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Loyalty is not a common resolution to crisis situations, but it should be and likely will become, as organizations realize the immediate value of the customer information loyalty programs provide. In a crisis, such insights could make the difference between quarterly losses or gains.
“The only way they can restore their customers’ loyalty is having that data and maintaining that data and then responding to the consumer in any way possible to make amends,” said Britt Beemer, founder of America’s Research Group, a customer behavior firm that has performed research for at least 30 companies in crisis. “There are a lot of things you can do to win.”
Many companies rely on their PR teams to lift them from a public black eye, but fewer take full advantage of the resources that exist in their loyalty marketing teams. Indeed, rewards programs can often times be sub-optimized to enhance overall business results, be it in a crisis or day-to-day operations.
We spoke with several experts in crisis communications about how to use loyalty to regroup and recover from a potential public relations crisis. Following is their advice....
Several crisis communications experts share their advice on how to use a loyalty program to regroup and recover from a crisis. I wouldn't reach for my loyalty program first in a crisis but I'm open minded on using data to help. It seems insensitive to me to say "Sorry our food made you sick. Here's a free beef burrito!"