Engagement grows little by little, each time the customer has to actively think about and make a decision about the programme. In fact, although nearly 90% of shoppers in the US participate in rewards programmes to earn points, discounts or prizes, loyalty programmes alone are not yet fostering the kind of emotional connection that is needed to develop long term customer engagement.

Engagement is something that can only be built up over time, and it usually stems from mutually beneficial relationships between customers and brands. It could be argued that engagement comes not a result of a marketing campaign but from the full range of interactions between the customer and the brand, as well as brand-related interactions between customers and their peers.

The key to building a real sense of engagement is to provide the consumer with something of personal value that is timely, relevant, wanted, and preferably repeatable.

Our forthcoming report 'The Loyalty Guide 4' (to be published at the end of March) covers all of this in detail, with over 1,000 pages of solid loyalty marketing data, practice, and theory - everything you need to know in one global report. It explains customer loyalty and engagement, metrics, best practices, concepts, technologies, models and the latest tools and innovations. It's packed with detailed case studies, research, market sizes, forecasts, models, charts, illustrations, and materials to support new initiatives, presentations and proposals.

Fourteen key customer engagement insights and strategies...
In the report we explain why customer engagement is now seen by most marketing experts as the key to future survival, and how smart marketers are already rethinking the idea of customer engagement. Among the key insights covered in detail:

1. Insights into customer engagement
2. Insights into customer disengagement
3. Customer engagement techniques and tactics
4. Online customer engagement strategies
5. How to engage consumers the Web 2.0 way
6. New ways to look at digital customer engagement
7. Why a customer engagement strategy goes far beyond CRM
8. Why loyalty schemes must make a greater effort to engage customers
9. Why loyalty without commitment is no longer possible
10. The key benefits of having a customer engagement strategy
11. How to drive engagement with smarter loyalty rewards
12. The role of customer satisfaction in driving engagement
13. How customer dissatisfaction actively negates existing engagement
14. Why engagement metrics are critical to customer retention

Find out all about the principles, practicalities, measurement, analysis, and bottom-line effects of customer loyalty, and gain expert guidance from dozens of loyalty marketing thought-leaders worldwide. Find out how to gather and use customer data to increase customer profitability, reduce churn, and to monitor and increase customer frequency, spending, and share of wallet. Most importantly, find out where competitors are succeeding or failing, and why. The complete executive summary, table of contents, downloadable samples, pricing and ordering info are online now at http://www.theloyaltyguide.com

Until 31st March there's an 'early bird' discount of 10% when you reserve your copy in advance. Get one of the first copies available online, at http://www.theloyaltyguide.com/earlybird

The first new signing is ASK, a nationwide contemporary Italian restaurant chain. With the new focus on simplicity, programme members can simply hand over their Nectar card with their restaurant bill and the necessary number of points is immediately debited from their Nectar account toward...

With immediate effect, Virgin's frequent flyers can retain their Elevate points indefinitely, as long as they either earn or redeem points at least once every 18 months. (Previously, points expired 18 months from their date of earning.) Members can also now earn more points toward free flights by...

The study found that many marketers are missing valuable targeting opportunities and could even be putting some of their customers off due to 'data wastage' (the failure to make use of the different pieces of customer data that various parts of the company collects). In fact, despite...

With this in mind, we're asking your opinion in a confidential 5-minute survey with Aberdeen Group. And as a thank-you for taking part, you'll get the full findings report as soon as it's published... please click here to take the survey quickly now:

http://www.aberdeen.com/survey/0080_Cross-Channel-Loyalty

The findings of the survey will help you compare your loyalty performance with your peers, and gain better insights in how to achieve best-in-class results. Thanks again!

The online survey, commissioned by eGain Communications and conducted by YouGov, charted consumer sentiment toward customer service and identified factors that are changing consumer preferences and behaviour. In contrast to much previous research into the sector, the customer service experiences of telecom providers is...

The EEA is a coalition of companies, associations, and educators, and has announced two new initiatives to help companies understand, analyse, implement and measure engagement. The first initiative is the 'Enterprise Engagement Indicator' (EEI), which...

Until next week,

Pete Clark
Editor