The first mistake you might make with customer loyalty program software, is not having any. This article supposes you have decided to show your customers how important you are to them, while at the same time making your brand viable for a new generation of purchasers.
Once you have established your customer loyalty program software, there are ways to ensure your launch goes as smoothly as possible. However, maintaining customer loyalty for both retention and referral purposes is not always easy. This is especially so with the changeable nature of the market. Knowing what pitfalls to avoid can mean you keep flowing while your competitors ebb.
Taking Your Customers for Granted
One mistake you might make with your customer loyalty software is by thinking too much like a computer. The great benefit of using this software is that it helps you take all the information you have about customers and analyze it for your promotions and campaigns. You can collect info on multichannel distribution without it becoming overwhelming and use the program to troubleshoot with ease.
However, just because you use the software to provide data and statistics for your loyalty program software, doesn’t mean your customers are nothing but ones and zeros. Each customer profile has a person behind it and as much as you can use this information to benefit the individual, forgetting to see them as a human being is treacherous.
How you might be forgetful could be in how you interact. Most data is processed, with column A informing column B and so on. You need to know that interacting with your customer needs to be engaging, thoughtful and human. Treat them with respect, listen to their needs and don’t just presuppose you know what they want because they fit into one of your chosen demographics.
Instead, use this data to suggest what might benefit them. Listen to their answer and adapt. Customer loyalty programs exist because the gap between customer and brand is narrowing. Just make sure you it is a human face which appears when they get close enough to see you.
Forgetting What Year It Is
Using customer loyalty software for your interactions with customers requires integration. Although you want to be more human when you communicate with customers, this doesn’t mean you should stay in the 20th century in doing so.
Your customer loyalty software needs to be able to use technological advancement in the right way. Customers don’t want to carry around loyalty cards to be stamped at every point of purchase. They want a handy app which can keep their information together without taking up important space in their back pocket.
The GDPR issues every business with online capabilities have been going through show how important transparency has become. Allow the customer to set their preferences, inform them when and for what their information will be used.
Keep up to date with the customer with push notifications and post purchase emails, but only if it is helpful. Don’t crowd them and scare them away, engage don’t inundate. Using the technology we have available to use responsibly means customers will see you as a responsible brand which is important, particularly with younger buyers. Non-digital services don’t have to be everything. There is still importance in grass roots, direct to customer and local promotion. However, incorporating these into your digital based platforms allows one hand to wash the other. This is important when moving ahead into the future as digital only programs are becoming industry standard in many areas.
Providing Inappropriate Rewards
Once the preferences are set and the loyalty program established, one huge mistake is to be inconsiderate when it comes to the reward. In saying this, it is often an easy mistake to make.
Finding the right reward is like buying someone a present. Even with the closest of friends we can get it wrong. We need to use the information we have on customers to be inventive and provide useful or desirable rewards. Providing lackluster or irrelevant rewards will sink a loyalty program fast.
It is not just the type of reward which can be a mistake in customer loyalty. How you present it is vital. If you require a certain amount of purchases to release a reward, then this can work well with repeat purchase items. However, if you make your reward program such that you put in more than you get out, it will not stand the test of time.
Customers need to have the right amount of input for their reward. This also works in terms of promotion. If you start a hashtag contest which gets customers some top discounts, this will likely provide a decent input/reward ratio. If you start a creative contest where customers have to put in more of themselves for the same reward, it is likely to never get off the ground in the first place.
Being Selfish
Customers know what a loyalty program does. They understand you are a business who is trying to promote a brand and make money. However, if this promotion is inconsiderate to the ideals of the customer, they will not be willing to give you the loyalty you need to succeed. You need to add activities that are enjoyable for the user and giving them a full experience.
This means you have to listen to what the customer wants in a holistic way. Increasingly, this means supporting causes which are important to their demographic. You need to be seen to put yourself on the line and show support when it is needed. Lyft supporting the travel ban protest may not have made it bigger than Uber, but it did change many minds and help increase their profile across the board.
Also, declining to cross promote is also a mistake. Work with other brands and provide the best deals for your customer. This way you will not be seen as a limited endeavor and your loyalty app deleted after the customer gets the initial reward for which they signed up.
Forgetting to be Fun
Lastly, one of the biggest mistakes you can make with your customer loyalty program is to be dry. It will depend on the seriousness of the product or service you provide, but being fun can take you places in this social media-centric marketplace.
Take the TSA for example. While safe travel is no laughing matter, using your Instagram feed to show all the crazy contraband you come across can make serious points in an incredibly engaging way. Being creative and interacting in an encouraging manner (whether in the form of contests, promotions or even the language of your weekly email updates) will do wonders in fostering loyalty.
