America's Best Loyalty Programs 2021

Methodology

The 2021 ranking of America's Best Loyalty Programs was compiled based on the results of an independent survey of more than 4,000 U.S. customers who are members of loyalty programs of retailers or service providers in the United States. Customers were given the opportunity to evaluate various loyalty programs: in total, around 16,000 evaluations were collected. The survey period ran from October to November 2020.

We defined loyalty programs as all reward programs that provided the customer with a benefit when purchasing or using the products or services of the associated brands.

The survey was conducted on retailers and service providers from 43 categories, providing results for a broad spectrum of loyalty programs in traditional retail, online retail and service segments.

The awarded loyalty programs each received an above average overall score. The final assessment and rankings were based on six evaluation criteria:

1. Ease and Enjoyment: measures the value of the perks of being in the rewards program.

2. Benefit: measures whether the rewards are, in the customer's perception, worth being part of the program.

3. Overall satisfaction: measures whether personal expectations were fulfilled and whether the customer is satisfied with the experience of the loyalty program overall.

4. Customer support: measures the level of assistance provided to customers when signing up for the program or having trouble redeeming benefits.

5. Trust: measures the trust in the loyalty program around how they use the personal data provided through the program.

6. Recommendation: measures the likelihood of recommending the program to friends and family.

The full methodology is available here.