The Importance of Loyalty Programs

What Loyalty Programs do for your business

If you’re looking to grow your customer base, drive member engagement, encourage repeat purchases, and foster deep, unshakeable brand loyalty, then a Loyalty Program is the way to go.
Why? Because Australians love anything to do with loyalty. In fact, recent findings on behalf of Roy Morgan Australia showed that 71% of Australians belong to a Loyalty Programs – and it is these loyal shoppers who can guarantee anywhere from 50% to over 75% of your business’s regular monthly sales.
But again, we can’t compare to those Loyalty Programs because here, we’re talking about something a little different. Though some small scale Loyalty Programs can be customised to suit your consumers’ needs, the kind of Loyalty Programs we’re talking about are not only for shoppers.
The type of Loyalty Program we are referring to, is designed to engage with and Reward your customers, members and employees, just as you do your paying customers, thereby encouraging loyalty throughout all levels and facets of your business.

Times are changing

Long gone are the days when a heartfelt “Enjoy your purchase” and a cheery “Have a nice day!” were the only things your business needed in order to keep customers coming back.
When a pat on the back and a good-natured “Well done,” were enough to keep employees satisfied.
When a fantastic sale was all it took to keep members interacting with your brand.
Today’s situation is vastly different.
Retail market shares are narrowing at a rapid pace as new retailers, brands, and jobs pop up left, right, and centre. Modern consumers have also changed. Mass marketing seems all but dead and buried while personalisation and inbound marketing reign in its stead.
Yet however turbulent these times may be, one method of engagement has emerged that produces consistent, positive results for Australian businesses time and time again: Loyalty Programs.
And here is how Loyalty Programs do it –

1. Loyalty Programs enable you to really connect

Loyalty Programs provide the exact type of individualised engagement for which modern consumers, employees, and members are so eagerly searching. With personalised access options and private, secured accounts, each user who accesses your Loyalty Program feels intimately connected with your business – no matter how much, or little, they actually interact with you on a daily basis.
Oftentimes, people are rushed, shy, or embarrassed, and won’t always be willing to share their true feelings and thoughts with you in a face-to-face setting, or even via a phone call. But, through a Loyalty Program, that pressure is taken off, and users can feel free to express themselves no matter how little, or long, that may take.
And as these users connect more to your business, you are able to connect to them. From consumers and members you can gather crucial information about their shopping behaviours and patterns, while you can gain performance data from employees.

2. Loyalty Programs empower you to tailor your outreach better

Using the data you’ve gathered through your Loyalty Program, you can now use this information to take your employee, member, and customer engagement to another level.
You won’t just be using this data to craft more highly targeted messages for your existing users. You will use this information to hone your outreach methods and messaging so that it addresses the immediate needs of the wider market.
By focussing your messaging even further, you’ll be able to encourage new users within your niche to flock to, and happily engage with, your business, as they feel that you’re really speaking to their wants and needs.

3. Loyalty Programs build trust and drive emotional attachment

With a personalised program and highly-targeted messaging, your business presents itself as being trustworthy and reliable – two qualities that are priceless in modern business.
By ensuring you speak to the wants and needs of your members, customers, and employees, and by delivering what you promise through your Loyalty Program, you establish your business as an authority. You become the expert in your niche, the go-to professional. Which means that you become, above all, trusted.
This trust forms a powerful, impenetrable, emotional bond between your brand and all those who work with you, purchase from you, and engage with you. When people trust your business, they believe wholeheartedly that you are providing them with the best choices, the best results, and the best benefits.
And trust drives sales, engagement, and employee morale absolutely through the roof.

Takeaways

But it doesn’t stop here. As Loyalty Programs are completely customisable, they can do all this and far more for your business.
Get in touch with us today to discuss taking your business to the next level with a customised Loyalty Program.