5 winning programs to help build customer loyalty

Increasing customer loyalty is all about providing the best experience – but how do you do that? By making it clear you care about your customers.

Loyalty programs are a strategy you can use to encourage customers to continue buying your items or services into the future. They are also a great way to show your appreciation for their business.

The key to a good customer loyalty incentive is that it’s easy to understand. It should be simple for customers to know what rewards they’ve unlocked.

Here are five loyalty-building ideas for you to explore:

Personalised offers

You can show customers you listen to and value them by sending personalised offers, which could also encourage them to make a purchase. Use the data they’ve shared with you to address them by name and add a touch of warmth to the offer, or leverage their past purchases to make your offers relevant to their interests.

Points-based programs

A classic loyalty device is a points-based program. Offer customers points for taking actions like buying items or liking your Facebook page, which they can use in different ways. They can earn perks by accumulating enough points, or redeem their points when making future purchases.

You can set up different levels of membership for customers to access as they get more points, which give them better and better perks, like free shipping or returns.

Tiered loyalty programs

Tiered loyalty programs offer rewards that scale up the more money customers spend. Usually, you’ll offer a small reward upon first purchase to get the ball rolling. These rewards should be more memorable than just discounts. At higher tiers, you can offer things like tickets to company events or early access to/samples of new items.

Value-based loyalty programs

Whereas other loyalty programs give customers benefits, value-based programs appeal to the issues they care about. Therefore, instead of offering discounts or subscriptions or anything like that, value-based programs will do things like donate a percentage of all sales to a charity.

Value-based programs works because many customers like to feel like they’re making a difference in the world, and also like the brands they shop with to have a social conscience.

Partnered programs

A great way to grab customers’ attention is to partner with another company. That way, the rewards you offer aren’t limited to just your own items. You also build relationships with other businesses that could be used to run a cross-selling campaign, for example.