If you have been in business a while, and even if you haven’t, you may have come across loyalty cards or maybe have had customers inquire about your loyalty or rewards program.
If you don’t have a loyalty card to offer them or a program they can join, you may be missing out big time on big time profits!
The facts are in:
- “Loyalty programs can generate as much as 20% of a company’s profits.”
- “The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-70%.”
- “The probability of selling to a new customer is 5-20%”
So stack the odds in your favor with a customer loyalty plan.
Loyalty cards and the programs they are associated with are fairly commonplace. You can find them almost everywhere you go now. Most large grocery chains offer loyalty programs to their patrons.
Gas stations, coffee shops, dine-in and quick-serve restaurants, frozen yogurt shops, vape shops, pet spas… even major airlines have loyalty programs.
If they think it’s important enough to offer their patrons, maybe you should too!
Loyalty cards and programs are designed for customers who have specific retailers and companies they go to for their particular needs or for certain products those companies provide. And they’re designed to keep them going there!
Big box retailers like Costco and Sam’s Club are based on this principle of loyalty. You must be a member and have their “club card” in order to shop at their stores and receive their special pricing.
Loyalty programs vary in the way they are designed and implemented. The general principle behind all of them is the same, however.
If a customer wants to be part of a loyalty program, all they have to do is fill out a form. Once they have done this, they are given a club card.
They scan their card at the checkout counter every time they make a purchase and in turn they receive discounts on their purchase or earn points towards future purchases.
Nowadays, these programs are digital. So the customer just downloads the app and signs up through there. The system and app work together to track all rewards.
And one of the great perks of this is the store or shop can send out “VIP messages” and special offers to subscribers. As quick as a text message, customers can be informed of a special.
This is a powerful way to stay in frequent communication with your customer base and to get business coming in on slow days.
What does this mean to you, Mr. or Mrs. Business Owner? How game-changing would this be for your business?
What loyalty cards do for you is provide your customers added incentives to keep coming to you for their goods and services instead of your competitors.
Even if you already have a loyal customer base, the implementation of loyalty cards and programs gives your loyal customers more of a reason to come back to your business more frequently than they already do.
For your customers, who doesn’t love to save a few bucks?
No one doesn’t love to save, that’s who.
For your business, how could you resist a program designed specifically to encourage your customers to come back more often?
My guess is you wouldn’t want to miss out on this opportunity to capitalize from something so simple yet so powerful (and in this case, free).
It is also a way for you to see what your customers tend to purchase the most.
With the implementation of sales data tracking which coincides with, or is built into, your loyalty program, you can see what is popular with each of your customers.
This information would be invaluable for your business, don’t you think?
Having the knowledge of what products your customers are most interested in will help you make sure you always have plenty of it in stock.
With the right type of loyalty program, you can actually cater to each of your customers’ specific needs and make suggestions of other items or services they might be interested in as well.
There are rules which must be followed to protect your customers’ privacy, of course, and these programs have come under some fire for what some people describe as “invasion of privacy.”
Monitoring buying habits can be misconstrued as an invasion of privacy by some people if these loyalty programs aren’t implemented and followed correctly.
It goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway because it is important) your loyalty program members’ personal information should always be secure.
Take all the proper precautions and use reliable, safe programs when collecting and storing your customer’s information.
How loyal will your patrons remain if they don’t feel like their personal information is being well guarded or is being abused in some way?
I wouldn’t stick around, that’s for sure. Would you?
Loyalty programs serve a very specific purpose and it is to encourage buying by providing incentives. Ultimately, both your customers and your business win.
The customer gets some pretty sweet discounts on the stuff they like, and you get their continued patronage.
In most cases, they come back more often than those who aren’t “in the club.”
You’d do well to promote your loyalty cards and programs to all of your customers. You will definitely see a positive increase in your bottom line. Visit our Homepage today to learn more!
