You’ve heard of customer loyalty programs before, but you think they’re just a tactic that big businesses use to beat out their competition. This just isn’t true, though! Small businesses can reap major benefits from starting a customer loyalty program – sometimes the perks are even greater for small businesses than larger ones.
Increase Professionalism
Any business, big or small, looks more pulled together and professional when they have tried-and-true programs in place. Loyalty programs reward repeat customers, which helps the business to increase earnings. It’s a simple, effective strategy for all businesses regardless of their size.
Retaining Customers vs. Gaining New Customers
According to Entrepreneur.com, it costs a business less to keep current customers than to find new ones. This is especially important for small businesses – owners may not have the income (especially at the beginning) to spend on attracting new customers. For a beginner business, customer retention can mean a huge amount of dependable income.
Beat the Competition
It’s not always easy to get ahead of the competition. With a customer loyalty program, small businesses can stay in the game, even when big business is trying to corner the market. Loyalty programs also help smaller businesses show a side of themselves that bigger businesses often hide – personality and relatability.
Cost is Low
Customer loyalty programs don’t end up costing the business owner much. Plastic Card City, a small online business dedicated to providing customer loyalty resources, has a very light weight, but effective customer loyalty system. This card company has designed a system that uses plastic cards and a simple software application to drive return customer rates up. Click here to learn more about their loyalty strategy.
Digital rewards and other types of services cost a small amount per month and they don’t require the business owner to spend too much time setting everything up. Since you’re saving on setup, you can offer better deals for your customers, which will increase their chance of sticking with your brand.
Potential Customers Have a Reason to Try Out Your Business
Let’s say you just opened up a coffee shop, but there’s a big chain cafe across the street. Since they offer a customer loyalty program, their fan base is going to continue to get their coffee from your competition, even if they don’t love how it tastes. If your product is better and you launch a loyalty program, your customer base won’t have any reason to not make the switch!
Since it’s so simple and practically free to start a customer loyalty program, it’s hard to think of a reason why a small business owner wouldn’t want to give it a shot. Thanks to technology, these programs are a cinch to work out, setup and monitor – no printing expenses or annoying punch cards required!
