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Who does not like a strong customer base with brand loyalty? Every incumbent business w/out a post-sales budget, are scrambling today to keep their subscribers loyal. Many hyper-funded startups are throwing money down-the-drain from personnel, supply and customer offers to keep them absorbed. But is it sustainable? Fact is a good percent of them still continue running out of retainers. How can companies keep up their growth with such high client attrition?

Online businesses are always looking for effective ways to scale their MRR. Enterprises that benefit from repeat ongoing subscriptions could effectively utilize loyalty program as a promotional methods to consider retaining clients. Typically businesses offers awards to customers who make frequent purchases, but they could also be a way for customers to gain an improved experience. Any small business could develop an loyalty platform that simplify certain processes for frequent buyers while still offering a traditional platform for first time visitors.

*"… DYK: Food delivery ventures like Zomato/Swiggy spend upwards of $72 (~5000INR) in Marketing per Consumer Mobile Application Install" *

Loyalty programs have been used in physical stores for a long time but online businesses are more likely to focus on sales and discounts. There are many promotional techniques that you can use to derive benefits that drive sales to grow a business. Increasing lifetime value (LTV) of each customer should be a major goal for any business. Average income from consumers increases when one can invest more money in advertising, and digital marketing. Loyalty programs are good incentive for customers increasing a pattern of behavior.

*Does your wallet hold more shopping cards than your spouse pictures? *

In a post-sales scenario, brands fight hard to retain existing clientele. Many high focus groups work towards building a loyal group of bread-and- butter customers as followers who like to come back for your product/services and "stay" with platform mostly for brand's discounts/offers. A lot of deal-crazy shoppers fill their wallets with cards that offer enticing discounts at various retail outlets, but more so often never use them wisely. Many customers demand the encouragement even if they were pleased to the product. It's a clear and effective way to keep buying again, and provides an additional push. Plus, every consumer involuntarily is price-conscious about saving pennies on the dollar. From a brand perspective, if your consumers seek price over value, loyalty goes second base.

Case Study: Wawa!

Wawa was selling fuel, selling convenience store goods and selling food service. What made Wawa adopt a strong loyalty program with their customers? Read more to learn about how Wawa perfected 3 business in a single piece of property! Read more ⟶

Encouraging referrals

Recommendations from existing customers will usually hold more weight than traditional advertising. Word of mouth plays a bigger game in sales. Prospects will approach a product differently based on where they received recommendation potentially leading to higher conversion rate. If a customer buys from you, introduce your benefits that can be gained. Based on your offers your loyalty program could provide discount on future purchases, add-ons, and personalized benefits. If you want your sales team to succeed with a new product, service, or combined solution, use loyalty of existing cohort of consumers to spread a good word.

Avoiding price wars.

Customers will always shop around lowest and best discounts. When you make people satisfied on with a price reduction consistency, probably won't mind if competitor offers a better discount. In competitive situation one can quickly find themselves in a price war, and experience lower returns. Loyalty program attracts different types of consumers who are more likely to stick with you. Benefits of retaining customers will continue to earn rewards with your business. DYK, It costs 5x times as much to acquire a customer than to keep one.

A zillion people today would be all ready to give up their identities when something is offered FREE, and is usually a pull factor strategy in basic marketing. Giving something free, and asking for confidential information, or luring potential spenders to a monthly 'paid-subscription' programs are not going to help a brand win clients.

Most business view loyalty programs as a way to hooking customer to the brand. But, if a relationship is not mutual, there is no reason for someone who has been offered a payback reward program to remain "loyal" in the first place. When your payback mechanism is not instant, you lose to induce repeat usage and the model fails largely.

Retention

What makes your clients stay in platform? The ability to retain your existing clients and customers is equally challenging to your bottom line. Loyalty program can increase retainers by complementing what customers earns per transaction. Increasing loyalty points of a customer checkout by a few thresholds & it encourages people to spend a little more, and with additional items being added to the shopping cart, the client sells more. Most startups today focus on the marketing efforts in getting new leads, but it's more about conversion and sales.

"…. 49% consumers bought what they didn’t initially want after receiving a personalised referral."

Taking criticism

It's easy to destroy loyalty to a great product! Criticism isn't about a licence to be outrageous. Reagrds handling criticism, clients should have with reasonable expectations as loyalty is simply not about sticking for discounts. Handling criticism is something which brands should engage time to time. A single bad experience, makes a happy and potentially long-term client, be unresponsive. Accept the reality, everyone is impatient. Every business has certain absolutes and it is relieving when one comes along that has a bedrock truth to it. Attitude is one of the quickest ways to go out of business. Everyone reserves their right to critique, but when it affects future business that's something disrespectful.

"…. 84% of consumers are more likely to choose a retailer with a loyalty program"

Improve your bottom line is not just about adopting the popular marketing channels, as new technologies constantly out date and channels very short lifespan. Successful businesses do not get cozy up to customers, but consult them as partners in business. There is a significant reason why companies are heavily investing in conversational bots to improve client loyalty and effectiveness of retention. In order to create an exemplary customer service, traditional methods like loyalty programs help unveil few stumbling blocks, & figure out reasons why clients still choose to stick with you.

People buy value not price

Selling to existing customers is easier and much more cost-effective than winning new ones. To compare retention in the mobile apps domain, more than 2⁄3 rds of the users stop using app within first week! Reinforcing the status quo, building loyalty to your brand, significantly increases demand for your product/services. It often cuts down the cost on advertising, and helps build reputation organically. Ease of doing business is one of the most ignored post-sales function. Client retention happens only when refund processing/off-boarding experience is equally smooth as an onboarding.

Engagement

Talking about missed opportunities, a lot of brands fail to engage with their customers on time. Pretty much everybody has access to different social media platforms and a positive experience with any brand. Finding client optimism in today's rapid world of restlessness is relatable to a needle in a haystack. The average lifespan of a content in social media is just a few seconds. Happy & loyal customers share a deep emotional connection with a brand. Organic testimonials and reviews are a potential gold mine and is readily available and effective marketing resource.  

Ignorance

There are cases when large branded bookstores ended up retailing a $3 book for $0.22, and yet could not land up readers to buy them. Customers don't stay loyal for the offers, but simply abandon due to ignorance. Most of them do not fully understand or see a value! When it comes to renewals, happy customers don't think twice. Regularly communicating with your clients and learning about them, helps identify their pain points and gives business an opportunity to improve their products/services and the process. Loyalty is more about understanding the real needs of customers with specific personas.

"… Sales experience drives loyalty. Not product."

Accessibility

Segmenting your customers into different groups and creating different campaigns, engaging the very personal level will determine upselling and cross selling opportunities. Most successful businesses you sign updates to time renewal offers and subscription upgrades, which extensively builds client confidence. Persistently utilizing every available mode of communication to talk about your products across the channels, makes your customers more connected. When brands are accessible through different mediums, clients feel the comfort to engage with the brand more better, and bring in more sales over time organically.

Many actions to take home! Keep hustling folks.

Stay Motivated, Always!