Avoiding the Icebergs:

A Strategic Assessment for Securing Leadership Buy-In for Your Loyalty Program

Even the best-laid plans can hit a snag, often due to hidden objections, a lack of support, or priorities that don’t quite line up. Think of these as corporate icebergs – they’re sneaky and can put a dent in your dynamic loyalty and customer experience (CX) enhancement plans, and it’s usually not something you saw coming. If you’re gearing up for a loyalty program initiative that needs everyone on board and the budget to back it up, it’s smart to look out for these icebergs or even the smaller bumps along the way. Getting your leadership team to take this assessment is a great first step. It’ll help you spot potential challenges early on, so you can navigate around them and steer your project towards success without any unwelcome surprises.

The assessment is designed to gauge leadership's readiness to back and invest in a loyalty program that leverages gamification and boosts customer engagement. By evaluating investment buy-in, understanding the impact of CX, willingness to allocate resources, and attitudes towards gamification, you'll get a clear picture of the support level. The insights gained will help you tailor your approach, ensuring leadership is fully aligned with the program's objectives and ready to tackle any icebergs that might lie ahead.

How to Roll Out the Leadership Readiness Assessment for Loyalty Initiatives

Step 1: Distribute the Assessment Document Overview: The downloadable assessment contains three important pages. Page 4 is the leadership readiness assessment. Page 5 provides interpretation guidelines for individual scores, and Page 6 includes a worksheet for compiling scores and suggests steps for moving up the support levels.   Sending Instructions: Save Page 4 as a separate document. Then email the PDF to each senior leader with instructions to complete the assessment. Emphasize the importance of their honest and individual responses to accurately gauge the team's overall readiness for customer engagement investments.

Step 2: Include Logistics and Alay Fears in Your Messaging Deadline: Set a reasonable deadline for the completion and return of the assessments. Remind participants of this deadline as it approaches to ensure timely submissions.

Confidentiality: Assure participants that their responses will be treated with confidentiality and are crucial for the strategic planning of loyalty program enhancements. Step 3: Compile Scores Worksheet Use: Utilize the embedded spreadsheet on Page 6 of this document to enter scores from each completed assessment. This will provide a holistic view of the leadership team's support and readiness.  Analysis: Analyze the compiled scores to identify patterns, strengths, and areas needing attention within the leadership team's perspectives on the loyalty program.

Step 4: Interpret Individual Scores Guidance on Page 5: Refer to Page 5 for detailed instructions on interpreting individual scores. This will help you understand the varying degrees of support among leaders and identify key influencers and potential resistors.  Change Management Strategy: Use the insights gained from the score interpretation to develop targeted change management strategies. Focus on turning skeptics into advocates by addressing their concerns and highlighting the benefits of the loyalty program enhancements.

Step 5: Plan for Improvement Improvement Steps: Based on the overall and individual scores, Page 6 outlines steps that can be taken to improve both overall and individual levels of support.  Targeted Interventions: Plan interventions or discussions based on these suggestions to enhance understanding, address concerns, and build stronger support for your loyalty program enhancements.

Step 6: Follow-Up Engagement: Engage with senior leaders individually or in groups to discuss their assessment responses and any concerns they may have. Use this as an opportunity to further clarify the objectives and benefits of the loyalty program enhancements.  Continuous Evaluation: Consider making this survey an annual or bi-annual process to continuously gauge leadership support and adjust strategies as needed.