Amdocs has revealed the findings of a consumer and service provider survey, which has revealed that mobile financial service (MFS) providers are failing to fully realise the potential of loyalty programmes to drive revenue growth. A significant gap exists between what customers want and what they are offered. This is especially true for unbanked users: 80% are not enrolled in any loyalty programme. The findings also reveal a lack of awareness of the types of loyalty programmes being offered.
The survey, which was commissioned by Amdocs and conducted by analyst and consultancy firm Ovum, focused on banked and unbanked users of MFS worldwide. It surveyed 1,800 consumers and 42 service providers across nine countries in emerging and mature markets including the United States, Singapore, Russia, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines, Bangladesh and Vietnam.
“MFS providers who employ loyalty programmes to engage and retain customers are better placed to increase usage and adoption of their mobile wallet service, thereby driving revenue growth,” said Eden Zoller, the principal analyst at Ovum. “However they must still address the gaps that exist between what customers want and what they are being offered.”
The report found that only half of service providers offer tiered loyalty programmes. Of these, 79% said that the prospect of earning higher tier points incentivises customers to use their services more. Consumers however, still lack awareness of such programmes, with 19% saying they didn’t know if their loyalty programme was tiered.
MFS-linked loyalty programmes represent a highly untapped market, according to the report which uncovered that 56% of respondents were not members of an MFS-linked loyalty programme. One-third of these were not offered any such programme. Of unbanked respondents, who stand to benefit most from MFS-linked loyalty programmes, only 22% said they were registered to one.
“The mobile financial industry is looking for ways to accelerate usage and drive growth, while delivering a consistent and simplified experience,” said Patrick McGrory, division president for Amdocs’ Emerging Offerings. “Amdocs Loyalty Management System, which we launched today, is a simple and scalable solution that enables service providers to integrate multiple loyalty programmes into one wallet. It simplifies the consumer experience, while helping service providers retain and engage existing customers, attract new ones and increase mobile wallet usage.”
Amdocs has also launched its MFS Loyalty Management System, which allows MFS providers to integrate all loyalty programmes and cards from various retailers, merchants, billers and so on into one mobile wallet. The loyalty management system is fully integrated into Amdocs MFS solution which holds and manages subscriber loyalty account information. It is also integrated with Amdocs MFS card management system, which can link virtual or physical loyalty cards to a loyalty program.
