4 Tips for Revamping Your Retail Customer Loyalty Program

As a retailer, having a customer loyalty scheme is simply viewed as due diligence these days. You’d be hard-pressed to find a retailer that doesn’t have one in some form.

The opportunity for repeat sales from individual customers and the benefit as a marketing tool to draw in new customers are too appealing to be missed.

That said, there are definitely a lot of retailers who have customer loyalty schemes that are entirely uninspiring and ultimately don’t make much of an impact at all.

When you’re able to see a really successful loyalty program, suddenly you realize how much can and should be achieved with every program.

So let’s look at some ways for you to re-energize your retail rewards scheme...

1. Promote Your Customer Loyalty Program As An Exclusive Club

When a customer takes a liking to a company and comes back for their products, there's the opportunity to connect in a meaningful way.

“A customer who values your company wants (and deserves) to be valued by you too. Airlines often get this right, with handwritten notes from pilots, beautifully designed membership cards, using Mr. X or Ms. X in communications and in person etc. These all help to elevate the customer’s mindset and make see their loyalty as entitling them to membership in an exclusive club”, writes James Michaels, tech writer at Researchpapersuk and Writinity.

If you can get customers to see it as a privilege to be in the loyalty program, you can encourage them to keep participating.

Have a read of how Starbucks have used this technique to create one of the world's most successful loyalty programs.

2. Give A Really Good Bonus Once In A While

This is a clever, low effort and high reward tactic which is not complex to implement. If you make one really grand gesture towards your loyalty program members, it can have an immense impact.

For example, how about sending all of your loyalty members a Christmas gift, a specific item or a gift card for $30-$50 in store credit?

“Splashing out on a gift for your loyalty scheme members not only very strongly affirms to them that this is where they should direct their business, but it also helps create a ripple effect. It informs other non-members of the incredible benefits of getting involved, even if you only do it once”, says Charlotte Holgate, retail blogger at LastMinuteWriting and DraftBeyond.

It can actually be a lot of fun, as giving out benefits like this will shock your members, delight them and will ingratiate them to your company.

3. Simplify Things

One big problem that a lot of retail loyalty programs run into is the issue of over-complication.

For example: ‘if you spend $50 before the 10th but after the 1st we’ll give you 20% off every purchase made before the 4th of every month in our city locations and a further 10% off every third purchase made online’. This is the sort of loyalty program that is more likely to induce a migraine than encourage sales.

You want to make life easier for your most loyal customers, not a lot harder. Find a way to make emphatic, one line benefits that are easy to market and easy to remember.

If achieving loyalty program rewards are not simple - people won't use the program and you consequently miss the opportunity to gain their loyalty. It's as simple as that!

4. Listen To Your Loyalty Program Members

If you have customers in your loyalty program already, it’s likely that they are invested in the way your store runs. And we're almost certain they'll be happy to tell you about it.

Instead of general questionnaires for anyone using your store, you should specifically target your loyalty members and treat them as a focus group.

When loyalty members make suggestions and see actual change happening, that is an immensely powerful tool. It can really help you to shape your company into the most optimized, customer-oriented organization it can possibly be.

Loyal customers are often honest customers with an accurate idea of how you operate day-to-day. They're an extremely useful tool to leverage.

Connect with loyalty members and let them feel like they have a voice at your retail company.

Conclusion

It’s actually a really exciting thing to be in charge of trying to re-energize a customer loyalty program, since they can go stale after a year or so. There’s lots you can change and plenty of opportunity for creating success for your company whilst making your most valuable customers feel important and valued.

If you need any more advice about how to revamp and get customers to join your loyalty program, check out these useful tips.

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AUTHOR BIO

Isabel P. Harvey is a marketing professional at LuckyAssignments and GumEssays with passion for digital marketing, specializing in crafting entire marketing, advertising, public relations and sales support programs from concept to completion. She is a passionate reader and enjoys writing in her spare time.