Financial Services Loyalty Programs Evolution, Current and Future Trends [With Examples]

69%  of customers agree that loyalty programs highly influence their purchase choice as they focus on saving money.
Hence, financial services providers like credit cards, banks, and home loan providers want to retain clients with a top-notch customer loyalty program. As a result, financial services combined with technology have become the new trend for customer engagement.

Customers go through a lot of information before choosing any financial service. With new trends, brands need to leverage these trends to increase retention rates and acquire more customers.

Why Financial Services Loyalty Programs are Important?

Users are sensitive and careful when choosing a finance brand. Finance businesses keep introducing new policies and services for customers. Engaging customers with their brand become mandatory for the success of new services. Loyalty programs give a solution to engage customers all the time. Here are some more benefits of a loyalty program for finance brands.

• Enhanced business reputation with rewards to customers that make them feel valued.
• An opportunity to evaluate & analyze customer preferences with various participation programs.
• Gifts and rewards help encourage customers to take part in more services by finance brands.
• Customer lifetime value is the goal of any financial service. Loyalty programs help boost customer lifetime value (CLV) by keeping the existing client base interested and updated.

Here are some of the bank popular loyalty reward programs:

Loyalty Trends & Opportunities in the Financial Sector in 2023

1. Rewarding Students With Scholarship

Zion’s Student Reward Program offers student rewards and scholarship programs. By encouraging students to bring good grades and take a step ahead to their future, Zion is portraying the brand as people-first and attracting a lot of attention among parents and institutions.

Zions Bank Pays for A’s:

Zions Bank has launched its Pays for A’s reward program for high school students with the slogan of “You Bring the A’, We’ll bring the Money”

How does it work?

All the US middle school and junior high students in Utah & Idaho are paid up to $1 per ‘A’ on their report cards. They also get a chance to win a scholarship saving account by bringing their most recent report cards and a parent to any of the branches.

Benefits of the Zions reward:

• Give away 36 awards as $500 each and two $1000 savings accounts for each school per year.
• Students get a Young Savers Account. With each A, they get rewarded with $1.
• Community drawings reward 36 different students from different geographic regions of Utah & Idaho.

2. Rewarding Users for Online Shopping Using Credit Cards

Almost every credit card user shops online regularly. By encouraging customers to spend more with their cards, banks can utilize reward point schemes to achieve a win-win situation. Buyers can redeem reward points while shopping online, whereas banks get customer data and more engaged customers.

HDFC Credit Card Reward Program:

HDFC credit card rewards are designed for credit card users to reward them with a shopping point redemption program. Users can redeem the collected reward points for shopping online. The points can either be used for buying from the best choice collection products or get cash value with the points and use them as per their shopping preferences.

Benefits of HDFC Credit Card Reward:

• Online shopping with reward points for an extra discount based on points collected.
• Based on credit card use, customers get more points for more frequent use of the credit card.

3. Going Beyond Online & Rewarding Every Small User Action

When every bank is encouraging customers to shop online, Deutsche bank also rewards customers for actions like withdrawing money from ATMs. Customers get rewards for everything from small user actions like balance inquiries to SIPs installments.

Deutsche Bank Express Rewards:

Deutsche Bank has launched the Express Reward program for all savings account holders. Users can get daily rewards with their day-to-day transactions like ATM withdrawal, online shopping using a debit card, or simply using paperless bank statements. In addition to this, customers get an extra annual bonus every year. For bank relationships of more than 2 years, Deutsche bank rewards 75 points for free.

Benefits of Express Reward Program:

• Users can get up to 1,250 points every month.
• These points are valid for 12 months with no charges.
• Cash credits will be transferred to the user account.

4. Helping Customers With Reduced Fees on Essential Services

Financial solutions for homes and mortgages are the biggest concerns while applying for loans. Financial service providers can make the best out of the opportunity by offering reduced fees on loans and mortgages. Bank of America offers a $200 reduction on refinancing mortgages.

Bank of America- Preferred Rewards:

Preferred rewards by Bank of America are a way of appreciating their customers with exclusive benefits. Users who take a loan from Bank of America and invest with Merill can enjoy the benefits of the tiered loyalty reward process.

Benefits of Preferred Rewards:

• There are 3 tiers, including Gold, Platinum, and Platinum Honours.
• The combined balance in the bank and Investment account with Merill decides which tier you are eligible for.
• For Gold members, there are benefits like a 15% reward bonus and no-fee transactions at other bank ATMs.
• Other benefits include a reduction in the origination fee on a new purchase or refinance mortgage.

5. Experiential Rewards to Entice Customers

Offering customers what they want is the ideal case for loyalty programs. Experiential rewards are one step towards this goal. Citibank offers rewards like a subscription to Amazon music, discounts on flight tickets, special occasion rewards, and more. Such rewards also push brands to collaborate and offer a seamless experience to customers.

Citibank ThankYou:

Citi Bank ThankYou reward program allows users to earn points in different ways and use those points via a Thank You member account. To earn points, users need to do online bill payments and cash transfers using Citibank. From online shopping to air ticket booking, there are many ways users get to earn ThankYou points.

Benefits of ThankYou Reward by Citibank:

• Gift cards
  Use collected points for gift cards of major brands, dining spaces, and entertainment tickers.
• Travel rewards
  Book flight tickets, rentals, car rides, cruises, and other experiences to get points for travel expenses.
• Using points at partner brands
  Members with compatible Citibank ThankYou card can participate in the partnered programs and shop from the brands collaborating with the loyalty program. Here’s one example – transfer all the points to receive 25% bonus miles with Air France through the Flying Blue loyalty program.

6. Collaborating With Brands to Simplify Earning Points for Customers

Axis Bank’s EDGE rewards go one step further to streamline the process for customers. Collaboration over competition has been the mantra for brands in this decade. Axis Bank partnered with over 500 brands to offer reward points for shopping with them. From food to travel & pharma, Axis Bank covered almost every popular brand in the market.

Axis 10X EDGE Rewards

Axis Bank Edge reward program is very popular due to its unique benefits. It offers more than 70 ways to earn reward points. Members only need Axis Bank Internet or Mobile Banking app or must be credit card users, NRI, or saving account holders to enjoy the reward benefits. From monthly credit transactions to using a credit card for payments and depositing money in the account, users get to earn hundreds of points with each action. The Edge Rewards has been one of the best financial services loyalty programs.

Benefits of the Edge Rewards program by Axis Bank:

• Users can earn up to 10X rewards with a 35% instant discount on gift card purchases from credit or debit cards.
• NRI banking transactions for 500 points.
• Avail low-interest rates and earn points on Forex transactions.
• Points on current account transactions and internet banking usage.

Finding the Right Financial Loyalty Program Platform

There are a multitude of loyalty platforms offering numerous services. For financial brands, customer data security and privacy are the top concern. Along with this, getting users’ data becomes vital in this advanced tech era. Developing customer-centric rewards programs is only possible with a data-driven loyalty platform. With a deeper understanding of customer behavior through the data, it becomes easier to retain them by offering meaningful reward programs in the finance industry. Zinrelo is a loyalty management platform that is empowering brands to build loyalty & retain their existing customers. Zinrelo offers 360-degree customer loyalty solutions to help brands from diverse verticals build meaningful relationships with their customers.

Unlock the true benefits of rewards programs in the finance Industry with Zinrelo’s loyalty management platform.