“It is the service we are not obliged to give that people value most.”

Hi Everyone

 

This is a 1minute email…

 

I was with a client recently and all of the basics were missing…..

 

No rewards posters

No Recruitment encouragement

No loyalty interaction from staff to customers

No card scanning at the till

No designated loyalty rewards area

No bonus points promotions

No double or triple points stickers

 

Loyalty seemed to be a secret in this store. Why?

 

When I asked this client for his opinion on the loyalty he said… "my customers like it but I don't see any benefit from it" Now if that's not an odd statement then I don't know what is. When I asked how come they were not still recruiting he said "sure we have everyone" yet when asked he didn't know 2 out of the 4 customers he had in his shop at the time.

 

The reason for doing loyalty marketing are as follows;

·         Build your database

·         Incentivise motivate and rewards your customers, show them you care

·         Monitor trends in customer behaviour

·         Build your marketing promotions around it as per my last email to you.

·         Contact missing customers

·         Contact customers whose spend is dropping

·         Have an audience who will listen to Your story -providing your story is strong.

·         Use it as a base to grow your business from

 

Remember good loyalty is not just about getting rewards it's much more than that..It's about Privilege-offers-Rewards-Recruitment-Redemption

 

Privilege

Making customers feel special, part of a club, a valued customer, "thanks a million for being a loyalty member" imagine the reaction if you said that to a customer. If you don't change your rewards and don't put any effort into your loyalty customers by making them feel special then your programme will turn into Applegreens where there is no feeling of being special.

 

Offers

Its good practice to be able to have loyalty special offer of the week on a blackboard, e.g. This week double Points when you buy Spring Lamb or Today's loyalty special 4 Pork Chops for €3.50 when you spend 20 points.

 

Rewards

Should be changed 4 times a year with the seasons and should be on a leaflet in every bag

 

Recruitment & redemption

Recruitment should be an ongoing thing, I have clients large and small that are recruiting new members every week even after 18 months of loyalty. Redemptions, encourage redemptions, have a redemption sale, but 10 names on  the wall each week that can redeem any reward for 50 points.

 

 

Finally

Every customer you have will increase their shopping visits to you if you just make sure they enjoy the experience. That enjoyment can come from;

·         Staff interaction

·         Interesting product

·         Interesting store to browse

·         Decent value

·         Artisan feel front of house e.g. Baskets of veg, product descriptions hand written on tags, owners values on the wall, difference in your meat and others explained

·         Professional and slick back of house

 

After all in the words of J.C. Penny "It is the service we are not obliged to give that people value most."

 

The great thing about being in a small business is that you can actually make your customers feel very special very easily…

 

This video is one we used to show in days of old but I found a slice of it again on YouTube its worth a look. I don't expect you to have to throw the fish as in the clip but it does show what happens when your customers enjoy the shopping experience a bit of fun really…. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6ssn6WqxFc

 

 

 

Kind regards,

 

Finbarr

Finbarr Malone

Customer Connect Ireland

Address: Unit 6, ERIC Building, Institute of Technology Carlow, Kilkenny Road, Carlow.

 

Tel: +353 (0) 1 485 3203

Fax: +353 (0)1 5261012

Mobile: +353 (0) 87 2368956

Skype: finbarr25

E: finbarr@customerconnectireland.com

W: www.customerconnectireland.com

 

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