How loyal are your customers? It’s often true that 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers, but with the plethora of printing options available to your customers today, it’s not enough to simply assume that customers will keep coming just because they always have.
The need to keep repeat customers has resulted in loyalty programs, an innovative marketing strategy that has become the norm for many businesses in the last decade. Loyalty programs are everywhere: from the local coffee shop that gives you a free coffee for every ten you purchase to large corporations that offer unique benefit plans to repeat customers. It seems that every store you enter offers some sort of program to encourage repeat business.
Why have loyalty programs had such widespread success? The reason is simple: they work. Whether you are accumulating air miles, Petro points, free pedicures, or bonus gifts, the loyalty program has created a buying environment that offers distinct rewards to customers who come back again.
Customer loyalty programs began in the 1980s in the airline industry. Loyalty programs have since exploded, as evidenced by my and others’ wallets. 75% of consumers own at least one loyalty card. I have an Aeroplan card, a Body Shop card, a La Senza card, an Indigo/Chapters card, a coffee card, a pedicure card, a Sears card, and a Blockbuster card. Each one gives me a different benefit such as point accumulation, discounted shopping, or free products. Do I favour these retail destinations because of their rewards? Absolutely.
If you think your business is too small to benefit from such a program, you’re mistaken. Rewarding your best customers for repeat business will help solidify business relationships, gain long-term loyalty, and encourage word-of-mouth advertising from your customers. Loyalty programs are an effective strategy that can be implemented by small, medium, or large businesses.
A loyalty program can be as simple or as complicated as you desire. A simple loyalty program involves giving customers a benefit for being loyal to your print shop or graphic design company. It could be as easy as saying “Hey Jim, you’ve been a great client. To show you how thankful I am for your business, I would be happy to give you a ten percent discount on your next order.”
more complicated program would be to have a website where customers upload their orders. You can then give points (which can later be exchanged for goods or services) for each dollar spent or each order placed. This encourages consumers to visit your website, rather than the website of a competitor, the next time they need some printed materials.
Your customer is not the only one who benefits from a loyalty program—businesses don’t just give out reward points to be nice. Loyalty cards allow companies to track buyers’ spending habits, providing valuable consumer data to business managers. For example, a business manager might learn from her loyalty data that 80% of her clients are female. This knowledge will allow her to better target future marketing campaigns.
A loyalty program also gives a certain air of professionalism to your company. It makes customers feel that you value their business and encourages them to come back to you. Here are some ideas for easy-to-create loyalty programs that you can customize to your business:
Track sales and offer rebates for spending a certain dollar amount; for example, if your customer spends $1000, give him a $50 credit.
Track orders and create a buy-ten-get-one offer; if a customer places ten orders for 1000 business cards, she gets her eleventh order free of charge.
Offer a discounted rate for customers who have been with you for a certain amount of time—clients who have been with you for over one year could receive 5% off their orders.
Provide a discount card to favoured clients so they get 10% off upon presentation of the card.
Create a “VIP Package” which can be given to customers which contains a variety of valuable coupons.
However you choose to structure your loyalty program, it can and should grow as your business grows. Remember, encouraging a customer you have already attracted to come back again is much easier than soliciting a brand new client!
MPR Communication is a design and print company located in Lachine, Quebec. Jasmine Brooks is MPR’s Project Coordinator. E: jbrooks@mprcommunication.com
