Many UK businesses introduce loyalty card programmes to boost customer retention. But are they effective? Below we explore the business and customer advantages of loyalty cards.
What are Loyalty Card Programmes?
Loyalty cards are printed cards that track how many purchases a customer makes. The company would then give its loyal customers rewards depending on how many purchases they’ve made, which encourages them to become repeat buyers.
Benefits of Loyalty Cards for Business
- They Help Boost Retention
Loyal customers already trust your brand, so they’re already more likely to spend more. Loyalty and rewards cards help make sure your customers keep coming back for more! This is known as customer retention and attracting return customers is an easier way of increasing revenue than attracting new ones!
- Increase Sales
When customers feel positive about a brand, they’re more likely to shop with them. And loyalty cards give them all the positive feelings!
They allow you to offer incentives that you know your customers will love based on existing data, and therefore they’ll fulfil the requirements necessary to receive that reward. For example, a café may offer customers a free slice of cake with every 8th cup of coffee they buy.
- Loyalty Schemes Practically Run Themselves!
Another key business advantage of loyalty cards is how easy they are to manage. Once you’ve printed your loyalty cards and gotten your hands on a loyalty card stamp, all that’s left is to offer them out to customers when they’re in your store. We can assure you, they aren’t likely to say no!
After this, your loyalty programme is pretty much self-sufficient. Customers bring their cards back and you stamp them according to your offer – voila!
- They're Cost Effective
If you chose loyalty card printing over digital schemes, setting up your programme is never going to break the bank. You can even customise and print our free loyalty card design templates if you haven’t got the time or resources to design your own professionally. Just select ‘customise a free template’ after adding your business cards to the basket.
- They Give Your Business a Competitive Edge
Introducing a loyalty scheme is a fantastic way of giving you the edge over your competitors. A customer may be swayed by a competitor’s offering, but if they’ve been working towards building points on your loyalty card, they’ll most likely stay with you.
Why are Loyalty Cards Effective for Customers?
- Rewards They Actually Want
As long as your incentives are desirable to your target audience, loyalty cards are fantastic from a customer point of view too! It’s an added benefit from shopping with a store that offers a scheme like this.
- People Like Being Rewarded
Shocker, right? According to Technology Advice, consumers are 82.4% more likely to shop somewhere with a loyalty scheme and they actively seek out shops that do! So, failing to offer these kinds of incentives could be keeping customers away…
- They're Low Effort
Customer experience (CX) is becoming increasingly important for your marketing mix. And part of this is making sure that their journey is as low effort as possible. Analyst firm Gartner’s study states that 96% of customers who have a high-effort experience become more disloyal, compared to just 9% who have a low-effort experience.
With loyalty cards, all the customer has to do to redeem their rewards is bring their card with them when they visit your business. This makes it a fantastic, low-effort marketing tactic.
- Instantly Rewarded
Another key advantage of loyalty card programmes for customers is speed. Your customer has been going into your store or café and regularly getting stamps on their card. When they’ve filled the card, they’re then rewarded instantly with the incentive. This quick access to rewards makes for fantastic motivation to achieve these rewards and leads to instant gratification.
- They Feel Like They're Getting a Better Deal
A key benefit of loyalty cards for customers is the feeling that they’re getting a better deal than they might otherwise be getting. That’s why sales and outlet retailers work so well! Discounts and rewards make customers feel like they’re getting more for their money, even if it means spending more to get those rewards.
So Are Loyalty Card Programmes Effective?
Loyalty cards benefit everyone involved – both the UK business offering the scheme and the customers. You’ll be encouraging customers to spend more and more often, and your customers will be getting great deals from a brand they love!
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