Your customers are already members of, at minimum, three or four
loyalty programs tied to the local grocery store, office supply chain,
drug store or elsewhere. Offering a program with rewards and discounts
from your pizzeria would is sure to be welcomed with open arms. However,
printing out a business card and purchasing a fancy hole punch doesn't cut it anymore.
Let’s look at
some of the most important steps in running a successful loyalty
program, and why you’ll need to implement them if you want to build a
bevy of happy members. If at the end you decide that you aren’t ready to
begin a loyalty program, many of these same tips can still assist in
getting you in the right mindset for other customer engagement projects
that will prepare your customers for a loyalty program down the line.
1. Check Your Budget
Loyalty
programs can be one of the best ways to build brand awareness and
customer loyalty, but figure in the costs of setup, product rewards,
accounting fees, possible software or computer upgrades and any
additional staff you may need to hire. Most importantly, figure in the
time output it will take to market and promote the program properly (i.e., regularly).
2. Give Them What They Want
Many
retailers neglect to ask what customers actually want from a reward program. Do
they favor discounts? Free delivery? Exclusive invites to store events?
The short answer is that they want relevant rewards that are tailored to
them. The only way you’ll know for sure, however, is by asking
them—either during the sign-up process or through email and social
marketing polls.
3. Put it In Writing—and Make it Easy!
No
one wants to read five pages of small print to figure out how many
points they just earned from the pizza they purchased; they also don’t
want to spend a year gathering points that go toward a mysterious goal
or possibly nothing at all. Find a happy medium by laying it out for
customers from the beginning.
4. Know Your Members
One
of the reasons so many stores have transitioned away from punch cards
over the years is because you will never know anything about a customer
who carries a punch card. The technology available to you today gives
you the ability to gather important information about your customers
upfront and on an ongoing basis that will help you with future sales,
promotions—even ordering. The knowledge gleaned from being able to
monitor customer purchases through a software-based loyalty program lens
is priceless.
5. Keep the Lines of Communication Open
All
too often, loyalty cards end up in a desk drawer or at the bottom of an
old purse. In order for a loyalty program to succeed, it’s imperative to
follow up with your members. Whether that means through periodic
emails, mobile alerts or a note dropped in the mailbox, your customers
need to be reminded why they are being loyal to you and not the store
down the street.
6. Keep the Perks Coming
If
you want people to eat at your pizzeria, offer regular bonuses and perks to your VIP customers. Have a
new menu debuting in a couple of weeks? Reveal it to loyalty members
before everyone else. They’ll love the exclusivity of their preview.
7. Take it Mobile
The
ability to tie a loyalty membership number to a mobile phone not only
dramatically increases consumer participation in a loyalty program, it
also enhances the data that is collected about the consumer. A mobile
phone allows you to gather extra data in addition to information about
what the consumer does at the register. With a loyalty program that’s
tied into a mobile phone, the consumer also has constant access to the
loyalty program, benefiting you and them.
8. Stand Out!
With billions of loyalty memberships in the U.S., how will yours
stand out from the competition? Will you reveal secret specials to
members or invite them to share what they’ve earned through social media
for the chance to earn more rewards? Making members feel special and
valued will show them that loyalty is a two-way street at your
pizzeria—one that they’ll want to return to again and again.
Do you offer a loyalty program at your pizzeria? What types of perks do you provide? Tell me in the comments below.
Thanx powers our loyalty program. We do not use all of their tools, but their Winback feature is great for our customers. After launching that campaign, we managed to spark $25k in sales in less than a month!
ReplyDeleteThat's impressive. Thanks for sharing your experience. Imagine the results you could see if you were using all of the tools.
DeleteGood points for a loyalty program! Take it omni-channel!
ReplyDelete