20 Ways To Improve Your Customer Loyalty Program

Looking for new ways to improve your customer loyalty program? There isn’t just one specific way to ensure that your loyalty program increases retention, sales, and the overall happiness of your customers–there are lots!

Here are the top 20:

Increase Memberships

1. Offer new customers a reward for becoming a member.

2. Don’t ask for too much personal information; only gather the information you plan to use. This measure makes customers more likely to apply for your program, as it will be less of a time investment, and they’ll also feel more comfortable imparting less information.

3. Omni-channel advertising: Spread the word about your loyalty program on different channels to maximize your reach. A recent marketing study showed that marketers using at least three channels in a campaign earned a 287% higher purchase rate than those using only one.

4. Reward word of mouth: Since 73% of consumers are more likely to recommend brands with good loyalty programs, existing customers are a great resource to help increase awareness about your program.

5. Focus on engagement: Create a process to engage and grow the loyalty of new members with retention strategies.

Engage Your Employees

6. Educate your employees on the benefits of your loyalty program to continue spreading the word and creating a positive customer experience.

7. Give your employees materials to refer back to if your loyalty program changes or offers new perks. 

8. Create a contest among employees to see who can enroll the most customers, which can include gift cards, prepaid cards or cash prizes.

9. If loyalty program enrolment is lagging, consider sending secret shoppers to your store to identify any training issues that should be addressed.

10. Create a company-wide plan so all levels of the organization understand the business model and features of the loyalty program.

Make Your Customers Feel Valued

11. Don’t let your program grow stagnant: Your company should be regularly evaluating and reinventing the program to better serve customers and compete in the market.

12. Research your customers’ impressions of the current loyalty program and see how it drives behaviour. This is vital because retaining a customer is 5 times cheaper than attracting a new one. Further, acquiring customers often requires advertising funds, which could be invested elsewhere.

13. Listen to your customers: Customer retention is far more valuable than gaining new customers, so make sure you offer avenues for your customers to have their voice heard, and make sure you actually listen and implement changes where necessary.

Leverage Data

14. Analyze your reward program redemption rates to see who is redeeming, what they are buying, and when they are buying. If your rewards are too hard to earn or use, your customers will become disengaged.

15. Use data to see who is using their loyalty cards and who isn’t. 

16. Check if your loyalty plan aligns with your business objectives. If not, you can change customer behaviour by tweaking your loyalty plan to cater better to their needs and your company’s goals.

Communicate With Your Customers

17. Reward meaningful and ongoing interactions with your brand on a variety of channels, such as social media, email, or your website. This keeps the conversation going!

18. Pay attention to the news and social media chatter. Further, see what your customers are really saying, what they’re interested in, and what’s trending. After all, 73% of marketers agree that social media has been effective in marketing their business.

19. Use mobile apps to your advantage. For example, send your customers in-app messages, nudges and text messages outlining new sales.

20. Synchronize all your messages with customers to create a more in-depth customer profile. This will help you to know exactly what they need, allow you to cross-sell relevant products, and help you develop a long-term, organic relationship with your clients.

Contact our award-winning team to find out more.