Let me start with a story!
So my sister ordered groceries online from a local retailer. When she received the order, one of the juice boxes was open and there was juice all over the groceries.
My infuriated sister sent the images of the damaged box to the customer representative and complained. We were expecting a blame on the delivery person.
But, to our surprise, my sister’s account was credited with the amount that she paid to buy all the groceries. It was followed by an apology that she had to go through all the inconvenience. They never asked us to return any of the items.
Now what? My sister was impressed and it has been almost a year since she is buying groceries online from the same retailer.
This is what exceptional customer service does. It makes a customer for life!
This brings us to Customer Loyalty. A buzz word among brands these days, but why is it so important in the first place? Let’s understand.
Why is Customer Loyalty important these days?
Customer loyalty is a term coined to showcase the behavior of a customer when they are willing to buy or interact with a company on a long-term basis. When customers are loyal to a company, they give more importance to the brand and shopping experience than price and availability. They are happy to wait for their favorite brand to restock a product.
Customer loyalty is important these days because it affects almost every metric of your business. If you do not have any loyal customers, you need to spend a lot more money every time to attract new customers. The success rate of selling to a customer you already have is 60-70%, while the success rate of selling to a new customer is 5-20%.
Not only this, loyal customers are a great source of marketing for your business. A loyal customer would be happy to recommend your brand to their friends and family or leave an excellent review on your social media. 83% of consumers say that they place more trust in personal recommendations than any other form of marketing.
Last, but not least, loyalty programs make a great source of customer data and can help you get a deeper understanding of your customers. You can understand how customers engage with your brand, create specific customer profiles, and know more about their buying habits. All this data can further help you enhance your marketing campaigns.
But, how will you manage all the customer data and ensure customer loyalty? You need a loyalty program management tool for that.
What is a Loyalty Program Software?
If you want to retain customers, one of the best strategies is to start a loyalty program for your business. A loyalty program is a series of activities that can attract, retain and engage customers for a long haul to your business.
The loyalty program will help you:
- Differentiate between new customers, brand loyalists, potential loyalists & lapsers,
- and reward the ones who are loyal towards your brand
While there are many loyalty program software in India, I have seen that business managers and marketing specialists still do not have a clear idea of what kind of loyalty program software would be the best for them. This takes me to my next point.
How to choose your Loyalty Management Software?
Finding the best loyalty management software that can help you expand your business and know your audience even better is not that easy. After all, this tool will help you decide all your future policies. You must have a clear idea of what you are expecting out of this system. Look for a loyalty program that is not just a data repository for you but a full-fleshed CRM that can help you host various incentives. Don’t worry, we are simplifying this all in the next section.
5 Key Features of a Top Loyalty Management Software
#1 Integrated CRM
Whatever Loyalty Program software you go forward with, it should either be a built-in function in your CRM or should be integrated with a CRM system. This way you can store every data related to your loyalty programs in one place and interpret it much faster to gain a deeper understanding of your customers.
Such software can help you enhance your customer experience by creating single customer views and customer personas. Not only this, you can easily understand how customers communicate with your business across channels and use that information in building a solid marketing strategy.
#2 Omnichannel Loyalty Program
Enabling customers with a seamless shopping experience on all platforms is what we call Omnichannel Marketing. But, with omnichannel marketing comes omnichannel loyalty that allows your customers to experience the same loyalty program across all purchase channels.
For instance, they can redeem their gift coupons on online purchases in your offline store or they are eligible for a 10% discount no matter whether they make a purchase online or offline.
#3 Personalized Loyalty Programs
Instead of just sending out rewards to a customer, you should be able to know their choice. Some customers prefer an upfront discount, while others enjoy a free sample. Your customer loyalty program software must be able to help you out in personalizing the reward system by conducting surveys or by monitoring customer activities.
Another aspect here is timing personalization. A customer loyalty program can help you send the right reward at the right time. For instance, a quick additional 5% discount before the sale ends or a birthday offer can be good ways to keep your customers engaged with the business and feel valued at the same time.
#4 A Huge Rewarding Catalog
A great loyalty program management software should offer a variety of rewards to the customers and delight them with exclusive offers and shopping experiences. Different kinds of rewards that can be offered to customers include a points system where customers can win points for their behavior such as social media activity providing feedback, or making a purchase.
You can also offer milestone-based rewards. For example, a customer who has made more than two purchases in a month would get a special discount. Other rewards that can be included in a loyalty program software are cashback points, gift cards, coupons, store discounts, etc. The more rewards you offer, the more engagement your business would gain.
#5 Loyalty Journeys for Each Customer
We all know that every customer takes a series of steps before making a purchase and a good loyalty program software can help you map this customer journey for benefits. It can help you understand who your customers are so that you know to whom you are selling your products. You can create customer personas and understand the demographics of your customers such as their age, income, daily habits, occupation, location, and more.
For example: Suppose you send an email to all your customers stating that this month you are offering double reward points on shopping from your store. It intrigues one of your customers and they make a purchase at your store and earn those double reward points.
Then, suppose that the customer stopped interacting with the brand. It has been more than a month. So, you send them another email stating that their reward points are expiring and they must shop soon. The customer again makes a purchase and utilizes those reward points.
With customer journey mapping, you can understand which offer should be sent to which customer and at what time.
The future of your business relies on loyal customers
Happy and loyal customers can make your business a great success. A loyalty program management software can help you in a plethora of ways and make winning customer loyalty an easy task for you. Choose the best loyalty program software for your business that can:
- Provide you with all the benefits of a CRM or can be integrated with a CRM
- Enable you to create an omnichannel loyalty experience for your customers
- Personalize loyalty programs for every customer
- Offer a wide range of rewards and loyalty offers to the customers
- Ensure customer loyalty journey mapping
In-case you want to upgrade your loyalty program for the customers of today & not the customers of 2010, Check out Xeno’s Next-Gen Loyalty Program here.
How Colorbar generated an incremental revenue of 46% by restructuring their loyalty program.
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