Alternative choices for managing money mean that retaining and rewarding customers in a way which reflects their personal preferences and motivations is more important than ever to ensure brand loyalty.

Collinson Group has identified four groups of consumers within the middle class – who all use technology in very different ways. Christopher explores five points that banks should consider to build their digital offer for customers:

1. Personalised service – Despite deployment of large scale digital and customer systems, people do expect a personalised service. Barclays deployment of video banking is an example of the FS industry responding to this
2. Recognition and reward – Not being rewarded for loyalty is one of the biggest frustrations for the affluent middle class consumer, think about the ways in which customers can be rewarded easily through their digital services
3. Choice of reward is important in boosting loyalty – Let consumers choose what they want from their reward programme – e.g. O2 and Vodafone offer a broad range options for consumers
4. Simplify redemption – a well put together and effectively delivered digital experience has real potential to offer immediate rewards to valued customers and a common perception is that many current loyalty programmes make it hard to earn enough points to access the best returns
5. Real-time engagement – Social media and mobile services encourage an ‘always-on’ attitude and mean consumers continually expect fresh content from reward programmes. There is an opportunity for card providers to offer real-time, tailored promotions and redemption at the moment of purchase online and in store