5 Pros and Cons of B2B Loyalty Programs

Customer loyalty programs are being used more and more each day. As the world is moving to more digital means of doing business, B2B and B2C Loyalty programs find new brands and companies that are willing to use them, and they are not wrong in doing so. These programs create win-win situations for both businesses and customers. Meanwhile, businesses gain long-term customers who may become evangelists, customers gain rewards for their dedication in consuming the products. They are also a great way for companies to step up their game, which keeps the market fresh. In this article, we will list 5 pros and cons of B2B Loyalty programs.

Pros of B2B Loyalty Programs

Retaining Customers

This could be either side of the coin for businesses, as retaining customers can be one of the pros and cons of B2B loyalty depending on their business approach. But generally speaking, it is rarely a downside. Loyalty programs are, as the name suggests, about customer loyalty. While it is important for you to find new groups of customers, it is also very important that you don’t lose your existing pool of customers. Retaining your customers creates a level of consistency, which generates an average amount of sales over the time. This means that once you put out a product, there will already be a considerable number of customers who will want to purchase your product.

Aside from that, retaining customers is also more cost-effective than gaining new customers each time you put your product out. Not to mention, customers who become evangelists for your brand will also help you with putting the word out, meaning they will be promoting your brand as well.

Keeping the Customer Interested

This next entry on our pros and cons of B2B loyalty programs list ties with the first one. Once you create a pool of loyal customers of your brand, it is also another thing to keep them interested in your product. But how can you do that? B2B loyalty programs offer various methods of keeping your customer interested. For example, rewards programs, such as Apex Loyalty’s built-in rewards system, allow your brand to give back to the community for their dedication. This is also a great way to increase the consumerism of your customers.

Connecting with Customers

This is perhaps one of the first things one can think of when they hear pros and cons of B2B loyalty programs. One of the key aspects of customer relations is keeping the communication alive and well between the brand and the customer. This is why loyalty programs that include built-in communication tools such as a help desk or a helper bot are in demand right now. Through omnichannel tools, you can also do many things from keeping your customers up to date about your latest news to helping them with their questions regarding your services.

Extracting Customer Data

When we are talking about the pros and cons of B2B loyalty programs, brands tend to focus on this factor primarily. Understandably so, as numbers and data are everything for a brand to understand where it stands. But from a loyalty standpoint, it is important because it allows your brand to know who your customers are. Lucky for you, B2B loyalty programs can help you with that by extracting user data. This way, you can plan out your future strategies accordingly as well.

Customer Segmentation

This is often an overlooked aspect of the pros and cons of B2B loyalty programs. While some of your customers may be loyal, some may just be regular shoppers. B2B loyalty programs that allow customer segmentation, such as Apex Loyalty, lets companies sort out their customers into specific groups, however they like. This will also help with the future strategies.

Cons of B2B Loyalty Programs

Change in Behavior

This is a fact that scares most companies. While loyalty programs create loyal customers, customer loyalty can change over time. While this may or may not be the company’s fault, as outside contributions, market competition, or simply no longer needing the product can affect your customers’ consuming habits; it should always be kept in mind that this is still a very real possibility. 

Impacts on Profit

This next entry on our pros and cons of the B2B loyalty list is not so much about the programs themselves, but rather the effects of the loyalty. B2B loyalty features, especially rewards systems, can have an impact on your profits. How? Let us show a small example. 

Let’s say you have a product that you sell for $10. Typically, $8 out of the $10 covers the production fees, while the remaining $2 is your profits. Unless you balance out your reward systems, such as discounts and giveaways, you will not be making any profits at all.

Wrong Choice Program

This could be at either end of any pros and cons of the B2B loyalty programs list, but we prefer to put it on the cons. As Apex Loyalty, we know how competitive the B2B loyalty market can be, that is why we value innovation and customer feedback. But as such, it is possible that if you happen to choose the wrong B2B loyalty program, you will be missing out on some of the exciting features that will definitely help your company’s growth.

Limitations

While we mentioned that customer data extraction is a huge plus in using these programs, it should always be kept in mind that you most likely will be getting your own customers’ data. While this may not sound like a bad thing, being limited to your own data means that you will be abstained from knowing about your competitions’ customer data. 

Managing the Platform

Managing a B2B loyalty platform takes time and effort. This comes as no surprise, as this is a venture into marketing as well. But, understandably so, some companies don’t want to take this risk and opt for more traditional means of marketing and marketing tools.

In this article, we listed 5 pros and cons of B2B loyalty programs. If you want to know more, please visit https://www.apexloyalty.com/what-are-best-examples-of-loyalty-programs-who-use-social-media/