Old habits die hard… so the saying goes? The brewers have been brewing, the pipes have been cleaned and the barman’s pulling his first post lockdown pints. Yet, the customers aren’t so keen, according to a YouGov Poll – 53% of regular pub goers are not wanting to return to the pub straight away1.Loyalty programmes are a very simple, yet effective marketing technique to improve customer retention. One way you can incentivise and reward loyalty is by running point’s collector/ reward schemes. An established example of brands utilising such programmes are McDonalds and Starbucks, both of whom have run a simple scheme offering free drinks once their customers have collected stamps on their loyalty card from previous purchases.
So how do you entice once loyal customers back through your doors? ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ is an ambitious innovative scheme, however not all of us have coffers as deep as the government. However, at MRM we have worked with many established clients to entice their customers through the doors again and rebuild their customer’s old habits with effective loyalty schemes.
"Customer retention refers to the ability of a company or product to retain its customers over some specific period” (2)
Another popular option of reward schemes for higher value purchases is creating a catalogue of gifts/vouchers against which the customer can redeem their collected loyalty points. It works well across many sectors and is a great way to make your customers eagerly come back for more.
Why is customer retention so important?
According to Outbound Engine (2019)3 acquiring a new customer can cost five times more than retaining an existing customer and also increasing customer retention by 5% can increase profits from 25-95%. At MRM we have helped many companies devise and support their customer loyalty programmes, helping them to boost loyalty, customer satisfaction and profits. With our expertise your marketing campaign is in safe hands.
Our in-house IT team have built a bespoke system to manage the redemption of points and despatch the reward items (either direct from stock or via drop ship). We can also send out digital monthly statements to keep your customers updated with their point’s balances and to promote the scheme and communicate new offers.
The system we have developed allows immediate update of points balances once an item has been ordered. Our fulfilment system provides a seamless stock receipt/order process/pick & despatch process and this information can be viewed by our Customer Response Centre, our project managers and our clients can access 24/7 via a secure portal.
Orders are picked, packed and despatched every day (we operate in an environment where customers are leaving feedback in open forums so we are geared up for fast turnarounds) and we can offer our clients the benefits of consolidated purchasing, competitive despatch rates and materials/packaging stationery savings. We hold high value vouchers in a secure area (prepaid cards and Amazon voucher schemes) and manage the despatch of these via appropriate methods to ensure they reach the customer safely.
Our in-house Customer Response Centre can handle any scheme queries and can take orders via phone and email. We can handle the ‘spike’ in calls around statement mailing times and liaise with our project & production teams to handle any special orders for any priority customers.
We’ll make the process run swiftly and smoothly as we understand the importance of customer retention to your brand. If you’d like to retain your customers during a potential second wave get in touch today, call Mel on 01858 414714 or drop an email to [email protected], we’ll be happy to assist.
1 . yougov.co.uk
2. wikipedia.org
3. outboundengine.com