Nowadays, every business seems to have a customer loyalty program, and that means you have to work harder to get yours to stand out.
Once upon a time, you could give your business an edge over the competition simply by having a customer loyalty and rewards program. Now, however, it seems that every company's got some sort of loyalty scheme, and this means it's not as much of a differentiator anymore.
But that's only if you create a drab, everyday loyalty program that your target market will have seen everywhere else. If you can get yours to stand out, you will still be able to beat the competition.
What is a loyal customer really?
Loyal customers aren't just regular customers. These days, with the broad range of product and price comparison tools out there, not to mention Google reviews, there is no guarantee that you can get repeat customers in the same way as was once possible. To be truly loyal, a customer must:
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Be willing to spend more.
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Return to you time and again.
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Cost less to keep happy.
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Share their passion for your brand with their friends and family, who in turn will become loyal customers.
When done well, rewards programs can create genuinely loyal customers. Nearly two thirds (60 per cent) of consumers say loyalty programs influence where they make a purchase, according to research from Forrester, while Talech has found that 87 per cent of consumers want stores to have a loyalty program.
Ways to make your customer loyalty and rewards program stand out
To ensure your program inspires true loyalty among your customers and really stands out, you need to ensure it is genuinely valuable to consumers. There are several ways to do this:
1) Give loyalty program members special treatment
To see the value in your loyalty program, customers must feel that they are receiving rewards and discounts they can't get elsewhere. Make sure you're offering enticing rewards - discounts for things that they will actually find useful or inspiring, such as food shops or travel, will be much appreciated.
2) Offer personalisation and choice
Linked to this is the need to give customers a choice of reward. All too often, businesses choose to offer extremely rigid but easy to manage loyalty programs, and this is often a turn off for customers who want a higher degree of flexibility. That's why Power2Motivate has a cloud-based global rewards gallery that lets customers take control of their own programs. Whether they want supermarket discounts, money off transport and travel, or other special offers, the power is in their hands.
3) Make the registering and points system easy to use
One of the biggest turn offs for customers is having a loyalty program that's complicated or difficult to register for. You want to make the process as easy as possible, so ensuring it remains online and user friendly is a must.
4) Collect data and act on it
Loyalty programs don't just exist to inspire repeat customers. They also give you access to invaluable information regarding your target market's spending habits. So ensuring you have the right data tracking tools behind your loyalty and rewards program is a must. Power2Motivate's real-time reporting function means you can measure ROI, understand what drives your customers, and collect a broad range of information in order to get closer to them.
This means you can both improve your customer loyalty and rewards program by ensuring it meets consumer demands and measure how effective your products and branding are as well.
For more information on starting a customer loyalty and rewards program with Power2Motivate, reach out today.