While they are important, as they give us control, structure, and accountability, they’ve made us believe loyalty is something we can engineer through transactions.
Most loyalty programmes I see today follow a familiar loop (almost with every programme, irrespective of the industry).
Brands need to understand that more communication doesn’t build loyalty, better judgement does.
Secondly, we often say loyalty is expensive, but I disagree now, because incentives are expensive and loyalty is cheap.
One question every brand with a loyalty programme needs to ask is, "If we removed rewards tomorrow, would our customers still stay?”If the answer is no, then I don’t think we’ve built loyalty; we’ve built a system.
In every leadership discussion there’s one question that keeps following me – "Are we really building loyalty or just paying customers to come back?”
For years, we’ve looked at loyalty through dashboards, repeat rates, redemption, incremental revenue and margins which I’ve built and reviewed myself. While they are important, as they give us control, structure, and accountability, they’ve made us believe loyalty is something we can engineer through transactions.
But if I think not as a loyalty practitioner but as a customer – I don’t go back to brands because of points; I go back because I trust them due to my experience with them. And that’s when it really hit me – loyalty is not first a metric; it's first a feeling.
Most loyalty programmes I see today follow a familiar loop (almost with every programme, irrespective of the industry).
Incentive → Purchase → Reward → Repeat
On paper it works; in reports it looks like success. But in reality, it’s fragile because the moment someone offers a better deal, the same customer moves. I’ve also seen it happen to me many times. Now that’s not loyalty, that’s incentive dependency.
Real loyalty, in my experience, follows a different path:
Experience → Emotion → Trust → Preference → Habit
When I think about brands I’m loyal to, three things stand out, and they’re surprisingly simple:
Ease
If something feels difficult, I disengage. If it’s seamless, I come back without thinking. I’ve realised that friction breaks loyalty faster than price ever does.
Empathy
Not in a buzzword sense but in a real understanding. Does the brand get what I’m trying to do and make my life easier, or do they make me repeat myself? Because knowing my data doesn’t impress me anymore, but understanding my intent does.
Consistency
I don’t expect perfection, but I do expect reliability, as good experience only builds interest; however, consistent experience builds trust.
The irony is that we have more customer data today than ever, yet brands understand it less. Often, we get irrelevant nudges, wrong messages, and perfectly personalised offers that mean nothing. This actually makes me think, are we really trying to help customers or just trying to reach them?
Brands need to understand that more communication doesn’t build loyalty, better judgement does.
For me, loyalty is no longer about giving customers a reason to transact – it's about giving them confidence to stay.
And I’ve started looking at it through a simple lens:
Do customers feel recognised – not as IDs, but as individuals?
Are we reducing their effort – or adding to it?
Are we solving before they ask – or reacting after they complain?
Because the moments that build loyalty are rarely the obvious ones, they’re the ones where the customer found it easy.
Secondly, we often say loyalty is expensive, but I disagree now, because incentives are expensive and loyalty is cheap.
If we constantly need to give something away to retain customers, then maybe the real question is, 'What are we not fixing that customers need to be compensated for?'
One question every brand with a loyalty programme needs to ask is, "If we removed rewards tomorrow, would our customers still stay?”
If the answer is no, then I don’t think we’ve built loyalty; we’ve built a system.
Loyalty is not about giving customers a reason to come back; it's about making sure they never feel the need to look elsewhere.
(Dilpreet Singh is the Head of Loyalty, CRM & Partnerships at ITC Hotels. A certified Loyalty Marketing professional, Dilpreet has led impactful strategies at leading brands including Oberoi Hotels & Resorts, Jubilant Food Works, and American Express.)
