Customer Loyalty Program: what is and what its advantages for your business
Customer loyalty program is a strategy to retaining customers increasingly popular in companies.
Great way to interact with your customers, when implemented correctly, this type of action has a significant impact on results.
What is and why invest in a customer loyalty program
Did you know that increasing your customer retention rate by just 5% can, in turn, increase your revenue by 25-100%?
That is an impressive statistic that shows the true power of loyalty.
Consumers are faced with so many options these days that it is difficult for a company to stand out in the crowd.
Fortunately, humans are inherently emotional therefore, create a great customer experience can convince them to choose your business over another.
Although many think that a customer loyalty program is intended only to benefit the most loyal customers, in fact, the ultimate goal is to get uncertain customers become loyal.
These are those who visit your company one time or another and usually spend less. Get these customers visit and purchase more is what will drive your profits.
In a competitive market, offer a customer loyalty program to your customers is a factor that weighs heavily in time of a purchase decision.
According to Matilda Dorotic, PhD, associate professor of the Marketing Department at BI Norwegian Business School, customer loyalty program is a”continuous incentive program offered by a retailer to reward customers and encourage repeat business.”
Loyalty programs offer unique advantages for its members, such as discount coupons, redeemable points, rewards and special offers, and registered customers typically spend up to 18% more than others.
No matter what your business, you can find a way to reward buyers with unique benefits.
This type of action make the customer feel valued, which increases their satisfaction with the brand and brings numerous other benefits for your business. Check out.
Customer retention
According to the Harvard Business School, routine customers spend on average 67% more than new customers.
Loyalty programs help you keep customers engaged with your business — which plays a huge role in how likely customers are to stick around, and how much they’re going to spend.
Engagement
If your customers enjoy the benefits of their loyalty program and feel satisfied, it is likely that they talk about it to family and friends.
Referrals result in new customers that can generate even more revenue for your business — because customers referred by loyalty members have a 37% higher retention rate.
Cost-Efficacy
Marketing and sales experts agree that is more profitable for your business to keep your current customers than attract new ones.
A new consumer needs to be attracted and convinced to try your product, and that means advertising, time and manpower. On the other hand a customer participating in a customer loyalty program think twice before changing or leaving a brand.
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Increase sales
People participating in loyalty programs aim to gain something, achieve a prize, such as points for traveling, buy an appliance or make a course for free, for example.
When consumers know they are close to achieving this, they end up buying more to rescue their benefit sooner.
Increase the average ticket
Your customer loyalty program can be linked to a minimum shopping – as buy three modules of your course to get the fourth for free, for example.
If the student has paid for two, even if it was not in the plans to make the third, he ends up getting to meet the quota and win the prize.
Now that you already understand the benefits of a customer loyalty program and decided to create your own, is common to appear doubts on how to do this.
5 steps to create a customer loyalty program
What kind of program is suitable for my business? What reward offer? How do I know it is working?
To help with all these questions, check the to-do list below on how to create a customer loyalty program.
1. Set the reward
Develop effective action requires good knowledge about who is your target audience, their buying habits, preferences and desires.
You can do this by analyzing the bestselling products or through a simple satisfaction survey, for example.
With the collected data, it is simpler determine what your customers want and thus define what kind of reward will attract more people to your loyalty program.
2. Determine how it will work
Among the most popular types of customer loyalty programs, we can list:
- Loyalty Cards: well known method and simple to use, the customer gets a card and each new purchase is registered in it. When you reach a certain number, such as ten purchases, you get a reward.
- Online loyalty systems: the consumer signs up with a code, social security number or fill out an online form and every purchase he makes is recorded in a register that he can consult online. Just as loyalty cards, as it reaches certain number of points wins a reward.
- Coalition programs: run as a partnership between companies offering complementary services. The client needs to consume in establishments that are part of the program to get points, and each company offers a different benefit from which consumers can choose.
- Cashback programs: to use this type of program you need to register your business in a cashback company. So when your customer makes a purchase, they receive a percentage of the value that you choose back into their bank account.
- Custom programs: based on frequent flyer programs, with this option the customers accumulate points that can be redeemed for products, services or discounts.
The more complex a customer loyalty program is, the harder it is for customers to participate and to you to manage.
Create a simple regulation and make joining the program easy with an online application system, for example.
3. Choose a creative name
To have better chance of success, the name of your loyalty program needs to arouse the curiosity and interest of the client.
The name should go beyond explaining that the customer will get a discount, or will get rewards — it needs to make customers feel excited to be a part of it.
Sephora, for example, named its loyalty program the Beauty Club. Marvel created the Marvel Insider, in which the user has access to customized rewards that bring fans close to their idols.
These clever, unique names hint at benefits but don’t give them away — making customers curious to learn more and join.
4. Promote a lot
Once you’ve launched your customer loyalty program, make sure you’re hammering it home whenever possible how to join — and the benefits of joining.
Place a permanent banner on your website announcing the program, disclose on social networks, paid ads, emails and any other means of disclosure that you can.
Create multiple opportunities for the customer to sign up. On the side of the price of your course, for example, put how many points the client can get if he purchases that option.
Add on-site push notifications when customers complete an activity that earns them points.
Another good strategy is to give reward for your current customers every time they indicate someone that convert into a client.
5. Measure results
To find out if the program is working you need to track sales growth.
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Whether through sales charts, joining the program or simple satisfaction survey, monitor the results and effectiveness of the action.
Factors such as price and quality in relation to the competition should be included in the analysis. “You must do research with consumers and study the information that they leave when they buy,” said Sanjay Agarwal, founder of Valuenet, information technology consulting.
This is essential to improve your strategy and return on sales.
“All that is on the program should be pleasing,” says Roberto Chad, founder of Dotz loyalty company. “Often, other technology might work better or awards that made success yesterday are not what the public wants today.”
Expect your program to be perfect from the start is asking too much. Be ready to make changes based on how customers are responding to it.
After you create the right program for your company and get subscriptions, keep in touch with the members.
Through email campaigns you can follow the customer in all phases of the life cycle, and not only upon registration.
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Implementing an email campaign to remind your customers about renovations and special offers can increase engagement and optimize results.
Invest in a customer loyalty program for your online course
Although it is a bit tricky start implementing a customer loyalty program, when done properly and with customer satisfaction in mind, it is a great way to generate profits and retention rates.
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For those who create online courses the method adopted has great chances of being simpler, considering that the reward may be a module of the course, which doesn’t require investment to create something new.
Rafael Rosa, partner at Woli, an eLearning company, found a way to make customers loyal by giving as prize the very courses that the company offers.
“If a student takes five courses that cost 30 dollars each, it gets another one for free,” says Rosa.
Another idea is to create a customer loyalty program in which students accumulate points by participating in courses and can exchange these points for other courses.
From these examples you can see how apply a customer loyalty program for your online courses business can be simple, retain customers and result in a significant increase in sales.
With a little organization you can create your own loyalty program and offer this advantage to your students. Then all you have to do is disclose.
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