Does Your Company Need a Customer Loyalty Program?

Getting customers to purchase your products and services is often a tough battle on its own. So how do you get customers to keep coming back? In addition to offering consistent good service and follow up communication, another great way to encourage repeat customers is to create a customer loyalty program.

Do You Need a Customer Loyalty Program?

Before you create a customer loyalty program for your business, consider the services and products you offer. The best types of businesses for implementing a customer loyalty program are ones where customers are likely to need to return often, such as a coffee shop or grocery store. The classic examples that work well here are punch cards and rewards cards that give customers discounts after a certain amount of visits or dollars spent.

However, customer rewards programs aren’t limited to these types of businesses. For instance, if you own a car dealership, you may not expect your customers to return to make another new car purchase very soon. But, you should offer a rewards program for your service and parts center for customers who regularly get maintenance from your dealership.

Don’t Limit Your Rewards to Monetary Incentives

While offering discounts and cash rewards for customer loyalty are great incentives for customers to return, don’t limit yourself to these two ideas. This is especially true if your business caters to higher income customers, like a luxury car dealership. For customers who don’t need discounts or more cash, add a personal touch to your customer rewards by giving them a personalized gift box after a certain number of purchases. These sorts of rewards affirm the positive relationship you have with your customers while making for a memorable experience.

Don’t Limit Your Customer Loyalty Program to Your Current Customers

You can use incentives to reward your current customers while creating new customers at the same time. You can offer cash back, discounts or special gifts to customers who are referred to your business along with the people who referred them.

Don’t Limit Rewards for Sales

Similarly, you can also provide rewards for actions customers take that help your business other than buying something. For instance, you can provide a coupon or rewards points for leaving a review or filling out a survey. You can also offer a reward for sharing a post on social media, filling out contact information, or for signing up for a newsletter. Each of these actions benefits your company by spreading the word about you and keeping you top-of-mind.

Keep Your Rewards Consistent

One of the major challenges of coming up with a customer loyalty program is finding a good balance. You may have to experiment a little to find the solution that gets you the best profits, but be sure to stay consistent once you do. Creating expectations is the way to get customers to come back, and if their expectations aren’t met, you’ll end up alienating people. Find the customer loyalty program that works best for your business, stay consistent, follow through, and you’ll have success.