Not all loyalty programs are created equal: some work like super glue to keep customers coming back again and again while others can backfire. Loyalty programs can backfire when they put too much of a burden on the customer for participation. In order to do it right, companies should look for ways to make their loyalty programs as convenient and transparent as possible to the customer.

If you've listened to your customers - or attended a retail industry conference - over the past five years, then you know that cross-channel retailing continues to be a hot topic. Not only are more and more Americans going online, but a growing percent of them use the Internet to research and purchase products. Retailers can no longer fudge their online experience; customer expectations for online customer service levels are also rising.

Loyalty cards have invaded and have taken over our lives! It all started innocently enough. It seemed like no big deal when airlines and hotels embraced the 'frequent' traveler rewards programs. We consumers embraced the idea of earning rewards for our travel.

Little did we know that loyalty cards would band together and plot to overtake our lives! The momentum built slowly so that we wouldn't notice.

Companies seeking to become more customer-centric should define the customer experience as a formal end-to-end process in their organization.

Business leaders that subscribe to the process-centric approach to business improvement understand the importance of having well-defined end-to-end processes. Typical end-to-end processes that are well-defined and optimized in businesses today include:

* Plan to Profits (Budgeting & Finance)

* Order to Cash (Operations/Order Fulfillment)

* Procure to Pay (Procurement)

* Recruit to Retain (Human Resources)

* Idea to Market (New Product Innovation)

* Forecast to Delivery (Manufacturing & Distribution)

* Market to Sale (Sales & Marketing)

For those organizations that have formally adopted a process-centric approach to business, the process is often formally defined, measured, monitored, and continually optimized.

A critical component of customer relationship management (CRM) - and yet often overlooked - is the cultivation of existing customers. We've seen it all too often; companies spend nearly all of their time and scarce resources trying to attract new customers - while existing customers are largely ignored. This practice can be costly in terms of lower profitability and higher customer turnover rates.