Transforming Traditional Loyalty Into Digital
By now most people know what a loyalty card system is: businesses give their customers loyalty or club cards in exchange for some information to add to their database while offering their clients tons of benefits. Loyalty cards are, up to this day, one of the best ways to keep your customers engaged and interested in your brand. Discounts, gifts, special coupon codes, bonuses, additional services, loyalty exclusives — these are only a few of the many ways to attract clients, upsell, and make them feel valued with a loyalty program.
For the longest time, loyalty cards have been just like your usual credit card — plastic. But the digital era is now making a huge difference in this industry as well. Why bother with plastic cards if your customers can have them inside their most frequently used devices? Phones or tablets — the choice is theirs. But both parties get to benefit from the transformation in the end.
The use of loyalty cards
According to a research conducted by the Boston University College of Communications, 86% of Americans are listed in loyalty programs. This means that the vast majority of US shoppers carry plastic loyalty cards around while shopping. Of course, the idea of a plastic card itself is not outdated yet. However, with loyalty cards, the transformation to the digital world offers more opportunities for brands to express their gratitude towards their customers. So let’s take a look at a few ways, along with their benefits, of how you, as a client-centric business owner, can further improve your customer retention strategy by switching to a digital loyalty card system.
Why go digital
There are a lot of reasons why going digital with your loyalty card is a good idea. But to start off with the most basic one, it’s that on average, people tend to have around 3–10 plastic loyalty cards in their wallets. Combined with the Gallup statistics of an average American having around 2–3 credit cards with them, it’s easy to do the math. Thick wallets are not the most comfortable items to carry around unless the thickness is caused by a lot of cash, right? So adding up another plastic card will just end up either lying somewhere in the house where people forget it, or even get lost among other cards in your wallet. With a digital loyalty card, all your clients will have to do is have their phones with them whenever they go shopping.
Cost effectiveness
This one is a little obvious but is still worth mentioning as a perk. Producing plastic cards costs money. Whereas providing your customers a digital QR code on their smartphones will essentially cost you nothing and show better results. Why spend money, time and other resources on producing plastic cards that people can easily forget anywhere? On contrary, though, they never leave the house without their phones.
This means that you get to save resources and have customers actually use their loyalty benefits instead of leaving their cards sitting at home as some type of trophies.
Plastic cards are easy to lose
No matter how organized your customers might be, people still lose things on a regular basis. Especially plastic cards. With a digital loyalty card you ensure that your customers have their loyalty cards with them at all times and never forget them.
How many times have cashiers heard the “Oh I have it but I totally forgot to take it with me today” line? We ourselves had our own share of lost or forgotten club cards. So spare yourself the hassle. Switch your loyalty program to digital and have it serve its initial purpose of keeping your clients interested in your brand and appreciated by it.
How do I switch?
With Say2B, there are two ways to switch to digital loyalty cards.
- Unique QR codes with user ID
Once your customers sign up to their Say2B accounts, they can shop with their account QR codes. It’s as simple as that. With the platform, they will also get to see their bonuses, rewards, discounts, and use them as they please. This will also make it easier for you to give them those said rewards. Say2B makes it simple for you to keep your customers happy and make their experiences unique.
- Saving their existing plastic loyalty cards in the app
As we already mentioned, the majority of shoppers already own different loyalty cards from different companies. In this case, Say2B allows your customers to just upload those existing plastic loyalty cards into the app with only a few clicks from the “My loyalty cards” section. This way they can simply scan it at the checkout and forget about ever having to use their actual plastic cards again. No internet connection needed. No additional inconvenience or taking up space in the wallet. All your customers will need is their smartphones, which they’ll probably have with them anyway.
You can also send them personalized notifications through the app and make sure that your clients never forget about you and look forward to using their loyalty cards more often through their Say2B accounts. Because the process is so simple and accessible through their phones, clients will have fun using the loyalty cards, scoring bonus coins, and keep coming back to you.
Regardless of your industry, all businesses that deal with customers on a daily basis have one thing in common when it comes to customer retention — clients prefer simplicity and constant care over anything. Which is why using an app that ensures personalized approach and unique experience both for you and your customers is such a necessity in any competitive market.
Loyalty programs are one of the best working tactics to ensure your clients are motivated to choose you over and over again. So why not digitize this experience too and even automate membership management? After all, smartphones strive to replace all traditional transactions anyway, and the sooner you switch, the more your brand will stand out in the competition due to its cutting edge adaptations.
