05 Apr How To Psycho Your Customers Using Loyalty Programs
Sales, the ever-growing headache for most stores and businesses during this pandemic. Businesses here and there have mostly adapted to having an online platform as an additional channel to obtain sales. Furthermore, since most businesses are hard at getting sales, we can see tons of businesses having promotions, free gifts and low prices to sustain their business. If this describes what you are facing, fret not, for we, have the key to help you through this tough times and it is — *drum roll* — Loyalty Programs!
As both a salesperson and a customer, I have witnessed both spectrums of the power of loyalty programs. As a customer I have gone from spending RM 30+ monthly on average on a specific store to spending RM 60+ weekly at this specific store! What’s more I am perfectly happy and satisfied spending that money here! As a salesperson, you would not believe the amount of customers I managed to convert thanks to the loyalty program the company offers! Still want a number nonetheless? 15, and in a week no less!
With the fact that the pandemic has now been listed as endemic, businesses will definitely engage in competitive price wars, additional free gifts and unbelievable promotions that will bring more harm than good. As such, it’s time for us to explore loyalty programs as a surefire way to a sustainable growth in sales and customer retention!
How To Psycho Your Customers Using Loyalty Programs
- Loyalty rewards and redemptions
- Personal touch
- Simplicity and seamless at its finest
1. LOYALTY REWARDS AND REDEMPTION
Wondering what store got me to spend so much more a week and still feel happy? Well wonder no further for it is TheFishBowl! I myself am a self-proclaimed food lover and I love to eat. I initially found out about this restaurant due to how delicious (and healthy) it was. However, it was not till recently that I realized they had a loyalty membership program that:
- Save some money on specific days on specific orders
- Allow collection of points to redeem a variety of things (including a pokebowl)
- Contains a birthday surprise! (who doesn’t love additional birthday benefits?)
As such, I signed up straight on the spot and decided to ask if my family wanted to get some takeaway too! From then onwards, my family and I tend to frequently go to TheFishBowl at least twice a week compared to previously which was once a month! I remember when I had a conversation with my family about how much we were spending on food, we justified why we spend so much from rewards perspective and the nature of the product (healthy, calorie-conscious).
That is what a loyalty program can do to your customers! You won’t need to focus on justifying your prices and the quality of your products when the customer does the justification on their own ,and are willing to do so to continue spending! As long as your product is not in bad quality, customers will definitely find reasons to purchase your product because of what they can potentially get out of being loyal to you! Be it cashback, coupons, rewards or discounts, as long as there are rewards waiting for them, you can guarantee they’ll come back with more people!
2. PERSONAL TOUCH
Unlike previous loyalty programs where you only have a physical card where you can choose from limited designs, most of the loyalty programs are now either associated with an app or a website! These allow space for personalization from the customers’ perspective as well as data collection from the business’ perspective! With all these data, we can craft targeted rewards and redemptions or even similar products according to customer behavior and spending details. This happens behind the curtains while the customer feels that the business knows what they want!
Take myself for example, I play computer games on this platform called “Steam” occasionally and would sometimes want to explore other games as well. Not only does the platform have a rewards program that rewards me for every game I buy according to the money I spent, they also use my spending behavior and my recent experiences to suggest games that I would likely enjoy! It felt very intuitive to me and I stick to this platform compared to other platforms. Furthermore, there is a personalization element to it so I can personalize it the way I want as well as purchase the games I would likely enjoy (which is how I ended up already spending more than RM 800 alone on games this year).
In short, a loyalty program not only rewards us customers, but it also creates a unique personal experience for us, using the data we are willing to provide to get a more personalized experience. At the same time businesses can use this data to further retain customers and to indirectly get us to spend more!
3. SIMPLICITY AND SEAMLESSNESS AT ITS FINEST
As a salesperson previously, at the mere mention of a loyalty program, most customers would frown and say how difficult it is or how tedious it is to register for one or mention how there aren’t many rewards that come along with the program. To their surprises, whenever I begin to show the simplicity of registering for the program, the ability to redeem their rewards anytime and anywhere with our loyalty program app as well as the variety of rewards offered, I tend to notice their hands slowly reaching into their pockets or bags and the next you know they are already at the counter making payment!
The magic here lies in the fact that customers don’t want to go through tedious processes to register for a program nor would they want to register for a loyalty program that is store/location specific. Imagine having to drive all the way to the same outlet just to enjoy the rewards that come with the loyalty program. Yikes! As such, with technology at the tip of our fingers, a seamless loyalty program that allows customers to enjoy this benefit at any outlet is a great plus to both reduce customer concerns while maximizing profit!
Especially with the existence of loyalty program apps, this can be an even more seamless process as customers can redeem their rewards, seek for help, look for outlets or even get news of new promotions form the tip of their fingers!
As both a previous salesperson and customer, I believe most modern day consumers and customers are shifting from looking for the best price to looking for the best service and rewards. As such, a loyalty program combines the two as it provides customers with the rewards they want equivalent to getting promotions and free gifts while also being able to subscribe to a program that can suggest promotions on products that are suited to their needs.
In this day of age, managing a retail business requires us to always be alert to the fast changing consumer preferences, so we can make quick and informed decisions that address the needs and demands of the customers. Nevertheless, it is not an easy task to keep track of everything without the aid of an automation system. Interested in carrying out your very own loyalty program for your business? Good news is, we do provide efficient solutions for your business. Feel free to reach out to Senwave, for the solutions to all your problems.