For any brand the most important aspect is the customer loyalty. Without a loyal customer, a brand cannot establish itself in the market. Hence, for every brand it is necessary to have a detailed understanding and strategy of employing a customer loyalty program.

But before this, let’s understand in brief what a customer loyalty program is, and how it functions.

Customer Loyalty Program is simply an act of recognising and rewarding the loyal customers of the brand by offering them certain products and rewards. These loyalty programs ensure that the customer feels rewarded and recognised for their continuous efforts and purchases with the brand.

These rewards can be cashbacks, free gifts, vouchers or discount coupons as well. Further depending on the brand, these rewards can also include the exclusive merchandise of the brand as well, making the loyal customers a part of the family.

Benefits of Customer Loyalty Programs

While integrating a customer loyalty program one should consider the various factors such as the cost for the company and most importantly how it would make the loyal customers feel.

Apart from the fact that customer loyalty program are used to maintain the loyal customer,  there are several other benefits of the program as well. Here are some of the most common benefits observed from a customer loyalty program.

  • Customer Retention

Using customer loyalty program a brand can easily retain the old customers by offering them various rewards and recognition. This activity helps brands to regain the customers trust and make them stay for a longer period of time with the brand.

  • Increased Sales

Integrating customer loyalty program a brand can increase their sales easily, as during these activities the loyal customers are tend to make more purchases and also refer the same to their peers. This helps the brand to increase their sales, and make more profit.

  • Brand Recognition

Launching any form of promotion or loyalty program in the market will allow the brand to gain more and more recognition. This increased brand recognition will help the brand to offer more and more exciting offers for the loyal customer, hence, making them feel rewarded.

  • Increased Referrals 

Once a loyal customer is rewarded, they will feel valued and hence, will refer the brand to their peers as well. This increase in the referrals will allow the brand to gain new customers and increase their sales.

  • Increased Revenue 

Increased referral results in increased sales which in the end increases the revenue generated by the brand, hence more profit. More profit further indicates more and more loyal customers are valued and recognised

Different Customer Loyalty Program

In this cut-throat competition in the market, all the brands are fighting to grab the attention of its customers. However, the attention span of a customer is very less, and the fight is to grab the attention for those 4-5 seconds.

Each brand is coming with a different strategy and trying their best to retain their loyal customers, and hence running different campaigns. Some of the most common strategies are discussed below:

  • Point-based program 

For every purchase that the customer makes, they get a certain number of points which can be further redeemed on a purchase when they have a fixed number of points gathered (differs from brand to brand). This allows customers to keep making purchases for more and more points, and the final redeem of the points feels like a reward to the customers.

Here you can also browse the Freebucks by RewardPort and integrate the point-based customer loyalty program into your system.

  • Tiered Program 

This is also a point-based system only, but when the customer has earned a fixed number of points they are moved to a different tier with different benefits and advantages. This feels like an achievement to the customer once they are upgraded to a different tier further motivating them to make more purchases.

  • Paid Program 

This program is simple to understand as the customers in this category pay a certain amount of monthly or annual fee to avail the VIP benefits or become a part of the VIP club. This further offers them different benefits on their purchases such as one-day delivery, guaranteed cashbacks, easy flight bookings, etc.

  • Value-based Program 

This is one of the most creative loyalty programs in India. Here instead of giving points or rewards, the customers are made to become a part of a value-based initiative taken by the brand such as contributing towards girl child education, or feeding the homeless.

These gestures make a strong impression on the customer, making them remember your brand and get associated with it. Further, customers also refer the brand to their peers resulting in more brand loyalty and recognition.

  • Cashbacks

This is one of the most commonly used customer loyalty program being implemented. Here customer loyalty is rewarded by giving them a certain amount of cashback on their purchase.

Loyalty program leaders such as RewardPort offer various different programs that can be implemented here such as Freebucks, Gamebucsk, etc.

Customer Loyalty Program Uplifting Businesses

Integrating customer loyalty programs in a business is one of the smartest decisions a brand can make, as this allows the brand to not only use this as a marketing strategy but also reward the loyal customers by making them feel valued, and let these loyal customers do the rest of marketing for the brand.

Using these loyalty program company are investing in a long term process and relationship between the brand and the customers that will help the brand to gain more customers and increase their sales & revenue as well.

Apart from this, customers these days don’t feel valued enough by the brand they tend to switch to a different brand, so a loyal customer will purchase a product from the brand they are loyal with even if the price is even a bit higher than others. Maintaining the customer loyalty program is a long-term investment that the brand is making today for its future.

RewardPort Customer Loyalty Program

Leading loyalty program providers such as RewardPort offer various different programs in the market to cater to the wide range of the clients and their needs. The programs by RewardPort are designed to cater to the different needs of different clients.

Some of the programs offered by RewardPort are CineRewards, Freebucks, Gamification, Scratch2Win, Sweepstakes. For more information get in touch with the experts here.

Frequently Asked Questions

1.How do customer loyalty programs work?

Customer loyalty programs are integrated to recognize and reward the loyalty customers for their efforts and contributions toward the brand throughout the journey. It can be of different forms depending on the brand such as cashbacks, discount coupons, referral bonus, etc.

2.Why are customer loyalty programs important?

Customer loyalty programs allow brands to reward the loyal customers and it helps to retain the customer, increase their customer base and generate more leads as well.

3.What types of rewards are offered in loyalty programs?

Different rewards in loyalty programs include:
Cashbacks, discount coupons, point-based systems, vouchers, free memberships, official brand merchandise, etc.

Abbott India Ltd

Challenge: Managing end-to-end incentive program for distributors efficiently.

Solution:

  1. RewardPort registered addresses and email ids of all distributors by getting a form filled with their company seal & signature and digitizing it
  2. Created reward catalogue for 5 slabs with 4 gift options in each slab category
  3. Deployed an account manager and operations resource for timely MIS & escalation management
  4. Created a full-proof reward delivery system eliminating pilferage of gifts and theft/misuse by parties
  5. Created periodic schemes for retailers- free recharge on billing of Digene products

Program mechanics: We receive a data file from Abbott team with address and gift option details of the qualified distributors every month. Tangible gifts are dispatched directly on the addresses and e-vouchers are emailed on their registered email id.