Retail is one of the key sectors of the economy, guaranteeing financial revenues to budgets at all levels and providing jobs for hundreds of thousands of people. And in retail, as in any business, customer loyalty means success. Especially in times when every new day is full of surprises. A loyal customer is more than just a satisfied customer. It is a client who will not only stick to your brand but will also recommend it to others. In order to win loyalty, you need to be confident in the quality of your products, provide top-notch service and create continuity in production and delivery. But how do you achieve and increase customer loyalty? In this article, we’ll look at the most effective customer retention tactics for enterprise retailers.
1. Offer different loyalty tiers
The principle behind the tiered customer loyalty program is that the more money customers spend, the more privileges they get. For example, you may offer them free services (delivery, extended warranty period, etc.). Typically, banking organizations, airlines, and insurance companies use this type of loyalty program.
Multi-level loyalty programs bind customers for a long time. On the one hand, they psychologically want to be VIP clients, and for this they have to go through several levels. On the other, the benefit of purchases increases from tier to tier.
Advantages:
- The customer is interested in spending more – regularly using the company’s services;
- It is an ideal loyalty program for VIP.
2. Offer customers bonuses
The bonus program for clients is in some way similar to the discount program, except that instead of a discount the customer receives bonuses. A percentage of the purchase amount is credited to the client’s account or card. They can be spent on the next purchase. Bonuses can be in the form of points, real currency, or store currency.
By using this customer retention tactic, retailers receive the following benefits:
- If the customer will regularly shop at the store, the bonus system will come in handy, working long and successfully;
- To accumulate a large number of bonuses, the customer will buy frequently or spend large sums;
- Bonuses can simply expire. This encourages the customer to come back to the shop faster and spend them;
3. Use discount cards
Discount or discount cards as the easiest way to keep regular customers. The card is given to the buyer and a discount is made with each purchase. It can be both permanent and differentiated depending on the amount in the check. It is actively used in the retail of convenience goods.
Discount cards may be:
- Fixed – a discount in the form of a certain percentage of the purchase amount;
- Cumulative – when reaching a certain threshold the discount increases.
The benefits of a discount loyalty program are as follows:
- Discounts attract customers and stimulate clients;
- The program is simple and straightforward. It’s quite easy to develop and control.
4. Implement analytical tools for customer management
Loyalty management can be made much easier if you have a functional tool for managing customer behavior. Such a tool should have the following functions:
- Data Analytics. Primarily, you need a tool that will integrate with a large number of different data sources. Even the simplest loyalty program must have at least 3-4 data sources to operate.
- Forecasting. It is good if the tool has a good modeling and forecasting background. You don’t have to use coding here. Visual programming tools (such as low-code) can help solve all these points.
- Decision-making. When studying customer behavior, it’s imperative to build models and make decisions based on data. This functionality should be included into the software and do everything automatically.
- Drawing conclusions. It is important to use visualization tools and derive data from the tool. It’s even better if you can automate most of these processes.
A good analytics solution for loyalty management should meet all 4 requirements. Only then the system is able to improve your business processes, including customer analytics, in a transparent and competent way.
5. Cooperate with partners
You can achieve more together with other companies that want to increase customer loyalty with affiliate loyalty programs. An affiliate loyalty program involves more than one company. When customers buy goods or services from one organization, they receive bonuses on their card or account, which they can use in another organization belonging to the partner network. Such a loyalty program is often used in finance, medical, and entertainment institutions.
The advantages of this approach are the following:
- The ability to expand the consumer’s audience;
- Tiered reward system – the number of points received by the customer is directly proportional to the amount spent on purchases
However, there are also disadvantages:
- Development of an affiliate loyalty program for customers is expensive because of technical integration with multiple companies;
- Complicated implementation system;
- Requires constant monitoring of partners’ work.
Conclusion
As you can see, in 2023, many of the current tactics for gaining customer loyalty are based on having special software in one way or another. The digital age dictates its own rules, and businesses need to adapt if they want to stay afloat. Most of the ways to retain customers listed here are much easier to do if you have powerful loyalty solutions for enterprise merchants and a technology partner to help figure it out. That’s why you should turn to Loyalno. Loyalno will provide you with a comprehensive solution and advise you on its use. We are focused on enterprise retail and we are ready to increase your users’ loyalty in no time.
