Customer Empowered Marketing: The Strategy Behind Sydbank Favorit

• Sydbank wanted to launch a new customer loyalty programme, in an effort to nurture and retain long-term customers.
• To make sure that the system would be well received and easy to use, Sydbank decided to include customers before launching the programme.
• Thanks to real customer insights, almost half of the bank’s customers went through ’Sydbank Favorit’ – and almost 90% of those agreed to be contacted by the bank.

With roots in Southern Jutland, Sydbank makes customer-centricity and strong customer relationships something more than simple slogans.

To nurture and retain long-term relationships with its customers, Sydbank was developing a new customer loyalty programme, named ’Sydbank Favorit’.

In order to make sure that the programme would be well received and easy to use, the bank decided to include customers before launch. The target was to make sure that customers understood the loyalty programme and were interested in using it.

Challenge

One of the great challenges in customer retention in a competitive business environment is to make your customers valued for their loyalty, without breaking the delicate equilibrium a new reward system may threaten.

To optimise its customer retention programme, Sydbank worked with Customer Empowered Marketing on its new customer loyalty programme ’Sydbank Favorit’, which rewarded customers depending on their level of financial engagement with the bank.

In order to make sure that the system would be well received and easy to use, Sydbank understood that gaining precious customer insights before launch would have been fundamental for the success of the programme. That’s when Sydbank approached Sonar.

Solution

With Sonar, Sydbank defined the target of its study – making sure that customers understood the loyalty programme and were interested in using it, and appreciated how important it was to include them repeatedly throughout the development phase.

Based on the findings from the first round of sessions several adjustments were made. After the implementation of these changes, customers were again included.

This way, the bank ensured that there were no more inconveniences before the programme launched.

Results

Thanks to real customer insights, Sydbank has had great success in launching its new customer loyalty programme. Almost half of the bank’s customers went through ’Sydbank Favorit’ – and almost 90% of those agreed to be contacted by the bank. Eventually, the programme would be nominated for the Danish Digital Award.