Investing in loyalty programs means investing in your business’s success
Loyalty programs aren’t just good for customers, they’re good for business. Why? Well, they help you retain customers, and customer retention is more affordable than customer acquisition. Plus, “members of customer loyalty programs are 75% more likely to make another purchase after receiving an incentive.” When businesses invest in loyalty programs they invest not just in their customers, but their own success.
Beyond the above-mentioned benefits, businesses can actually increase customer acquisition via word of mouth as well, since loyal customers will be more likely to tell others about the business. You can take this further by using a referral and/or review incentive as part of your loyalty program. For example, you can reward customers when they refer others to your business and those people make a purchase. A significant discount can be a nice reward for referrals. You can also provide a reward when customers give you a review. Here’s an example, say you have a reward system that racks up points for different actions and you reward a set number of points when a customer leaves you a review.
When you start a loyalty system, you’ll want to think carefully about what you’ll name it, what steps need to be taken to get a reward and what the rewards will be. Some examples include offering a discount for every purchase if they become a member (this is a popular loyalty program that grocery stores offer), a cashback rewards system, a punch card or a point system (as mentioned above). One real-life example is what Kohl’s offers. They have a few ways they reward customers. For one, if you sign up for their rewards program, you can earn cashback when you shop, at special times of the year they’ll even offer $10 Kohls cash for every $50 spent. They also offer special percentage discounts periodically, often providing an even better discount to those who have a Kohls’ charge card.
Another thing that companies can do to reward loyal customers is to offer a special appreciation event. This could come in various forms. One example of this is what Ollies’ does. They have an Ollies’ Army Night where anyone who has an Ollies’ card gets a certain discount on all their purchases on that specific date. It rewards the customer for being a member while also encouraging them to spend more with the business.
One more option to consider is partnerships. These can be another thing you can include in your loyalty program. Look for companies that you can partner with to provide this type of offer. Verizon and its Disney+ bundle is a great example of this type of program. If you sign up for a certain phone plan you get the added benefit of the Disney+ bundle being included in the package.
You can see how different companies offer loyalty programs that can help encourage more customers to shop with them. When it comes to creating a great loyalty program, the sky really is the limit, because there are so many options when it comes to building a program that customers will love and that will help your business thrive.
If you need help managing your loyalty program, please reach out to us at (877) 922-8877. We’re happy to help keep your customers satisfied.