3 Essentials for Every Top-Notch Loyalty Program

Pretty much every c-store has at least some form of customer loyalty program.

But, as you know in business, someone always does the same thing better than most.

How do you make your rewards program enticing enough to join and continue to be valuable enough so that customers keep using it?

Find out below:

1. A Decidedly Low-Tech Approach Works

The top reason most customers don’t use loyalty programs is they don’t understand the benefits of yours or how it works.

Think of your own consumer life. How many apps, loyalty programs, specials, and other things are you a member of?

It’s enough to drive you insane because every business has one or more and you can’t possibly remember it all!

On-site signs help. But customers can just pass right by those. So a good solution involves training your employees to educate your customers on a consistent basis.

Your employees have to be excited about your customer loyalty program, understanding how it works, and seeing the value such that they join it themselves. They should have it completely memorized.

And they should know how to communicate the benefits to customers because they’ll sign up when the rewards are right.

2. Create Goals and In-House Competitions

Tangible mechanisms always work best in business. You can tell your employees to do this or that all day long.

And they will…but only to a certain extent.

Because they have no ongoing source of motivation, however, your employees will eventually fade their behavior back to normal over the course of months. And then you’ll notice your customer loyalty program membership rates dropping.

So, keep your team motivated. For example, if they sign up an agreed-upon number of customers, they get a reward that you and they agreed upon.

Maybe it’s a couple extra vacation days. It could be a financial bonus. The reward itself doesn’t matter…as long as your employees agree to it and find it valuable.

3. Change with the Market

Once you have customers in your loyalty program, you have to continually adjust with their demands.

For example, your app might track their purchasing habits and deliver them advertising designed specifically for what they purchase.

You might offer your customer the flexibility to use rewards points to reduce their gas costs outside when fueling up or cut their food purchases when inside. Or, you might give them free tickets to local sporting events when they reach certain purchase thresholds.

You have to continually evaluate your customers and meet their needs as they change.

So, that’s how you create and keep a top-notch loyalty program.

Which point did you find the most helpful?