How to prepare for a successful loyalty program this festive season?
Once the festive season arrives, every company tries to amp up their game especially the commercial consumer brands. Each brand aims for higher engagement with their audience and customers in any form and medium. They plan events and programs that help in promoting their brand or products to their target group which in turn increase sales of their product. Festivities also mark a stark rise in the social media pages or websites of different companies which are often carried out with the end goal of reaching out to more favourable customers.
Most of the companies focus on collaborating with other brands in order to offer a combination of rewards and festive gifts that may be further booked in bulk by major corporates for festive gifting as well as in the form of loyalty programs that can be redeemed as per the receiver’s whim. Many corporate companies tie up with F&B companies to avail sweetmeats and decorative gifting options. Although corporate gifting is a major trend amongst big companies, it is also very common for them to offer their employees with attractive vouchers, gift cards and loyalty program offers that provide them with an opportunity to redeem them according to their preferred time and avail items that meet their requirements.
Below mentioned are a few ways in which companies can create a successful loyalty program for the festive season:
Cashback is in
It’s a natural psychology of people to get attracted to offers that allow them to get a percentage of their money back in the form of hard cash or even virtual money; that’s precisely how one can cash onto a large section of the working class people. It allows them to shop for a certain amount and receive a fraction of their expenditure in the form of cashback. Tieing up with clothing brands or restaurants that offer a cashback on purchase from them can prove to be a healthy collaboration for both the employer and the employee.
Discount Vouchers & Coupons
Everyone is in a festive mood when any of the big festivals arrive and shopping for their desired clothes, accessories and appliances become a must for many, which is particularly when a company must collaborate with electronic companies, clothing brands, etc as it is highly likely to pull crowd once they see a discount on their favourite item of choice! Coupons also work in a similar way as they help people get a discounted price when they apply a specific coupon applicable to their purchase. Rewarding employees with vouchers and coupons that enable customers to avail a certain discount based on the net purchase amount usually works great and even greater during the festive season!
Freebies & combos
Having a loyalty program that allows you to choose from a variety of products and then getting a free product along with it makes people extremely happy and allows the retailers to sell more items at a fairly good rate. Freebies also encourage people to share good reviews about their shopping experience and also helps in getting free PR from their customers! This can work particularly well if teamed up with restaurants as people are highly likely to eat out during that time and free meals or happy hours, etc. work great during this period.
E-commerce
The world is now run online and thus, it is imperative to be conscious and strategic in placing yourself with the right type of E-commerce website as it is likely to fetch great returns if done the right way. Companies can collaborate and offer their employees codes or referral links to avail a certain product or reward on their partner E-commerce website, which allows the employees to shop straight at their homes or desks without the hassle of travelling to brick and mortar shops to purchase festive articles. This technique projects the company associating with them in a good light along with their own brand which was chosen as their partners. It’s a win-win situation, most of the times!
Loyalty programs can be a great way to encourage people to buy from a particular brand or channel and it also helps in trust building factor or employees towards their company itself. This occurs due to the choice of loyalty program made and the offers made are generally very attractive. The festive season, in general, is a great time to pair up loyalty programs as they make everyone feel like they are getting something extra and are rewarded for the same!
5 best loyalty schemes for this Diwali
Looking for supreme choices of loyalty programs for your customers, then you have arrived at the right platform. At Reward Port, we assist the businesses to offer the best loyalty programs which can sway away the customers and aid in strengthening the bond of trust between your brand and the customers. Festivities are a great time to express gratitude to your customers and acknowledge their contribution in the consistent growth of your brands in the form of rewards.
So, this Diwali delight your customers with any one of these five best loyalty programs –
1.Point based scheme
The quintessential type of the loyalty program, this scheme offers value points for every purchase executed by the customer. These points can be redeemed later for the subsequent transactions. Higher the points, higher the redeemable amount of money. The introduction of this program is definitely bound to foster the initial trust and worth of your brand in the minds of especially the new customers.
2.Tier scheme
The tier scheme is the excellent approach to reward the long term loyal customers of your brand. Upgradation to the higher tier provides greater incentives on product purchases. It requires the customers to accrue points through multiple purchases over a period of time and evidently, greater number of points shifts them to higher rewards tier.
3.Sweepstakes
Businesses can partner with our loyalty rewards platform and relax as we offer convenient and hassle free sweepstakes program for your customers. Sweepstakes is a straight-forward program for the customers to enter with a minimal to zero fees and there is every probability to take home a grand bumper prize along with them. Various other prizes offered to runner ups are also high- priced.
4.Partnership program
Businesses can build partnership with various other firms such as those offering food products, beauty products or even various services based firms to delight the customers to the next level. Studies have shown that the flexibility in the choices available under the umbrella of a loyalty program is the main reason the customers find a loyalty program attractive. With the points accumulated, customer can log into their account and redeem their points by shopping from a plethora of products available.
5.Gamified loyalty program
If the businesses desire to acquire an edge over their competitors, it is indeed achievable by the creative gamification of a loyalty program that can be offered as a spellbinding reward program to the customers, for instance the Spin and Win Reward loyalty program.
It is essential to emphasize that any of the loyalty programs extended to your customers should be in a comprehensible format with terms and conditions mentioned, to ensure greater effectiveness of the program.
Why understanding customer psychology is important to run a successful campaign?
We at Reward Port are determined to bring the best to the customers. Understanding consumer psychology is of prime significance. We ensure that we have a forward thinking vision and are up-to-date with the changing customer’s purchase behaviour. We are focussed to provide the best tailor-made services to the customers such as Customer Loyalty cards, Movie gift vouchers, Scratch and win rewards and various other sales vouchers. A customer is the King in the business. Reward port offers the platform which rightfully attracts and delights the King.
Better understanding of the consumers wants and desires helps to establish an invisible thread of trust and emotional connect with your brand. The following points explain the rationale behind understanding
customer psychology:
1.Buying behaviour is usually untold
Customers change their minds constantly. You need to listen to what is not been told directly. Customer behavioural insights help sales & revenue grow strong in the present and support stronger momentum for future gains by obtaining useful information on trends based on their rapidly changing demands.
2.One size doesn’t fit all.
To make sales campaign successful, the offerings have to be varied according to the customer’s age, sex, ethnicity, region, country etc. Understanding these variations is crucial.
3.Reasons for buying competitor products/services
Being informed of the qualities or features in the competitor products/services which are highly appreciated by the customers helps to get an insight into where we lack and what we need to do in order to improve sales promotion.
4.Buying Complementary products
Understanding consumer’s needs help in acknowledging their pain points. Bundling complementary products as they wish eases the purchase thereby increases the sales figure in the end.
5.Minor details
Minor details point to customers’ sentiments which are often overlooked. The feedback provided by the customers is priceless and when incorporated in the sales strategy, it helps to convert them into potential leads.
6.Reciprocity
Often people like to test samples of the products or want convenient shipping and delivery at their doorsteps. Businesses which take the first steps and reach out to their audience reciprocate the wishes of their customers. This facilitates buying decision.
7.Surprise and delight
Consumers wish to be surprised with attractive discounts along with a seamless flow of information regarding these discounts. So, it is significant to know what surprises them in order to increase sales.
8.Online vs. Offline customers.
As the purchase cycle varies for online Vs offline buyers, it is apt to appreciate those differences and subsume in the sales strategy.
9.Pricing options
While most customers prefer goods and services which are value for money, many are willing to spend a little more for the higher quality and the brand association of the product. It acts as a guide for businesses to alter pricing and discounts options for the products they offer.
10.Develop better Customer Engagement strategies
Customer engagement technique cannot be planted in the dark. Prioritizing customer psychology while preparing the sales strategy helps in engaging customers with your products/services. For example, the medium of interaction, tone of conveying message about your products/services/brand or type of information whether it is factual or generic. Also, this makes marketing strategy aligned to the target audience.
One can only beat the clock first in this competitive era by comprehending customer psychology, their wants and desires. This is why we at reward port provide the best flexible and fabulous loyalty programs for our customers.
How to make your Loyalty program addictive
Today Loyalty programs form a major component of engagement with all the stakeholders in business. Their significance is of prime in retaining existing customers and thus reducing higher cost inputs. Similarly, improving the B2B partner relations or motivating employees is crucial and is made easy with Loyalty programs.
B2C
Giving Rewards while empowering the customers
For any business, empowering customers helps developing confidence in them about the business. Customer should be given a platform to review the products/services. This should be achieved actively by offering loyalty points to the customer for a single review that they provide for the product or service received. This eases feedback taking and incentivizes the customers to review.
Special occasion rewards
The loyalty programs can be offered at special occasions for the existing group of customers with higher discounts or amplified rewards than on the regular days. For instance, a gift card and 10% cash-back or an online shopping coupon & 100$ cash-back on minimum purchases. Reminders go a long way in keeping the customers hooked especially on the special events in their life such as birthdays or anniversaries
Bundled offerings
Businesses can bundle their products into a packaged offerings to the customers such as Amazon Prime. It offers unlimited free delivery of products coupled with free music & movie streaming on Prime Music and Prime Video respectively and numerous flash deals.
B2B
Successful businesses today rely on cordial relations with the existing trade partners/ clients. It takes a great amount of effort in building the relation and trust and even greater to maintain it. The partner loyalty program ensures that the partners are engaged in work with the businesses for long run. The best strategy to develop client relations through loyalty programs is to start organising business conferences, meet-ups or other similar events and offering VIP passes.
Once the ground of trust is laid along the way, businesses can offer their partner hotel bookings & trips to various destinations for profits realized together, as part of the Loyalty program.
Employees
Digital endorsement
This programme will make an employee feel a pat on his back by way of being endorsed online. For every achievement the employee can be given digital pat on the back. This means the employee is rewarded by the addition of credit points into his account which can be redeemed later on and any product worth those points can be obtained.
Ultimately, all stakeholders desire to get tangible rewards by getting a free service/product or a cash-back. Whether rewards are given digitally or by manual methods, the loyalty programs dispense interface has to be simple and comprehensible such as the one created by Sephora beauty brand (https://seph.me/2kURvtY) for their customers. And lastly the terms and conditions should be part of the loyalty program which could be in the form of FAQs to make it self-explanatory for the customers.
5 reasons why customers losing interest on your loyalty program
Most of loyalty programs are created by highly competent business owners. But still why it’s getting harder to retain an old customer than win a new? You can plan to kill off the existing one and introduce a new but how many loyalty programs do you think the average customer belongs to? Not less than 9! Introducing a new one would act like a burden for them for sure. Now the question is, why some loyalty programs become obsolete and fail to collect any new lead? It’s natural for you to get confused since you have taken plethora of feedback from experts before launching it but there are reasons that you may have ignored while planning! We have tried to churn out a few, take a look
Offers are repetitive
With every religious and national event, there comes the horde of offers and promotions. If your company is product based then you should always look at your competitors and see what are they offering. Sometime many companies of the same product-line offers similar loyalty program and it becomes confusing for customers to choose the right one. And before you introduce your offer to them, they are already exhausted by seeing similar offers again and again! Do a proper research on your competitors before turning over confident!
Your presence is weak on digital media
The decision making process of human minds has been changing drastically. It has become very instantaneous since brands are offering something new everyday and targeting customers personally through different digital mediums. Think about your presence on digital media. Hit them through your social presence, take help from Google adwords, launch an app and cover all kinds of digital mediums which you think can help you reach your target audience.
You are ignoring retention policies
Have you ever given a thought why Amazon gives more preference to prime members than new ones? That’s because they understand the importance of loyal customers and always gives more preference to retain them. Your loyal bunch of customers would always want to try something new introduced by your company but the new ones may hesitate since they don’t know much about you. Give special discount, send personalized mails, give them seasonal offers and don’t think it twice to make them feel special!
Your offers are not relevant and real
Always think of offering something that becomes useful for your customers in their daily lives. For example, loyalty points won’t make much difference but some discount on their daily grocery needs would do. Make your offers more realistic by relating them to the daily needs of your targeted audience. Don’t make long running offers but keep it short and practical. Give them a chance to use them on their hobbies and entertainment.
You are not integrating your loyalty program with overall customer experience
A loyalty successful loyalty program depends on three important things, 1) Accurate brand communication, 2) Excellent service and 3) create real value and meaning for your customers. Don’t ignore your customers in the long run. Make them feel like a part of your company, personalize special offers in festivals, build your own community by inviting them to special events and interact with them on social media.
In the end, your customers build your business and it depends upon you how you make them feel special. Don’t take loyalty programs as a separate add-on but make it a part of your actual business through which you can build a community of people to participate in your business offerings.
The inevitable bond between social media and loyalty programs
Social media has become one of the most important aspects of digital marketing today as it has been influencing all of our lives in one or the other way. If you are not using it to promote your brand, then you have been missing a lot of easy and affordable marketing opportunities. It is one of the most easiest and useful digital platforms to increase business visibility.
Loyalty programmes have started using this platform to leverage their customers since most of communications happen over mobile phones these days. The response and actions have become faster than earlier since it’s a direct approach to hit the right customer at the right time. People receive offers as pop-ups right on their phone screens that allows them to send a response quickly. According to a consumer survey done by Deloitte Consultancy, 61% per cent of participants checks their mobile phones first after 5 minutes of waking up every morning. This is isn’t surprising since more than 31% of the global population are connected to each other through social media. No matter where you are, thousands of people are right there for you to hear what you say on your social media pages.
As social media continues to permeate every aspect of the shopping experience, it’s quickly developing into a tool that is all about building relationships with your customers. Each time your customers check their social media profiles, they get the opportunity to communicate directly with your brand. Count it from direct messages, reviews to refer a friend, your customers can interact with your brand 24/7 through a variety of social media platforms.
This proves that social media plays a huge role in reviving your customer retention policies. So what better way to engage your target audience than by integrating your social media strategy with your rewards program? Customer loyalty solutions allows customers to connect to you easily and also rewards customers who buy from you frequently. It encourages customers to buy your products or use your service regularly. The encouragement comes in the form of discounts,free products, rebates or any other form of appreciation .
Brands use loyalty programs to strengthen their relationships with customers, increase in sales numbers and most importantly turning a prospective customer into a frequent buyer. A loyalty management program must ensure that the services meet the needs of the customers.
With so many users all over the world, social media is the ultimate resource to help you create curiosity about your rewards program on a global scale. You just need to determine on which platform your target is most likely o interact. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, and Snapchat are adding new features to their platforms everyday and these changes bring countless number of ways to communicate and express the value of your loyalty program through an amalgamation of creative and visual content.
5 trends to influence Next-Gen Loyalty programs
Loyalty programs have become the part and parcel of almost every company or brand. Engaging customers has become all the more difficult at this point in time and introducing innovative and exciting strategies to engage and bring more consumers to purchase products from partnered brands has become crucial. The tried and tested methods of gaining attention of target audiences has now shifted to a different tangent hence, learning about the new trends that are influencing loyalty programs is highly recommended. On looking deeper into this subject, these 5 trends mentioned below seem to be the most influential strategies in the realm of loyalty programs.
User-friendly features
There are several kinds of philosophies in terms of redemption of rewards. Some reward loyalty programs by different hospitality companies are extremely straightforward, as they say on their schemes are clearly slated on website like“Accumulate 14 nights, get 1 night’s stay free.” This is to ensure that customers are redeeming their rewards instead of expiring rewards, blackout dates and continuous degradation of the value of the reward points assigned by the loyalty programs, that may discourage the customers.
Premium program
Nowadays, we get to see a plethora of premium reward loyalty programs. The main reason why premium loyalty programs are becoming extensively popular is because the members want the advantages and benefits that a premium program offers and are willing to pay for it as well. In a recent consumer study from the former year, 62% of the subjects admitted that they would consider joining a reward loyalty programthat was fee-based if the provider or retailer was of their choice.
Next-Gen rewards
Introducing rewards that have the ability or capacity to evolve into another offer or reward or could be combined with other offers, would make reward loyalty programs much more appealing and attractive to existing and new customers. Allowing a guest to trade their offer with something that suits their requirements and preference can definitely boost a loyalty program. The concept of combining of unused rewards into a bigger and more appealing reward can be a great hit amongst loyalty program consumers.
Chatbot and AI
Though chatbots or artificial intelligence cannot technically replace an actual human interaction, chatbots seem to be the most effective medium when a customer is trying to resolve common trivial issues. Chatbots reduce the need for customers to visit the website or store, etc making it faster and more efficient due to the increased chances of reduced human errors.
Predictive Personalization
The ever-growing consumer industry has been growing and changing their strategies for years. It has tried to break through from a tier-based system to a more personalized loyalty program that caters to specific sections of the target audience. In this new archetype, you would receive a reward based on your previous purchases or will be tailored to your specific needs. One loyalty program member might wish for an exclusive event entry and another might require the best suite with the fastest wifi and giving a reward based on their personal requirements would gain their attention more than generic mass-planned loyalty programs.
Trends are often a fast-moving phenomenon and is driven by various factors and the aforementioned are the biggest trends that are likely to reign in the world of reward loyalty program. They are an estimated vision of how the trends would influence the next-Gen loyalty programs.
Importance of Green loyalty card schemes for a better living.
We all agree to the fact that sustainable living leads to a better environment. Our global future entirely revolves around how we use our natural resources. Usage of solar power, eating locally grown foods, consuming less fuel are some of the few things that can lead to a sustainable future. To encourage this, loyalty card companies also have come up with various schemes that reward their customers to shop for more goods and services that are considered environment-friendly.
There is nothing better than an incentive plan that rewards its customers for a better future. Green card loyalty card schemes are basically an ethical way of rewarding people for a sustainable living. These schemes encourage people to purchase and use services that are more eco-friendly that include travelling by sustainable moods of transportation, consumption of locally grown fruits and vegetables, usage of solar panels and lightning etc.
A loyalty program company implements the same concept of loyalty schemes into green card loyalty programme by purchasing which customers can collect reward points, and spend them with the partnering companies to purchase environment-friendly goods and services. There are various educational programmes and campaigns on sustainable living but the question is what’s in there for the customers to follow it. The answer is awareness and it acts as a motivational factor for consumers to adapt sustainable living.
After the implementation of these programmes, consumers are slowly inclining towards ethical consumption of goods and services, the growth is slow but constant. The loyalty programme companies choose their partners who are basically manufacturers of sustainable goods and services who also have attractive ways to present them in front of their customers.
The schemes have become popular in retail, travel industry and consumers have started using more organic products and services than artificial counterparts. For example, more and more people are purchasing solar panels, solar heaters, solar cookers, solar chargers etc. to use more of sunlight generated electricity.
This initiative taken by the Loyalty programme companies also has a huge contributing factor in achieving a nation’s financial goals since sustainable living helps saving up natural resources. And thus it helps build a stronger economy for the nation. There is a collective benefit in making greener living choices. The change Is slow but it’s progressive leads to a better future for sure.
How IoT will influence customer loyalty programs in future!
One of the important sources of competitive advantages nowadays from a service provider point of view is customer loyalty. Many companies are investing in rewards and incentive programs to encourage customer loyalty. But given the ever-increasing competition, keeping customers loyal to your brand is no easy task. So how do brands build trust, drive engagement and create value for their most prized customers in today’s fast-paced world?
The Internet of Things (IoT) can help!
Today there are a multitude of objects and devices connected to the Internet of Things (IoT). The number of connected devices is expected to exceed 40 billion by 2024. Considering the proven value of Internet and such promising growth trends, it only makes sense to ride the wave of opportunities that the IoT will provide.
Let’s see how it works!
Innovate using IoT insights
Creating innovative experiences that remain true to the brand is one way to engage customers. We talk about virtual reality changing the landscape of customer engagement. Let’s see how it works. Virtual reality enables customers to ‘try before they buy’ products online. Now if brands tie this into their loyalty program, what will happen? Their loyal customers will have a richer experience when shopping with the brand, which will certainly move the graph upwards.
Create a new level of personalization
Internet technology can dramatically increase the ability of firms to serve and develop intimate relationships with their customers. Using analytics, brands can create an entirely customized rewards program based on individual customer preferences, history, location and more. Automated emails related to customer actions are a great way to do that.
Gain the necessary competitive advantage
In a rapidly changing competitive environment, skillful use of technology can really help you establish a niche for yourself. Let’s use the seemingly simple mobile as an example. Your customers are connected to their phones, so if you really want to differentiate yourself, use your loyalty program to go where they go most often. An example of this is Sephora’s targeting of those who use their beauty insider app. Their beauty insider app allows for a seamless omni-channel experience where one can browse online, check store selection and pick up in store, all while collecting points.
A word of caution!
The IoT experience is the most exciting technology of this decade. The use of IoT has given businesses the NEW opportunities to interact and engage with customers, as well as introduce never before realized revenue streams. Be mindful, however, of customer privacy. Remember, with IoT we are also dealing with huge amounts of personally identifiable information. IoT is all about data and insight. We must, therefore, ensure that effective consumer privacy protections are in place to protect individuals.
Above said and done, we believe that IoT has the power to change the face of loyalty programs. Given the growing use and acceptance, the loyalty program of the future will offer more relevant, personal and rewarding brand experiences.
Tips to retain loyal customers
A loyal client is every businessman’s dream. Be it any product or service, spanning the sea of industries out there, a major chunk of strategist’s energy is devoted to acquiring customers and retaining them by all means. Loyalty programs in India are one of important methods used by organizations to reward and retain their loyal customers. While different businesses may need to have specific retention plans, here are a few guidelines from which most of the businesses can benefit-
Empathize
Use design thinking 101. Before thinking of various ways to retain loyal customers, it is of utmost importance to empathize with them, get into their shoes and experience the product/ service the same way the customers will.
Customer’s Trust
Once a customer is acquired and served well, he is bound to return, since he begins to trust the brand. It is absolutely necessary that this trust is never betrayed. Thus brands should only sell what they stand for and refrain from overselling.
Uniformity of experience
Brands should ensure superior customer experience which is uniform across all of their offerings and across geographies as well. A customer having gained a certain experience at one store location would expect the same quality of experience at another store. Differences might mislead and confuse the customer about what truly the brand represents.
Real-time CRM and data driven decisions
With so many businesses engaging with their customers online, gathering intricate details about a customer’s needs and preferences has become the trend. Organizations that have the means to correctly mine this data and analyze it can make more informed and accurate decisions, targeting the right customers with the right products.
Data can also be used to predict which of the repeat customers are worth more. Upon segregating into high worth and low worth, customers can be offered customized offerings with preference given to the former.
Reward their loyalty
It always augurs well with businesses to reward customers for their loyalty in the form of special offers and discounts. Loyalty programs are one of the most popular tools used by businesses in India. For knowing what kind of loyalty program would work for a particular business, professional consultancy can be taken from loyalty management companies and customer loyalty marketing companies.
Customer service and ORM
Businesses should ensure that customers get quality after-service. A disgruntled customer could turn out to be a nightmare owing to the massive reach he can have via various social media. A negative word of mouth could dissuade the acquired customers from continuing with the product or service.