By Steve Hauber, Valassis
Every business wants new customers, but it’s less expensive to retain a loyal fan base since they can be your best brand ambassadors and bring new business through your door. Loyalty programs are a great way to do just that, and loyalty apps take programs one step further by allowing customers to engage and interact anytime, anywhere at the touch of a button. Before you embark on a loyalty app journey, there are a few things to consider.
1. Know Yourself
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Before designing a loyalty app, determine your business goals. Of course every business wants to succeed, but it’s important to determine your strengths and weaknesses and set goals accordingly. Do you want greater revenue? New customers or customers with different demographics? Greater customer retention? It’s also important to know what sets you apart from your competitors. Location? Products? Prices? Having these answers in hand will be your first step in creating a successful app.
2. Know Your Customer
Loyalty programs are a trade-off: customers provide personal information and you — in turn — provide value. Customer demographics (such as gender, age, family, home, work and salary) are important, but so is buying behavior: What, when and how often do your customers buy? What motivates them to buy? What brands are they loyal to? When are they online? Utilize surveys, giveaways, contests or website email signups to gather information, analyze it and use it. According to Salesforce, 53 percent of top small business sales teams are currently using analytics.
3. Use What You Know
It takes more than rewards and freebies to keep customers coming back. Value plus relevance is a recipe for success, and the using customer data you collect and track is the best way to make your app relevant and unique to each customer. Offer lunch-hour customers lunch specials and/or coupons. Families? Offer family-oriented discounts, such as a free kid’s meal. According to Koupon, 39% of customers spend more if they receive a personalized coupon. Customizing your app based on data will allow you to continually measure success, reach your corporate goals and improve your bottom line.
4. Engage Users
The very definition of engagement is to keep someone’s attention, and a feature-rich app is the best way to do just that. In addition to a targeted, multi-level rewards program, include multiple kinds of freebies — product giveaways, free workshops and services, discounts and coupons — as well as interactive features like ordering, photos, videos, push notifications, emails and links to your social media sites for even more engagement opportunities.
5. Listen
Listening and acting upon customer feedback leaves a good impression. Provide customer-care contact information or a suggestion box. And don’t neglect social media. You can engage with customers through your posts and tweets, and they can engage with you by liking, commenting, sharing and offering feedback. Monitor all feedback and respond quickly.
6. Promote, Promote, Promote
No loyalty program will be successful if your customers don’t know about it. Advertise it on menus, at checkout, and printed on receipts. Take advantage of your website and social media sites. Offer rewards for signing up. Let users know how many points they could be getting if they checked out as a loyalty member rather than a guest. Clearly advertise the benefits of becoming a loyalty member.
Steve Hauber is Division President, Local Solutions at Valassis. Since joining in 2013, Hauber has applied his unique vision and wealth of experience to guide over 1,000 dedicated Clipper Magazine employees. Clipper produces more than 300 local editions in 29 states, ultimately reaching 30 million American homes. He has helped transform Clipper Magazine from primarily an on-page entity to a leader in digital marketing since joining as CEO in April of 2013. LocalFlavor.com, the magazine’s online persona, has grown exponentially under his leadership, offering coupons and deals on dining, home improvement services, health/beauty experiences and much more. Previously, Hauber was CEO of Gannett Healthcare Group and held various media roles with Los Angeles Daily, Washington Post, Genesis / New World television, CBS, Random House and The Wall Street Journal.
