Rewarding your loyal customers with customer loyalty programs is a crucial part of running your Company. However, setting up and running these programs is not as easy as it might seem at first. You must be clear with what steps you have to take and where you need to take extra care. This article covers do’s and don’ts of implementing an effective customer loyalty program.
What A Customer Loyalty Program Is?
Customer Loyalty Program refers to the plan, tools, and methods your company uses to get, involve, and keep customers.
Such programs help your brand find the right customers and then give them perks, experiences, and rewards that keep them coming back. This is the most adopted strategy, especially by all renowned companies nowadays.
Besides the customer loyalty program itself, complete loyalty management includes many parts:
- Designing the loyalty program
- Figuring out the rewards and perks
- Using technology to improve the program
- Coming up with creative ideas
- Communicating and marketing to members
- Finding new members
- Handling payments (especially for special loyalty programs)
- Providing good customer service
- Helping customers
- Making the loyalty program better over time
All of these parts must work together for the loyalty program to succeed.
Do’s And Don’ts For Its Implementation
Following are the things you need to take care of:
1. Do Keep It Simple
The saying “keep it simple” can be used for many aspects of life, including customer loyalty programs. When you start your own program, make sure the rules are easy to understand. If your customer loyalty program is simple, it’s easier for both customers and employees to understand and use it.
Anyone wants to know about the program they are signing up for. So, it is always attractive and effective to be clear about how they earn rewards, how they can use those rewards, and when points might expire.
2. Don’t ask for too much details
Make signing up quick and easy for your customers. While it’s good to get as much information from customers as you can, however, asking for too much at the start might offend them. This can affect their willingness to join your customer loyalty program.
It is always good to ask just their name, email and phone number when they sign up. You can also ask for other incidental details, like their birthday date or their likeness for the product, etc.
Just take, for example, Starbucks. It gives a free birthday drink to members of their rewards program. The company further, sends the customer an email explaining how to redeem the rewards. Therefore, by keeping it simple and clear, you help customers understand the benefits of your rewards program right away.
3. Do focus on individual experience
It is good to recognize the buying habits of your customers. This helps to tailor your brand’s customer loyalty program with rewards that make sense to your customers. Just think! you will not give free delivery to a customer who only buys your products from the store or a sign-up discount to someone who’s been loyal for two years.
By tailoring promotions for a particular group of customers, like those of a specific age, what they’ve bought before, or special moments in their relationship with your brand, you can make them feel more connected with you.
4. Don’t make it hard for customers to get the reward
If your goals for the customer loyalty program are too hard to reach, it won’t work well. No one will wait for months or a year for your reward. In the U.S., about 53% of customers signing up for customer loyalty programs leave it because it takes too long to get the rewards.
If your loyalty program gives points for every dollar spent, you can make it more exciting by offering special deals and promotions. For example, your brand can launch “buy one, get one free” plan on weekends, or give extra points for certain products. These kinds of rewards make customers more excited and talk about your program.
Remember, when you make rewards fit each customer and make it easier to get them, you can make more money and keep more customers coming back – maybe even 60% more!
5. Do give special treatment to some customers
Customers like it when you notice how much they support your brand. In fact, 57% of them say they’re more likely to join a customer loyalty program if it gives them special VIP treatment.
If you have your own VIP program, you can find your best customers and turn them into big supporters of your brand. As customers move up to the VIP levels, they can get special rewards by spending money or getting involved in different ways. For instance, you could give platinum-level members a special discount code, or let loyalty members see new products before anyone else.
6. Don’t overgeneralize your customers
Every customer is different, and they must be given different treatment in reward distribution. Giving the right rewards depending on the customer’s needs and his relationship with your brand can make them stick around for a long time. Even people who only shop once can become regular customers if you treat them right.
Surveys are a good way to find out what they like and if they’re happy with your service. Also, use the information you have about your customers to make them happy and surprise them with special treats.
7. Do keep your brand connected to the customers
Make sure customers remember your brand by sending them emails and notifications that remind them of important things, like new deals and how close they are to getting rewards. Keep them excited about new promotions and show them how far they’ve come with their rewards.
Use automatic messages to tell customers when they’re close to moving up to a new level, give them special deals on their birthday, let them know when they’ve unlocked new rewards, and tell them about upcoming promotions.
8. Do come up with creative steps and ideas
No one likes old stuff. Therefore, you must remain updated with creative and new ideas to make your customer loyalty program stand out. Try using different methods like text messages and push notifications to reach more people.
However, do not get swayed by new fashion, sometimes customers like old-fashioned things. This, for instance, includes flyers and stickers, especially when your organization still at a growing stage.
From First-Time Buyers To A Loyal Customer…
If you’re thinking about starting a customer loyalty program or want to make your current one better, remember that customers like it when rewards programs do what they promise.
You do not, however, need to take the stress!
Rewardix provides a smart platform for making, handling, and keeping track of special loyalty programs, reward plans, and promotions. Our digital tools for loyalty programs and rewards include cool things like making QR codes, instantly getting rewards, and understanding customer data.