Most High Street retailers these days realize that the secret to surviving, against out-of-town malls, or worse, online retailing, is to have a good loyalty program.
Many try to use price to their advantage, but cutting costs is a battle the small independent retailer can never win. Along with the myriad of CashBack Clubs that are now emerging, sites like TopCashBack and Quidco should be included here, as all they do is create a breed of shoppers whose only goal in life is to get the biggest refund, though not necessarily against the best. original price. This, of course, totally destroys any concept of loyalty.
These cash-back sites serve a good purpose for occasional large purchases, but they don’t tend to work for the daily shopping habits of countless millions of shoppers. However, loyalty programs are in high demand to help High Street community retailers build and maintain a loyal following of repeat shoppers. But there’s more than that.
High Street retailers used to be the life blood of the community, and these small business owners know and appreciate that good service generates loyal customers. But they also know that aside from any after-sales support (a very important weapon in the arsenal of small business versus giants’ battle of survival), what attracts and keeps the most loyal customers at retail outlets the local High Street community is instant gratification: a smile, knowing your name and more. Ask any teacher or parent, the key to successfully training a child (or a pet) in how to behave, and they will tell you: – The secret is “instant gratification”. There is no point giving an award to a child long after he has done what he was told. If you teach your dog a new trick, there is no point in giving him a dog biscuit several hours later. The same applies to the choice of loyalty programs from High Street retailers.
Translate that into a loyalty program and be amazed at the results.
There are a host of loyalty programs out there, from the humble coffee shop card where you get the 10th free coffee, to the well-established Tesco’s ClubCard and Sainsbury’s Nectar Card. Of those three, in order of instant gratification, could you believe it, the humble coffee shop card comes out on top, followed by the Nectar card, and Tesco is far behind.
Why is that?
Well, as soon as you have bought your ninth coffee, the waitress tells you ‘Your next coffee is FREE’.
Instant gratification.
Now, Sainsbury’s choice to support the Nectar card, rather than creating his own loyalty card, is a stroke of sheer genius. Why? Because here’s a loyalty card that you can use not just at Sainsbury’s, but at thousands of well-known High Street stores and online retailers. Instead of offering the lowest prices they could afford (an unwinnable price war), they offer Nectar Points on every transaction, and then when they write to you every quarter or advertise in the media, you can go to any Sainsbury’s store and Generally, you will be offered a multiple of the actual value of the Nectar Points, provided you spend them at Sainsbury’s. In addition to that, of course, you can go at any time to one of the many outlets in the Argos catalog and immediately exchange your Nectar Points for products. Almost instant gratification. This is probably one of the main reasons why Sainsbury’s has just acquired the Argos chain of stores for 1.3 billion pounds sterling. Their plans to close more than 200 Argos stores and relocate them to their own stores is another step toward instant gratification.
Tesco is at the bottom of the list for instant gratification, as you have to wait three months before receiving the letter containing all kinds of bargain offers, as well as gift vouchers to spend in the store, and perhaps with offers to double. or more its value in certain promotional items within its Stores.
So how do you get a loyalty program that gives you true real-time gratification? Is there such a system?
First of all, reward points must be awarded instantly when the transaction is made, rather than a simple cash offer. Loyalty programs that offer cash rewards typically take a few days to process the transaction and then the banking system adds delays.
Second, the loyalty program must reward members when they involve their friends in the program. Each member must have the ability to involve their friends as well, so that they earn Loyalty Reward Points immediately every time one of their friends spends money on any Loyalty Merchant involved in this program. When you have a team in place, it can be very exciting every time you walk into a loyalty merchant and see how your point balance has increased without your intervention. What if one of your team members buys a new car from a loyalty dealer?
Third, the program should easily encourage the buyer to commit to as little as £ 50 a month. Obviously, more is better, but by starting small, it is easier for everyone to gradually build their commitment. This will also help everyone easily build a team of 5 or more contacts, who in turn will love duplicating that process.
Fourth, the loyalty program must be “suitable for small retailers.” If these retailers participate and get their current loyal customers to sign up as FREE members, not only will they have more customers targeting them (without the need for expensive ‘Pay and Pray’ direct marketing), but they will start to build a flow of significant secondary income, based on your customers’ shopping habits, even when shopping at competitive stores (or online). Where a typical buyer may find it easy to get 5 or more people involved, these small businesses may have hundreds of customers they want to sign up with. (Here of course a lot of POINTS means A LOT of PRIZES!)
To see how INSTANT GRATIFICATION works in this type of Loyalty Program, you just need to consider the following. Each shopper will earn Reward Points (RP) immediately after they order gift vouchers from participating key loyalty merchants. They’ll also earn RP immediately when they successfully complete a purchase at any of the expanding network of small independent loyalty merchants. Additionally, when any member of your team (buyer or small business owner) does the same, your account will also be immediately updated with your Loyalty Reward Points (LRP). As an added benefit, the buyer should also earn more RP by redeeming existing RP to pay part or all of an order. For example, if you spend £ 50 at a local butcher who is also a loyal merchant, and the shopper uses £ 25 in cash and redeems 25 RP, he will be credited with the TOTAL AMOUNT of RP owed on the current purchase. This will encourage them to spend more on this and other associated Loyalty merchants. They could also use the points to buy more gift vouchers from key loyalty merchants.
With the Nectar Card network now over 20 million, not only can smart shoppers get their 1% Nectar cash back when they spend at participating stores, but if that store is also a member of this Universal Loyalty Program, Not only will you get 2.5 to 5 times more than Nectar rewards on your purchase, you will also earn Loyalty Reward Points on everything your shopping community members spend.
Why not look for such a system on SU High Street? Plus, it’s totally free and could totally power up every shopping trip. Even better, get your local High Street community stores involved as well and benefit even more!