How do you reward loyal clients ?

When it comes to rewarding loyal clients of your business, what is your business plan ?

Loyalty programs are gaining in importance as part of the total user experience. If you haven’t got a plan or your plan is gathering dust on a bookshelf, It could be a great time to either A: look at a loyalty program, or B: Revise the existing plan.

Loyalty programs are growing in importance with businesses of every size. An article in Forbes found that 90 % of companies had some sort of program, and that there are over 3.3 billion memberhips. AS a matter of fact, American consumers have on average over 14 loyalty memberships (Morgan, 2021). How can we put this to tool to work for our businesses?

Why have a loyalty program? Because loyal customers spend more on brands that they are loyal to. Over half of consumers surveyed said they spent more on brands they were loyal to (Morgan, 2021). Integrating a loyalty program into an e-commerce site can create a 300% increase in average order quantity (Herbert, 2020). So higher revenue and higher profits make sense, but it has to be done right.

Getting program right is critical. Ease of use is a huge a driver for repeat use in a loyalty program. Over half of members chose one program over another because it is easier to use. Forget the card, or an app that isn’t mobile friendly (Herbert, 2020). Over half of your customers value ease of use over reward. If you are a business targeting millennials, a great product can help drive brand loyalty, followed closely by the feeling that they can trust the brand with their information (Khalid Saleh, 2016). Reward design is the next step.

For this to work you need to stay in business. Having a reward that costs your business money is foolish. Early in the loyalty program cycle, the airlines rewarded loyalty based on miles, instead of the fare paid. You could end up flying for free after not spending enough to cover the cost of the free ticket. Also, an initial reward given quickly can help create loyalty faster.

What are your plans for client loyalty going into the post pandemic world ? By using this blog, hopefully we can help each other answer these and other questions.

References

Herbert, M. (2020a, March 4). Important Loyalty Program Statistics for 2020. Incentive Solutions; Incentive Solutions. https://www.incentivesolutions.com/loyalty-program-statistics-2020/

Herbert, M. (2020b, March 4). Important Loyalty Program Statistics for 2020. Incentive Solutions; Incentive Solutions. https://www.incentivesolutions.com/loyalty-program-statistics-2020/

Khalid Saleh. (2016, March 30). The Importance of Customer Loyalty Programs – Statistics and Trends. Invesp. https://www.invespcro.com/blog/customer-loyalty-programs/

Morgan, B. (2021, February 18). 50 Stats That Show The Importance Of Good Loyalty Programs, Even During A Crisis. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/blakemorgan/2020/05/07/50-stats-that-show-the-importance-of-good-loyalty-programs-even-during-a-crisis/