3 Tips for Creating a Successful Customer Loyalty Program

Think about the companies you shop with on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis. Each one of them probably has some kind of loyalty program that has you collecting points or receiving discounts. Even retail giant, Nordstrom, hopped on the customer loyalty bandwagon through adding a regular customer loyalty program outside of their exclusive loyalty debit and credit cards.

The fact that most retailers and brands are implementing customer loyalty programs is no coincidence. Adding a customer loyalty program has many benefits including:

• Boosting sales – With an incentive to earn rewards or discounts, customers are enticed to spend more in order to earn their benefits.
• Happy customers – Shoppers expect to receive benefits from the companies they shop with. Whether you offer discounts, free products, or money back, everyone loves rewards which will keep customers coming back.
• Reaching new markets – Loyalty programs allow you to reach the masses with discounts, but also provide you with a way to segment offers by affiliation such as student, military, teacher, employees, or even professionals in the industry.
• Market research – By reaching out to different markets, you gain insight into important data such as what types of customers are shopping with you, what they are buying, where they are shopping, and how much they are spending.
• Customer interaction – Having a loyalty program gives you the excuse to interact with your customers and keep them updated on your promotions and exclusive offers via email, mailings, SMS message, etc.

While implementing a customer loyalty program may seem daunting, it’s not as hard as one might think and the benefits are worth it. Here are 3 pro tips to help create a success customer loyalty program:

1. Ask for the right information – While customers want access to your rewards and discounts, their personally identifiable data is not always worth giving up to save money. Stick to asking for simple information like name, email address, affiliations, or phone number and avoid getting too personal by asking for social security number or other highly secure information. In the survey College Student Buying Behaviors, 88% of students said they would not be willing to give out their social security number in exchange for a discount.

2. Simple and consistent offers – There is nothing worse than signing up for a customer loyalty program and not knowing how it works. Complicated systems typically end in confused customers and frustrated employees. To ensure that your discounts and rewards are successful, make sure to implement an extremely basic system. Whether it’s one point in exchange for every dollar spent or 10% off every purchase, keeping everything transparent and consistent helps to avoid any misunderstandings.

3. Get exclusive – Offering general customer loyalty programs is great, but why not offer something extra special to the military, student, and teacher markets, or even your VIPs? Markets like teachers and the military love when companies give back by offering exclusive discounts and rewards as a thank you. In fact, 84% of teachers and administrators said that they are more loyal to brands that offer teacher discounts. With over 4 million educators in the US alone, that’s a huge market of potentially lifelong customers.

Eligibility verification is a great way to make sure that your exclusive offers are only applied to the shopping carts of your customers who truly qualify. It also helps you to personalize your customer loyalty program like never before. Learn more about eligibility verification.

Recommended for You Webcast, September 14th: Time Mastery for Marketers

Creating a successful customer loyalty program can be challenging, but asking for the right information, creating simple and consistent offers, and providing exclusive deals to target consumer groups will help to put you ahead of the competition and yield highly beneficial results.

Author: Madeline Boehmer

I am currently the Communications Specialist at SheerID, an innovative technology company that specializes in online discount verification and management. SheerID's flagship platform offers instant, accurate identity verification, enabling retailers and associations to offer exclusive, targeted discounts and special offers online. ... View full profile ›

---

More by this author:

Follow Madeline Boehmer:

Let's block ads! (Why?)

3 Tips for Creating a Successful Customer Loyalty Program