Due to the Covid pandemic, automotive companies have seen really hard times in the last few years. Their businesses were badly impacted by the pandemic. Now, vehicle manufacturing companies, dealerships, repair shops, and other automotive service providers are coming up with different ways to stand out in the competitive market and bring their businesses back on track. One such unique measure that can help automotive companies get success is a loyalty rewards program. Loyalty programs for automotive businesses work differently than other types of brands. In this article, we are going to discuss some top loyalty program ideas for automotive companies:

1. Tier-Based Loyalty Programs

Tiered loyalty rewards programs work effectively for almost every type of business including automotive. It has become a new trend to run loyalty programs with multiple tiers. While several businesses run paid tier-based programs, a better idea is to include free as well as paid tiers in your loyalty program. By doing this, you can encourage all your customers to participate in your loyalty programs by removing the necessity of paying a fee. Those who want more premium benefits can get into paid tiers and the ones who do not want to pay, can continue with free tiers.

With each higher tier, customers become eligible for more exclusive benefits. You can even run a fully free-tiered loyalty program, where customers do not get into higher tiers by paying higher fees but by spending more on your brand. For example, every customer enters the first tier when they make their first purchase from your brand. After spending a certain amount or availing of your services a certain number of times, they get promoted to higher tiers and can get better benefits. For example, you can offer 1 complimentary car wash every quarter in the first tier and 2 free washes in the second tier, and so on.

2. Community-Based Loyalty Programs

Community-based loyalty programs are one of the best ways to make your customers feel special and boost customer engagement. As an automotive company, you can create a community of your members (the owners of your brand’s cars) and provide them with additional benefits. Some common examples of rewards or benefits in a community-based program include personalized services, access to members-only events, and access to a group or community of like-minded people.

This type of loyalty program encourages your customers to stay connected with your brand and avail of your services on a regular basis. Expecting repeat purchases as an automotive brand is a long process as people do not buy cars every day. What you can do is just build a community of your customers and allow them to interact with each other. This doesn’t only boost customer loyalty but is also very effective in improving customer engagement.

3. Free Maintenance Plans

Existing customers of a company contribute to more than 65% of its total revenue. This data is sufficient to prove the importance of retaining your existing customers. It might need some extra effort from your end but will be totally worth it. You can offer complimentary maintenance plans with your services, customized welcome kits, and other exclusive rewards to your customers. When a customer purchases a car, offer them some complimentary services or at least some service discount coupons to ensure that they come back for servicing.

An interesting idea is to run giveaway contests on your social media accounts and offer one-year complimentary maintenance to the winners. This will help you boost customer engagement and increase traffic on your website or social media accounts. Small efforts like sending car maintenance tips via emails or giving a thank you card after they avail of your services can also have a huge impact on customer loyalty.

4. Rewards Program for Carwash Services

You can also integrate your loyalty rewards program with carwash services. Run a reward-based program and allow your customers to earn reward points every time they avail of your services, including car washes. They can later redeem these reward points against future car washes to get discount coupons for other services. Some car wash companies run such loyalty programs, which do need even require customers to register or sign up for the program. Every time a customer avails of a car wash service, their vehicle is recognized through the license plate and reward points are credited to their accounts.

5. Loyalty Rewards For Every Customer Action

Another great loyalty program idea for automotive companies is to run a rewards-based loyalty program and offer loyalty points for every customer action. When a customer purchases a car or any vehicle, you offer them certain thousand points. As they are not going to repeat this purchase very soon, how can you keep your loyalty program continuous? You can do this by offering reward points for logging into your website, following you on social media, writing a positive Google review, and participating in social media contests run by your company. Apart from this, offer some additional reward points to your customers on their birthdays and anniversaries with your company.

Run an Effective Loyalty Program with RewardPort

Planning and executing a loyalty program for your business might be a challenging process as you have to keep a lot of factors in mind. While building a loyalty program, you need to ensure that the program aligns with your business objectives and is interesting for your customers. This is what RewardPort can help you achieve. RewardPort has a team of experienced marketing professionals who take your business details into account and plan a loyalty program that works best for your brand.