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A Unique Simple to Implement Customer Loyalty Program

Written by: David Frey

Article Overview: If you're interested in doubling your average customer purchase frequency you'll want to read this article. It reveals a simple customer loyalty technique that any business can employ.

A Unique Simple to Implement Customer Loyalty Program

I want to tell you about a little thing that the local airport parking company did that had a big impact on me and my family.

They used a little marketing trick that isn't new (by any means) but so few companies rarely use it.

NOTE: (if you keep reading I'll show you a photo of the actual tool they gave me.)

It hardly takes any effort at all to implement this little marketing trick but the results could mean a 20% to 30% increase in your business.

What am I talking about?

I'm Talking About a Customer Loyalty Program

Usually when I mention a customer loyalty program to a small business they either get frightened or their eyes glaze over because they think it's either too expensive to implement or too complicated.

But after you see this little customer loyalty tool that I received from the airport parking company, you'll see just how easy it is to implement a simple loyalty program.

Every business should have a customer loyalty program.

Why?

Because it costs five times as much money to find a new customer than it does to get a current customer to come back and do business with you.

5 times the amount!

That alone is enough reason to have a customer loyalty program.

So here are...

...Four Types of Successful Customer Loyalty Programs and an Example for Each.

Type # 1: A Membership Program.

Membership programs are one of the best ways to keep customers coming back. Most programs provide special incentives to members as part of their membership.

Today I had lunch with one of my employees at Sams Club (best lunch deal around).

Sams Club is a membership-based retail store.

Another good example of a membership program is where I go running every morning - - the YMCA.

Type # 2: A Rewards Program.

Rewards programs provides gifts and perks that are "earned" according to amount of business your customers do with you.

In the hot tub retail industry many manufacturers have an annual trip that only their most successful dealers get to enjoy.

This year I went to speak at one of these "shin digs" in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and I'll tell you that it IS a party.

The dealers who get to attend have "earned" their way by selling a pre-set amount of hot tubs throughout the year.

Type # 3: Create a Community.

Every human has a deep inner need to belong to a community. "Belonging" gives us security and helps us to understand our place in life.

How do you create a community.

Recently I purchased a pair of running shoes at a local sports store called, "On the Run." http://www.ontheruntx.com/

On the Run creates a community by sponsoring marathon and triathlon training programs and sponsoring local running events.

-> Type # 4: Create Intertwined Business Processes.

This is not so much a traditional customer loyalty program...BUT, it's the absolute best way that I know how to GUARANTEE that your customers will keep coming back.

Basically, this method consists of positioning your business processes so deep into your client's or customer's business processes that it would financial hurt their business if they were to stop doing business with you.

For example, I run all my web businesses using this one tool, which you can see here http://url123.com/g6z9h

If I were to decide to move to another service, it would literally rip the guts out of my business.

I'm "locked in."

That's guaranteed customer loyalty.

But It's Not that Hard to Implement Your Own Customer Loyalty Program. Here's An Idea...

...you can implement in less than one day (and this is what the airport parking company did).

Create a "frequent purchase" card and give it to every person that buys from you.

Take a look at the airport parking company's frequent purchase card:

http://url123.com/9dpaw

Did you look at it?

How long do you think it took them to create this little thing?

Probably less than one day.

But it works!

In fact, here's another one of these cards that I carry in my wallet from a well-known fast food restaurant.

http://url123.com/gh4mr

This strategy works!

Every retail business on the planet earth can and should use this strategy.

Related Articles
  Revealed key elements of a successful customer loyalty programs
  Why Customer Relationship Management (CRM)?
  Tips on Building Customer Loyalty
  Customer Loyalty
  10 Ways To Improve Customer Loyalty

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Related Forum Posts
Re: From Sales to Marketing - Loyalty, Glad to know a little about you. Yes, this forum holds quite a bit of useful information. We hope you will join into the conversations and get to know us. Welcome!
Re: Two Useful Books To Help You Focus On The CLIENT - Hi David, To add to your thread, I'd like to recommend Jonathan Tisch's "Chocolates On The Pillow Aren't Enough: Reinventing The Customer Experience". Tisch's book includes content on "Welcoming Customers", "The New Art of Customization", "The Challenges of Customer Diversity" and "Offering Something Extra to Your Customers" to name a few.
Re: Bad SEO techniques? - There are few more techniques which also known as the Bad SEO Techniques or Black Hat SEO Techniques. Such as: - Relying on keyword metatags - Purchase Links (From Spamming or blacklisted sites or doing purchase links on high level for site marketing) - Horde Page Rank: This is one of my favorites, because it's one that most webmasters don't understand yet. This is because it changed over the past year or two. The concept people have in their mind is that page rank is a key part of site rankings and linking to other sites "leaks page rank" from your site. However, the world has changed. - Swap Links: Another oldie, but not goodie. Search engines want links to represent endorsements. Swapped links represent barter, and they are trivial to detect. Don't swap links for the purpose of building page rank. It's a waste of your time - Implement duplicate content - Use Session IDs on your URLs - Use lots of Javascript - Implement your site in Flash
Re: How to develop sales contacts? - Everyone has the right idea here. Depending on your business, there are different techniques that you could use. For consultants and sales heavy businesses, there are three tactics that I have found especially useful in my business: 1. Attend Networking Events 2. Cold Calling 3. Referral Program 4. Affiliate Program (most successful) The affiliate program was successful for me, as I hooked up with a franchise consultant, and he gave multiple unit businesses that needed my credit card processing services. I highly suggest you hook up with a sales partner, and give him a cut of the monthly revenue.
Re: Bad SEO techniques? - [quote="WebBizIdeas.com":1jr37kqx]There are few more techniques which also known as the Bad SEO Techniques or Black Hat SEO Techniques. Such as: - Relying on keyword metatags - Purchase Links (From Spamming or blacklisted sites or doing purchase links on high level for site marketing) - Horde Page Rank: This is one of my favorites, because it's one that most webmasters don't understand yet. This is because it changed over the past year or two. The concept people have in their mind is that page rank is a key part of site rankings and linking to other sites "leaks page rank" from your site. However, the world has changed. - Swap Links: Another oldie, but not goodie. Search engines want links to represent endorsements. Swapped links represent barter, and they are trivial to detect. Don't swap links for the purpose of building page rank. It's a waste of your time - Implement duplicate content - Use Session IDs on your URLs - Use lots of Javascript - Implement your site in Flash[/quote:1jr37kqx] Hi Jeff, Thanks for adding to the list. I have one question, though. How would one implement Session IDs for a URL, and what benefit would come from doing so?


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