Avoid Rebate Program Failures
Rebate prepaid card programs are always a popular choice. Because they are both effective and popular, many industries try to set up these programs for their customer incentives. However, it can be a struggle for companies because they can easily make major errors that cause their card and reward programs to be inefficient and frustrating to customers.
Take the example of a mail-in rebate of $40 on a $50 video game. Only $10 for the newest edition and you think to yourself, “I need that.” So you buy the game and mail in the rebate as quickly as you can. Months go by and you don’t receive your rebate check. You write letters and make calls, but no luck. There could be a thousand possible reasons the company didn’t send that check, but they’ve lost you as a customer. This is just one of many examples of a failed rebate program. To help you out, we’ve put together 7 of the most common reasons your rebate program can fail.
1: Failing to Follow Best Practices
There are many different strategies to begin a prepaid card rebate program. Is your system manual or automated? Is your only reason to use rebates for the breakage or slippage? Rebates are an awesome way to generate new leads and sales, but the start-up cost of the soon-to-be-discounted price and the cost of administering the rebate program can cause issues for many businesses. It is important to consult rebate program best practices before starting your program.
2: Failing to abide by the Federal Trade Commission Guidelines
The Federal Trade Commission protects the consumer and requires guidelines of businesses to be sure the customer is protected and essentially not getting screwed over. “Cents-off deals should make sense to consumers,” said Jodie Bernstein, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Companies that offer savings through coupons and rebates have an obligation to say what they mean and mean what they say.”
3: Failing to Put the Rebate Process Online
Snail mail is a thing of the past. Customers don’t want to take the time to mail-in anymore. Online rebate redemption is quick, easy, and keeps the customer happy, particularly if you make use of a digital prepaid card option, as well as, or instead of a physical one. It is also worth noting that with the customer filling out information online, there is less of an opportunity for breakage.
4: Failing to have Real-Time Reporting with Rebate Management Tools
Real-time analytics give you the information to track which incentives are doing the best, how many of your customers are redeeming their rebates, and how fast they are redeeming it.
5: Failing to Develop Reward Programs that Engage
Reward programs are wonderful for involving your customers and getting them to participate with your brand and company. However, if you fail to engage them, you might as well burn the money your spending on your promotion. Reward your customer for the call-to-action they fulfill and give them a positive memory to associate with your brand.
6: Failing to Apply an API for Fulfillment
API is software that makes it easy for application programs to interact with each other. With API software your rebate program can collect information from your website, link it to an API fulfillment process, and automatically sending your customers their rebates! That makes your life much simpler and gives the customer the instant gratification they so desire — even more so if you invest in digital rewards.
7: Failing to Embrace Dynamic Rebate Technology
Technology these days is amazingly advanced and offers real-time analytics to give you insight into your consumer behavior. This technology can be annoying to set up, but it is worth it to have the data you need to see your program’s effectiveness in real-time. Plus, with a good rebate technology provider, like All Digital Rewards, The whole process can be made easy.
At All Digital Rewards, we are a leading single-source rebate fulfillment provider that includes pricing strategy, promotion management, rebate processing, rules-based validation, reward fulfillment, and CRM to manage the complete process.
Whether you are looking for a traditional mail-in rebate provider or a paperless solution that can integrate into your point-of-sale and loyalty program, we can simplify your rebate or validated reward program management.
For more information about rebates, prepaid cards, or customer incentives please go to alldigitalrewards.com or call us at 866-415-7703.
