Transform Loyalty Punch Cards for Customers with Customization and Guild Dynamics

In a recent study looking at why some massive multiplayer online games (MMOG) like World of Warcraft still commands millions of loyal players despite its eight year lineage, those engaging most with character customization and guilds were found to be the most loyal players. The TechCrunch article mentions the possibility for these elements to increase “virality” in games but there could be even greater implications for these elements to transform consumer loyalty programs for businesses.

Games like World of Warcraft are able to sustain so many loyal players over time because of how those two elements of customization and guilds continue to improve player experience long after they’ve reached and beaten the final levels (aka raid instances).

“To build a player’s feeling of ownership towards its character, game makers should provide equal opportunities for any character to win a battle,” – Lawrence Sanders, Ph.D, professor of management science and systems in the UB School of Management.

While this quote is certainly true for general on-boarding of the game, games accessible to large audiences do not necessarily explain why players can be loyal for so many years. I would argue that “building a player’s feeling of ownership” comes most from the customization that follows hunting for the best equipment in the game. Having powerful equipment is effective for playing the game but displaying that gear to fellow players, especially to those close to you, is the most rewarding feeling one can have from that ownership. Going through trials and tribulations with guildmates and sharing a collective gain of equippable status symbols is a feedback loop that can be similarly applied to effective and modern loyalty programs, especially with loyalty cards.

Traditional punch cards are flawed because they tend to reward customers for the same experiences they would likely be committing to anyway. If a punch card could instead reflect a customer’s choices and habits at a particular retail outlet rather than frequency of visits, it could produce that strong feeling of ownership towards experiences at that store. For example, if a restaurant offered a variety of meat, fish, and vegetarian dishes, then that establishment could offer a type of punch card with a template that could be colored in to reflect dietary choices. Vegetarians might have a card that offers much more earthly and green hues on their card, while the carnivores out there get dark reds and pinks adorning their punch card. This offers customers a chance to display their unique dietary choices that is engaging to see build on itself over-time. If that same restaurant were to provide discounts and incentives for like-minded eaters to come together, providing greater rewards for bigger groups, then the social aspect of guilds can begin taking place as well.

The punch card system has so much potential to be a powerful metagame that can engage with customers if it introduces these customization and guild elements in an effective matter. Why reward customers for frequency of visits when they could be playing an fast-food RPG game, leveling up their vegetarian “abilities” and dabbling with pescatarian” skills”? And this is only one infinitely expandable way to reintroduce the punch card. If customization and guilds can keep players loyal to World of Warcraft for eight years, what could that mean for your business?