How to Increase the Effectiveness of Your Customer Loyalty Programs?

In many businesses, loyalty is key. It makes your customers come back to you and vouch for you in front of their friends, resulting in even more visitors. That’s why many introduce loyalty programs that are meant to reward those who stick with the business. The question is, what makes a good program?

The way it used to be, businesses used plastic loyalty cards that allowed the customers to receive rewards for making purchases, including discounts, free items or buy-one-get-one-free offers. Nowadays they are hardly engaging for customers, since they usually require more effort than they’re worth. Nobody likes carrying a pocket full of cards with them, but according to Marketingland’s study, many people belong to as many as 8 programs at the same time. Filling out forms or printing coupons is an additional burden, and the reward is usually quite small - so many of them decide not to use them, despite potential benefits. That’s the opposite of what we’re trying to accomplish.

So what other way is there to provide them with simple and easy access to coupons and discounts? Nowadays, almost everyone carries a smartphone with them. It seems just logical to try to utilize it as an all-in-one device, and loyalty programs are no exception here. As much as 90% of personal devices have WiFi capabilities, and there are many technologies dealing with customer identification through social media, phone numbers or email addresses. With intelligent loyalty marketing programs, it’s easy to create an efficient, automated rewards system based on personalized data analysis.

How exactly does this work? The customer connects to the WiFi network and is redirected to a login page, which asks him to use his social media account or email address in order to acquire free internet access. They are then moved to the business’ landing page, where they receive relevant information - menus, special offers, or promotional codes. After several visits they might become eligible to automatically receive a reward.

Full digitalization completely removes the need for physical cards and coupons, making it more convenient for both the customers and the employees. Happy visitors that keep coming back to your business generate more revenue and keep your earnings more consistent, so it’s fully worth to make their life easier and implement technology into your venue.