Winner of the Management of Systems, Sustainability and Overall Minister of Excellence Award in the category for medium enterprises
More than meets the eye to giving cash back to loyal customers
Everyone knows that the more you know about your customers, the better you can deliver to them and the more they are likely to spend with you. In South Africa, customer loyalty programmes are hugely popular among companies wanting to understand – and hopefully influence – their customers’ purchasing behaviour.
So popular have loyalty programmes become that more than 70% of South Africans reportedly belong to at least one and some shoppers have nine or more loyalty cards in their wallets.
The thing is, it’s relatively easy for a chain store, bank or cell phone company to run a successful loyalty programme. But what do you if you sell something like cement?
“You give people cash back and you make it very, very easy for them to get the money,” says Talifhani Banks, Group CEO at AnalyticsX, which owns Analytics Advertising, a multiple tt100-award winner.
This is the essence of the loyalty programme, Sure Rewards, they have designed and are running for PPC Cement.
Let’s say a customer buys 50 bags of cement from a participating retailer. At the current cash-back rate of R1.50 a bag for PPC loyalty programme customers, that adds up to R75 in cash, which the customer receives within 24 hours, either paid directly into their bank account or via e-wallet for withdrawal.
The money comes in handy for small-scale builders and bricklayers, who often use it to buy essentials such as maizemeal and rice, Talifhani says.
The process from purchase to cashback payment is digital from beginning to end and very simple to use via a cell phone, tablet, laptop or other connected device.
Behind the simplicity is a complex but closely coordinated network of cloud, machine learning and data analytics technologies that manages the cash-back rewards, analyses customers’ purchasing behaviour and helps PPC to manage its stock levels and merchants.
It also involves a B2B partnership with First National Bank, which ensures that customers’ cash-back payments are processed and paid as soon as Analytics Advertising’s back-office has digitally captured and validated customers’ receipts for their bags of cement.
The same principles and processes reply to the work Talifhani and his teams do for other major corporates in manufacturing, mining and retail, not just in South Africa but also in Botswana and Zimbabwe.
A good idea, well executed and responsive, can go far.
Mr Talifhani Banks
Group CEO at AnalyticsX
