Loyalty programs have been there for years. Customers earn points for business with a brand, and the brand, in turn, nurtures the customer for more and more business. It is a win-win for both. However, the design of a loyalty program determines whether the customer feels value and thus starts nurturing the brand with more business. Further, they become brand advocates promoting in social media, word-of-mouth referrals, product reviews, and participation in promotions. If customer engagement is achieved, we can say the loyalty program is successful.
Does your company’s loyalty program work?
Loyalty programs are not just about customer acquisition; it is about customer retention and beyond. It is essential to do the homework before you roll it out. Many companies report great success but fail to analyse the sales data to prove it convincingly. As customers want more and more, loyalty programs should be the number one priority to them. If your customers are not getting their fair share of discounts and perks, you need to re-evaluate your loyalty program design. What do you want to achieve with your loyalty program? Are you looking to generate more business, get new customers, grow your existing customer base or some combination of these?
Is customer engagement being achieved?
Most customers feel it is too time-consuming to join, and it doesn’t make sense to them at all, even for some of the established loyalty programs. They may not be familiar with the terms and how the process will work. They may also find it confusing and intimidating to give you their loyalty card and all the details needed to enable the program to activate and process the points earned. On the other hand, a new member might not figure out how it all works and therefore not even feel comfortable joining. They may never even get past the registration form, the free points, or whatever, in these scenarios, how one gets the customer engagement achieved. The only solution is to make the loyalty program design simple, joining process simple, make it primarily automatic and make it work in the background without intimidating the customer much. Retail ViVA comes with a simple loyalty program that mainly works in the background, adding points to the customer’s account, make it very easy for customers to enroll and enjoy the difference.
Conclusion
Most brands in today’s competitive market are competing for sales with one another. The question for today’s brands is; Are they doing enough to differentiate themselves from their competitors? If not, it is time to start rethinking your customers’ relationship with your brand and focus on loyalty programs. “In business, as in love, if you want a steady supply of customers, you have to provide a steady supply of loyalty, and this means you must nurture the loyalty of your existing customers as well as attract new customers.” -Sir John Hegarty. Loyalty programs are nothing new and they are still influential today. However, innovative simplicity will help get more traction from customers. Technology can make it simple and choose a Retail ERP that has a simple process for joining and accruing loyalty credits to your customers.
Written by
(Ragu)nathan Kannan