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What no-code website personalization can do for high-growth brands
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Building meaningful customer connections and lasting loyalty has never been more complex—driven by AI, rapidly increasing consumer expectations and what seems like a million digital channels (you get the picture)—but our main priority never changes: to improve customer satisfaction.
So, let’s get back to basics and talk about customer loyalty and retention strategies. These tactics can save marketers a lot of time and money but can sometimes be overlooked. When brands get customer retention right, they create stronger customer loyalty that is personable and profitable.
Customer retention is how you keep your customer base loyal to your brand, influencing repeat purchases and maximizing customer lifetime value. Companies with high customer retention rates offer enough value to customers for the price that they don’t feel the need to stray.
According to a Gartner survey, “How Service Leaders Can Increase Customer Loyalty,” if customers receive value during a service interaction, there is an 82% probability of repurchase or renewal when presented the chance to switch and 86% probability of increasing wallet share.
This is a huge opportunity for marketers. It's extremely lucrative to nurture relationships with existing customers who know your brand, are already interested in your products or services and will repeat purchases at a lower cost. It also can significantly boost customer satisfaction.
The best method when it comes to retaining customers is knowing your audience, and it all starts with data. Data is one of the most valuable resources in your arsenal. Having the right data simplifies processes and reduces friction in the customer journey and can significantly improve satisfaction and retention.
The proliferation of access to first-party data (from website visits, emails, mobile apps and social interactions) allows marketers to really understand their customers, helping to assess customer satisfaction—guiding customer retention marketing while complementing customer acquisition efforts.
Marketers can (like people’s interests, preferred travel locations, hobbies or basic demographics) for a holistic customer profile they can use to engage existing customers online and offline, driving emotional connections that boost brand affinity.
Investing in a loyalty provider with a solid data foundation allows you to easily maintain ongoing, person-first communication in many ways. It helps quickly resolve customer issues in ways that can significantly enhance customer satisfaction and retention for your brand.
The right data helps you understand your customers on a deeper level and respond to real-time signals and changing preferences with care. Regularly asking for feedback and creating customer feedback loops demonstrates that you value your customer's opinions, while identifying warning signs of churn in high-risk accounts. This allows brands to take preventive measures to retain customers.
When marketers use data and insights to lead their customer retention marketing, they’re taking steps to ensure authentic, value-based interactions seamlessly unfold across all touchpoints.
When leading U.S. rural lifestyle retailer Tractor Supply Company sought to better understand the customer journey, it took a data-driven approach. By making key enhancements to tiers and rewards thresholds, Tractor Supply effectively personalized offers and created stronger brand affinity.
“Listening to the customer and our team members makes a tremendous impact on the business, and now when you go in the stores, you hear customers tell us every single day how much they appreciate and like the program,” Tenzer said. “Look at the data and find ways to make [the program] easier and more rewarding for the customers first, then the insights flow and the profits follow.”
Neighbor’s Club, its loyalty program powered by Epsilon, reached $11B+ in sales and a 75%+ retention rate, representing more than three-quarters of sales for the company.
People do not exist in one place. We shop in-store, we browse on our phones, we watch TV, and we consume marketing and advertising across multiple spaces. According to McKinsey, getting omnichannel personalization right can increase revenue by 5% to 15% across a brand’s customer base.
This can be as simple as creating messaging and campaigns that speak to the right people with products and services that they actually need and want. According to Epsilon research, “The push and pull of personalization,” 91% of consumers surveyed said they see at least one irrelevant ad every single day, and 76% of respondents said they view brands negatively when they include inaccurate information about them in their advertising and marketing.
Brands that successfully deliver consistent, personalized experiences to retain customers and build brand loyalty, start with a retention marketing strategy that maps the customer journey, then connects with existing customers across all channels seamlessly (apps, mobile wallets, web, online and offline). Segmenting customers by lifecycle stage, tier and usage patterns helps tailor retention and engagement efforts, reducing churn and increasing long-term brand loyalty.
That way, you’re meeting the customer where they are and reaching them with content and incentives that actually engage them. This is because an omnichannel strategy goes beyond transactional, one-dimensional discounts to instead offer personal customer experiences.
A place to start? Understanding the power of identity resolution and a connected tech stack. Mastering omnichannel marketing requires interconnectivity.
Since 2013, Dunkin’ entrusted Epsilon with its most loyal customers. Dunkin' Rewards®, its loyalty program, now has 24 million members that drive 20 million+ real-time transactions per day. This program uses an omnichannel approach to create personalized experiences, including agile mail and in-app content, 1:1 messages in loyalty statements, push notifications, mobile ordering and more.
Customers who feel an emotional connection to a brand are far more valuable. Research shows that emotional decisions are often stickier than rational ones, and according to Gallup, 70% of consumer decisions—including brand preference—are driven by emotions.
One of the key ways to improve customer engagement and boost customer retention is relationship building. And you can take it one step further by creating emotional, trustworthy connections. This means balancing the right value exchange between your brand and your customers.
Customers need a mix of emotional incentives (soft benefits that provide emotional value, like exclusive access, privileges, etc.) and rational incentives (hard benefits that provide tangible value, like discounts) to maintain their relationship with you and ultimately, spend their money.
Great customer retention, like a loyalty program, can develop those deeper connections both emotionally and rationally. Strong customer retention programs can increase customer lifetime value while reducing customer acquisition costs using tactics like:
Essentially, making retention programs valuable means thinking about the full customer journey. Creating a strong onboarding experience sets the tone for the entire consumer-brand relationship. Tracking the right customer metrics, beyond retention rate, helps measure satisfaction, loyalty and customer lifetime value. Lastly, creating community advocacy and referral loops turns satisfied customers into promoters, strengthening brand loyalty and lowering acquisition costs.
A leading CPG brand wanted to transform its loyalty program to enhance the value exchange for its customers and attract new ones. By adopting a data-first approach, the brand overhauled its loyalty program, deepened customer relationships and enhanced its rewards. That resulted in a 200% increase in daily registrations and achieved its 100% base registration goal in four months.
Truly progressive brands have evolved to look at existing and new customers through a loyalty lens—not only those who are enrolled in their loyalty program. These innovators create true brand loyalty by using customer retention strategies and tactics rather than relying solely on discrete programs. Because these programs are rooted in solid customer retention marketing efforts, they create meaningful customer experiences, inspire passion and trust and build long-term relationships.
Emotional connections then serve as the stepping stone to matriculate customers into a permission-based customer loyalty program. From there, the brand can glean the data and insights to deepen the relationship and deliver more personalized experiences that inspire a share of life, share of wallet, time and heart from your customers. Plus, people can feel confident that their privacy and preferences are being respected, which will keep them coming back. Customer retention, check!
No matter the size of your program, Epsilon Loyalty will help you retain customers by delivering a unique, memorable marketing experience. With data at the core, Epsilon Loyalty goes beyond point-based programs to deepen customer relationships and seamlessly boost customer acquisition through relevant experiences.
Don’t take our word for it. Epsilon was named a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Loyalty Platforms, Q4 2025.
This article was originally published on August 12, 2024, and has since been updated.
