Encouraging customer loyalty in retail
Ideas on how to encourage customer loyalty for retailers
What do you currently do to encourage customer loyalty? A loyalty program can make customers feel part of the business and can make a big difference to profits. Particularly in fashion, with customers coming to rely on the garments purchased from your shop. Not only do the clothes reflect the customer’s persona but they also understand the quality of the garments. This is a great foundation for developing a strong trust relationship on a personal level. This can produce very loyal customers if handled in the right way.
Many retailers do not promote or reward loyalty. They don’t ask customers to be loyal and provide no incentive to do so. There are many ways to do this that don’t involve technology, but those are outside the scope of this article. Taking a name and assigning loyalty points is a very simply way to get started. Asking every customer is ideal, although if this is too big a step here is an easier way in; when you or your staff spend any time providing assistance or advice for the customer about an item, it is more than acceptable to ask them if they would like to be part of the shop’s loyalty program. Explain the benefits to them and they will find it hard to say no.
After they sign up, each time they purchase its then a case of checking their name against a purchase and the computer can add up the loyalty points based on their spend.
An important additional benefit is the staff will get to be on first name terms with more customers, and as Dale Carnegie says, when someone knows your name it makes you feel very special.
