How to Increase Revenue with Customer Reward Programs
Customer reward programs are loyalty programs packaged and designed solely as a form of gift to customers. This incentive is given in a bid to show appreciation, draw customers closer, and encourage or motivate customers into being more invested in the brand and thereby increasing patronage.
Loyal customers who are rewarded will be inspired to keep up the patronage. It is less expensive to invest in customer loyalty programs for customers who keep coming back than to invest in gaining a new customer whom you are not sure will return after the first time. Loyal customers certainly cause an increase in patronage which leads to more revenue. Your loyal customers get to buy more and spend much more when they feel valued.
To have an efficiently running customer reward program, your brand needs to be invested in it, from money, resources to digital marketers and creatives to work it out.
Though running a customer reward program is quite a lot in one, the ripple effect cannot be ignored.
Even as you give discounts and amazing offerings to encourage your customers, a solid structure has to be set to secure your profits and increase your ROI in the long run, for instance instead of making it a straight win, you can make it a point-based or accumulative type of reward system such that the customers have to keep coming back to finally get through to winning and redeeming the prize. This way you get to make a lot more sales, and the reward system doesn’t run to the detriment of your sales and revenue.
When your customers receive incentives, alongside quality customer service they are more encouraged to recommend your brand to family members and friends. There are different ways through which you can increase your brand’s revenue with customer reward programs, and we shall delve into this right away.
How to Increase Revenue with Customer Reward Programs
Quality Service and Benefits
No matter how much customers love you, they will always watch out for their growth and best interests, so it is of utmost importance that you keep upgrading and improving your brand, as well as updating your data records. You need to have a hang of what the new trends are per time, what the people’s interests are tilting towards, and how to get that captured in your service to them.
Follow-Up Notifications
Another way through which you can make more revenue through your customer reward program is by devising means of reaching out to your customers. Draft a personalized follow-up pattern that is relatable to your customers’ past purchases. With emails, texts and notifications, they get to see your next available offering, this will catch their attention and interest, and serve as a reminder.
For a customer who isn’t followed up by you, it is hard for them to know the next new thing your brand is offering and ascertain if they will love to buy or not. Keeping in touch with your existing customers, and hanging around will place you at the top in their minds when the next need for a product arises.
For instance, a Netflix subscriber will get mails on other Netflix packages, offerings, and movie recommendations based on the other movies he/she has been watching, whether the subscription has ended and is yet to be renewed or not. This way, the moment extra money comes in, the constant emails, reminders, and follow-ups are there to motivate the customer to hit the subscribe button again.
Charge a Program Fee
One way you can increase your revenue through customer reward programs is to charge an annual activation fee. For instance, Ibom Golf club charges its members an annual or monthly subscription, this subscription keeps them in the V.I.P member club and grants access to the use of the golf course anytime.
Though the V.I.P members still have to pay for services per use, they get a massive discount every time, including discounts on food, beverage, and accommodation. A random customer wouldn’t get this level of access. This is an added advantage to businesses who operate like this, in the sense that they get a year’s worth of commitment and patronage, no customer wants to pay for a service and not use it, so definitely the V.I.P or loyal customers are sure to keep coming through the year, therein causing a steady increase in the revenue of the brand.
It is a win for the customer as well as your brand, because on one end your customer is getting massively discounted rates all year long, and you are getting committed patronage all year long, not overlooking the fact that certainly, there will be more customers coming in through the course of the year. The extra money gets to help in the sorting out and smooth running of operations, while you make more money from the customers who keep coming to patronise your brand.
Also, with charging a set fee, customers are stuck with you, even if they will rather not be. For instance, if a customer pays a year’s subscription fee at a GYM, and he feels like he doesn’t like it, he still has to keep going just so the payment isn’t wasted, this wouldn’t be the case if he only paid for one use. This is not to say, you shouldn’t offer quality service, as you know your brand visibility and testimony from customers is key to your success.
Referral Reward System
A good customer reward program should include a referral reward in its structure and line-up of rewards because when your customers advertise your brand to friends, they get to patronise and this, in turn, converts to an increase in revenue with no efforts at all.
Reward Program Partnership
There are quite a number of ways to increase revenue through a customer reward system, but this particular one is quite interesting. Marketing and reward programs can be a huge investment, but as a brand, aside from your brand’s reward system, you can come up with a partnership with another brand whose services do not contradict but rather complement yours.
For instance, a hotel, bank, and airline can form a rewarding partnership, such that is interesting and exciting to customers and generates more revenue for all three brands, Hotel A and Airline B can offer 10% discount on all payments made with Bank A’s ATM card, this causes an increase in the number of people opening accounts with bank A, and bank A can decide to pay for a free night’s stay at Hotel A, and flight with Airline A for its top 10 customers of the month.
Basically, with this kind of partnership, the brands don’t spend much, rather they increase revenue and everybody wins in the long run.
It can be quite difficult to increase revenue, but with these tips shot from the position of a brand retaining its customers, you are bound to gain an increased revenue, not just for the year but for other years to come. A combination of these tips will do your finances a great good.
For further clarifications on how to go about this and what customer loyalty programs, ThankUCash is here to guide and offer you the best loyalty and reward service there is.