Let’s be honest, many of us are members of tons of loyalty programs that we don’t actually use – and we may even carry the loyalty cards on us but never get around to taking them out of the wallet. The biggest issue with these loyalty program is the hassle of them. They are not the easiest to use or do not generate enough of a reward for us as customers to most of them.
There are two halves to a decision to participate in any customer loyalty solution: value and friction.
To increase loyalty program participation, you need to boost customer’s perceived value by making the rewards more compelling, or you can drive down the perceived friction by making it easier to participate.
For some shoppers, it won’t matter how good the rewards are; the programs that they engage in need to require the minimum amount of effort on their behalf. Below are some of the tricks that work to convert passive shoppers into active customers to make your loyalty solution easy to use and participate in.
1. Tap into contactless
While barcode technology is fantastic, you can get even faster scans through contactless technology. This tech is all around us. Disneyland has been using it in its parks for years. You can see people take advantage of this on the transport network – even using it to access the gym.
Coniq can offer loyalty cards, and readers fitted with NFC so your customers can tap their card to earn rewards.
2. The digital wallet
While NFC means less hassle, even better is when we don’t need to carry a loyalty card at all. When you leave the house, what is on your mental checklist?
It is probably keys, glasses, a phone and maybe a wallet. However, the new generation of shoppers don’t always carry a physical wallet. The best way to increase loyalty program participation in a is to enable customers to carry a loyalty card digitally in their Apple or Android Wallet.
3. Remind shoppers on arrival
Sometimes, customers forget they are a member of a retail loyalty program. Train your retailers to become loyalty advocates. The sales assistant saying, “Do you have a loyalty card?” – will increase the participation of members, but it is not enough.
Shoppers expect everything to be easy and don’t want to spend time unlocking their phone to find the right app or pass. A way around this is to set up a loyalty campaign to prompt shoppers when they arrive at the shopping center. A geo-loyalty / proximity marketing campaign with a simple push notification creates a seamless journey for the shopper.
For example, a “Here’s your outlet loyalty card” notification as the bus or car is approaching the mall will remind shoppers to keep it on hand while shopping.
4. Get rid of the loyalty card completely
Here’s where the witchcraft comes in – Remove the loyalty card entirely from the process: no card, no NFC, and no loyalty barcode in an app. By making a payment, the store knows you made a purchase and can use that to update their loyalty account.
Normally, this wouldn’t be possible, as stores don’t have enough information to track a payment back to customers. However, with Coniq’s recently released Card Linking, you can trace payments back to an individual so that you can reward them through their loyalty account. You can even send them new rewards and offers by email, SMS, and push notifications.
The loyalty programs our customers engage with the most are the ones that are linked directly to payment. The convenience of not carrying a separate loyalty card is a perk, but the real convenience is the seconds saved by not having to scan a loyalty card and a payment card.
As consumers, we usually opt for the hassle-free route, but if you make it easy and rewarding for customers to participate, they will become loyal to your brand.
