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Revealed key elements of a successful customer loyalty programs
| Guest post by: Sheryl Strasser |
Article Overview: Customer loyalty programs refer in general to points rewarded to customers for either brand or company loyalty. These types of customer loyalty programs can be a very effective form of promotion as long the rewards are valuable to the particular customer base. They are also more effective if they are regularly updated and kept relevant to the company’s products/service or are a good complimentary item to the product they are being used to promote.
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Free Download - Easy Fool Proof Ways to Develop Customer Loyalty and Retention By Sheryl Strasser |
Revealed key elements of a successful customer loyalty programs
Another important element of customer loyalty programs is that they do not create additional costs for the customers in order for them to enjoy their rewards.
Customer loyalty programs are very effective in creating and keeping brand loyal customers. The rewards bring them back and they will continue to choose the given brand or company on a regular basis as well as spread the word about the product/company since they see value added rewards for their loyalty.
The technology age has also revamped the way customer loyalty programs are implemented and what customers are expecting in return for their loyalty. Gone are the days where you get one free after buying half a dozen of “product x”. Customers are now looking for quicker “returns on their investments” and customer loyalty programs have to meet these demands.
The expense of a customer loyalty program means that companies have to be very diligent in their research of what to offer and the demographics of who they are trying to reach. It is vital that they get it right or these customer loyalty programs could cost them far more money than they will ever get back. Grocery stores that have mature customer loyalty programs spend about 1-1.5% of their revenue on customer loyalty programs. Furthermore the commitment to customer loyalty programs is long term and it could take almost 18 months before you start to see returns. It would be unfortunate to have irate customers after you drop a much loved program due to expense, shortly before you start to see the returns.
Customer loyalty programs can also be an avenue to track customer retention. You can track when you lost a customer and it could give you a chance to get them back or at the very least find out why they left. Vital data about what’s working in your company and what does not can be gathered if you use your customer loyalty programs right.
Customer loyalty programs can also be used to weed out unprofitable customers, no company wants to retain unprofitable customers. The customer loyalty programs should be set up so that unprofitable customers are ineligible to join or receive the rewards, or better still the program should be used to turn them into profitable customers.
Customer loyalty programs have the added benefit of helping you grab more sales from existing customer base, which in turn help spread word of mouth marketing. There is also the ability to identify product/service problems earlier, which will improve profitability and this will in turn provide a competitive advantage.
A well implemented customer loyalty program can have a great bearing on a company’s bottom line.
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About the Author: Sheryl Strasser RSS for Sheryl's articles - Visit Sheryl's website It's definitely easy to see that a employee motivation programs is a great choice when you're longing motivate your employees with a employee motivation program you can motivate your employees today without having to spend a huge amount of money. Click here to visit Sheryl's website   What are the important steps to examining employee motivation and reducing employee turnover Tips on How to Create Effective Employee Incentive Programs So you want to intergrate a successful employee incentive programs Benefits of Incentive Programs What is Your Marketing Hook |
Related Forum Posts
a legacy
- sounds like your grandfather left a real legacy.
It reminds me of Dale Carnegies famous quote, 'people dont care how much you know, until they know how much you care'
An interesting side bar is the idea of customer loyalty. I recently worked with a large bank on their new 'loyalty' program. I called it like I saw it, they didnt have loyal customers....they had hostages.
If anyone reading wants to learn more about delivering great customer service, they should read
"Raving Fans' by Ken Blanchard and "how to win friends and influence people' by Dale Carnegie
Two of my favourite resources...
The third resource I can always count on was my dad. Although he died almost 18 years ago, he raised me and my 5 brothers and sisters with a strong work ethic, a respect for people of all backgrounds and a healthy respect for time. In fact, I am often teased for always being early or at least very punctual and I find it sad that in today's world, we seem to have lost a lot of the basic tenets of common sense and courtesy.
Re: a legacy
- [quote="TheRainmaker":36ce5c3z]sounds like your grandfather left a real legacy.
It reminds me of Dale Carnegies famous quote, 'people dont care how much you know, until they know how much you care'
An interesting side bar is the idea of customer loyalty. I recently worked with a large bank on their new 'loyalty' program. I called it like I saw it, they didnt have loyal customers....they had hostages.
If anyone reading wants to learn more about delivering great customer service, they should read
"Raving Fans' by Ken Blanchard and "how to win friends and influence people' by Dale Carnegie
Two of my favourite resources...
The third resource I can always count on was my dad. Although he died almost 18 years ago, he raised me and my 5 brothers and sisters with a strong work ethic, a respect for people of all backgrounds and a healthy respect for time. In fact, I am often teased for always being early or at least very punctual and I find it sad that in today's world, we seem to have lost a lot of the basic tenets of common sense and courtesy.[/quote:36ce5c3z]
Very true - its important to create loyal customers and I've always felt that great customer service is a great way to start that process. If I deal with a company and its clear they don't care about my business and they don't support me, I look around for someone who does. Why support a business that won't support me?
Chris
Re: Matching competitors prices - beware
- While I agree that getting into a price war should be avoided if possible... on rare occasions, it's not a bad idea to match someone's price (or even beat it) if you're doing it "one time" to land a new customer.
For instance, I was recently looking for the best price on a [u:2rhwa2wg]specific[/u:2rhwa2wg] flight to NY and a customer service rep from Flight Centre ended up taking zero commission to help me book my flight. In fact, she even beat the price by $5 in the hopes of creating brand loyalty for the future.
Starting A Business
- go get a customer! you can have a great idea but if you don't have a customer you'll never be successful. Build a product / service around someone who will pay you for what you can offer! It's the best way to build a business.
hiring an employee
- You may want to consider contracting out instead of actually hiring.
Some factors to think about if you hire someone as an employee and you put them on payroll you will be required to pay CPP and EI, as well as deducting CPP, EI and Taxes from their paycheck and remitting them to Revenue Canada.
So you will need to
1. Register with Revenue Canada so you can make the remittenances 2. make sure you keep really good track of these deductions
3. it you don't have the time to do payroll you may need to hire a bookkeeper.
or
you could contract out the hours that you would need an assistant. The would be able to work from their space or your office.
There is another option that you might want to consider some of the community centers offers training programs for new immigrants or anyone wish to change professions some of these programs require that they offer their services for 6 or 8 weeks (no charge to the employer). If you need someone short term this may help you and provide extra training for someone else.
Microskills is one of the Community Centers that offer such programs. they train customer service personal, bookkeepers.
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