Loyalty Schemes
If you don't have a customer loyalty scheme running already then it is a good idea to start one. Having a loyalty program can make your customers return to your brand more often, make more purchases and increase their average order values. It can also reduce the number of customers who defect to your competitors.
In order to run a successful loyalty scheme you need to plan it well before you start. Having a badly planned loyalty program can actually damage your relationship with your customers. The incentives you offer your customers need to be desirable too. All too often companies think that customers want money off offers, i.e. 30p off a packet of biscuits, from their loyalty programs without realising that price might not be their customers' biggest concern. Offering your customers something extra rather than devaluing you products is often the best way to go.
Setting up a successful loyalty scheme
1. Decide which purchasing behaviour you want to encourage from the customers you target
2. Decide which segments of your customer base you will be targeting with the customer loyalty scheme. Will you be selecting your very best customers, your good customers, or everyone?
3. Decide on a budget and calculate how much you have to spend on incentives and rewards.
4. Run group and one-on-one sessions with a sample of your customer base to listen to what they want and run your ideas by them.
Analyse whether your company can cope with the potential uplift of visits and purchases.
5. Run a small trial to test the effectiveness of the loyalty scheme before you roll it out completely.
6. After seeing the results from the trial amend your loyalty program and if needed test again.
Rewarding your customers
As mentioned earlier you need to offer your customers something they want, something that will get them excited and make them want to buy more of your products. That is why many companies offer multi-store gift vouchers and gift cards as a customer incentive. Love2shop vouchers are popular because they appeal to a wide range of people and can be spent in more than 20,000 high street stores. Other loyalty schemes give their customers the ability to choose which voucher or gift card they want as a reward.
Make sure that each time you interact with a customer you take onboard the information they are telling you. If your loyalty scheme doesn't work don't be afraid to adapt it.
It is a good idea to include a 'Recommend a Friend' element to your loyalty program because this will encourage your customers to spread the word and can be very effective at bring new customers who are similar to the type of customers you already have.
Top Ten gift vouchers for Loyalty Schemes
Love2shop Vouchers
Thomas Cook Vouchers
M&S Gift Vouchers
John Lewis Gift Vouchers
Debenhams Vouchers
Spa Finder Gift Vouchers
Asda Gift Vouchers
Sainsbury's Gift Vouchers
House of Fraser Gift Vouchers
Experience Gift Vouchers
What to reward in your loyalty program
It is completely up to you what sort of behaviour you want to reward your customers for. Here are the most common:
- Repeat purchases
- Total spend
- Large/expensive orders
- Quick payment
- Time spent as a customer
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