Loyalty program research that shows what your program really earns.

Loyalty program research tests whether a customer loyalty program, which rewards repeat customers through points, perks or personalized offers, changes what members buy enough to pay for itself. The research shows whether the program changes buying or only discounts purchases members would make anyway, and why some drift away. Nextyn builds each study from interviews and surveys with active, lapsed and non-member shoppers, and has researched shoppers in 85+ countries.

A Nextyn loyalty program study delivers three outputs: a program value assessment from the member's side, behavior change findings by member group, and a ranked list of churn barriers with priority fixes. Each output comes from primary research with members and non-members, adding the why behind the program's own transaction data:

• Value assessment: which benefits members notice, use and rate
• Behavior change: which member groups buy more frequently or spend more because of the program
• Churn barriers: why members disengage, ranked, with the fixes to make first

Together the outputs guide loyalty program design: which benefits to keep, change or drop.

Nextyn interviews four groups for loyalty program research: active members, lapsed members, shoppers who never joined, and members of rival programs in the same category. Each study matches the sample to the program, its member tiers and the markets in scope, using surveys and in-depth interviews:

• Active members, who show which benefits change their buying
• Lapsed members, who explain what made them stop
• Non-members, who show what keeps shoppers from joining
• Members of rival programs, who show what the competition offers that yours does not

Nextyn runs loyalty program research in the United States and Canada, among other markets, and the retail and CPG practice has researched shoppers in 85+ countries and 50+ languages. Markets are agreed at scoping, and a program that runs in several countries can be researched with the same questions in each, so member behavior compares like for like. Member groups and tiers are set with the client before fieldwork.

Nextyn recommends loyalty program research before a program relaunch, before benefits or point values are changed, or when membership is growing but sales per member are not. At those points the research separates benefits that change behavior from discounts on purchases members would make anyway. Nextyn sends a research plan within 48 hours of the brief, and the research also works before a program launches.

A Nextyn loyalty program research project runs in four steps, from brief to read-out, and nothing is commissioned until the client approves the plan. The client sees the sample, method and price before any fieldwork, and reads every interview with the Nextyn team at the end.

1. Submit the brief: the program, the member tiers and the decision the research must settle.
2. Receive a plan within 48 hours: who Nextyn will interview, how, and what the work costs.
3. Approve the plan: fieldwork starts only after sign-off.
4. Review the read-out: every interview read together, showing where active, lapsed and non-members agree, where they conflict and what is still open.

Nextyn sends a loyalty program research plan within 48 hours of receiving the brief, stating who will be interviewed, how, and what the work costs. The plan sets the fieldwork length for the member groups, tiers and markets in scope, so a single-market program review and a multi-country study each get their own timeline. Nothing is commissioned until the client approves the plan.

Nextyn's loyalty program research asks members and non-members why they buy, join and lapse, while program data records only what members did inside the program. Transaction data shows the pattern, and the research shows the reason behind it, including purchases made with rivals.