How to increase customer loyalty with Gamification in 2025

The loyalty journey is broken

Literally.  

According to DACH loyalty expert, Alexander Süßel, we’re seeing some staggering numbers in 2025 after half a decade of intense transformation in loyalty.

During the attention economy, brands competed for clicks and conversions. Loyalty programs operated like walled gardens, trading discounts for short-term engagement.  

In an emerging connection economy, however, we’re learning that loyalty won’t ROI on short-term cycles, but rather on long-term journeys. Value isn’t measured in impressions or open rates but in emotional resonance and relationship quality. Put plainly, customers reward brands not for interrupting them, but for including them.  

So, what do shifts in consumer psychology spell for operational loyalty managers dealing with inactivity and drop off, and how can we enhance customer loyalty in the connection era driven by personalization, omnichannel loyalty journeys and intrinsic rewards, and measured in Customer Lifetime Value?

In this blog post, we’ll explore how:

• customer retention can be driven with an engagement-led loyalty journey

• marketers in 2025 can evolve their loyalty marketing strategies for today’s consumers

• brands can gamify their loyalty programs, improving customer retention by transforming static touchpoints into interactive experiences

The experience gap: why loyalty programs fail to deliver

If retention is the measurable outcome of loyalty, then the experience gap is what breaks it. It’s the widening disconnect between what customers expect from loyalty programs and what they actually get. More and more, it’s the moment when customers decide whether to bounce or keep engaging.

Engagement is the leading indicator of whether customers enjoy your loyalty environment, and the basis for whether retention flies or fails. So where does the loyalty journey usually break down? The numbers speak for themselves: 25% of mobile apps are opened only once before being uninstalled. Those that survive the first day still lose over three-quarters of their daily active users after three days.  

Your loyalty program is no different. At some stage in the customer journey, users simply drop off and don’t come back.

Modern loyalty is no longer about trading incentives for attention. The promise of downstream rewards in your customer journey alone doesn't cut it. Instead, loyalty operates at the intersection of personalization and play: the point where customer retention, our indicator for how good those relationships we build are, is primarily driven by emotional connection over material incentives. As seasoned loyalty experts ourselves, we at BRAME get that the connection economy that promotes loyalty journeys over loyalty programs hinges on one very human instinct: play.  

But most programs never reach that point. Between enrollment and reward, there’s a missing moment—the quiet gap where motivation fades and interaction stops.

That’s the gap we need to fix, but before we can close it, we have to understand why it exists.

1. Lack of emotional connection

Many loyalty programs talk at customers instead of with them. Automated offers and static tiers fail to acknowledge individual behaviors or needs, leaving users feeling unseen. When touchpoints lack recognition or emotional resonance, engagement plummets with retention in tow.

In the connection economy, loyalty managers are beginning to operate with the knowledge that, while transactional incentives can attract, only emotional loyalty—that sense of belonging and recognition around a brand—can sustain. Without it, even the most sophisticated customer retention strategy will leak attention and trust beyond the short term.

2. No real differentiation

Over the past decade, loyalty programs have converged on the same mechanics: points, levels, and limited-time discounts. These systems no longer differentiate one brand from another. In a saturated market, where consumers belong to an average of 16 loyalty programs but actively use fewer than half, sameness is the enemy of retention.

To stand out, loyalty can’t feel like a transaction. Instead, it has to feel like participation.  

Spoiler: participation is easier to generate than to emulate, but we’ll dig into gamifying loyalty later

3. Friction and fatigue in the journey

The loyalty experience often breaks at its most crucial moments—signup, reward redemption, or reactivation. Clunky UX, long reward cycles, and confusing rules create friction that kills motivation. In logged-in environments, those broken touchpoints are catastrophic.

For loyalty programs, that means members drop off not because they dislike the brand, but because there’s no engaging reason to continue the journey.

4. Passive engagement between interactions

Even when customers stay enrolled, they often disengage between reward cycles. Loyalty programs that rely solely on transactional moments, like purchases or referrals, leave long gaps of inactivity. Without proactive touchpoints or interactive experiences to bridge those gaps, loyalty becomes dormant.

The brands that thrive are those that keep customers playing between purchases, not waiting for the next one.

Bridging the gap

The experience gap doesn’t just weaken loyalty, but weakens retention, advocacy, and revenue, too. Fixing it starts with understanding where loyalty breaks down, and that begins with measuring what matters.

Customer retention vs loyalty: two sides of the same growth strategy

Customer retention and loyalty aren’t separate concepts. They’re cause and effect. Retention is what we can measure; loyalty is what makes it happen. Together, they form the foundation of every sustainable customer relationship.

Customer retention: the measure of connection

Customer retention and satisfaction are outcomes of your relationship-building efforts: the percentage of customers who keep engaging, buying, or subscribing over time. It’s quantifiable proof of how well your loyalty marketing strategy is working.

In 2025, retention is about more than just preventing churn. It’s about maintaining consistent value across every touchpoint to make sure your customers have no reason to drop off and become another glaring customer loyalty and retention statistic. Broken experiences, generic communication, or long reward cycles can break that chain instantly.

Retention metrics like churn rate, retention rate, and customer lifetime value (CLV) measure how long customers stay. But they don’t tell you why they stay. That’s where loyalty comes in.

Customer loyalty: the emotion behind retention

Loyalty is the emotional and behavioral driver of retention—the why behind every repeat purchase, every brand recommendation, every customer who stays even when competitors offer more.

Where retention is science, loyalty is sentiment. It’s not earned through transactions but through trust, recognition, and relevance.

In 2025, loyalty depends on personalized experiences that make customers feel seen and appreciated. And increasingly, those experiences are becoming interactive.

Our quick fire differentiation?  

Retention tells you how many customers stayed. Loyalty explains why they did.

How to measure customer retention and loyalty

If loyalty is the emotional driver and retention is the measurable outcome, the next question is: how do we measure whether those relationships are actually working?

In the age of app fatigue and broken touchpoints, metrics aren’t just numbers. They’re proof of connection. A strong loyalty marketing strategy relies on tracking not just who stays, but why they stay.

Customer lifetime value (CLV)

CLV estimates the total revenue a customer contributes over their entire relationship with your brand. It’s a composite measure that helps marketers understand the long-term impact of loyalty on growth.

^{Formula: Average purchase value × purchase frequency × customer lifespan = CLV}

Brands with strong retention and loyalty programs consistently report higher CLV, proving that the more emotionally engaged your customer, the more valuable they become.

Customer retention rate (CRR)

Your retention rate measures how many customers you’ve successfully kept over a given period—whether that’s a quarter, a year, or a campaign cycle. It’s a direct indicator of how well your customer retention strategy performs.

^{Formula: (Customers at end of period – new customers acquired) ÷ customers at start × 100 = retention rate (%)}

A rising retention rate means your experience is sticky. A declining one signals friction and can indicate broken loyalty touchpoints that fail to hold attention.

Customer churn rate

Churn measures the percentage of customers who leave during a given timeframe. It’s the mirror image of retention, and a key health check for your customer journey.

^{Formula: (Customers lost ÷ customers at start) × 100 = churn rate (%)}

High churn often points to low engagement, poor onboarding, or incentive fatigue, all areas where gamified loyalty interventions can make a measurable difference.

Net promoter score (NPS)

NPS remains the gold standard for measuring emotional loyalty. It asks one simple question: “How likely are you to recommend our brand?”

Respondents rate you on a 0–10 scale:

• Promoters: 9–10

• Passives: 7–8

• Detractors: 0–6

^{Formula: (% Promoters – % Detractors) = NPS}

A score above zero indicates positive loyalty; 80+ puts you among top performers. NPS reveals the strength of advocacy that retention metrics alone can’t capture.

Repeat purchase rate (RPR)

Repeat purchase rate measures how effectively your brand encourages repeat transactions; it’s the lifeblood of loyalty-driven growth.

^{Formula: (Customers with multiple purchases ÷ total customers) × 100 = RPR (%)}

The higher your RPR, the more your experience resonates. If it’s lagging, your program may need more engaging rewards or challenges to motivate return visits.

Customer loyalty index (CLI)

The CLI is a more holistic measure that blends repurchase intent, advocacy, and resistance to competitors. It’s often used to gauge emotional loyalty at scale.

Customers typically answer three questions:

1. How likely are you to recommend us?

2. How likely are you to buy again?

3. How likely are you to try our other products?

Responses are averaged on a 1–6 scale to produce a single loyalty index score. A strong CLI indicates customers not only stay, but want to stay. It’s a sign your loyalty experience is delivering true connection.

Measuring what matters

Tracking these metrics side by side reveals the full picture of loyalty performance:

• Retention metrics show how well you’re maintaining relationships.

• Loyalty metrics reveal the emotional strength behind them.

In a world where the better half of loyalty members disengage within months, investigating your ecosystem at the hand of a combination of both can illustrate the big picture effectively. They're at the heart of every effective loyalty marketing strategy, because what gets measured gets optimized.

Now that we’ve explored what the experience gap is and why it’s impacting loyalty, let’s dig into how loyalty managers and marketers can start tackling its weak spots.

Gamifying loyalty: how to reconnect with consumers in 2025

Gamified loyalty adds what traditional loyalty models lack: meaningful, interactive touchpoints that keep customers emotionally engaged as they move through your loyalty journey. It merges behavioral science, intrinsic motivation, and interactive marketing to continuously re-engage customers, keeping that quarter of potential drop-offs who only use it once active, and those who stay coming back for more.  

Traditional loyalty programs reward behavior. Gamified loyalty programs motivate it. Where legacy systems rely on points, discounts, and delayed gratification, Gamification brings real-time engagement and emotional participation into every stage of the loyalty journey.

The logic is simple: when people play, they engage. When they engage, they connect. And when they connect, they stay.

Why Gamification works

At its core, Gamification turns passive participation into interactive experiences. It’s grounded in behavioral science, the same principles that drive 3 billion gamers worldwide to return daily for progress, mastery, and recognition.

In loyalty marketing, those same mechanics transform static programs into dynamic ecosystems.

• Intrinsic motivation: Customers stay engaged because they enjoy the process, not just the payout.

• Continuous engagement: Interactive missions and challenges keep attention alive between reward cycles.

• Emotional connection: Recognition and progress create a sense of belonging, not just brand preference.

This shift from extrinsic to intrinsic motivation is what defines emotional loyalty. It’s not about rewarding the end of the journey, but rather about keeping customers inspired along the way.

Putting gamified loyalty into practice

For us, Gamification is a framework for rebuilding how customers experience loyalty. To translate the principles of play into measurable retention and growth, marketers and loyalty managers can focus on five core strategies to increase customer loyalty, along with a few tips from our own loyalty experts.  

1. Design for personalization and participation

Emotional loyalty starts with relevance. By combining data-driven personalization with interactive mechanics, brands invite customers to actively shape their own experiences. Gamified touchpoints turn participation itself into a reward, while capturing valuable zero-party data that powers future engagement.

Pro tip: Use behavioral data to dynamically adapt missions and challenges based on user preferences and frequency.

2. Foster emotional loyalty and community

Customers want rewards, but they arguably want recognition more. Gamification creates shared moments of achievement and belonging that make loyalty social, not transactional. When players compete, celebrate, and collaborate within a brand’s ecosystem, loyalty turns from individual action into community action that almost co-creates brand experiences.

Pro tip: Add leaderboards, team challenges, or shareable achievements to make loyalty programs emotionally resonant and socially visible.

3. Innovate continuously with Gamification

Static loyalty programs lose traction over time if no content updates are made. Seasonal games, rotating missions, and limited-time events keep experiences fresh and anticipation high. The most effective brands treat their loyalty programs like live platforms: always updated, always engaging.

Pro tip: Refresh campaigns quarterly to align with key retail moments and consumer trends in your space.

4. Make loyalty omnichannel

Loyalty is generated by brand as much as anything. Embedding gamified experiences across your website, app, email, and retail touchpoints creates consistency and connection throughout the broader loyalty journey. Every touchpoint becomes an opportunity to re-engage and reward.

Pro tip: Distribute your campaign via links, iframes, or QR codes to unify the digital and in-store experience.

5. Turn engagement into growth

Engagement is only as valuable as the outcomes it drives. Gamified loyalty programs transform participation into measurable business impact, from higher repeat purchases to increased CLV and stronger advocacy. With integrated analytics, marketers can track, optimize, and scale engagement in real time.

Pro tip: Benchmark and monitor KPIs like participation rate, repeat visits, and voucher redemption to measure both retention and emotional impact around your core initiatives.

For us, these five principles are key in helping marketers and loyalty managers close the gap between engagement and growth. So, how can you fill those gaps in your loyalty journey with meaningful experiences that spark emotion and action today?