Here’s something that experienced businesses know: selling to existing customers is far easier than getting new customers to buy-into your business. Why? Existing customers are already invested in who you are and what you do.
Customer Loyalty Program Benefits
Customer loyalty statistics are somewhat varied. However the success rate to upselling existing customers lingers around the 60% mark and is entirely dependent on a wealth of factors – the least of which being customer budget.
However, statistically speaking, the chances of any business turning prospects into loyal customers stagnates around the 10% mark. Now, that’s not to say that businesses should consider attracting new customers to be a fruitless endeavor, quite the contrary. After all, how do you grow your business without attracting new customers!
However, what about those customers who have previously invested in your business, only to stray away from your brand, having been enticed by one of your competitors? How do you win them back? One strategy is to launch a customer loyalty program.
Are Customer Loyalty Programs Sector-Specific?
Let’s state for the record, customer loyalty programs are limited to a specific sector, like retail or hospitality. Any business can design a customer loyalty program to reward their customers. In fact, alongside employing an OCR receipt scanner for your bills, customer loyalty programs demonstrate progressive business thinking – and that you value your customers.
Let’s say that you’re a personal trainer and despite helping your clients achieve their fitness potential, you’re finding that clients can’t resist the lure of the gym or have simply reduced their sessions per month. How can you win them over? Try a customer loyalty program.
Why not offer a free session with every tenth class? You could offer a reduced rate after clients have completed twenty sessions or even reward them with some gym gear – not too expensive, of course! after working with you for a whole year.
By giving clients a reason to keep using your service over a prolonged period, you provide them with the motivation to continue the customer journey with you. If they’ve strayed away, no problem. Simply, hit pause on any rewards and once they come back, continue from where they left off.
The Customer Experience
If there’s one thing that businesses large and small should always keep at the forefront of their mind it’s the customer experience. After all, a happy customer is a loyal customer.
According to Forbes, as many as 79% of customers cancel their relationship with a business in favor of one of their competitors within a week of a bad experience. That’s quite a startling statistic.
In addition to employing sound, transparent, pioneering and customer-focused practices, like utilizing check OCR technology for bills, you can draw customers back to your business by making them feel that their money was well spent. A loyalty program is a great vehicle to do just that.
Customers are drawn to value. If they feel that they can get something extra for their money, in addition to the products or services they’ve purchased, they experience the ‘wow factor’ and are more inclined to be loyal to your brand.
From a psychological standpoint, a positive experience invokes reciprocity. In other words, when customers experience the positive feeling of a loyalty program, they are more likely to reward your business with their custom.
Brand Advocacy
It’s not unusual for some businesses to rely on the top 20% of customers to drive as much as 80% of their total revenue. How? Your best customers spend more and more over time – unless they have become dissatisfied with your service and gone to a competitor.
This is a circumstance that businesses need to avoid at all costs. A well-designed loyalty program advocates the premier nature of your business, just as well as employing market-leading technology, just as well as an OCR check scanner does.
Loyalty programs give customers the opportunity to engage with your business. The more engaged they feel, the more likely they are to recommend you to their colleagues.
Think of this as word of mouth on steroids. You’re incentivizing more and more potential – and former clients. By allowing customers to engage with your business and then showing what customers could receive if they trust you, you can turn them into brand advocates.
Is there any more powerful marketing tool that the customer that speaks volumes about your products or services? Now think about this: what about those customers who have strayed from your brand, only to return? Surely, they are some of the weightiest brand advocates a brand can have. Customer loyalty programs can achieve this for you.