Are you a planner? Do you have your cute, little calendar all organized and color coded based on your class schedule and extracurriculars? Do you like to pick out your outfit the night before? Does going on a spontaneous trip make you a little uncomfortable? This chapter is for you! Planning is a critical part of life whether you're super into it, or try to avoid it. When developing something as detailed as a loyalty program, it is imperative that preparation takes place.
     Paharia guides us in preparation steps to creating an effective Loyalty 3.0 program. He informs us that these tools will give us a competitive advantage as we are trying to build lasting connections with our customers and stakeholders. This becomes a personal step for the success of one's business. This road map includes planning, designing, building, and finally optimizing. Within chapter 8 of Paharia's Loyalty 3.0, planning is expound upon and emphasized as the cornerstone of creating a loyalty program.
     Plan
Paharia states, "As in any business initiative, the plan step lays the groundwork by identifying the problem and the proposed solution, figuring out the ROI, and getting buy-in from the rest of your organization so that you can move forward. This is a big step, so naturally it contains a few important steps of its own:" (Paharia, 2013)


1. Identify the problem: This is where a company owner must evaluate what incentive it is that they are trying to address with their specific loyalty program.


2. Identify your audience: This means understanding the "who" behind your "why". It is crucial that a company decides their target market before they begin creating a program.


3. Identify the desired audience behaviors: As we dive deeper into the last step, it is important for a company to research the tendencies of their chosen audience to be able to best cater to their needs and desires.


4. Establish your key performance indicators: These are measurements of success. As we establish a loyalty program, setting KPIs will hold everyone accountable and provide necessary data that determine its success or failure.


5. Create a mission statement: By establishing a mission statement, it is clear what goals your program will achieve. This sets a company's standard for why they have created their loyalty program.


6. Understand the playing field: This basically means acknowledging the restraints one has for their loyalty program project. For example, a company might ask what resources they have as far as money, time, and people.


7. Calculate the ROI: How much are you going to spend, and in turn, how much are you going to make? Obviously, this is a huge part of running a business in a smooth and effective manner.


8. Sell it to internal stakeholders: Get someone to invest their funds and expertise into your program!


     Proverbs 21:5 proves this point; "Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty." (NLT Bible : New Living Translation., 2018) The writer of Proverbs acknowledges that planning is a Godly pursuit as to always be prepared and not lazy within one's work. As with any aspect of business, loyalty programs especially should be thought out and organized before put into production. This could lead to a smoother and more successful implementation of the program for all parties involved! Catch you next time!
 

NLT Bible : New Living Translation. (2018). Bible Society New Zealand.Rajat Paharia. (2013). Loyalty 3.0 : how big data and gamification are revolutionizing customer and employee engagement. Mcgraw-Hill Education.