As hard as it is to build an idea of forming your company and launching it in the market, what’s almost equally harder is garnering returning customers. The market has no place for companies, which fail to keep up with the high pace of competition; and you probably would not want your business to become just another ho-hum name that customers don’t even bother to check out.
So, in such a competitive market scenario, what should a business do to increase returning customers?
Get a customer loyalty programme?
No...
Get a customer loyalty programme that works!
Since there is a huge difference between the idea and concept of big and small businesses, there has to be a specific way to retain customers for each of them. There are a lot of options regarding loyalty programmes for small businesses, depending on their structure. Here are some of them.
Punch Cards
Punch cards are said to be the godfather of the loyalty programmes for small businesses. It is because these cards are simple to use and understand for the customers and easy to implement for the sellers. Customers get a reward when their punch card gains a certain number of punches.
Mobile Apps
The mobile app is a great way to grease the wheels of customer engagement for all the digital savvy small business owners. You can get in touch with a technology partner that can set up an easy to implement rewards app, customised to your business needs. It works well in a world where people are immensely connected to their smartphones.
Opt-In Email
Here, you can ask your customers their email address, so that you can send them a discount and offer time to time. This allows you to easily market about the sales, and announce about the products you are introducing soon.
Membership Cards
I am talking about scannable membership cards here, because- digitalisation. It is the darling of grocery stores and a great step up from the conventional punch cards. A scannable membership card is an electronic stuff that can let you have your customers’ data easily, like email address and phone numbers. You can use this data to share news and updates with your customers.
These were some of the examples of rewards programmes that can work great for a small business. All you need to do is examine if the programme fits your existing point-of-sale structure and if it is simple to use and understand for both you and your customers. Depending on this, you can have a loyalty program software designed specifically for your business.
