On average, repeat customers will spend up to 67% more with you.1 Which is whythey’re so valuable. In fact, increasing customer retention by just 5% canboost revenue by between 25% and 95%.2

With loyal customers, you don’t need to build trust or try to ‘sell’. They’vealready spent their money with you, so the hard work has already been done.You just need to find ways to keep them coming back.

While even just knowing a customer’s name or having some friendlyconversations with them can build a sense of loyalty, a little more effort cango a long way to creating a valuable customer for life.

Rewarding repeat purchases

Loyalty programs can be a great way to reward loyal customers. The most commonloyalty program is the use of a loyalty card. These are often branded andabout the same size as a business card or credit card, so they fit into awallet or purse.

The way these programs work is that customers are given a free purchase or abonus once they reach a certain milestone of purchases.

There are also a whole range of digital loyalty cards available too, which canbe easily rebranded and repurposed for your business. Customers can thenaccess their ‘digital cards’ on their smartphones.

Digital loyalty programs have the advantage of allowing you to captureadditional data about your customers, like how often they are purchasing andwhen. This helps you get a clearer picture of the lifetime value of a customerand can give you insights to refine your program based on time of day or dayor the week.

These types of loyalty programs are simple and effective, and work well forregular purchases or repeat services. They also don’t require much in the wayof ongoing effort or maintenance on your part.

Keen to create your own loyalty program?

Creating a loyalty program

Staying in touch

Regular communication with existing customers can really help build loyaltyand keep you ‘top of mind’ for any and all future purchases. And one of thebest ways of communication is via email.

When a customer makes a purchase with you, it’s always a good idea to gettheir email address (and get advice on how to maintain this database securelyin accordance with privacy and other legal obligations). You might need tooffer an incentive to get it though, as email SPAM has made people lessinclined to give their email addresses out. So you may need to offer aninstant discount or with-purchase bonus in exchange for their details.

Once you have their email address, you can then start to target them withregular and personalised communications and special offers to encourage repeatpurchase. But avoid sending emails out too often and without any perceived‘value’ in them as you’ll quickly get unsubscribed.

Creating advocates

A ‘refer a friend’ campaign is a great way to create active promoters out ofyour regular, loyal customers.

Having customers spend with you regularly means that they obviously like whatyou do or offer, so they’ll be far more inclined to recommend you. They mayalready be doing this, but often, they may need an incentive.

If you do have the email address of your customers, send an email out offeringa special bonus for any customers who refer new business your way. Thisencourages them to recruit their family and friends and by doing so, bothparties can get rewarded.

Surprising and delighting

We all love getting a nice surprise out of the blue and your customers willlove it too. So, cost permitting, why not surprise your customers withsomething special from time to time?

You might find out their date of birth and send them a gift. Even just sendingan email or message on or just before their birthday letting them know about aspecial offer or a little bonus they can get for their birthday could be athoughtful idea. It is best to familiarise yourself with legal obligations tounderstand how to use customers’ personal information and seek professionaladvice if required.

If you don’t know their birthday, then send something out when it’s yourbirthday and let them know that you want to celebrate your milestone with yourmost loyal customers.

Even invites to ‘VIP events’ can make your customers feel like you genuinelycare about them. You could invite them to product launches or give themexclusive access to a sale event.

All these things can put a big smile on your customer’s face and put you topof their loyalty list.

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