A reliable customer loyalty program can help your business gain significant returning revenue and encourage consumers to choose your company and stick with it.
Read these tips about how you can create a customer loyalty program that’s unique and effective for your customer base.
1. Take a look at your current customer base
In order to develop a customer loyalty program that works for your business, you need to take a critical look at your current customer base. Dig deeper into consumer behaviours like spending habits (when, how much, etc.), the method they use to make their purchases, how long they’ve been a customer, etc. You should be obtaining as much valuable information as possible and looking for ways that you can strengthen and improve your current client relationships in order to create a loyalty program that’s tailored to your current and future customers.
2. Provide reliable customer service
Customers aren’t just looking for free samples and discounts. Giveaways and perks are great incentives, but they’re not going to solve every customer concern and problem. Provide reliable service that exceeds customer expectations by genuinely listening to what they’re saying and processing their feedback with care and attention. Doing so will prove that you put your client’s needs first, and want to make sure they’re given thoughtful solutions.
3. Open up multiple opportunities for customers to enroll
You want to make sure that your customers are not limited to when they are able to enroll in your loyalty program and where they see it advertised. Once it’s launched, you should be promoting your program’s benefits in multiple ways so that the client reach is as widespread as possible. Ideas for this include sharing your program’s advantages on social media, and indicating the monetary amount that customers would potentially save if they joined your program beside their online purchase amounts.
4. Set a budget
Organizing essential details like your budget will be necessary in order to mitigate the potential costs associated with developing and launching your customer loyalty program. Managing costs accordingly from the beginning will help you establish structure, and will keep your company on track with achieving your pre-determined goals.
5. Opt-in emails
Opt-in emails solicit consumer email addresses in order to receive communication from your company. This is a super effective, simple way to ensure there is a baseline of contact between your company and a customer, where you will be able to send them promotions, updates, and important information via email. Opt-in emails are the perfect way to promote your loyalty program and encourage customers to join. This can be done using email automation tools so you can send mass emails efficiently.
6. Consistency is key
Popular fast-food franchises are successful and often favoured by customers for a key reason: they’re consistent. Customers know what to expect every time they visit, no matter where the establishment may be, and they’re not going to receive a drastically different experience based on location. Although this may seem like an insignificant detail, it’s a factor to consider when you’re trying to establish brand loyalty.
You want to deliver products and services that your customers can rely on every time they need it, without fail. If they begin to trust that your business can give them what they need and it will meet their expectations every time they get it, then it’s far more likely that they will return.
7. Lay out reasonable goals
It can be easy to become carried away and overly ambitious with goals when you’re planning out a new project like a customer loyalty program. However, it’s important to keep your objectives reasonable and attainable, so that you’re able to effectively work towards them with realistic expectations.
8. VIP memberships
If you want to add an extra layer of exclusivity to your rewards program, consider creating an advanced level in the form of a VIP membership. Introducing a VIP membership can allow customers to access specific deals, and promotional items, or even access certain products before anyone else. This option gives consumers a small sense of luxury and can be very effective in securing their loyalty if they feel like the benefits are really worth it.
9. Focus on the customer, not the competition
Although it can be necessary to scope out the competition that your company is up against, it’s not necessarily needed when you’re focused on building strong customer loyalty. Although a specific customer loyalty program may work well for one business, it’s not going to automatically work for yours. That individualized loyalty program has been explicitly tailored to their client base, and the positive results they receive may not translate to your company, even with the same approach.
There isn’t one thing that you can be doing in order to win over your clients and assume their devotion to your company over your competitors. Rather, your success is going to rest on a multitude of different factors that include aspects such as customer interactions, product satisfaction, referrals from devoutly loyal brand supporters, positive website experiences, and more.
So even if you’re tempted to mirror what other businesses are doing, just remember that what they’re doing might not work for you.
10. Adopt a multi-channel customer service system
A large part of creating a customer loyalty program is being in tune with your clients’ needs. A multi-channel customer service system is one of the best ways to achieve this. As a result, your customers will have increased access to your company’s service team, which will build more customer interactions.
Making multiple channels accessible for customer service opens the door for an omnichannel experience. This happens when a user is able to have the same, consistent experience with a brand across all platforms, channels, and devices. Being readily available to your customers through a multitude of ways will make helping them easier and more successful.
Help desk and live chat tools can be helpful for your customer service teams with covering numerous channels at once. For smaller service teams, AI software like chatbots can be incredibly useful with categorizing incoming requests and relieving some of the workload.
11. Choose a good name
Choosing an appealing name for your loyalty program is a basic, but essential detail that you should be focused on getting just right. The name you choose should be unique, peak your customer’s curiosity, and urge them to join.
Try to settle on a name that sets your program apart from the countless other loyalty discounts out there. Clever names that give a hint to the potential benefits involved, but don’t give them all away, are often the most successful at encouraging customers to learn more and eventually sing-up for them.
12. Reward a variety of customer behaviours
Think of ways that you can reward your customers beyond purchases alone. Although this is the primary option for rewarding clients, there are other ways you can demonstrate your dedication to customer loyalty.
Rewarding non-purchasing behaviour like subscribing to newsletters and blogs, engaging with product content like videos, sharing social media posts, and using your mobile app are all signs that customers are actively consuming your brand’s media, which can be just as valuable as purchasing, so reward it where you can.
13. Offer multiple rewards
Discounts are a great way to reward your customers, but it isn’t the only method you can use as an incentive. Get creative with the rewards customers can receive and think outside of the box with what you can offer. For example, customers could collect a certain number of loyalty points through every purchase and turn them into free products, tickets to local events, or a monetary amount that could be donated to a charity.
14. Make points count
If you want your customers to enroll in your brand’s loyalty rewards program, you need to offer them something valuable that will make their money worthwhile. If your loyalty program involves a cash-back system, assign a monetary value to your points so customers can clearly visualize what they’re actually worth.
15. Referral programs
An excellent way to incentivize customer loyalty and brand advocacy is by offering a reward for consumer referrals. If your offer is good enough, research has proven that customers will take the time to network your company to potential leads.
What are the benefits of creating an effective loyalty program?
1. User generated reviews
Customer loyalty programs that incentivize company reviews and ratings will encourage more authentic first-hand feedback from customers praising your business.
2. Improved customer retention
Effective customer loyalty programs encourage consumers to remain committed and can impact how much they spend and engage with your business overall. Having an additional connection to your company like belonging to a rewards program can increase the likelihood of customers returning time and time again.
3. Increased customer referrals
If someone enjoys a loyalty program, then it’s likely that they will share their positive experience and those benefits with friends, family, and acquaintances–which is a trusted form of free advertising for your company. Generating business this way can also result in higher retention rates.
4. Cost-effectiveness
In the long-run, it’s far more cost-effective for your business to retain satisfied customers than it would be to continuously churn through new ones. Taking on new customers is proven to be more costly than keeping current ones.
Conclusion:
Creating the best loyalty rewards program for your business takes careful consideration and planning, but when it’s done right, it can help maintain your current clients and bring in new ones as well. Loyalty reward programs are the perfect way to incentivize consumers for doing business with your company, so don’t hesitate to get started on crafting a program that will work best for you and your customers.
