Small Business and Customer Loyalty Programs

The presence of customer loyalty programs plays a vital role in boosting profits for businesses and maintaining existing customers.

One way small businesses can improve their business is by enabling customer loyalty programs. It's a misconception that only big businesses such as Fortinos and Loblaws have these programs, they are many small businesses that offer these programs as well to their customers.

The significance of having these programs is simply to be more personal and build a relationship with their customers. Small businesses should offer these programs in order to encourage customers to shop more frequently at their stores; this in turn builds loyalty amongst customers. Furthermore these programs help spread the word, and using word-of-mouth can be an effective and efficient way to promote a small business.

Another benefit of small businesses having these programs is the competition factor. Small businesses can gain a competitive advantage among other small businesses that don't offer such programs as well as big businesses. Some customers tend to be price sensitive, therefore they may buy products from big retail stores that may not be up to the mark, or not their preferred choice but offer better discounts or points to earn, for example a box of cookies. However if a small business that offer homemade cookies can provide a customer loyalty program, for instance a points card system, then customers will be motivated to purchase cookies from the small business.

Moreover, these customer loyalty programs are cost effective to place in small businesses. In the modern society, advanced technology makes it easier for small businesses to enable customer loyalty programs by incorporating online and digital rewards programs. For instance, The PC Plus points card has a mobile app that displays an image of the points card with a barcode which can be scanned at the cash register to earn points. This method allows small businesses to spend less money in producing cards, by printing and buying ink. Also it reduces the chance for customers to lose their points cards.

 

These are some of the benefits that I have come up with, if you have more ideas on how small businesses can improve customer relations, please feel free to share with us in the comment box. Also let me know if you have ever seen a small business that provides a loyalty program and how it operates.