It’s a known fact that the success of any business lies in the number of customers it manages to acquire. The more the customers, the higher the sales and profit!
While most businesses pay a lot of attention on acquiring new customers, it is extremely important to take care of the existing ones too. Getting new customers to try your business is a tough job. You need to focus on advertising your business on multiple platforms to get people to know about your existence. Also, you need to carry out many promotional activities to bring your brand in the notice of your potential customers. Advertising and promotional activities eat up a lot of budgets set for your marketing activities. However, they are important for the growth of our business.
While most companies spend plenty of money in promoting their products to new customers, they forget to look after their existing customers. Focusing on your existing customers leads to customer retention. The happier your current customers are with you, the more likely they are to make a purchase with you. Hence, it is necessary to pay equal importance to activities that encourage customer retention. While there are many customer retention policies, one that almost works for all business types is customer loyalty programs.
Loyalty programs have been a part of the marketing strategies of businesses for a while now. However, the traditional marketing strategies have undergone multiple improvements for the betterment of both – the business and customers.
Traditional loyalty schemes made use of physical paper cards that were stamped every time the customer made a purchase with the brand. After a stipulated time, these stamps could be redeemed for a gift or offer. Though these traditional loyalty programs seem simple and effective, there were many drawbacks recorded over time.
Some major drawbacks of the traditional loyalty programs are:
1. Use of physical cards – The traditional loyalty programs issued paper or plastic cards to the customers that they needed to present every time they visited the store. It was noticed that over time customers were finding it difficult to carry these cards on every visit as they would either forget about it or plan to shop spontaneously without having the card with them. Also, with repeated use, the cards underwent wear and tear easily.
2. No Precise Analytics – The physical cards were stamped physically in stores. This made it extremely difficult for companies to keep a track on each and every stamped offer and reward.
3. Lack of flexibility – Physical loyalty cards were to be printed in order to be issued to the customers. If the business wanted to make changes with the current card, they had to reissue the new cards after getting them printed.
Thanks to the advancements in technology, digital loyalty programs were introduced. Digital loyalty programs have proven to be more beneficial than traditional ones because:
1. They are easy to execute – Digital loyalty programs can be executed with simple app download. Once the business owners download the app, they can register themselves and begin a loyalty program for their customers.
2. No need to maintain physical cards – As cards are issued from the app, they get stored on the phones of the customers. This means the hassle of handling a physical card is eliminated.
3. Track data – Digital loyalty cards offer the business the benefit of tracking complete data of their customers. The apps usually record data like how many cards were issued, how many stamps were placed for each card, how many times were the stamps redeemed, etc.
4. Quick – Most apps these days use the latest QR technology that ensures fast-tracking of cards and stamps. This means the customers don’t have to wait for long for the business to retrieve its data.
One successful digital loyalty program that offers such advanced features is Reward Stamp. This loyalty program is known to be beneficial for both – the business and the customers as it has got all the modern features required in today’s digital age.