What experts have to say about loyalty programs

You’ve probably heard about loyalty programs, and it’s being used as an incentive to encourage customer loyalty for long-term business. However, given that loyalty programs tend to be common concepts often used in businesses, most business owners are yet to fully utilize some uncommon strategies of loyalty programs. 

Your loyalty marketing strategy determines whether you will get to retain customers or lose them to your competitors. In this regard, we’ve put together the advice from 60 experts. 

Have regular communication

Most experts affirmed that loyalty programs tend to work better when companies communicate with their customers regularly. Sometimes, most loyalty programs tend to lack communication features. To make sure your customers take advantage of any loyalty program, you want to always send them regular emails, text messages, social media messages, or even get them on the phone once in a while. 

This simple act of consistent communication can be a significant driver of customer loyalty. Most experts went further by saying that business owners communicate details about their services to their customers via websites, text messages, emails, and the likes. When personal touches are communicated with these same mediums, your customers will know that they mean a lot to you. 

Don’t forget to follow up with your customers. 

One of the experts we interviewed went on to say that a relationship doesn’t end once the deal is made. This even applies more to the real estate industry. He advised that we take advantage of some tips. These tips included sending your customers thoughtful thank-you cards. She also advised that business owners provide referrals such as cash bonuses or gift cards. In this regard, endeavor to check on your customers to ensure that they are still happy with their purchase. 

Subconsciously, this puts your brand in the mind of your customers. And anytime they want to make another purchase, they’ll remember you. Another expert went further to add that, while customers are direly looking for a product or service, the companies that take it upon themselves to get to know them and converse with them at the ones that will stay in the mind of the consumer. 

Offer something valuable

This is one aspect commonly neglected in most loyalty programs run by companies. Most business owners think that just because they are giving something for free, they can simply whip up a no-value offer and give their customers. 

You should understand that anything that seemingly has no monetary value shouldn’t be given as a gift as well. When you give customers a gift that offers no value, they feel like you have played or are playing on their intelligence. In this regard, you want to offer something that provides relevant value to your customers. 

An expert gave an insider tip, saying that people love knowing that they can get a discount on something of high value. They also like to know that the company values them as a customer. Another expert went further to say that they have garnered major success via referral programs by incentivizing customers to enter and share the contest with their friends or peers across social media platforms. 

This type of incentivizing works most of the time because it gives companies an opportunity to reward and engage customers across different stages in their journey. In addition, it enables companies to leverage the influence of their high-profile customers on social media to transform that one-to-one relationship into one-to-many organically and at scale. 

Solve an issue 

One of the experts who was interviewed explained that if you can solve a problem for a customer, you are already winning them over. He went further to state that they built a platform focused on solving problems and life interests for customers that not only reward for engagement but ensures they keep coming back for their own personal gain. 

Taking it further, he added that a personalized experience focused on what actually matters to the customers and matching incentives as regards their chosen interest. 

Plus, another expert advice that companies should design a website having customer loyalty in mind. They should have a funnel that seeks to address the demands and needs of customers and seek to provide solutions to them. Most companies should know that for long-form problems, they may have to create content that answers to these challenges. 

Harnessing the power of personalization to win customers over

Another expert affirmed that everyone loves personalized responses. So, in this regard, while communicating with your customers, you want to ensure that you engraft some personal life touches such as addressing them by their name and using situations or analogies that they are familiar with. You can segment your email list and group customers who have similar traits in distinct sections. 

A good way to offer personalized services is to use your customers’ data to optimize the experience. 

Resolve issues easily

This is one area missing in most loyalty programs most companies run. One significant way to drive customer loyalty is by reducing the friction and effort required during our customers’ experience with the service. 

Particularly when it comes to a customer trying to solve an issue, companies should take it upon themselves to see that such issues are solved in a jiffy. Under the right circumstances, this can boost a company’s customer retention rates by 33%. 

Provide easy access to information

Some of the experts advise that companies should learn to provide customers with a real-time Q&A session. They went further to say that this has the tendency to increase customer loyalty by 25%. In this regard, endeavor to make sure there is always a customer support agent that is ready to tend to your customers” every question or need. This helps to boost your brand confidence. Plus, it also lets customers know that they can trust your brand to always come to their aid. 

Final thoughts

Using the tips mentioned above, you should see customer loyalty and loyalty programs from a different point of view now. These tips can help create a positive impact on whatever business you are looking to start.