Building a Strategic B2B Loyalty Program
A longtime Arrowhead Promotion and Fulfillment client wanted to create a customer loyalty program for its automotive aftermarket division. With a focus on businesses such as repair shops, Arrowhead leveraged expert loyalty program management to build a solution tailored to this unique market—one that buys in bulk from distributors and re-sells products to consumers.
That alone greatly changed the scope of the program. The target audience was making high-value purchases. Any meaningful rewards program had to offer significant value incentives, sometimes quite large, and therefore expensive to warehouse and ship. Other challenges? Recipients could be in the U.S. or Canada – which created cross-border considerations. And, if not handled properly, this program could be ripe for fraud, with so many high-value prizes.
A Seamless B2B Loyalty Platform
Arrowhead created a B2B loyalty platform that can recognize millions of SKUs and collect massive amounts of data on the products purchased and the businesses buying them.
From the customer perspective, the platform offered a shopping cart-based structure, where customers could create their profile, then earn and spend points on a catalog of goods. Arrowhead helped our client benchmark how much points should be worth, so prizes earned reflected the amount of money customers were spending.
To prevent intentional and unintentional fraud, Arrowhead “fingerprinted” individual images of bills of sale, which could either be uploaded by a customer or the distributor. The system could then catch any copies that were uploaded, whether intentional or inadvertently. Arrowhead also gave the platform the ability to take in data whether it was an individual image manually entered by the customer, or automated, as is often the case with major accounts that make large and frequent purchases.
To achieve the scale our client was looking for, Arrowhead opted for procurement-on-demand. Only when the item is needed, is it procured and sent to the customer who earned it through point redemption. For Canadian customers, that includes sourcing items from a third party in Canada, to avoid customs and shipping costs. To offer the best customer care, Arrowhead provides the customer with a timeline for arrival, eliminating the inevitable inquiry, “When will my prize arrive?”
Outstanding Results with Loyalty Program Management
The client was most interested in engagement – customers returning to the site to see new prize inventory or check on their points and account balances. This B2B customer loyalty program has performed at all levels – participation was double the first-year target within the first six months of the program. A majority of users visit the site every two days, far exceeding industry norms. Through Arrowhead’s effective loyalty program management, the program’s success is evident in high engagement, driving even greater results over time.
Additionally, Arrowhead’s attention to detail in loyalty program management and customer care created a seamless experience for participants, ensuring satisfaction and continued program success.
