Online group coupons are becoming a hot marketing tool for businesses– but do they actually work to build loyalty? According to a recent issue of the Ipsos Canadian Inter@ctive Reid Report, Canadians are flocking to online coupon websites to try new companies, experience new products or services, and save on purchases. And customers aren’t the only ones reaping the rewards.

Websites such as Groupon.com and WagJag.com appear to be laying the groundwork for building loyal customer bases. Among those who have redeemed an online group coupon in the past, six in ten (57%) would be likely (18% very likely, 39% somewhat likely) to return to the same company without a coupon or gift certificate. In fact, a majority (62%) of those who had bought an online coupon in the past have then gone on to make a full priced purchase from the business they first became familiar with through the group coupon site.

“In the current economic climate, Canadians are wary of trying new things,” says Catherine Dawson, Senior Vice President with Ipsos Reid in Vancouver. “With online group coupons, consumers are introduced to activities, restaurants, and other products and services they might never have tried before but the risk to them is lower because of the discounts being offered. Especially for small businesses and start-ups, this is a great way to increase exposure of their brand, bring in new clients, and ultimately help in building loyalty.”

MGM Resorts International and Ameristar Casinos Inc. agreed to a marketing alliance to draw more visitors to their casinos across the U.S. and Las Vegas.

MGM Resorts, the biggest owner of casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, and Ameristar, the operator of eight U.S. casinos in Missouri, Colorado, Mississippi, Indiana, Iowa and Nevada, agreed to offer reciprocal rewards to some customers in their loyalty programs, the companies said in an e-mailed statement.

Ameristar, which doesn’t have a Strip casino, and MGM, which has 10 including the Bellagio, Mandalay Bay and CityCenter, negotiated a deal that lets some big spenders within MGM’s M life program benefit from Ameristar privileges. Ameristar’s Star Awards customers will get offers from MGM’s Strip properties. The partnership will begin in mid-March.

Nova Scotians will be the first in the country to test drive Canadian Tire's new customer rewards program. Effective Feb. 24, customers at the retailer's 21 stores and eight gas bars throughout the province can sign up for the pilot program.

During a press announcement today, Feb. 15,  held at the Dartmouth Crossing store, the company's senior vice president of marketing assured customers this doesn't mean the iconic Canadian Tire money will be taken out of circulation.

Rob Shields explained that instead, customers will be given the option of switching to the new Canadian Tire ‘Money' Advantage program. Points can be collected electronically via a loyalty card or a key chain fob. Those not interested in the upgraded program can continue to receive and redeem their traditional Canadian Tire money.

One of the key aspects of the new loyalty card is that in addition to redeeming their reward points on more than 90,000 products sold at the retailer, customers can choose to donate their points to help eligible community groups.

Marriott International announced the re-launch of the popular Vow to Get Away at Marriott promotion, offering up to 150,000 Marriott Rewards ® points for destination weddings booked at 42 participating resorts.  Participating hotels include JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts, Marriott Hotels & Resorts and Renaissance Hotels in the Caribbean, Mexico, Costa Rica, Florida, Hawaii, Arizona and California, providing professional wedding planners, catering and event staff ready to serve and stunning locations for that most important day.

To qualify for the Marriott Rewards points, enough for a six-night stay at your choice of luxury locations, your destination wedding package must have a minimum catering budget of $25,000 for Friday – Saturday events or a minimum catering budget of $12,000 for Sunday – Thursday events.  Weddings must be booked by December 1, 2012 and held by December 31, 2013 to be eligible.    For more information, visit www.marriott.com/vowtogetaway.

Qosmos, a leading provider of Network Intelligence (NI) technology, and CEM4Mobile Solutions Ltd, a world-class expert in mobile analytics and Customer Experience Management (CEM), announced a deepening of their collaborative partnership delivering customer analytics that enable MNOs (mobile network operators) and MSPs (mobile service providers) to better understand subscriber behavior and use of mobile apps. The companies will demonstrate their strategic collaboration at Mobile World Congress (MWC)in Barcelona, 27 February - 1 March.

"By embedding Qosmos technology into our offering, we improved the speed, depth and breadth of information capture possible for analysis and reporting," said Janne Aalto, CEO of CEM4Mobile Solutions. "We can provide our customers with a broader array of mobile traffic metrics and analysis methods, which they can leverage to improve their competitiveness, operational cost, and business performance."

Time and time again we hear that T-Mobile doesn’t do enough for its “loyal” customers which make to know that a select group of loyal customers will find themselves  with a really great T-Mobile offer this weekend. T-Mobile’s looking to continue their efforts to drive down churn by rewarding customer loyalty with a President’s Day Weekend Loyal Customer Offer. Over President’s Day Weekend (February 18-20), T-Mobile will hold a special three-day sale for preselected loyal classic/legacy contract customers. Customer mailers will go out to close to 440,000 customers inviting them to their local T-Mobile retail store or branded store for a free device after a mail-in rebate.

Eligibility:
- Offer is available for preselected Classic/Legacy Contract customers who present the Customer Mailer in-store or appear as eligible in the QuikView Targeted Offers Tool.
- Selection criteria were based on various factors; qualified customers can be identified in QuikView targeted offers and CIHU.
- More than the 440,000 customers who receive the Customer Mailer will show as qualified; however, RSAs should only proactively offer to customers who present the Customer Mailer or appear as eligible for the offer in QuikView Targeted Offers Tool.

Nokia Siemens Networks launched a Customer Experience Management (CEM) on Demand portal for world’s six billion mobile users.

The company said that the portal puts an understanding of the individual needs of every single customer at its heart, aiming to put some love back into a relationship which can be frustrating and often close to breaking.

CEM on Demand provides a new portal as a single entry point to dashboard views of mobile operators’ key performance indicators (KPIs) and recommends actions they can take to improve their customers’ experience. CEM on Demand makes it easier to access and share this information across the entire operator organization while in the office, or on the go via smart devices such as laptops and iPads.

Aito Technologies, the leading provider of Customer Experience Analytics (CEA) for communication service providers (CSPs), announces the delivery of its Customer Experience Analytics solution to the leading Indonesian mobile operator PT XL Axiata (www.xl.co.id). In this joint project with OEM partner Anritsu, PT XL Axiata can now see the correlation of customer complaints with and customer data, network traffic, business information and network faults enabling the operator to prioritise actions based on lost revenue.

Aito CEA was delivered to PT XL Axiata as part of Anritsu's Advanced CEM (ACEM) solution enabling PT XL Axiata a real-time view of service delivery to individual customers, or groups, and understand how customer problems are related to handset, service delivery, provisioning or network issues.

Agility Metrics announced that Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, America’s largest extreme-value grocer, has been using Agility Metrics’ Customer Experience Management solutions to capitalize on customer feedback, boost operational efficiency, and grow customer engagement across multiple channels. Over the past year, this solution has evolved to become a central part of Grocery Outlet’s ongoing efforts to strengthen customer relationships and build brand loyalty at a time when every shopper is looking to save that little bit extra on their grocery bill.

The custom built Customer Experience Management solution allows shoppers at Grocery Outlet to provide real-time customer feedback via web, IVR and mobile phones. A combination of powerful online reporting technology, role-based performance scorecards, and instant customer rescue alerts ensures that key Grocery Outlet stakeholders are constantly up-to-speed on the pulse of the customer experience across their entire network of supermarkets.

QuestBack, a global leader in enterprise feedback management (EFM), announced that Gartner, Inc. has included the company in a research report[1] evaluating six global vendors in the peer-to-peer customer community marketplace. QuestBack was also included as a Niche Player in Gartner's 2011 Magic Quadrant for Social CRM.

According to Gartner's report: "The critical capabilities of peer-to-peer customer communities allow customer service and support to be provided by customers, rather than an organization's customer service representatives (CSRs). This allows for networking among the customer base, creating communities of experts and advocates to be leveraged for further customer service, marketing, sales and e-commerce initiatives."

"Over the next year, QuestBack anticipates a dramatic shift in corporate interest around engaging social communities effectively. Building a strong community where customers can engage and share experiences not only with each other, but also directly with brands, is where the true business value in social media lies," said Ivar Kroghrud, QuestBack CEO. "As social CRM becomes an integral part of how companies interact with customers, we are honored to be included in this research as well as recognized by Gartner as a Niche Player in the social CRM space.

Saveology has debuted its Saveology Elite Loyalty Program, where members will purchase Saveology dollars each month towards savings on many Saveology deals. For $10 each month, Saveology customers will get $15 Saveology dollars to use towards many deals. In addition to Saveology dollars, Elite members gain a free subscription to MyTechHelp’s Gold Plus Plan ($9.99 monthly value).

“Saveology Elite is our first loyalty program which allows our customers to enjoy extra monthly savings on top of our daily deals,” says Rachel Tabari, Vice President of Saveology Deals. “A benefit to this program is that up to $10 Saveology dollars rollover every month, if unused.”
The program greatly benefits Saveology customers in how they can save on future Saveology deals. Through the loyalty program, up to $10 Saveology Elite Dollars can rollover for up to 12 months.

In addition to the savings, Elite members will have a free subscription to MyTechHelp’s Gold Plus plan, which provides around-the-clock technical support for computers, smartphones, tablets, home network solutions, digital cameras and digital video recorders, high-tech gadgets and home entertainment products.

According to a recent survey by Telecoms IQ, improving customer loyalty is still high on the agenda amongst the myriad of key issues telco operators are faced with. Stiffening market competition implores the immediate need to implement the right customer segmentation strategies which then enables telco operators to employ the appropriate marketing campaign targeted at the various customer segments.

Amongst the hot button issues, customer segmentation data accuracy, prediction analysis and innovative technology available, the survey also reviewed 2 key aspects telco operators deem as critical in delivering customer value and these are:
- Flexibility in product/service offerings
- Responsiveness

This is indicative that pricing is no longer the key factor that drives retention as customers are more attracted to better offerings and customer service. As such, telco operators consistently innovate on their marketing campaigns and loyalty programs to enhance customer engagement.

With greater focus on marketing, telco operators thus need to strengthen their market position and while optimising the use of branding and advertising to increase customer loyalty.

Americas Best Value Inn's Value Club is one of the most unique hotel loyalty programs because it offers member guests instant rewards. Now, as part of ABVI's new "Grand" promotion celebrating its 1,000 hotels in North America, joining the free program could earn you $1,000 or your share of $1,000 in gift cards and savings passes from Domino's Pizza® and 1-800-FLOWERS.COM.

The Value Club is different because it provides immediate benefits rather than requiring members to wait to accumulate enough points for a reward. Members receive a 15% discount off standard room rates at any participating hotels, free room upgrades based on availability, late check-out, discounts on travel products and services, and access to hundreds of discounts and special offers for shopping, entertainment and dining.

From February 15, 2012 through May 15, 2012, visitors to AmericasBestValueInn.com or CanadasBestValueInn.com who enroll in the Value Club program will be entered automatically for a chance to win one of 33 prizes. All existing Value Club members who click on the promotion's opt-in link also will be eligible to win.