Building Materials Manufacturer Optimizes Contractor Loyalty Program

A leading building materials manufacturer needed to refine its contractor loyalty program

The Challenge

Gathering insights where previous research failed

The building materials manufacturer faced stiff competition for commercial contractor share of installations. It used contractor loyalty and reward incentives to win market share. However, it was difficult to discern how much impact these programs had on sales. The manufacturer needed a B2B market research agency with experience in construction market research to create a customer journey map of its contractor loyalty program.

Our Approach

Mixed method research study to map the customer journey

As this was the first time the manufacturer had undertaken research into its loyalty program, Werk Insight, a B2B market research company, designed a mixed method study. The aim was to determine the drivers of brand selection and the relative impact of loyalty programs and rewards, benchmarked against other drivers, such as price, availability and warranty.

In the B2B qualitative research phase, we conducted interviews with contractors that were already loyal customers to pinpoint the possible drivers of brand selection.

The insights from the qualitative research informed the questions for a quantitative survey. Due to list limitations with the client, we combined an online survey with their list of contractors with independent recruitment for quantitative self-complete surveys, with relevant contractors in competitive programs, sourced by Werk Insight.

The Insight

A more effective contractor loyalty program

The research established the potential impact of contractor loyalty programs. This included what specific benefits to offer to different types of contractors to maximize share of installations. We recommended including larger strategic changes in the make-up of the loyalty program, as well as smaller tactical suggestions about specific benefits. Our client is currently reviewing and revising its contractor loyalty program based on these findings.