Are your customers tiring of your rewards programs?

A study on reward program overload has shown that people might be getting tired of their loyalty memberships.

For businesses, loyalty programmes often represent a significant investment into obtaining and maintaining a customer base – but the study, published on the CNBC website in early June, has shown that customers are switching off from this interaction with brands.

The report showed that the number of memberships to company programs were up by a whopping 27 per cent in 2010 in the United States – to a total of 2.65 billion last year.

For Jack Kennamer, an American entrepreneur, it was all too much.

His response to develop software that moved all of a customer's loyalty cards onto a single card – significantly cutting down wallet sizes for anyone who signed up for the service.

But what does that mean for the businesses who lost their individual loyalty cards?

It could signify a loss in terms of branding opportunities, and it could mean that their company is less likely to be on the forefront of the client's mind without a physical reminder dwelling in their pocket.

Asking the right customer survey questions will help your company to decide if your customer loyalty program is working the way it should, and if your customers are tiring of the membership.

As even if it means losing out on savings, special offers or new product information, customers are turning away their loyalty and rewards programs in droves, with statistics showing a 4.3 per cent drop from 2010, which could suggest that more information is needed if a company is to optimise their current customer programs.

A customer service survey can uncover vital information for you.

Simply having the program won't ensure customer loyalty, but if you can acquire feedback to make sure the program is working for the company as much as it is working for the client, then you will be in a much better position to optimise this marketing tool.

Want to trial an Australian-built online survey tool to find out?

Click here for a free trial of PeoplePulse.