THE BOND LOYALTY REPORT™ RELEASED IN COLLABORATION WITH VISA EXPLORES KEY SHIFTS IN LOYALTY AND THE BRANDS WHO WIN

Loyalty programs are more popular than ever, but not all brands deliver. The Bond Loyalty Report decodes what wins and why members are expecting more access

TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, July 31, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Bond, a leading insights-driven customer loyalty and engagement company, has released The Bond Loyalty Report 2025 edition in partnership with Visa. Now in its 15th year, the report breaks down the brands that are offering impactful loyalty experiences and showcases new challenges and solutions for brands in a competitive market space.

Consumer loyalty and engagement programs are more popular than ever but what initially brought customers into a program via points and discounting has changed. Delivering on experiences and access is now becoming more relevant to driving true customer loyalty.

The Bond Loyalty Report blends fresh new data and insights integrated with consumer behavioral science to unlock the things that resonate with customers and connect what they value today. The data digs into how brands can meet consumers' needs and provides usable information specific to their industries to create an actionable strategy for sustainable growth.

The 2025 edition unveils insight into the way brands are implementing and innovating loyalty and engagement strategies effectively. When evaluating 33 different drivers of customer behavior and stress testing over 250,000 consumers, Bond has seen that while we are maintaining near-record highs with the number of loyalty programs participated in by consumers at 17.4 programs each, the need to do more is necessary, according to The Bond Loyalty Report. The level of importance for granting members special access and personal experiences is increasing as it is now the top driver for perception of value, meaning it’s necessary to ensure customers feel like they matter to brands to keep pace with industry expectations.

While members continue to have record high positive attitudes towards loyalty programs overall, when scoring specific program performance, Bond is seeing year over year declines in overall satisfaction, an indication that these programs are no longer meeting expectations, with only 48% of Americans and 32% of Canadians saying they are “very satisfied” with their loyalty program, as stated in The Bond Loyalty Report. Bond predicts that without properly demonstrating that they value their program members, companies will face challenges when looking to keep them engaged and growing their share of wallet.

“Customers are now putting an enhanced focus on the importance of experience value and for the first time in a long time a decline in the importance in financial value – they want access and to feel special,” says Maegan O'Neill, VP of Strategy and Insights at Bond.

Getting your customer data isn’t the hard part, it’s doing something meaningful that’s the challenge. “Customers are comfortable sharing their data and information with brands if it means that they will provide experiences catered to them as members of the program,” according to O'Neill.

More than just a simple poll of the market, The Bond Loyalty Report examines multiple layers of zero, first, and third-party data and proprietary modelling to get an accurate picture of what people are thinking, saying and doing. Leveraging consumer spend data examining over 7 billion financial transactions with Bond’s proprietary WalletIQ analysis and industry-specific views of the market in over 20+ sectors, there is an understanding in not only how customers behave with a brand, but what they do with the competition as well. Referencing over 37 million data points and evaluating over 395 of the leading loyalty and reward programs, Bond’s Loyalty Report is a valuable tool for understanding customer behavior and actions when it comes to customer loyalty.

“This is not some passive report from observers of the market. This is a usable data set from fellow program designers and operators. Brands can actually use the data, and they can go from knowing to doing. It really is fuel for the future of loyalty,” says Sean Claessen, Chief Strategy Officer at Bond.

“Getting closer to your customers is the theme here. When the markets are becoming more dynamic and disrupted, a brand’s proximity to knowing their customer becomes even more important - Own the known - which is a common mantra used here at Bond,” states Claessen.

The impact of loyalty and engagement programs isn’t something that can be viewed from a one-dimensional point of view now that the industry is maturing. Bond’s proprietary Customer Engagement Index helps place a score on brand performance based on attitudinal drivers, emotional drivers and transactional drivers to get a well-rounded score on how a brand is performing as a benchmark to their industry.

With the explosion of A.I. usage across everything, The Loyalty Report also explores the use of AI in addressing needs for customers in the market. With 69% of customers now encountering a brand A.I. in some way, ensuring it is used in the right way to address their needs is paramount.

The loyalty customer is now much savvier when it comes to loyalty programs in general. Addressing this gap in perceived value through the data is something brands can find enlightening as only 1/3 of programs are currently seen as delivering true value according to the report. Brands must go beyond the simple member points and discounts to stand out. The bar has now been raised and what used to work before is now what is expected as standard procedure.

The Bond Loyalty Report is an actionable set of information customized specifically to meet brands’ needs and can be utilized as a living data set throughout the year.

The data includes frameworks, AI capabilities, and third-party sources to give brands across numerous verticals a deeper understanding of consumer behavior and help them focus on what matters most to consumers. It allows for meaningful action and strategies.

The executive summary version is now available to brands for free at BondBL.com

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About Bond:

Bond is a global insights-driven, customer engagement company that creates growth by building lasting connections between brands, their employees, and their customers. Pioneers in Loyalty Science, Bond transforms brands to be more customer-centric by combining innovative AI technologies and rigorous methodology from behavioral science and human-centered design. Renowned for the Bond Behavioral Institute, Bond’s proprietary loyalty technology, and the LX loyalty cloud platform and XI intelligence platform, Bond is a full spectrum loyalty and engagement consultancy from advisory, design and operation. It is continuously recognized for its unique approach to tapping the incredible ROI potential in known customer connections to create lasting customer growth. Based in Toronto, Canada Bond is a global company that operates multiple offices across the world to support our clients. For more information, please visit bondbl.com and follow along on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Gabby Love
Atrium PR
+1 631-805-1571
gabby@atrium-pr.com
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