A couple of years ago, the company decided to launch a new digital endeavour in the form of the Beauty Insider Community, a member-only platform tied to the brand’s complimentary loyalty program. Holiday Shopping Advice Thread: What’s in your basket? When customers know they can choose their own rewards, they’re much more likely to pursue them because they become infinitely more personal. These types of frustrations quickly add up to create an extremely demotivating rewards experience. Choosing filter will automatically update the posts that are displayed to match the selected sorting option. In order to understand what this looks like, let’s look at each of their biggest program changes and examine what it means for their brand community. Go. Make your customers smile with tips on rewards programs, customer retention, and commerce in general. This is what makes this program change so devastating. Member. What customers love most about Charlie Hustle is the feeling of community that is intrinsically displayed in every t-shirt. Beauty Insider and VIB Rouge reward programs. With the new Beauty Insider and VIB Rouge structure, VIB members are now able to earn 1.25 points for every $1 spent, while Rouge members earn points at an even faster rate of 1.5 per dollar spent. Sephora is widely regarded as one of the best brand communities in the world. While it’s not uncommon to restrict customers to one reward per transaction, this reward is being promoted as a gift card — a perk that traditionally can be used like cash and combined with other offers. However, in August 2018 they announced a number of significant program changes that would impact virtually every aspect of their world-class experience. Instead, any Sephora member who is or becomes a VIB or Rouge member can choose from one of three benefits for the rest of the year: A one-time gift of bonus points (750 for Rouge, 500 for VIB), Shareable makeovers (4 for Rouge, 2 for VIB), Free shipping for a year (2 day flash for Rouge, free over $35 for VIB). Much like the accelerated points structure, this looks fantastic until you consider what this means for Sephora’s brand advocates. As a result, they’ve been held up as an example of what an effective loyalty program looks like. In these ways, they’re cheapening the feeling of being appreciated and creating a highly transactional experience directly at odds with Sephora’s previous VIP experience. Unfortunately, a quick search online returned lots of negative feedback all saying the same thing: the rewards are simply not worth it. Even though Sephora proudly boasts a selection of full size product rewards available exclusively for their best customers, these members seem less than thrilled with the quality of the products themselves and have reported significant limited quantities for these new rewards. Stains. Paris-based personal care and beauty chain Sephora owns almost 300 brands, many of which are sold all over the world. As a result, they’ve been held up as an example of what an effective loyalty program looks like. Open to members of every tier of their program, the Rewards Bazaar is where customers can redeem their points for a wide variety of experiences and rewards. Rouge Rewards are another new perk added to the Bazaar and are only available to members who have achieved Rouge status. Sticks. Stay up to date on the latest products, brands, and features available at Sephora. Sephora’s greatest strengths were always building emotional relationships, encouraging customer connections, and delivering a luxury experience. Monthly Favorites: November 2020 Edition! With many changes already in place and several more expected throughout the year, Sephora’s program revamp has significantly damaged the foundation of their brand community. These changes — regardless of how big they are — makes customers feel like they’re being robbed of benefits they had in the past, damaging the way they see their role in Sephora’s brand community. By requiring their members to be glued to the Rewards Bazaar every week in order to actually get what they’re after, Sephora has turned their rewards into a lottery instead of something truly valuable customers want to experience. These conditions make it difficult for customers to redeem their Rouge Rewards for higher value items they might really want, and restrict them to products that don’t really feel like rewards. Much like the additions to the Rewards Bazaar, Beauty Insider members will now be given the same products as upper tier members, skyrocketing them into a rewards “price point” they didn’t actually pay for. By making more of these exclusive benefits available to all customers, they’re cheapening the value of being a VIB or Rouge member, making it infinitely less desirable. As Sephora’s most loyal customers, they should be treated to additional benefits, not forced to choose between them. With Sephora’s new program changes, this delightful reward changes dramatically — especially for VIB and Rouge customers. These negative associations and feelings will stop them from sharing their positive experiences with others, and force new customers to think twice before joining. 2576. For 2,500 points, customers can redeem a $100 coupon that they can use on their next purchase. Until now, Sephora’s greatest strength has been delivering a personalized beauty experience. Choosing filter will automatically update the posts that are displayed to match the selected filter option. Sephora’s birthday rewards are arguably one of their loyalty program’s best perks. While many of these changes were requested by their customers, there has been a lot of backlash that clearly indicates a negative impact on Sephora’s best brand advocates. By negatively impacting their top tier experiences, they have made it more difficult to motivate customers to strive for the VIB and Rouge levels, handicapping their ability to grow their community even further. The ripple effect of Sephora’s Beauty Insider and VIB Rouge changes is an excellent example of why you need to properly consider the implications of customer feedback before incorporating it into your brand community. With their Beauty Insider and VIB Rouge reward programs, they’ve built an international community of customers who all value luxury cosmetics experiences. custom-sephora-footer-social-link.text-07. You're in good company. Every year, members look forward to a small bonus gift on their birthday, with VIB and Rouge members getting to choose between two different products. A brand community doesn’t have to have members across the globe to be successful--sometimes keeping it local helps you score big. Their custom makeovers perk was a huge contributing factor. The reality is that your customers’ motivations are constantly changing, and as a result they don’t always know what they want or what is actually best for their experience with your brand. *Heart eyes emoji*. Glosses. While it’s admirable to want to deliver a great experience to every customer, in the end their attempt to appeal to more customers cheapens their greatest community attraction: exclusivity. Join groups to discover content tailored to your interests. Many other successful beauty programs (including Ulta’s Ultamate Rewards and Smashbox’s SmashCash) were already using a similar model, making Sephora’s decision to adopt a similar structure unsurprising. Groups. Even more daunting still is the question of what this means for the brands that rely on Sephora to connect with consumers and make their money. One of Sephora’s greatest assets has always been their ability to deliver a luxury VIP experience to their best customers. Sephora is widely regarded as one of the best brand communities in the world. While listening to feedback is important for understanding how your members feel about your community, it should never be exchanged for the integrity of what makes your community unique. All Right Reserved. Complexion Club. Even with the addition of several exclusive free product rewards, these changes are catastrophic for top tier members. At first, this looks like a valuable addition to Sephora’s rewards program. More customers will likely join their rewards program, but why would they work harder to achieve Rouge when they can get an incredible experience as a Beauty Insider? It’s your job to maintain what you’ve built with a community experience that supports why your customers chose you in the first place. The Smile.io Blog © 2020. Discover topics tailored to your beauty interests ... Stay up to date on the latest products, brands, and features available at Sephora. “My skin looks young enough,” said nobody ever. Enter: Beauty Talk, Sephora's online community of people from all over the world that come together and help each other find the product that's worth their hard-earned money. One of the easiest ways for a VIP program to deliver more value is by increasing how many points members earn per dollar spent. To top it off, these rewards cannot be combined with other offers and have a relatively quick expiration date of 90 days.
Velalar College Of Engineering And Technology Cutoff,
Olate Dogs Net Worth,
Dell Inspiron 2-in-1 Touch Screen,
Prognosis Of African Trypanosomiasis,
Asante Garage Door Opener Manual,
Road King Special For Sale,
Best Chocolate In The World 2020,
Usnea For Viruses,
Preserving Herbs In Oil,
M-61 Powerglow Peel Reviews,
How To Use Watercress Oil For Hair,
Where Are Thumbnails Stored Windows 10,
Hackensack Fountains Of Wayne,
Zotac Gtx 1070 Ti Mini,
Sheep For Wool And Milk,
Can I Use Whipped Cream Cheese For Cheesecake,
St Michael's Primary School Reading,