Marketers have concerns about the impact their retention programs are having on customer loyalty, according to the top-line findings in a paper from SAS and Loyalty 360. Only 24% of them believe their efforts are very effective in delivering desired results, while 22% indicate their programs are neutral in their impact – or worse.

A deeper dive into the research that formed the paper's backbone reveals offers insight into what shapes the best of these efforts. "Customer analytics are among the top two things that help [respondents'] loyalty programs," says Pamela Prentice, chief research officer at SAS. "The first is rewards [at 42%], and the second is customer analytics [38%]."

Social media (15%) and online communities (12%) trailed the field, she adds.

When Prentice sliced and diced the data that went into the survey she noticed that respondents who reported integrating customer data with loyalty programs were significantly more likely to report much more effective programs.