Why do customer loyalty programs fail, by losing interest in a program, you don’t know how to keep it running or it’s not set it up right at the beginning.
Just this past weekend, I ended up renting a car, as I had to go to work and mine was in the shop. My insurance broker gave me a code to rent a car, I made a reservation online. When I went to pick up the car the gal who owned the rental place refused to honor the code. I ended up paying full price. Did she win a customer? Nope. Enterprise Corp honored the code. She was right and I was wrong. I am so glad it was corrected. Just won’t use her location.
There are many different kinds of loyalty programs, air miles, shop and different shops and services and get so many points, when you make a donation they’ll reward you with points on a card. It’s almost like a coupon game.
How many people use coupons? Most of the time, if you don’t leave them in your car or carry them with you, or you shop from store to store to use the coupons up – think about the time and money you are wasting, trying to saving and dime or two.
Or the reward points are just too hard to get, as they are set too high. I remember seeing a camera I wanted, I was shopping at a whole bunch of places just to get those points, by the time I got my points the points were raised so I wasn’t able to get the camera. I just gave up.
Recently, United Airlines are expiring their points if you don’t use them up by a certain time you would lose them. From all the newspaper and magazine subscriptions, most of the time they never got read.
Most guest reward or loyalty rewards are tied to the company and not to their customers. It’s not really a great offer..just to make the company look good. Most of the time the rewards attract the wrong customer or not the kind of customers you want to work with.
Most loyalty programs are set to guide the customer to do something pacific, it is personalized service? No, not usually.
Is customer loyalty programs worth it? It is if it benefits the customer and it helps you to stay in touch with them. If it’s something great and your customers aren’t interested then not likely to work for the long term.
The best loyalty program I have seen that seems to work the best is when to do a co-op program with your local merchants.
Video’s. Ok, it’s not quite a loyalty program, it’s a personalized way for me to stay in touch with people. As I message them, with specific messages, ask questions and get them to respond to me, then I can customize my services that they respond to. Each customer can have their own program that will fit what they want not just a generalize loyalty program, that they likely wouldn’t use anyway.
Nurturing a relationship is better than just a loyalty program..anytime for any business. Simply it gives you the opportunity to get to know someone and personalize the service you offer them.
The other type of loyalty programs I like are Membership Clubs, as you get feedback from your members, you can provide better service and products to them. It becomes more personalized and not every person will take advantage of what you are offering to them. Some will, some won’t. Like the Artist Success Circle.
