Audi expands customer loyalty program

AUDI has started rewarding even more of its rusted-on punters with invitations to track days, and sporting and cultural events, as part of an expansion of its customer loyalty program.

However, to experience the full red carpet treatment, customers will need to qualify for the top tier of the two-level Audi Experience program – reserved for those who spend the most money with the brand.

Audi Australia corporate communications manager Anna Burgdorf said the program was expanded to include more owners after the brand’s most loyal customers responded well to the special treatment

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“A lot of what we do as a business is our customer relationship management piece,” Burgdorf said. “We’ve recently launched a new loyalty program to work even more closely with those customers who are repeat purchasers.

“We just launched six weeks ago. It’s a continuation of the Audi Lifestyle experiences programs that we launched in 2012 where we work with and host our high-net worth customers; now we have a couple of tiers.”

Audi customers who spend $150,000 or more are invited to the highest level of the German luxury carmaker’s rewards program. Those who spend $80,000 or more will be invited to join up as second-tier reward customers.

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It’s an expansion of the Lifestyle program introduced in 2012 to reward Audi’s most well-heeled customers with exclusive invitations to various events sponsored by the carmaker, as well as the Drive Experience series of track days.

It would also make the ownership experience easier for customers, Burgdorf said.

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“It depends on your lifetime spend with Audi,” she said. “It’s about offering access to loan cars when you’re having a vehicle service and it’s also our customer experience events that we host with our brand ambassadors.

“It’s a way for us to connect more closely with our owners.”

Burgdorf said the loyalty program would also encourage customers to stick with Audi the next time they bought a car.

“Loyalty for us as a brand is important because it means we are doing a good job from a customer service perspective,” she said.

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“We want people to come back to the brand not only for the vehicles that we sell and the product, which we know is good as are a number of other brands but we want it to be about that experience – part of the Audi lifestyle, part of the Audi family.

“So we do put a lot of stock into being able to welcome customers back and move them through the range”.