It’s a competitive world out there, to say the least – businesses vie for consumers’ attention in every which way they possibly can, looking to create a foundation of positive experience and, eventually, brand loyalty. It’s not enough to get a customer in the door anymore. You have to cultivate an atmosphere of mutual respect and benefit, the end goal being that, when it comes time for them to once again choose a door, they choose yours.
Any retail business knows this; from grocery stores to clothing stores, those businesses that make their bread and butter selling goods understand that they have to set themselves apart, and the best way to do that is by implementing a brand loyalty program, complete with a physical card that the customer can carry with them. At Avon Security Products we’ve seen businesses in the retail sector boom, seemingly overnight, upon putting to use customer loyalty cards, and we do our part to help facilitate the process, making it easy, reliable and understandable.
But before we get ahead of ourselves: what is it about customer loyalty cards that make them so adept at increasing profits? According to the Harvard Business Review, it costs between five and 25 times more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing one, meaning that if you rely on unique customers for most of your sales you’re going to be spending an excessive amount on advertising, marketing and outreach. It’s sort of a silly though experiment, but think about it in personal terms: how much more difficult is it making a new friendship than maintaining an existing one? Not that you shouldn’t be making new friends, but you should reserve a healthy amount of energy ensuring mutual loyalty with existing friends. This is where customer loyalty cards come in so handy.
Customer loyalty cards are all about rewarding the customer for their continued loyalty, in the form of deals, sales and loyalty points, to be used as tender against further purchases. And the cards themselves act as little reminders, nestled in the customer’s wallet or purse, of your business. Aside from being the leading distributer of ID card printers in Canada, we at Avon Security can also offer supplementary software that can help you manage your customer loyalty system, as we as free training on how to use both the software and printer. If you wanted the system tomorrow, we’d find a way to make that happen.
You might be wondering, however, whether the promotions you offer will be rewarded with higher sales and a good return on investment, and the answer, at least for most businesses studied, is a resounding “yes”. Existing customers spend 67% more than returning customers, meaning that it’s definitely in your best interest to incentivize their repeat business. If you run a grocery store, you want your customers to treat your business like a one-stop shop, not like a one-off shop where they pick up a few small things missing from their pantry. If they know that, for instance, they can have a card handy that rewards them monetarily for shopping at your store, of course they’ll choose you over the competition.
With a printer, some training, and maybe some pvc id card printing software (in case you’re a Mac user!), you’re all set to start reaping the benefits of a customer loyalty card. We at Avon Security Products are more than happy to field any questions you might have about customer loyalty card systems. There are precious few win-win situations in the world of retail, but customer loyalty cars are most certainly one of them!