One million Absa customers use rewards offering

This year the bank's rewards programme has had an impressive 64% year-on-year growth rate in membership acquisition, largely achieved through the efforts of the Absa branch network and the affinity all Absa employees have with the rewards offering.

According to head of Retail Markets, Arrie Rautenbach, this milestone is particularly significant because the popularity of the young rewards programme had risen sharply in a short period of time where the bank is optimistic that if such momentum is maintained Absa rewards shows great potential to achieve new records.

Retail partners

Rautenbach said the loyalty programme had not only been key to retaining and signing up new customers, but provided a vehicle for Absa business units to effectively co-campaign with more than 60 retail partners on the programme to unlock mutual value and delight customers, while further distinguishing Absa as being one of the banks in South Africa to introduce a cash rewards banking programme.

"That's what makes it unique - you earn real cash, not points and can therefore choose exactly how you would like to reward yourself. Putting cash back in customer's pockets will provide a much needed reprieve for many households, especially at a time when many people are looking for ways to save," says Rautenbach.

Since October this year Absa Internet banking customers are also able to seamlessly redeem their cash rewards balances online into Absa investment products, Absa transactional accounts, charities, shopping mall vouchers and airtime vouchers.

Up to 1% cash back

The bank's rewards programme enables people the ability to transact safely through the promotion of the convenience of card usage. It rewards customers for doing nothing more than shopping using their Absa debit, cheque or credit card to earn up to 1% of total purchases back in cash rewards.

The 1% cash back on total purchases is applied to all spend, while it also builds a healthy cash rewards balance that can be significantly more beneficial than what other programmes offer, for example, on, fuel purchases. Additional cash rewards are earned when shopping at the bank's retail partners and customers also benefit from a range of free value added services that form part of the holistic rewards offer.

"Our rewards programme has proven to motivate cardholders to activate their cards and use them frequently. In response to the lure of accumulating cash rewards, loyalty-driven cardholders use their cards almost twice as often as non-participating cardholders. In our journey to become more client focused we have put customer loyalty at the heart of our growth strategies. We believe this will be the best path forward for retail banks in the years ahead," concludes Rautenbach.