Whenever customers purchase goods and services from a specific business with a loyalty program, they earn loyalty points, or what we call Reward Points here at PICA. These Reward Points enable customers to earn virtual credits that they can use to get freebies and discounts. Earning Reward Points ensure that businesses encourage customers to shop at your store, collect Reward Points and subsequently earn rewards.
Nonetheless, It’s not enough that they get something when they purchase a service or product, so for this post, we will see that there are a multitude of ways to give out Reward Points to your customers. A business should also reward a customer through other interactions as well, not only through a transactional basis that turns interactions with your brand purely impersonal, but also by giving out points through genuine interactions that would elicit true loyalty from your customers.
Great Times When to Give out Reward Points
When are the best opportunities to give out Reward Points? We’ve enumerated several instances wherein businesses can give out Reward Points to build better relationships with their loyal customers.
- Right when they sign up
Some merchants opt for their customers to pay for tiered eMemberships. A good idea would be to surprise them with free Reward Points immediately when they sign up, so in this way, you start off the relationship a lot stronger because of this act of good will. You show your eMember that your brand cares about them and their business, and this in our book, is a win for both parties.
2. Reward them for attending your events
You may also reward customers who attend your events with free Reward Points. This gives non eMembers more of a reason to join your e-Membership. And this also ensures that your events will always have people attending.
3. Celebrating a customer milestone
One good idea is to give an eMember Reward Points as a gift, during a certain personal milestone for example: during his/her birthday, or first anniversary as an eMember perhaps. This is very personal, and will make your customer feel appreciated as an eMember of your establishment. This would of course, require you to collect personal data from your customer, which is completely part of the process during an eMembership registration.
4. Reward segmented customer groups
You may also opt to reward eMembers based on their activity. If they haven’t been visiting your store in a while, it can be a good idea to reward them with a few points, alongside a message telling them about your surprise. This will be an effective way to revive dormant eMembers. This is one of the benefits of having a digital loyalty program, by having the capacity to turn data into insights that you can use as a business owner, to create strategic opportunities such as this.
Stop thinking about the cost
Business owners might not like the idea of giving out Reward Points for free. But the idea here is to keep up good relations with your eMembers, so that they will keep doing business with you, because they will feel that they’re appreciated, and that business is not just business or impersonal with your brand, but an experience worth coming back to.
Always remember that your customers are your lifeline, most especially your eMembers because they are the ones who have a longer life-time value, and will in general, drive more sales for your business. So surprise your loyal customers, and give them rewards!
