Our poorly performing economy means many consumers will continue experiencing hardships and increasingly look for bargains and specials wherever they could find them. Loyalty programmes promoted by many companies will now become the focus, with consumers leaning more towards those offering more benefits without unnecessary limitations and hindrances.

But many companies are beginning to scale down offers on their loyalty programmes. Some now reduced the number of “points” consumers can accumulate on purchases, others have restricted places consumers could earn them from, others have introduced expiry dates to points already earned, while others are charging consumers a regular fee to sustain the programme. Whatever it is, many a loyalty programme are not what they used to be and consumers are voting with their feet. Small-businesses need to learn from this observation and ensure their growth isn’t stunted by regular customers’ dissatisfaction with not well-thought through incentive schemes. By Nimroth Gwetsa, 31 October 2019. Continue reading →