be careful with how one handles this aspect of customer loyalty programs. In an age of big data, as gathered through social media, and in which algorithms can model predictive behavior to take advantage of customers, customers are wary that businesses want to know more about them simply to sell their private information. And, certainly, there are many customer loyalty programs that do just that.

Harnessing Customer Surveys for Ethical Engagement

Customer surveys, and reward systems based on that, are one way of finding a balance. In this way, customers only offer the information that they are willing to offer.

Likewise, there are many forms of customer surveys. There are online surveys that are carried out from a distance, in-store surveys, telephone surveys, and focus groups. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. In-store surveys allow for more refined inquiries in targeting people who are already in a store, for example. Telephone surveys may lead to an older sample size, in that many young people only own cell phones, and may not pick up calls from strangers.

But the wide reach one can have through the internet offers many possibilities. After all, one can connect with a number of potential customers that one could not otherwise. Though, as the Singaporean example shows, one can operate in specific markets and tailor one’s approaches to those markets, the internet has made it possible to operate across significant distances and across borders. To this extent, gaining knowledge of one market can allow for a clearer understanding of other markets by comparison, and one can research specific markets through the internet by limiting to certain demographics. The sky's the limit!

*1 Data resource: https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2023/07/26/2711111/0/en/Data-Driven-Analysis-Reveals-Singapore-s-Loyalty-Market-Trends-and-Future-Growth-Dynamics.html

To learn more about how you can monetize your loyalty program, get in touch with our consultants today!