Benefit Beyond Financially From Your Loyalty Card Scheme

Loyalty Schemes = Long Term Profits

While the common purpose of business is to make a monetary profit, there are many other ways to add value to your company’s ventures that benefit you and your customers – namely schemes that instil loyalty. It may be tempting to remain fixated on the numbers on the bank balance and ensuring line charts are incrementally increasing, however, this strategy could have you winning in the short-term but potentially impact the long-term viability of your business. Arguably, although owners and shareholders should predominantly reap the rewards of the efforts of the business, it certainly doesn’t do any harm to produce bonuses for your loyal customers. Focussing on your customer relationship management strategy will see shoppers’ satisfaction levels rise and their spending levels with it.A goal-orientated and well-planned loyalty scheme can transform your customers into brand advocates who not only give you their return custom, but also recommend other people to use your business. This kind of endorsement is far more powerful than any campaign you would run yourself to win new customers and could reduce your marketing and acquisition costs considerably.Through creating a business philosophy whereby customers are regarded as a priority, you can make your customers feel like VIPs whenever they shop with you.

Devising Your Loyalty Scheme

There are many things to determine when implementing a loyalty scheme, follow these tips to help make your campaign a success:

Tip 1:

As with all marketing campaigns, it is important to define an audience for your efforts. A targeted campaign will inevitably be more successful, but it’s also important to not alienate any segments of your target market. For example, it would be unwise to offer a loyalty scheme solely for those over a certain age or those who only shop online. This could cause those who do not meet the scheme’s criteria to feel as though they are not deemed to be important to your business.

Tip 2:

People enjoy loyalty schemes because it gives them a sense of added value on top of their purchase. Therefore, it is vital your scheme offers a value proposition your customers will appreciate and will feel is worth their repeated custom.
It is also important to get the timing right and think about whether you will be offering instant or delayed rewards to your customers as this can have an effect on how valuable the customer views the loyalty scheme. For example, you could find that delayed rewards are less engaging for some customers as they will not see the benefits of their custom instantly.

Tip 3:

It is also worthwhile to ensure the reward you provide is in exchange for a particular action that will add value to your business. For example: if you’re aiming to achieve an increase in market share, one way to do this is to encourage existing customers to become repeat customers. The theory behind this is that customers who are already engaged with your brand are more likely to spend more money with you if they were satisfied with their original purchase. Also, your benefit needs to be perceived to be worth the action you are encouraging from the customer. It isn’t likely that a customer is going to be tempted to spend over £100 just to receive a free cup of coffee. Think carefully about your reward proposition and whether it will be a “hard or “soft” benefit.

Tip 4:

It is important to ensure the longevity of your loyalty campaign and to ensure it doesn’t lose momentum. The program requires organisation and management from the offset and throughout; try to keep databases of customer information and use it to communicate and engage with loyalty scheme members.One thing to bear in mind is how you choose to verify membership of the scheme – this is commonly done using a physical card. Where budget allows, it is highly recommended that businesses invest in a plastic card scheme as opposed to a board-based card. The obvious reason for this is not only does a plastic card give a better impression of your business, but it also has a longer life. You also have the option of creating key tag cards which act as mobile advertisements for your business and are more likely to be used by customers as they are more likely to have them on their person.

There are many other considerations when implementing a loyalty card scheme, but what is fundamental is ensuring you’re providing benefits to your key stakeholders as well as adding value to your business.If you’re considering implementing a plastic loyalty card scheme, use Simply Plastic Cards’ website to get an online instant quote.