‘Social distancing’ is a concept that most of us had never come across before the outbreak of covid-19. Now many people around the world are having to adapt their personal and professional lives radically to adhere to rules about staying at home and self-isolation.

Our human need for face to face communication and camaraderie has been put on hold indefinitely. But within days of ‘lockdown’ there was a surge in people using social media and video platforms.

As Covid-19 continues to create chaotic and challenging business condition’s many industry sectors have seen a collapse in sales and huge downturns in trading. Lack of sales is like a horror movie for all businesses. And if your company has a loyalty programme, how can you maintain participant engagement, when the core concept of rewarding for sales has been eliminated?

The answer is to use this downtime as an opportunity.

When companies face the prospect of Working From Home (WFH) the first expletive by many forced to do so is usually WTF! As Covid-19 grips the planet and forces most of us into social distancing and self-isolation, a new vocabulary is not the only thing we’re finding ourselves having to adopt. Many organisations are now facing the prospect of forcing their employees to WFH.

How can you give resellers and business partners in your distribution channel a competitive edge and persuade them to sell your products rather than those of a rival vendor?

The answer is ‘enablement’ – in other words, you need to give your resellers the skills and product knowledge to sell your solution or services effectively to their end customer. But how do you convince stakeholders to invest?

Voluntary executive learning is an important element of many B2B loyalty and channel programs. Indeed the cost effectiveness that the digital revolution has offered to program sponsors allows for the deployment of online e-learning modules quickly, covering remote geographies and in multiple languages.

Whilst the digital revolution encompassing online platforms has heralded a new age in corporate learning, the advancement in learning structure and content has not moved at the same pace.

One of the growing challenges facing all loyalty practitioners is how to drive higher levels of engagement. Traditional methods such as bonus points and bespoke communications, whilst still effective, are losing their impact, particularly when competitor loyalty programs are also engaging in these tactics.

Our research has shown greater loyalty (measured by sales and other valued added behaviours) amongst program participants who are active in enablement tasks, compared to those who are not.  In looking at correlations between those participants who have undertaken enablement tasks, versus those who have not, we have observed three traits....