Tips to leverage your investment!
As a retailer, it’s probably fair to say your loyalty programme focuses strongly on what you can do to reward and engage customers so they want to return to your store make a purchase. While it makes good business sense to put your customers first, there is also a bounty of benefits for you, the retailer!
If you’ve ever asked ‘what’s in it for me?’ when planning your loyalty programme, then here are some points to assess its value.
You really get to know your customers
With a loyalty programme, you learn more about your customers and who, what, why, when, and how of their shopping habits. Traditionally, the missing link in customer data has been knowing what your customer didn’t buy - perhaps because it wasn’t in stock, or they didn’t like the price. Of course, POS systems collect data about what your customers buy, but they still don’t capture what products they liked but couldn’t justify the price tag, or what they wanted but you didn’t have in store.
With digital channels, you can track what items customers looked at but didn’t buy, and whether the item was in stock. You can also conduct price and promotion analysis to understand the impact of changing them.
Customers are the centre of your retail universe
– not channels
The omnichannel experience offers your customers the opportunity to shop however and wherever they please. Yet this distribution of spend across channels does not mean data is lost – actually, it’s completely the opposite. Combining data from all channels to analyse means you can understand your customer and how they shop, rather than focusing on the channel they made the purchase through.
For this to work, ensure that customers receive the same recognition and rewards no matter which channel they use.
Data overload is a good thing
Customers generate a lot of data – so don’t let it go to waste! The value found in data is using it to learn more about your customer so you can deepen your relationship with them. Use data to enhance and improve your understanding of what your customers need and want from your business. Learn who your best customers are and what you can do for them; and learn who could be your best customers and what you need to do to attract them.
The cost of customer details
You can’t really put a price on customer details, but you certainly can offer an incentive to customers in exchange for their time and effort in providing them. Customer details, such as email addresses, birthdates, interests, and wishlists, all offer an additional touchpoint for you to reach out with personalised offers and content, and are therefore a valuable business asset.
What’s the point of points?
One size certainly doesn’t fit all when it comes to rewards and recognition. Some will like working towards a goal by collecting and redeeming points, and others will value experiences and more tailored promotions.
There is a trend towards the personalisation of customer loyalty programmes, with a focus on relationships rather than rewards. Think of meet-and-greets, product tasting, special ‘member only’ shopping nights, and earlybird notification on upcoming promotions.
Use your data to understand at a segmented level which customers are motivated by points, and which aren’t, and communicate and promote accordingly.
Finding out what you don’t know
The phrase ‘you don’t know what you don’t know’ rings very true when referring to your customer’s behaviour. One way to find out what you don’t know, and use it to your business’s advantage, is to analyse your data using smart and savvy systems.
For example, with Infinity CPM it is possible to use the pre-built reports to analyse loyalty customer behaviour and new loyalty sign ups. Find out if your loyalty programme is providing adequate return for your business, or see how many customers are spending instore each month, and if they are spending more than non-loyalty customers. New loyalty sign ups can be monitored, and viewed by time, stores, and individual staff members.
