According to a report from business analytics software company SAS and Loyalty 360, the loyalty marketer's association, marketers who reported integrating customer data with loyalty programs were much more likely to report effectiveness in their customer retention programs.

"Customer analytics are among the top two things that help ... loyalty programs," said Pamela Prentice, chief research officer at SAS. "The first is rewards [at 42 percent], and the second is customer analytics [38 percent]." Trailing behind those factors are social media and online communities.

SAS's paper favors "planting the seeds of loyalty earlier in the buy cycle" by applying analytics when prospects are still considering a purchase. "If the marketing person does a good job upfront, and uses the analytics and data they can gather, and can do good segmentation, and matches the company with the right customers, all that happens before the life cycle [begins]," Prentice said.

Not every consumer is a potential customer, and not every customer should be in a loyalty program. "Companies are still struggling to determine which segments are their best," she said. Organizations may want to release some customers from these programs to invest in better matches.