Creating a strong base of loyal customers is important to any business. While it essential for a business to treat all customers to the best experience possible, it is the VIPS that offer the greatest amount of loyalty and goodwill to ones business. They are the customers who will give you the benefit of the doubt and stick with you even through harsh times, thanks to the exceptional service you provide them.
However, if you want those VIP customers to stick around for the long term, you will need to give them an excellent reason to do so. Even these loyal customers have their limits after all.
Loyalty or VIP programs offer a company’s most frequent customers rewards to incentivize long-term business. They can take many forms, but the most common offer is either a points system of rewards for money off your next purchase, coupons or free merchandise. They are also increasingly offering experiences, such as the chance to meet brand ambassadors, celebrities, social media influencers and the like at brand events.
When creating ones own loyalty program, there are a few things that a business should keep in mind.
Find your most valuable customers
The first step is always to identify the right audience. Make sure that you are targeting your most valuable customers by utilising deep learning to analyse your data on past customer behaviours to create customer segments based on various metrics. Segmenting your customers will help significantly in identifying your big spenders.
Offer hyper-personalisation in real-time
Once identified, your business must make the effort to keep up to date with loyal customers’ current needs and wants. you need to leverage both owned customer data and third-party data to develop a much more complete picture of your customer. This grant you insights that will enable you to discover hidden interests based on topics and keywords your customers pursue.
Go beyond the purchase
Why not expand your VIP program beyond just purchases? After all, customers can be valuable in more ways than just spending money with you. Try offering customers points and discounts for sharing your products on social media. Everyone wins in this situation: the brand gets more exposure and customer data, and the customers get free stuff.
Incentivise your customers
‘The more you spend, the more you save’ is also a great message. If your business offers subscription packages, offer lower rates to loyal customers who pay a flat annual rate. Throw in additional perks like free rewards and services.
Make the experience its own reward
A company can offer more than just more products as a reward. Lifestyle experiences can also fit into a rewards program. Offer customers a short trip in exchange for points. North Face’s VIPeak program for example offers customers mountain-climbing trips in Nepal in exchange for points. They even allow customers to accumulate more points during such events. With experiences laser-targeted to their customers’ interests, a brand can offer a chance to create unforgettable memories.
