changes to credit card loyalty program boosts customer engagement

situation

Almost a decade ago, the Automotive Finance and Indirect Lending group of a major Canadian bank asked Maritz to help them increase their market share with Business Managers at automotive dealerships. They needed a way to stand out from their competition and motivate Dealers to bring more of their customers’ financing deals to them.

solution

To help the bank achieve those aims, we built their Dealer Finance Rewards Program on our Loyalty platform. The program was an industry first. It’s available to every Dealer in Canada who is authorized to submit indirect loan applications to the Bank. The Dealer receives points for every qualifying deal submitted, and can then go to the website to redeem those points for a wide range of merchandise, gift certificates, travel and experiential rewards. As well as managing and hosting the participant website and handling all program-related questions from Dealers, Maritz also hosts a companion site where their Sales Representatives can monitor Dealer performance and program effectiveness. We handle rewards selection and fulfillment on our client’s behalf, manage and update the participant website. To motivate Dealers to participate, we send them a monthly electronic statement/newsletter, with each issue themed to highlight fresh rewards, special promotions, and points account information. We also manage and execute an annual awards and recognition event for the bank’s Sales Representatives.

results

• This highly effective program has helped the bank to meet or exceed their annual targets for the last 9 consecutive years
• At any given time, there are over 2,700 Dealers taking part…and 30% of this group finance 80-100% of their deals through the bank
• 77% of Dealers surveyed are “Very” or “Extremely satisfied” with the program
• 88% report that it does motivate them to submit deals to the bank
• The Dealer Finance Rewards Program keeps the brand top of mind for automotive Dealers... and, in the process, helps the bank increase its share of business from this important sales channel