The Rise of
Micro Rewards
You’ve heard of the jet-setting
rewards, the big showy incentives
and the treats that big business
use but what’s available to the
time-poor or cash-strapped SME?
Introducing the biggest trend in
rewards – Micro Rewards.
These are the bite-sized ways to
say ‘Thank You’ that don’t take
chunks out of your budget. They
come with with smart analytical
packages that pinpoint ROI where
you need it most and smart,
millennial proof delivery options.
We caught up with Jill Goldworn,
co-founder of the company
behind the SaaS enterprise level
platform, thefirstclub.com, the
leading worldwide B2B digital
Thank You Company so you can
see if Micro Rewards are right for
you.
What are Micro Rewards?
Micro Rewards are low cost,
high value, snackable rewards
allowing brands to say thank you
easily and often to anyone. New
customers can be rewarded with
an instant download from the
first purchase and high valued
customers can be engaged
throughout the relationship
with ’surprise and delight’ digital
rewards based on brand goals.
What types of business utilise
micro rewards?
We have clients such as Wells
Fargo Bank and InterContinental
Hotels Group who use us to
offer millions of choices of
music, movies, games, eBooks
and eMagazines integrated into
their respective loyalty program
redemption choices. Other
clients such as FedEx use them
to say thank you for completing
surveys, watching videos or
as an anniversary bonus; and
yet others who understand
that Customer Service is not a
department but an attitude, use
them to reward customer service
operators in call centers to
encourage desired resolution of
customer queries.
What have traditional rewards
platforms overlooked?
One of the primary reasons
people are not active in the
loyalty programs they join is it
takes too long to earn rewards
and brands tend to focus on the
most valuable 20% of members.
So what’s needed are strategies
to help a new member embark
on the journey to become a
most valued member. We help
by using digital entertainment
to reward social media activity,
gamification by giving random
rewards and because our solution
allows for redemption from the
first purchase it’s a strong driver
to hook a customer early and
keep them active. Members in
programs using our digital reward
solution come back to the site an
average of 17 times per year to
redeem rewards thus spending
more and having that brand
become part of their everyday
lives and growing into a high
value member.
What problems do you see in
the reward and loyalty space?
We launched thefirstclub.com in
2009 to fit a need for Lightspeed
Research, a company who wanted
to offer digital downloads as an
incentive to inspire consumers to
complete surveys. They had tried
high end rewards, but as in most
programs it takes the average
user 2.5-3 years to earn enough
points for a $300 airline reward,
and a high value user between 9
and 18 months, so they suffered
with a high degree of churn. With
instant digital downloads their
customer could be rewarded
from the first survey and so the
number of surveys completed
rose by a dramatic 50%. Over
time we migrated clients
12 | www.incentiveandmotivation.com
previously
using physical
rewards to
adopt digital
and added many
more categories
to the site to
encourage
repeat visits.
Now with the
rise of mobile
usage for purchasing,
reward redemption
and researching the
competition becoming
ubiquitous, it is even more
important for brands to
institute engagement strategies
to reward the customer from the
very first purchase and nothing
does that better than instant
Micro Rewards.
What trends are you seeing
in the space?
Nothing does better than
entertainment content. Music
is still the most popular choice
followed evenly by the top-selling
PC games, streaming movies
and current eMag s. One of the
important drivers is choice, from
using the latest content releases
from all the major labels to excite
the millennials and the classics
for the baby boomers. We share
redemption data with the brands,
allowing them to understand
their customer’s passions to
build on this and suggest more
targeted offers.
Where are your energies going
and what’s next for you?
We are focused on the release of
an improved interface which will
provide a more holistic view of
user data and are looking at the
implementation of AI features to
recommend the most suitable
rewards based on customer
desires!
See more at www.thefirstclub.com