QIIBEE - a better player in the loyalty sector

FUN FACTS:

• It costs a business 5-25 times more to capture a new customer than it does to sell to an old/existing customer. Harvard Business Review
• Old and/or existing customers spend 67% more than new customers.Bain & Company
• Increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%. Bain & Company

INTRODUCTION:
From the preceding fun facts above, it is glaring that brands need to pay attention to what they do in order to ensure that customers come back to their business.

More than 60% of customers are loyal to brands, and it is almost certain that these brands have implemented a loyalty program.

Customer Loyalty :
Customer loyalty depicts a customers desire or willingness to patronize a brand again and again. This is obviously as a result of a positive experience, satisfaction and value of product and/or services which the customer gets from that brand.

Brands tend to want to provide great customer service so customers continue with their patronage. The reason for this is because Customer loyalty is important to the success of any brand loyal customers grow business faster and efficiently than sales and marketing.

Loyal Customers tend to frequently patronize brands that they like, and also they tell family and friends about the positive experience they get from these brands. It is a fact that word-of mouth marketing is effective at getting new customers, albeit than content and advertising, and therefore in the long run, these new customers become loyal customers. In fact, a statistic done in the U.S. shows that 40% of online shopping revenue comes from repeat customers, and these customers comprises of only 8% of site visitors.

But how do brands achieve this? How do brands make satisfied customers to recruit new customers? That's where customer loyalty programs comes to play.

Customer Loyalty Program - a vital weapon in any brands arsenal:
Customer loyalty program is a rewards program generally offered by a brand to customers who frequently patronize them. A loyalty program may give a customer rewards, free merchandise, coupons etc.

According to The Loyalty Report 2017, an average consumer involves in 14 loyalty programs, but have the capacity to engage with only seven. This means that brands lose money on time and effort, and in the end, LOYAL CUSTOMERS do not get more value.

While engaging in loyalty programs, brands and customers run into several issues

For the Brands:
Loyalty works hand in hand with high costs. Loyalty programs are expensive to start up, loyalty program means more costs for the brands, and as we see from statistics, there is low level of engagement and redemption by the customers, so in the long run, the brand has incurred more expenses.

It is almost impossible for loyalty programs to attract new customers, since the value added is not immediately apparent. Also, since a company holds its customers data, security is required.

For the Customers:
Large number of loyalty programs exists, and since the market is fragmented, it becomes difficult for customers to pick a program and stick with it. And when customers eventually pick a program, customers have to entirely rely on the brands to decide what they receive for their collected points, also the collected points have no real value outside of the brand context, hence the brand is the judge, jury and executioner, leaving the customer with no say in the matter.

Seeing the issues which brands and customers face, QIIBEE is here with a solution.

QIIBEE plans to create a loyalty ecosystem. These loyalty ecosystem in turn, offers a platform to brands and ends up servicing thousands of customers. With qiibee, brands would be able to run their loyalty programs on the blockchain. This would ensure decentralized loyalty programs, and each brands would be in complete control.

Benefits of Qiibee:
We have already seen the issues faced by brands and customers. The solutions offered by QIIBEE are as follows:

For the Brand:
When a brand uses the QIIBEE platform, it can set up its own loyalty program and it is full control. Since the QIIBEE platform already targets customers, there would be high level of engagement and redemption by customers, hence the loyalty program becomes efficient at a low cost. Also, the brand achieves security since Customers are responsible for their own wallets, the risk of data breach is reduced.

For the Customer:
With QIIBEE, customers can engage in multiple loyalty programs. The rewards gotten form each loyalty programs can then be imported and brought to a common space. These rewards can then be tokenized and used to transact with other people on the QIIBEE platform. And also, since the token has a real value, it can be converted to real cash.

How is Loyalty Program set up?

We already know that with the QIIBEE platform, brands can set-up their own loyalty programs and still be in control of the interface. Loyalty programs tend to have two major blocks, viz-a-viz, Reward and Redemption.

Reward Block:
As seen from the diagram above, the brand sets a fixed loyalty budget. This fixed loyalty budget is then used to buy qiibee tokens. The qiibee tokens is used to create the loyalty tokens through a smart contract. These loyalty tokens are then sent to the brands wallet. The brands then determine how and when clients are rewarded for their patronage.

Redemption Block:
Also, from the diagram above, brands first determine a fixed redemption budget. This fixed redemption budget allows form investment in the products and services offered by the brand. Customers redeem their tokens to get their desired programmed gift. These loyalty tokens are then sent to the brands wallet so the brand can start setting up the next reward.

The QIIBEE eco-system:
The QIIBEE eco-system comprise of two pillars: the developer kit and the qiibee app.

The Developer Kit:
The Developer Kit gives room for brands to set-up their own loyalty program on the blockchain, while having full control over the interface and customer journey. The Developer Kit consist of: interface to access, API, documentation, tutorials and support center.

The QIIBEE app:
The QIIBEE app provides an access for customers to experience the entire QIIBEE ecosystem. Brands can also use the QIIBEE app to ensure that more users see their loyalty program through features in which customers are gifted with a loyalty token. This feature is known as a loyalty token drop. With the QIIBEE app, customers can: have one wallet for all loyalty program, get an overview of their collected loyalty tokens, have security & back up, can exchange and trade their loyalty tokens with other users etc.

How the QIIBEE eco-system works:

As seen from the image above, the loyal customers interact with the ecosystem only through their QIIBEE wallet. The wallet allows users to send and receive loyalty tokens, the wallet also allows user to trade their received loyalty token for QBX tokens.

The developer kit is the bridge between the QIIBEE wallet and the QIIBEE platform. It is an access through which brands can join the ecosystem, build, configure their own loyalty tokens.

The infrastructure and the developer kit together make up the loyalty platform. The infrastructure is made of the QIIBEE private blockchain, the smart contracts deployed and the public Ethereum blockchain.

QIIBEE is using the blockchain because of the features which the blockchain has. Check the diagram above and see the features. However, QIIBEE is making use of both a public Ethereum Blockchain and a Private Ethereum Blockchain. Check the diagram below.

QIIBEE is doing this because, presently with the current public Ethereum blockchain, high speed transactions at low costs is not possible. And a mainstreamed loyalty system requires high speed transactions at low costs. The diagram above shows how QIIBEE incorporates both the public ethereum blockchain and the private ethereum blockchain.

A case scenario:
My issue without QIIBEE
If there is anyone out there that loves loyalty programs than me, raise your hands ✋. Some years ago, I started buying this diapers for my niece from a regular store. The store then decided to run a loyalty program for loyal customers. The store said that if a customer bought 6 packets diapers within 1 month, the customer got 1packet free. I had already bought 5 packets, when I got called away by work. And so I travelled with my niece, and I wasn't able to complete the loyalty program, hence I wasn't able to get access to my reward before the loyalty program expired. This meant my 5points for buying 5packets of diapers had gone to waste. It was such a painful experience.

With QIIBEE:
If I had used QIIBEE, the story would have been different. All I need to do is to approach a fellow user of the QIIBEE platform and sell my points to him/her, since my collected points has real value. In this way, my collected points don't go to waste, I get real cash from engagaing in the loyalty program even though I didn't complete the program.

Isn't this wonderful and Fun?

CONCLUSION:
Loyalty programs is very useful and important in maintaining customer retention. Loyal customers would definitely spread the word around and recruit new members. Hence, brands should adopt QIIBEE solutions for an efficient implementation of loyalty programs.

The QIIBEE Team:

The QIIBEE Advisors:

For more information, check out:
QIIBEE Website
QIIBEE WhitePaper
QIIBEE Telegram
QIIBEE Medium
QIIBEE Twitter
QIIBEE Facebook
QIIBEE Instagram
QIIBER LinkedIn
QIIBEE Google Plus

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