When Lowe’s launched its updated loyalty program for professional customers last month, the company knew what features of the loyalty program were working. It designed MyLowe’s Pro Rewards to remove unnecessary aspects without sacrificing what customers liked.
"We had the benefit of having a great program that acquired a lot of members, but we had a lot of value packed into it that our pros just really weren't realizing,” Amanda Bailey, VP of customer marketing and loyalty at Lowe’s, told CX Dive.
Lowe’s overhauled its pro and DIY loyalty programs by stripping away complexity while maintaining their core value proposition.
For it’s pro loyalty program, Lowe’s studied how its pro customers interacted with the preceding MVP Pro Rewards & Partnership program. The retailer determined that the rewards and tools still needed to be there, but it streamlined how customers accessed them.
The company also took learnings from its DIY customer-focused MyLowe’s Rewards program, which rolled out nationwide last March. The positive response to the DIY loyalty relaunch, which also emphasized simplicity, provided inspiration for MyLowe’s Pro Rewards.
“How can we take the best of both worlds to create a great experience and value proposition for all of our customers?” Bailey said. “That was really the advantage and the learning that we had in bringing this new pro program to life.”
Both loyalty programs offer members points for every dollar spent. The points can be redeemed for rewards like MyLowe’s Money, which offers credit toward eligible purchases, and members that spend enough with the company can reach higher tiers with greater benefits.
Finding Lowe’s flavor
While many customers are seeking simple loyalty programs, the best offerings manage to stand out with unique, but unobtrusive, features.
For example, immediate benefits just for signing up are table stakes in modern loyalty, according to Bailey. They are easy to understand and a great incentive to get a customer’s foot in the door, but they won’t help the brand or the program stand out.
Lowe’s looked to its customers and their relationship to the business to strike the proper balance between simple but common and unique but complex features in a loyalty strategy.
“We could have done a lot of different things with the loyalty program, and every retailer has a little bit of a flavor,” Bailey said. “But what we really remain focused on is: What makes your experience with Lowe's different? How do we serve these customers?”
Rethinking an existing loyalty program, rather than starting from scratch, proved beneficial in this endeavor, according to Bailey. Lowe’s was already paying attention to its customers and their behavior, which made it easier to pinpoint the truly relevant features and elevate them.
Baseline customer knowledge was combined with “lots of research, lots of talking to customers, lots of talking to associates,” all in pursuit of understanding how people shop with Lowe’s, according to Bailey.
The customer-centric approach helped Lowe’s differentiate each of its loyalty programs for its target demographic while keeping the core value proposition simple.
Incentives and gifts are essential for DIY loyalty members, according to Bailey. These customers plan their visits around the occasional home improvement project, and Lowe’s wanted to give them reasons to come into a store more frequently.
“They love a reason to come into the store and get their free gift, and they love having those extra little perks on top,” Bailey said. “They'll go the extra mile, and they'll make that extra visit because we can make it fun and experiential for them on top of the great rewards that they're getting.”
Pros, in comparison, are already visiting Lowe’s daily or weekly to purchase their supplies. As a result, MyLowe’s Pro Rewards puts an emphasis on features that save time, like jobsite delivery, or save money, like bulk volume discounts.
“The pro customer over indexes on convenience, and they really want more value out of their rewards,” Bailey said. “They have a lot of choices, and we want them choosing us.”
Loyalty lives at the center of CX
Loyalty programs can go beyond encouraging purchases and become a direct line between retailer and customer. Lowe’s builds on this connection to help the brand power its broader relationship-building efforts.
“The loyalty program, for us, is about the whole experience,” Bailey said. “Getting that direct relationship with them, getting to know more about them so that when they shop with us, it feels more tailored to them and more relevant to them.”
Lowe’s loyalty program lets the retailer know that a homeowner likes to garden and a professional works as a plumber and tailors their experience accordingly, according to Bailey.
The Lowe’s Digital Home Platform offers loyalty members access to manuals and warranties and helps customers shop for compatible replacements or parts, all based on their past purchases.
“It's not just a marketing program or a transactional rewards program,” Bailey said. “It's a way that we build relevancy and stickiness with customers that go well beyond the time of transaction.
