Why retailer programmes run out of steam after three months

You know the scene. The brand gathers its sales reps, presents the new programme and hands out posters. Shops sign up, the first photos come in, everyone is pleased. Twelve weeks later, a third of the members have not logged in for a month and nobody dares look at the numbers.

It is almost never the tool's fault, or the shopkeepers'. The programme was planned as a launch, when what it really needs is to become a habit.

1. The reward arrives too late

A shop manager completes a mission on Monday. If he sees his points on Tuesday and gets his box within a fortnight, he does it again. If he waits two months for a reward nobody can locate, he has understood: this programme is one more promise.

The time between effort and reward is the most underrated indicator there is. Before you launch anything, you need to know who delivers, by which route, and in how many days. Then measure that delay every week, the way you measure sales.

2. The rules change along the way

“Actually, the display photo only counts if the price is visible.” Announced in week five, that clarification cancels out, in the shop manager's mind, everything he did before. He does not argue. He stops.

A rule is set before the start and written into the mission. If it has to change, it changes for the next mission, not the current one.

3. Nobody looks at what the shops send

A photo that is sent and never commented on is a message left unanswered. The programmes that last are the ones where somebody approves within forty-eight hours, and where a rejection comes with a sentence: “we can't see the price, could you take it again from further back?”

That takes human time. Not much, but regularly. If that time is in nobody's diary, the programme will stop the day the first pile of photos is three weeks old.

4. The sales reps stayed on the sidelines

The sales rep is the person the shop manager knows. If the rep presents the programme as “a marketing thing”, the shop manager files it in the same drawer. If the rep opens the portal with him, shows him his balance and tells him what he can order, everything changes.

Give the reps a reason to care: the list of shops dropping off in their territory, for example. It is information they did not have before, and it makes their visits more useful.

5. Nothing is new after the first month

The same mission four weeks running, the same catalogue for six months. Boredom is reason enough to drop out.

This is not about piling on gimmicks. A different mission each week, a new reward each month, a quiz when a product launches: that is enough. The calendar for the first twelve weeks should be written before week one.

What to take away

• Measure reward delivery time from the very first week.
• Write the rules once, in the mission, and stick to them.
• Block out moderation time in somebody's diary.
• Make the sales reps the programme's first users.
• Prepare three months of missions before you send the first invitation.

Checking these points on a small scale is why we always advise you to start with a pilot. Three months in one area costs little, and tells you everything about whether the organisation can keep up the pace.