Strategies to Create the Right Loyalty Program that Retains Customers

You must have heard an age-old business mantra that says, “Customer is King”. It still holds true in today’s market scenario. Every business, whether online or offline needs a good customer base to boost its brand value. It is extremely important to ensure that your customers get a streamlined experience because it plays a crucial role in the success of the organization. Businesses should not only keep their focus on gaining new customers but also to retain the existing ones too. With the presence of a huge number of competitors offering similar products/services, it may be difficult to differentiate your business strategy, which is why you need tailored loyalty programs for customers. Let’s find out the best strategies to build a successful loyalty solution that drives in more brand loyal customers.

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Is Customer Loyalty Important for Your Business?

Research by PR Newswire says the loyalty management market will increase from $1.4 billion in 2015 to $4 billion by 2020. Irrespective of the business size, startups and enterprises should keep their focus on customer retention. Loyal customers not only stick to the business and make more purchases but also speak about their positive experiences helping organizations generate more leads. The most common way to attain retention of customers is through loyalty programs where customers are rewarded with points whenever they make a purchase. These could be redeemed later for shopping, dining, movies, etc.
Reasons to build loyalty programs for customers-

• A study by Forrester says gaining a new customer is 5 times costlier than retaining the existing ones.
• Loyal customers are more likely to make a purchase of products and services from the same brand than new customers.
• Loyal customers trust a brand more than a new customer giving the business a great opportunity to cross-sell and up-sell products.
• For word of mouth marketing, loyal customers are the ones that refer their friends and families increasing brand awareness and generating prospects.

How to Create Customer Loyalty Program That Lasts?

Many organizations are already using loyalty programs to win more customers. However, it fails most of the time as it lacks valuable experience. Here are some of the factors that impact the development of a successful loyalty program to enhance customer retention rates-

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• Know Target Customers

The first step for creating an impactful loyalty solution is to understand your customers. To do this, conduct thorough research before optimizing the strategy to build the loyalty program. This will not only enable your organization to offer rewarding experiences to your audience but also encourage them to make repeat purchases. Keeping the focus on factors like volume of purchases, customers’ ability to purchase, payment speed, etc. will help in making a custom loyalty program.

• Simple Rewards Program

Another important factor is to keep the program simple, as complex ones are hard to understand and use by customers, which will affect their participation. Develop a program that can be easily used by customers to redeem the rewards as well as by organizations to measure customer retention rates. A point-based program is one of the most common programs that offer points on every purchase enabling customers to redeem those accumulated points on desired products or stores.

• Support Multiple Platforms

If you are still unsure why loyalty program is important for your business, it’s time to start using one and embrace the benefits to focus on customer acquisition/retention. Building a reward program that can be easily accessed across several platforms is one of the best ways to keep customers connected. This will help businesses in creating an omnichannel experience with the help of multiple channel programs for customers.

• Deliver Something Extraordinary

One question that may come to your mind is how to create a customer loyalty program that will help to stand out amongst your competition. Your customers have an infinite choice today, which is why it is important for businesses to deliver a unique value proposition to attract users towards your services. Whether you are offering coupons, discounts, special membership benefits, etc. identify which one will please your audience the most and create custom loyalty rewards. With the right program, you can build not only a larger customer base but also retain them to boost more sales, enhance profitability, etc.

Closing Statement

After going through the blog, you must have understood the importance of loyalty for taking your business to the next level. Keep your customers wanting for more with custom loyalty programs that cater to all the needs of your business. Appreciate them every time for choosing you and let them know you care by delivering personalized experiences exclusively meant for them. No matter the size of your business, the right loyalty program is incredibly important to increase customer retention and reduce customer acquisition costs. Talk with our experts to give your startup the best Small Business Loyalty Programs Software & delight your customers.