Getting to the checkout without hearing that phrase is a modern feat of humankind. Retailers, financial services, and expanding sectors like drugstores and restaurants know that loyalty membership programs are one of the easiest ways to get individual data on shoppers while enhancing the brand-to-consumer relationship. But when shoppers are asked (and asked, and asked again), they often can’t see the forest for the trees—that a loyalty program is an opportunity for consumers themselves to customize a relationship with brands.

The average number of loyalty programs per US household has grown to 29, based on data gathered by Colloquy. That same loyalty data shows that only 42 percent of those memberships are currently active. Just imagine what advantages consumers are missing out on when over half of their memberships are disused. Enrollment doesn’t necessarily mean engagement.

In an offline world the enrollment of a customer into the loyalty program is the main metric associates are measured to determine if they are pushing the loyalty program. I have never liked this metric, because it doesn't measure the true purpose of a loyalty program.

The true purpose of a loyalty program is to get your customers to engage with it. Enrollments are a byproduct of engagement. The metric that should be used is an engagement %. Instead of measuring the Enrollments by associate, a better metric would be to measure the amount of sales tracked with a loyalty rewards number versus the total amount of sales for each associate. The higher the %, the better the associate. When this engagement % increases, I will guarantee the enrollments will increase with it. Plus it enforces associates to be on the lookout for the best customers, not just the customers that will help them reach their goal of enrollments.