Customer loyalty programs provide immense benefits to your customers as well as your small business.  With a loyalty program, you can offer store discounts, coupons and other rewards that encourage your favorite customers to keep coming back.

If you are concerned that a loyalty program will only work for large businesses, we urge you to reconsider. SecureGlobalPay has the experience to help your small business reach out to your customer through effective loyalty programs. A loyalty program can be a great way to reward your customers for helping your small business grow. Below we list some of the most popular ways that you can use a loyalty program for your small business success.

Great Ideas for Customer Loyalty Programs

Create a Point System

With a point system loyalty program, customers will start to earn points with every qualified purchase that they make through your small business. Once customers reach a certain amount of points, they can receive all kinds of approved rewards. Awards can include a discount off the purchase of a product, a free product, or an all expense paid vacation package provided by your small business.

While this method is the most popular, we recommend that you don’t make it too complicated. Customers want to be able to build on points and easily see the rewards, so make it simple! Through our loyalty program system, customers will be able to log in online to monitor how many points they’ve earned. We recommend that the point system loyalty program is best used for businesses who sell many products within a short amount of time.

A great example of an effective point system loyalty program was the point system program implemented by Walgreens. You can generally earn 1 point for every $10.00 spent within the store. You also have the option to sign up online or request a plastic card at a designated place within the Walgreens store. Your phone number is typically attached to the loyalty card account which means that the customer does not have to carry a card with them always. Walgreens also has an online mobile app that can be used by customers.

When a customer signs up they will not only receive points for their loyalty program but they can also receive discounted prices on many Walgreen’s products.

Use a Tier System Approach

Another popular loyalty program is also known as a tier system approach. Most tier system programs work to offer substantial discounts to attract new customer. As the customer continues to spend money on your products, the customer will continue to receive an “upgrade” to their tier.  Moving up a tier typically means receiving larger rewards.

This approached is used in the hopes that most new customers will find it rewarding to not only spend money, but to come back to the store.

While this program may seem identical to the point system approach, they are significantly different.  The point system is used to offer smaller rewards consistently, on more of a short-term basis. A tiered approach generally takes the customer a lot more time and expense to continue to more through the tier system. It requires a lot more patience. However, it is generally worth it to customers who enjoy larger rewards offered through a tiered system approach.

Try to Find Partners to Join your Loyalty Program and Offer the Best Exclusive Rewards

Sometimes, our small business customers will join forces to create a collaborative reward program. This is great because it helps to diversify the rewards that are handed out through loyalty programs. It will be of benefit to you, as a small business owner, to have a variety of rewards available to you. We recommend that before you take this approach, you understand your core audience and sign up for rewards that will be the most exciting to them.

A great example of some small business teams that may consider joining together would be Spa and Salon owners joining forces with a hair care manufacturer. Another great example would be a Skincare company looking to join forces with a cosmetic company. The choices are endless. So take some time to look around and find out what companies would be the perfect complimentary fit for your small business.

Set Up a Sweepstakes Option

Did you know that many Sweepstakes throughout the country fall under the umbrella of “loyalty programs?” If it’s possible, we recommend that you consider a sweepstake option for your customers. The reward doesn’t have to be large, if the game your customers play is entertaining and convenient.

If you are considering setting up a Loyalty Rewards program, we recommend some of the following options:

Point Systems to earn cash back

Buy One Product Get Another Free

Buy One Product, Receive a Discount on Another product

Receive a free item (of equal value) with purchase

Set Dollar Amount Taken Off of Purchase Price

Percentage Off an Entire Order

Specific Product Offered at a Discount

Specific Discount Offered Off a Product

Group Deals (Burger, Fries and a Large Drink Discount)

Day of the week deals (Special Friday only special)

How to Measure the Effectiveness of Your Loyalty Program

It is imperative that you monitor the effectiveness of your Loyalty program. For example, if you are finding that a Tiered system approach is too complicated, please give us a call. We can help you decide what system might actually work best and help you to convert your Loyalty program to that system.

Loyalty Cards

Give your customers a reason to keep coming back by rewarding them with your customized business loyalty cards. The rewards system provides reports of loyalty points earned through purchases as well as a summary of redemptions, transactions voided, balance inquiries and other loyalty program activities.

Our loyalty cards offer complete transaction reporting and lets you see the true contribution of gift and loyalty cards to your bottom line.

SecureGlobalPay offers:

24/7 toll-free support line

Free training

Tips on maximizing your programs

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