Deep-dive during Downtime

Use the current downturn as an opportunity to conduct research among your loyalty program participants. The downturn caused by Covid-19 and government efforts to contain the pandemic is set to continue for the foreseeable future for many industry sectors. But there are ways you can turn this downtime into an opportunity for your B2B loyalty and incentive program, even if your sales have taken a nose dive.

One such way is to focus your attention on conducting primary research among your program’s participants. The rationale is that a number of your channel partners will have more time on their hands right now to engage in a survey. Use this period of downtrading to take a deep-dive into their attitudes, choice preferences and motivations.

Indeed, at Motivforce, our clients’ program data is a rich repository of information enabling us to track the effectiveness of the program - for example sales per participant, correlations between learning, skills and sales; product sales and the status of which behaviours are being rewarded in the program. However, program data does not explain why these behaviours are occurring. So, that’s where primary research comes in.

Primary research in B2B loyalty and incentive programs typically takes the following three forms:

1.     Qualitative Research = focus groups and advisory forums

This is exploratory research and is used to gain an understanding of program participants’ underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations. It provides insights into the problem or helps to develop ideas or hypotheses for potential quantitative research. Qualitative research is also used to uncover trends in thought and opinions, and dive deeper into the problem. Collection methods vary using unstructured or semi-structured techniques. Some common methods include focus groups, individual interviews and participation or observations.  A popular structure for qualitative research in B2B loyalty and incentive programs is the creation of advisory forums where   core groups of participants regularly meet with the program sponsor to discuss strategy and tactics.

2.     Quantitative Research = data collection via surveys

This is used to quantify the problem by way of generating numerical data, or data that can be transformed into usable statistics. It is used to quantify attitudes, opinions, behaviours, and other defined variables and generalise results from a larger sample population. It uses measurable data to formulate facts and uncover patterns in research. Quantitative data collection methods are much more structured than qualitative research and include various forms of surveys. These could be conducted online, by paper, via post, on your mobile, by SMS, at a kiosk, check-out at point of sale, or by telephone. Quantitative research also includes longitudinal studies, website interceptors, online polls, and systematic observations.

3.     Experimental Design = testing a control group

This is an experiment where the researcher manipulates one variable, and controls or randomises the rest of the variables.  In some cases, the research has a control group and participants are often randomly assigned between the groups, and the researcher only tests one effect at a time. In B2B loyalty programs we often use experiments for choice modelling – in other words understating people’s choices based on price, points value, product efficacy, brand, redemption ease, communication frequency.

Use the results to finetune your program

Of course, research is only effective if you undertake a thorough analysis of the data and use the results to fine-tune your program with enhancements to drive a better level of engagement and a superior value proposition. Programs that do not undertake this process of renewal become stale and lose their effectiveness and levels of engagement.

A good example is Know Your IBM, a multi award-winning B2B incentive program that Motivforce has been operating for 20 years. Know Your IBM has evolved from being a small learn-only program to become IBM’s main sales and enablement tool fusing online learning, gamification, sales incentives, referrals and social badging in 132 countries. This process has been driven by an active research program, which is highlighted in the Motivforce method illustrated below: 

As you can see the ‘Monitor’ component, which incorporates data assessment, research and evaluation, is a critical element that feeds into Know Your IBM’s program design, strategy and operations and needs to be viewed as a continuous loop of review and fine-tuning.

For B2B loyalty programs to be truly successful, program managers need to view research as a regular process, so that they can adapt their programs to be more effective thus delivering a higher ROI.

Whilst a downturn in the market is something that we would all prefer not to have to experience, it does give you an opportunity to undertake in-depth research to ensure your program offering is as relevant as it can be to participants and channel partners.