Eljo JP, Director & Chief Business Officer at Finesse, shares his views on the significance of customer retention during difficult times.
Purchasing anything today is easier than ever before – go online, a few clicks, and your purchase is on its way into your hands. During the past decade, eCommerce has changed the way we make purchases. As per Statista, eCommerce in 2019 was worth $1.4 trillion, with 12% of total retail sales. Their prediction for 2020 was estimated at $4.2 trillion retail sales through eCommerce, with a share of 14% of total retail sales. The pandemic though has tipped the scale totally in the direction of online sales, with a large percentage of global businesses have hastened their strategy to move part of their offerings on eCommerce.
With a huge number of companies globally taking the eCommerce route, and with customers having more time to search on the internet – there is a pertinent question on the minds of most businesses.
How do we keep customers loyal to our business?
This article looks at why omnichannel loyalty programmes are successful in keeping customers loyal to brands, and how you can build a programme your customers love to spend with. We will answer the following key questions:
- Why are loyal customers important to your business and brands?
- How can you build customer loyalty through loyalty programme?
- How an omnichannel loyalty solutions boost your business?
Why is customer loyalty important to businesses and brands?
Customer loyalty has two major business impacts – reach and revenue.
Loyal customers transform into brand advocates thus giving your brand more positive reach among their family, friends, and whoever they can interact with. Revenue-wise, loyal customers have higher lifetime value, meaning that over time you can predict a higher return on investment. The effect of loyalty is so strong enough that loyal customers are willing to spend more on a product even there are cheaper options elsewhere.
How can you build customer loyalty through loyalty programme?
Let’s get this straight – loyalty is a two-way road. While businesses clearly benefit from customer loyalty, customers too have expectations from the business.
Customers are driven by their own goals, and they will be loyal to the company that fulfil these goals the best. It goes without saying – customers cozy up to brands which provide products or services that are high-quality, has brilliant customer services and deliver services as promised. Without these in place, customers would readily take their business elsewhere without batting an eyelid.
Say, your business already has these in place. So does your competition! And if your competitor puts a better offer on the table, then your customer is going to take it.
How can you ensure your customer does not go to your competitor?
It is possible by ensuring that existing customers keep coming back to do business by holistically rewarding them with an omnichannel loyalty platform.’
The more your customer remains loyal to your brand, the more you reward them for their behaviour, thus reinforcing positive emotion with your brand. Also, when your customer is able to relate emotionally with these rewards made available by your brand, they stay with your brand longer.
Loyalty is a two-way road, indeed!
How can an omnichannel loyalty solution boost your business?
We have established that in order for customers to stay with your brand, you need to reward them. Omnichannel Loyalty programmes help you do just that. Omnichannel Loyalty programmes not just help you offer customers good prices and great products – they also give your customers tons of engagement points that keep your customers engaged and get them back to your brand.
A great Omnichannel Loyalty programme creates a devoted customer following to your brand, by helping you stand out through the following ways –
- offering members exclusive discounts and VIP benefits
- offering members free merchandise, and access to unreleased products
- special interest clubs, that emphasise exclusivity
- offering points / rewards on behaviors your business finds beneficial
- an easier buying process using the earned rewards, that makes online shopping seamless
- make the loyalty programme available on customer-channels that are most beneficial to the business
A well-thought about loyalty campaign, with the right selection of an Omnichannel Loyalty programme leads to loyal customers. And loyal customers are profitable customers. Rewarding them will help keep them loyal for longer – thus creating a golden loop of sorts and allowing the programme to pay itself in the medium to long term.
Finesse, the leading digital transformation leader in the region offers a comprehensive cloud based integrated loyalty platform and CRM with an easy redemption system and customisable rewards. This will help our partners to prioritise customer retention as paramount and bring back their customers using text messages, WhatsApp API integration, emails and other marketing tools.
