Operating a loyalty or incentive program without comprehensive reporting and analytics is much like flying in clouds without instruments. Effective reports enable program managers to track key program metrics, including level of participant engagement, incremental sales growth, performance vs. baseline and targets, and more.
Here are four types of standard reports that every loyalty & incentive program should have:
1. Participant Reports: Includes reports that track the number of participants or members who are active or inactive in the program. Often includes member count by tier (based on sales volume), tracking by registration source, member engagement (log-ins over time). Ideally participant reports include links that enable admins to drill down to view specific members.
2. Earning, Redemption & Liability Reports: Any point-based program requires a clear accounting of points earned, points redeemed, and point balance outstanding. Admin ideally have the ability to view point information by time period, by participating brand, by member status, and other filters. Redemption reports typically track overall redemptions (both points redeemed and item count) as well as redemptions by member, product type, and wholesaler. The ability to drill down to specific redemptions to view status, order number, number of items, and other redemption details is also critical.
3. Sales Reports: Reports should include information on purchases (and associated points) by time period, item, member, region, sales group, dealer (if applicable), member, and specific brand or SKU. Additional reporting can provide average sales per member. Similarly, promotional campaign reports track sales and points earned for specific promotions.
4. Communication Reports: Most programs have extensive email and/or direct mail campaigns associated with them. Communication reports track what was sent and to whom, as well as response (i.e., open, clicks, bounces, etc.). Additionally, customer service reports are often needed to track member inquiries, including inquires by source (contact us page, email, phone, etc.), inquiry reasons, and resolution status.
Ideally reports should be available in multiple formats, including dashboards, tables, graphs, and charts. Reports should include extensive use of filters (e.g., date ranges, included/excluded fields, other selection criteria) to enable customized output, and should include the ability to export report data to Excel spreadsheets, .csv files, data visualization programs, and other programs. Many reports should include the ability to compare current results to historical data (last month, last quarter, last year).
