Benchmarking

In this article, we will cover:

• Overview
• Who can use Benchmarking
• Where to find your Benchmarking dashboard
• Reading your dashboard
  • Compare against and Period
  • Loyalty Health Score
  • Score pillars and Score trend
  • Your program vs. the benchmark portfolio
  • Diagnosis
  • Path from sign-up to reward redemption
  • Points economy
  • Comparison group profile
  • Where you sit in the group
• How the Loyalty Health Score is calculated
• The eight measures
  • Are your members buying?
  • Are they using the rewards and spending more?
• Where the benchmark data comes from
• Things to keep in mind

Overview

Benchmarking is part of Advanced Analytics, an add-on to TrueLoyal Rewards. It answers a question most loyalty teams get asked at some point: how is our program actually doing compared with others in our industry?

Your Benchmarking dashboard gives your program a Loyalty Health Score out of 100, shows eight measures side by side with a comparison group, and gives you short plain-English summaries that point to the area with the most room to grow. You can use it to put your program's results in context, decide where to focus your next campaign or test, and set realistic goals for your industry.

Please note that Benchmarking shows you where to look, but it doesn't decide for you. What you do with the results is down to you and your team.

Who can use Benchmarking

Benchmarking is available for TrueLoyal Rewards programs that have Advanced Analytics. To build a meaningful comparison, your program needs at least three months of history.

If you would like to add Advanced Analytics to your program, please reach out to your account team. Your Benchmarking dashboard is set up for you, so there is nothing you need to configure yourself.

Where to find your Benchmarking dashboard

Once Benchmarking is set up for your program, you can find it in the Admin Console.

1. Go to Analytics in the left-hand menu.
2. Click Dashboards.
3. Click your Benchmarks dashboard in the list.

The Last refreshed date at the top of the dashboard shows you when the data was last updated.

Reading your dashboard

Let's walk through the dashboard from top to bottom. The screenshots below use example data, so your own numbers will look different. Throughout the dashboard, pink always marks your program.

Compare against and Period

At the top of the dashboard there are two controls that change everything below them.

• Compare against: choose Similar to you to compare your program with programs in the same industry and of a similar size, or Industry leaders to compare with the top 25% of programs in your industry.
• Period: choose the time range you want to look at. The dashboard opens on the Last 12 months, and the exact dates are shown underneath.

You might find it useful to start with Similar to you, as it's the fairest comparison, and then switch to Industry leaders to see what the best programs in your industry are doing differently.

Loyalty Health Score

The Loyalty Health Score is a single score out of 100 that sums up how healthy your program is. The gauge shows your score, and the marker shows the comparison group you selected.

In this example, the program has a Loyalty Health Score of 71.2, while the comparison group sits at 58.2. A score of 70 or more puts a program in the top 25%, so this program is doing better than most similar programs. You can find out more about what the score means in How the Loyalty Health Score is calculated.

Score pillars and Score trend

Score pillars break your Loyalty Health Score down into its five parts: Activation, Momentum, Habit, Program engagement and Value. Each one is scored from 0 to 100, so you can see which parts are pulling your score up and which ones are holding it back.

Score trend shows how your Loyalty Health Score has changed month by month over the selected period.

In this example, Momentum (83) is the strongest part and Habit (58) is the weakest, so if this was your program, building regular buying habits would be the obvious place to focus next. The score has also climbed steadily over the last 12 months.

Your program vs. the benchmark portfolio

This table shows the eight measures behind your score. For each one you can see:

• You: your program's number.
• Portfolio Median: the middle of the comparison group.
• Typical Range (P25-P75): where the middle half of the comparison group falls. If your number is above the range, you're in the top 25% for that measure. If it's below the range, you're in the bottom 25%.

In this example, the program's repeat purchase rate is 58.2 against a median of 50.2 and a typical range of 48.8 to 52.3, so it's comfortably in the top 25%. Purchase frequency (6.2 against a median of 6.3) is right in the middle, which makes it the one area where this program is not ahead. You can find what each measure means in The eight measures.

Diagnosis

The Diagnosis panels are short plain-English summaries of what the numbers are telling you, including the area with the most room to grow. You'll find a few of them through the dashboard, each one summing up the section above it.

Path from sign-up to reward redemption

This funnel shows where members drop off between joining your program and redeeming a reward. It starts with all program members, then shows the share who made a purchase, returned for a second purchase and redeemed a reward.

The biggest drop between two stages is usually the best place to start. For example, if lots of members make a first purchase but few come back for a second, a welcome series or a second-purchase offer might be worth testing.

Points economy

Points economy shows how points are moving through your program over the selected period: Points Awarded, Points Redeemed, Points Expired and Available Points. If points are piling up unredeemed, it can be a sign that members aren't seeing enough value in your rewards.

Comparison group profile

This section tells you who you're being compared against, and it changes with the Compare against control at the top of the dashboard. It shows the comparison group's member share of revenue, median program size, annual loyalty-attributed revenue and average order value.

Where you sit in the group

These charts plot each program in the comparison group as a dot, so you can see exactly where your program sits for repeat purchase rate, points redemption rate and the Loyalty Health Score. Grey dots are programs similar to you, navy dots are industry leaders, and the pink dot is you.

Underneath these charts, the dashboard also lists the public loyalty programs used for your industry's benchmark. You can find out more in Where the benchmark data comes from.

How the Loyalty Health Score is calculated

Each of the eight measures gets its own score from 0 to 100, graded against a "poor" and a "great" benchmark for your industry. The measures are then grouped into five parts, and each part is weighted:

• Activation (25%): do members start buying?
• Momentum (25%): do they come back, and how fast?
• Habit (20%): do they keep buying regularly?
• Program engagement (20%): do they use the rewards?
• Value (10%): is spend per visit growing?

Activation and Momentum count the most, as getting members to start buying and come back is what matters most for a loyalty program.

So what does your score actually mean? You can use the following as a guide:

• Around 50: a typical program.
• 60 or more: better than most.
• 70 or more: top 25%.
• 80 or more: one of the best in your industry.

The eight measures

Are your members buying?

• Base activation: out of everyone who has ever joined, how many have bought anything at all.
• Active members: the share of your members who bought in the last 12 months.
• Repeat purchase rate: of the members who bought once, how many came back for a second purchase within a year. This is the single best predictor of long-term loyalty.
• Time to 2nd purchase: how quickly that second purchase happens, in days. This uses the median, so one unusual customer doesn't skew it.
• Purchase frequency: how many times a year a buying member shops with you. This is annualized, so programs of different ages can be compared fairly.

Are they using the rewards and spending more?

• Members redeeming points: the share of enrolled members who used a reward in the last 12 months. Members who redeem tend to come back more often and spend more.
• Points redemption rate: of all the points given out, how many were actually spent. A low number can mean rewards are piling up unused and members aren't seeing the value.
• Basket value trend (90d): whether the average purchase is growing over the last 90 days.

Where the benchmark data comes from

Benchmarking is built from figures that well-known loyalty programs publish themselves, grouped by industry. The dashboard lists the programs used for your industry under Calibration sources.

No TrueLoyal client data is used in the comparison, and your program is never compared with another TrueLoyal client.

Things to keep in mind

• Your program needs at least three months of history before it can be benchmarked.
• Benchmarking only includes companies that publish their own loyalty figures, so private companies aren't part of the comparison.
• Not every industry is covered yet. If you aren't sure whether your industry is included, please reach out to your account team.
• If you don't have a loyalty program running yet, there is nothing to compare, so Benchmarking won't be available until you do.
• Benchmarking shows you where to look. It doesn't create campaigns or make changes to your program for you.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding Benchmarking, please don't hesitate to contact Technical Support at support@trueloyal.com.