I’ve said it time and time again. Regularly keeping in touch with your customers will dramatically increase your revenue and profit.
But if you’re in a retail environment which is mainly transactional, how could you go about capturing your customer’s details?
The simple solution is to offer a loyalty program and have your customers give you their details. More and more we’re seeing shops do just this. And it’s paying dividends.
Here’s a personal example…
A few weeks ago we bought a set of new lightweight luggage for Barbara. The stuff was on sale and we got a pretty good deal at 40% off.
As we were paying, they asked if we were part of their loyalty club. We weren’t. Well it was free to join and we’d get a $5voucher for every $50 spent, plus extra discounts and notification of sales.
So we did.
Last Friday, Barbara got an email from them saying there was another sale on with further discounts for club members.
And guess what, the set we bought for Barbara was even cheaper – so I bought one too. $200 instead of $400 is a pretty good deal in my book.
Everyone won. We got a great deal and the shop made $200 it wouldn’t have done otherwise. All from one email!
Now obviously we’re not going to buy something every time they send out an offer, but they keep their name in front of us and if there’s a good deal we may forward it onto other people.
And here’s another example from my new Barber.
After having a haircut on Saturday, the chap produced a small loyalty card and stamped it. He asked if I’d been before and as I had, stamped it again. So after my fifth haircut I get 25% off.
Makes a big difference from the people I used to go to – who never ever gave me a discount or added value even after 5 years of loyalty. You can read the back story of why I sacked them here!
So if you’re not offering some form of loyalty program, start now.
However there’s a right way and a wrong way to go about it.
Let’s start with the wrong way.
Many a shop offers a program where you need to “buy” into it. So you spend $50 to join and they give you a $50 credit towards something in the store. Or they simply charge you $25 for 2 years membership.
Maybe they do it to cover their costs or think they’ll weed out people not likely to buy. But frankly, it’s a short sighted approach as many people won’t sign up.
A far more effective approach is to offer freely it to everyone. Make it easy to join and capture as many details as possible.
And now comes the smart bit…
Don’t just send out sales offers and catalogues. Make people want to stay on your list by sending out interesting information and offers tailored to them.
For example, we bought luggage which implies we’ll be travelling. So they could send out articles on various destinations, tips on travelling, places to see etc. Then every now and then put in an offer.
They could even cross promote with other suppliers in the area such as travel agents and airlines.
A hair salon could send out fashion tips and partner with a beauty salon/day spa. The list goes on.
Remember it’s not just about making sales right now. It’s about keeping in touch and having people remain on your list because they’re interested in what you have to say.
Then the sales will come.
And naturally, loyalty programs apply to any sort of business. Your customers want to feel appreciated and valued, not just treated as a commodity.
Finally, if you’d like help setting up such a program, working out cross promotional offers and putting together the systems to make it all work, give me a call on (02) 9499-7958.
Rashid.
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