Loyalty Programs: The Necessity of 21st Century
Finding ways to reward your customers and showing appreciation is a huge step for retaining them successfully. Moreover, loyalty programs are no longer just a benefit: they have turned into a necessity for businesses that target modern customers and follow retail and hospitality trends. Here are five ideas for a loyalty program that will keep your customers coming back for more and more deals:
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Point Loyalty Programs
Customers earn points for each purchase they make which can be used as discounts and exclusive offers. Point-based programs are among the most popular customer loyalty strategies, but also relatively easy to set up with a retail software system like LS Central. Your customers can track the points in their accounts and see what kind of rewards they have unlocked or are yet to reach.
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Tiered Loyalty Programs
With tiered loyalty programs, customers are divided into different categories or levels of loyalty: Silver, Gold and Platinum. Based on their spending, customers can reach higher tiers and as a result, receive greater rewards. This is a highly profitable strategy in the Hotel and Hospitality industry as guests can unlock upgrades based on the level they reach – for example, room upgrade, exclusive offer for a spa treatment, discount in the hotel restaurant, or complimentary champagne.
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Individualized Loyalty Programs
The in-depth insights provided by your retail system are your head start in building trust and loyalty among customers. Moreover, personalized experiences are a must for today’s customers.
Add a personal touch to each customer’s experience by offering individualized offers and rewards. Track their preferences and buyer habits to know what kind of product sales they would benefit from the most. Send them emails addressing them personally and offering them a coupon or promo code. And what is even better is connecting the loyalty program with your system to ensure the full visibility across your business – for example, the server at your hotel restaurant may ask the guests if they would like to use their 20% coupon or surprise them with a drink based on their preferences and previous orders.
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Loyalty Cards
Loyalty cards are an effective tool in customer loyalty programs. You can offer traditional physical cards, digital cards or both. When integrated with an ERP system, loyalty cards become a much more powerful strategy for retaining customers. Physical cards allow you to collect customers’ purchase history and personalize offers for them.
As convenience is a priority for modern customers, digital loyalty cards have become increasingly popular, especially among the ones that use their phone as a wallet. You can integrate the digital loyalty card with a mobile app or your eCommerce platform and gain visibility through your ERP system as it synchronizes data across all channels and sources.
The loyalty cards can be combined with any of the already mentioned loyalty programs – points, tiers, or individual promo offers and discounts.
Looking for an ERP system with these functions? Dynamics 365 Business Central is exactly what you need. Explore more.
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More than just a loyalty program – BulMag’s loyalty program
A prime example of an effective loyalty program is our customer – the leading Bulgarian supermarket chain Bulmag. The company offers a tiered loyalty program where customers can reach up to 5 levels which offer discounts from 1% to 5%. With every purchase they make, they accumulate a percentage of the sum and get closer to reaching the next level and the highest discount. Furthermore, customers can pay directly with their loyalty cards and the accumulated bonuses in the physical stores.
But what is even more impressive is the way Bulmag further enhances customer loyalty. Customers get additional rewards on their birthday as well as the day before. They can participate in monthly raffles and games to win exclusive prizes.
Bulmag also has a holiday resort on the Bulgarian seaside where their loyal customers can enjoy a relaxing summer vacation and use the accumulated sum from the loyalty card to pay. This is what we call a personalized customer approach and a next-level retention strategy!
BulMag chose Dynamics 365 LS Central as the ERP solution for their business operations and retail management. With LS Central as retail software, BulMag manages this one-of-a-kind loyalty program, tracks customer insights and preserves their top position in the industry.
Click here to read the full success story of BulMag Supermarket Chain.
What are you waiting for? Your business needs to be refreshed, or you risk losing your customers to competition that is already embracing digital transformation. We implement the ERP system Dynamics 365 Business Central and its extension LS Central which is the perfect choice for managing loyalty programs, creating personalized offers, and controlling all aspects of your business with one single solution.
Contact us for a demo or consultation.
Source: https://www.lsretail.com/resources/loyalty-the-new-hotel-currency
