Even the most successful business will reach a point where revenue begins to level off or plateau if the product or service remains static. In order to keep it from entering a stage of diminishing returns, it’s important for business owners to identify what options are available to ensure a steady—if not increasing—flow of traffic. As the marketplace continues to get saturated with competition and customers have shorter attention spans, brand loyalty is much harder to instill organically. Without succumbing to the pressure of reducing your margins, there must be other ways to get people to notice you, to want your product, and to come back again and again, right? Excellent service is one way to be remembered, but it doesn’t significantly capture the value-added scenario that so many customers require in a crowded market.
Recently, Chipotle announced their plans to launch their very first rewards program. Such programs can help create brand loyalty by catering to the needs and desires of your most valuable customers and rewarding them for their continued business. The Wise Marketer identified 15 major benefits of deploying a loyalty initiative, including relationship building—which aids in the retention of existing customers—as well as the acquisition of new customers. As a result, better relationship management creates stronger brand advocacy as you build trust with your target demographics.
The data that a smart loyalty program can provide also enables you to be more agile with your inventory and your price points. Having the ability to segment your customers provides you with insights that can help you understand what each segment buys, how much they’re willing to spend, and how you can upsell and add on items that they actually want. There are a variety of options to choose from when it comes to the types of loyalty programs, but the key to success is choosing one that is easy for you to manage, is the most appealing to your customers, and provides the highest returns for your business.
Points are a great way to attract customers, as many of today’s top credit card companies have discovered. For every specific increment spent, whether one, five, ten dollars, or more, your customers can earn a specific number of points. Once they've reached a predetermined level, they’re able to redeem those points for a specific reward. One great thing about this method is that you can offer tiers of rewards. For example, you might have two very different, but very loyal types of customers. Your first customer might spend a lot on a semi-regular basis, but your second customer may spend a much smaller amounts but on a much more consistent frequency.
Catering your rewards so that your low dollar and high dollar customers are both able to claim rewards that fit their spending habits is going to engage them and improve their overall Customer Lifetime Value. Rewards, too, can be catered to your customer’s needs. Whether you distribute coupons or complimentary items, it’s important to remember that your rewards should align with customer preferences and not merely be used an opportunity for you to offload unsuccessful inventory.
What's more is that nearly 25% of customers get frustrated when businesses fail to recognize them as having done business before. An integrated loyalty program can provide an opportunity to engage your customer beyond the walls of your establishment. You can build customer profiles that track shopping preferences and habits and enable you to develop more targeted rewards just for them. With 75% of U.S. companies agreeing that loyalty programs generate a vital return on investment, it’s becoming increasingly necessary to incorporate a loyalty program into your business.
Revel Systems offers a loyalty program that integrates with our Point of Sale, making it easier than ever to deploy the right program for your business. You get total control of program customization and have a single portal for all of your customer information so that you can stay up-to-date on their activity. What’s more is that you can empower your customers to engage with your rewards program easier than ever by going cardless—all that is required is the customer’s phone number at checkout. Contact us to learn more about what a loyalty program would like for your business.
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