When considering the value in customer loyalty programs, most business owners, marketing managers and blog owners most often pay attention to what they can gain from it, paying very little attention to the actual methods used. That does not mean that they do not care about the way and which customer loyalty is obtained, but rather, obsessed with the final results. Well that is perfectly acceptable, overlooking the variations in customer loyalty program companies can prove to be a big mistake. Not only does the method use in order to obtain customer loyalty make a difference and the type of loyalty that is realized from the campaign, it will also determine the overall relationship between the brand and the customer. That is because customers will respond to different marketing materials in various ways, and not all consumer loyalty programs are made equally. Deciding which program to enroll in starts with understanding your customers’ needs, wants and behavioral patterns.
Consumer Loyalty and Customers Wants
When building a customer loyalty program, addressing wants- over needs- requires that Brands tap into the interests and desires of their customer base. Getting to know your customers wants requires paying attention to sales, request and even complaints. By appealing to your customers’ desire to save money, earn free merchandise and make they’re dollar stretch further, you are showing your customers that you care more about them than making a profit.
Even more, it gives them a reason to purchase additional merchandise, more than they may have normally considered, in the hopes of benefiting from their loyalty to your brand. Many businesses offer loyalty programs that allow customers to get a free item after a certain number of purchases, accumulate points based on the dollars spent in order to redeem those points for their choice of merchandise, and even gain access to exclusive discounts that are only available to loyal customers. These programs not only encourage repeat sales but forges a long-term relationship that lasts far beyond the i initial sale.
Consumer Loyalty and Customers’ Needs
It is not difficult to imagine the needs of your customers. Foremost, they need to save money, or stretch the power of the dollar. Even more, many of them need to feel appreciated in order to extend their loyalty to a brand. Regarding the most particular customers, they need to feel special colon as if the brand knows them personally and caterers to them because they value their business.
Creating a customer loyalty program that fulfills these needs can empower your brand so that it is able to capitalize on a sizeable market share of customer. Instead of throwing a meaningless campaign into the wind and hoping for the best, focusing on customers’ needs well create a sense of urgency and demand that few other objectives can accomplish.
Consumer Loyalty and Customer Behavioral Patterns
Learning your customer’s behavioral patterns not only good for personalizing your marketing strategy, but it is also very effective for creating a powerful and effective customer loyalty strategy. With such Fierce competition in the marketplace, it is important that Brands differentiate themselves from their competitors, but it has become even more increasingly important to understand the different behavioral traits of their individual customers. While this may seem like too large of a task to take on, a properly structured loyalty program can do all of the work of capturing information and data about your customers, which will allow you to disseminate the information and adjust your approach and real-time to each customer.
For instance, many grocery stores provide coupons to their customers based on their recent purchases. Their point of sale systems collect data that tracks the frequency and quantity of consumer purchases, even more, paying attention to the products that most compliments their recent purchases. That means that when a customer purchases additional items, they will receive coupons for discounts on items that they have either previously purchased in the past or are more likely to purchase in the future.
And because the coupons are not giving out randomly to any customer that is willing to take them, but rather given to the specific customers that have already displayed a behavioral pattern that suggests a need or want for these products, these stores receive an increased amount of coupons being redeemed because customers appreciate a discount on the items that they already used as opposed to receiving a discount for a product they are being newly introduced to.
All in all, the value of customer loyalty programs, and the companies that provide them, and the method being employed then the actual results being touted. In fact, most of those results will vary based on the industry, the product, and the demographics of the brands’ consumer base, so will a particular program may work for one company it may perform horribly for another. That is why brands must consider these things prior to implementing a customer loyalty program, and then address either the customer’s needs, wants or behavioral traits in order to build a program that produce the results desired. After all, creating loyalty is about serving the customers’ needs – not the brand’s, right?