You may find it easy to attract new customers with the lure of incentives, deals or promotions. BUT, are you keeping them after that? A recent Forbes article, Warning: Is Your New Customer Coming Back? 4 Steps You Should Take Now, explains that spending all that effort and time bringing in new customers may be costing you a lot more than it would keeping an existing one- in some cases 6 to 7 times more!
Of course attracting new customers is a crucial part of your loyalty program that should not be abandoned but a healthy balance between attracting the new and nurturing the current can spell success for your loyalty program as a whole.
Recognizing your current customers in a unique way can give them that sense of ‘special’ treatment that encourages them to stick around:
Try Saying Thanks – Sounds simple enough but it’s sometimes forgotten that a thank you goes a long way. Try sending a ‘Thank You for Your Loyalty’ email to customers who reach the one year mark, five year mark, etc. Customers don’t always need an incentive or reward for being loyal, just a little appreciation.
Use holidays as a way to appreciate your current customers- Sending out gift cards to The Children’s Place on Mother’s Day, gift cards to 1-800-Flowers on Valentine’s Day, or gift cards to CVS/pharmacy on a customer’s birthday shows how much their loyalty means all year round.
Take the time to take a special interest in your customer, it’s got its rewards.
Check out Forbes, Warning: Is Your New Customer Coming Back? 4 Steps You Should Take Now to get more ideas on keeping your customers close.
The author:
Lauren McAuley is on the marketing team at GiftCard Partners. She is a recent graduate who enjoys diving head first into several aspects of the business including social media, graphic design, marketing, business development and public relations. Her passion for challenging herself keeps her trying new things every chance she gets, vegetable lasagna this week, maybe skydiving next week?
