Numerous firms currently view customer loyalty programs as crucial, especially those used by retailers.
They lie within the scope of rather defensive strategies aimed at keeping customers (De Souza 1992, Reichheld 1993, Vavra 1993, Jones and Sasser 1995) and rely on a double belief that keeping a customer is less costly than gaining a new one, and that the best customers are the most profitable ones.

By customer loyalty program one means a set of actions devised so as to stimulate and keep up with some customers, and so as to minimise loss, namely the rate of lost customers, and increase the amount of purchases.
These programs often consist in issuing loyalty cards. Their use is widespread among retailers, airlines, car rental companies, film developers…, that is to say in all the sectors that deliver a good or a service in regular use and of a relatively high unit value.

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analysis of the efficiency of loyalty programs.pdf