Would you like to know how to increase customer loyalty?
Fortunately, there are a growing number of modern and effectiveloyalty tools.
These tools are based on omnichannel, gamification and a few good old-fashioned methods that have lost none of their strength (such as rewards and customer experience).
Here are the 10 loyalty tools you need to know in 2023: apply them and we guarantee that your customers won't be able to do without you!
E-commerce, restaurants, shops, the same battle: building loyalty is essential. From loyalty cards to sponsorships, loyalty programs are everywhere. That's because they're highly profitable: when it comes to out-of-pocket expenses, it costs on average 6 to 7 times less to keep a customer coming back than to attract a new one.
Loyalty is an essential part of the customer journey. It's the3rd step in the famous AARRR marketing strategy(which you may be implementing without even knowing it). Loyalty is at the heart of "Retention" (which comes after Acquisition and Activation). In a nutshell, here are the benefits you'll reap from applying these different loyalty methods:
That's all in theory (you always need a little). In practice, loyalty programs are in urgent need of reinvention. The French subscribe to an average of 6 to 7 loyalty programs. Don't expect to captivate them with a reward at the tenth stamp!
What's working more and more is to gamify* loyalty and bring emotion back into it.
It's about personalizing messages, and being where you're not expected with an omnichannel strategy(it's easier to deploy than you think).
These are the ideas behind the loyalty tools below. You'll see that they can be used by all types of business, from independent restaurants to online retailers, brand-name boutiques or the local barber. Without further ado, here are the top 10 loyalty tools for 2023!
It's probably the number-one loyalty tool: rewarding repeat customers! It can take many forms, such as a loyalty program, but you have to choose carefully... It's better to have an online loyalty program than a stamped card.
In any case, the idea is clear: rewards are the most direct way of encouraging your customers to return. According to the Comarch - TNS study "the future of retail "**, offers and promotions are the main motivations for joining a loyalty program. They are considered important by 86% of customers surveyed.
These rewards can take many forms: discounts, promo codes, free products, VIP gifts, competitions, etc. Integrated into a tailor-made loyalty program, the return on investment is maximized.
An experience that spans multiple channels (online and offline) builds stronger bonds. That's the whole point of omnichannel loyalty, at the heart of your customer relations strategy.
In practical terms, this means offering your customers several points of contact. They can access your loyalty program anywhere, anytime. For example, contact points can be very varied:
The point is that each channel feeds all the others. For example, a positive online shopping experience can encourage a visit to a physical store, and vice versa. Once all these contact points are in place, omnichannel marketing strengthens brand loyalty.
Discover how EMKIPOP implemented omnichannel loyalty with Hey Pongo
Loyalty programs are nothing new. Their primitive version, the stampable loyalty card, can still be found on counters. Much more effective, dematerialized loyalty programs (such as Air France's) offer access to motivating rewards by accumulating virtual points (miles).
Dematerialized loyalty programs are much more interesting for both parties. A clear points system (1€ spent = 1 point) allows customers to project themselves. Enrolment optimized by a touch of gamification* has enabled La Famille restaurants to integrate 15,000 customers into their database, with gourmet rewards. Some are easy to unlock, such as a free cookie, obtained in one or two visits.
Other Hey Pongo customers offer downright VIP rewards. This is another advantage of the dematerialized loyalty program: Bricktop Pizza is giving away a round trip to Naples or a pizza masterclass. With these unique rewards, the online loyalty program lets you assert and differentiate yourself - and customers love it.
As a means of building customer loyalty, generic messages no longer work. Every relationship between you and your customers is unique! Offering personalized experiences has become a highly effective means of building loyalty.
A CRM (or customer relationship management) tool makes it easy for you to do just that, whatever your volume of visits or sector of activity. CRMs are no longer the preserve of large corporations: they've become accessible to small shops and neighborhood restaurants thanks to Hey Pongo.
Les CRM prennent la forme d’une base de données enrichie par tous vos points de contact, et notamment le plus engageant d’entre eux pour le B2C: le programme de fidélité. Une fois ce fichier client créé et enrichi, il devient un moyen de fidélisation d’autant plus efficace que vous pouvez personnaliser les messages.
En B2B, le CRM prend la forme d'une plateforme de relation client, comme Koban. Ce type de solution permet d'entretenir une base de données de clients (et de prospects) extrêmement complète. Une entreprise peut facilement suivre les interactions et automatiser un grand nombre de tâches, de la découverte à la fidélisation en passant par le marketing, la vente et le service client.
With SMS, you can activate loyalty campaigns yourself, on a one-off or ongoing basis. As a prerequisite, you'll need a customer database (or CRM) with telephone numbers.
SMS marketing is a highly effective way of reminding your customers. It's far more powerful than email, to which only 1% of recipients respond. On average, 90% of customers read the SMS within 5 minutes of receipt.
The SMS format is extremely flexible. You can use it to broadcast promotions, launches, product offers in the event of a visit... And it's all the more effective if the messages are contextualized (thanks to the database).
For example, you can set up automated messages to celebrate birthdays, encourage people to return after a first visit, attempt a desperate reminder for those customers who haven't visited for several months...
Accroître la fidélité des clients grâce aux systèmes de messagerie instantanée constitue un défi intéressant pour les entreprises qui cherchent à établir des relations à long terme avec leurs utilisateurs. Avec l’essor des applications de messagerie telles que WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber et autres, il est devenu nécessaire de développer des stratégies efficaces pour fidéliser les utilisateurs et accroître leur engagement.
Personnalisation de la messagerie dans les chatbots WhatsApp et Telegram, fourniture de contenu exclusif et mise en œuvre de programmes de récompense basés sur l'activité dans l'application - tout cela est disponible sur la plateforme SendPulse, ainsi que sur d'autres plateformes de type similaire.
Social networks are an excellent way of building customer loyalty! They enable you to create a new point of contact at low cost. You can build community loyalty and interact with your customers on Instagram, Tiktok, Pinterest, Facebook...
Each social network has its own advantages for building loyalty, but also for expanding your audience. Whatever your objective, you can then convert your followers into active customers through competitions.
Discover how Le Deal Ultime turned followers into active customers with a gift wheel.
Feedback from your customers is extremely valuable in building loyalty. Stay in tune with what they want: they talk to you through a variety of more or less direct channels.
Online reviews are one of them: they have the advantage of giving you a lot of exposure on Google and other review platforms. Depending on your type of business, there are many other ways of surveying your customers : satisfaction questionnaires, NPS terminals, surveys on your loyalty tablets... Taking this feedback into account shows that their opinion counts, which can generate a lot of loyalty.
Customer satisfaction is the basis of customer loyalty. It's not rocket science! It's all about high-quality products and services that will make your customers want to come back.
But it's also about the whole customer experience! All interactions with your point of sale must be inspiring and positive. According to the Futurum-SAS "Experience 2030"*** study, an impeccable experience is the2nd most important means of building customer loyalty. 57% of customers believe that a positive shopping experience will encourage them to return to the store. 26% even say it will encourage them to visit the brand's website.
The experience continues after the purchase. Build loyalty like Amazon by offering a very customer-friendly returns policy! They'll repay you a hundredfold.
After-sales service is a point of contact in its own right. It's also a loyalty-building tool in its own right! At a time when products are tending to become standardized from one e-commerce site to another, after-sales service is becoming a real trademark of platforms.
Customer support doesn't just concern sectors like hi-tech or e-commerce. It can also mean the way you take feedback on an order, or simply asking afterwards if everything went well. In general, 74% of French customers are willing to develop loyalty if they have a positive experience with customer service.
Setting up a referral system is nothing new, but it's just as effective as ever! We often hear that a satisfied customer tells 3 people about his or her experience... To capitalize on this word-of-mouth, don't hesitate to offer rewards if one of your regulars recruits a customer for you.
For a restaurant, this could involve rewards integrated into your loyalty program, or promoted via SMS, such as "come with 2 friends and we'll treat you to dessert", etc...
It's no coincidence that everyone is offering sponsorships these days: Boursorama, Tesla, Red by SFR, Airbnb, Uber...
For you, it's THE win-win loyalty tool: it costs you nothing as long as no customer is activated!
Above all, sponsorship turns your existing customers into ambassadors. This role reinforces their commitment to your brand, and gives loyalty a snowball effect!
Enabling you to build loyalty with the same tools as the big brands: that's the mission of Hey Pongo. We've developed a suite of loyalty tools fully adapted to the context of small shops and independents, as well as online businesses (DNVB, e-commerce...).
To do this, we unleash the power of customer data in a hyper-positive way, thanks to a gamified loyalty program. Maximized enrolment means you can easily develop your own customer file - even if you only make a few dozen tickets a day.
Gone are the barriers to entry: building loyalty should be within everyone's reach, without breaking the bank. Hey Pongo's tools activate your customer database with automated SMS messages or competitions that boost in-store traffic. Multiply points of contact, build loyalty effortlessly!
Today, loyalty is more than a lever: it must become an attribute of your brand. To achieve this, retailers are no longer content to deploy one or two loyalty tools at random, but several interconnected ones. Loyalty programs, SMS, personalized customer relations... At every stage, you can activate the right levers to build loyalty even more!
Loyalty is extremely important, as it impacts all a company's performance indicators: average basket, attrition rate, lifetime value... On average, it costs 6 to 7 times more to find a new customer than to bring back an existing one.
That said, loyalty doesn't just allow you to keep your existing customers coming back. Loyal customers are less volatile. They're less likely to go elsewhere, they're less sensitive to competitors' price or value arguments. Having a high proportion of loyal customers can guarantee the growth of any business, from the local shop to the multinational.
Loyalty is a customer attitude. It refers to a customer's ability to stay with you over time. It's the result of a combination of satisfying needs and emotional factors linked to your brand.
Loyalty development is a company-driven process. It refers to all actions taken to encourage loyalty.
The first of all loyalty-building measures is to fully satisfy customer expectations. The following are the main levers for actively encouraging loyalty:
Loyalty programs are the most widespread technique. In retail outlets, it replaces stamped loyalty cards and their uncertain effectiveness. It's the dematerialized program that's currently gaining the most ground, thanks to its simplicity of use, in line with the needs of new consumers: no application, no registration: it enables rapid identification by telephone number. The points-based kitty gives access to a variety of staggered rewards. Finally, it collects customer data to activate marketing levers such as SMS campaigns.
The 7 main loyalty factors are as follows:
The best indicator of loyalty is the retention rate. This is the proportion of customers who return to your company. To calculate it, we compare the number of repeat customers to the total number of customers.
Its calculation is simple: first, you choose a given period, depending on the sector of activity and the frequency of consumption (1 month, 3 months, 1 year...). Over this period, the following formula is applied:
Retention rate = number of loyal customers/total number of customers
To calculate this retention rate (or loyalty rate), we need several indicators: number of unique customers, number of loyal customers. To collect this data, you can use Hey Pongo's loyalty program.
Loyalty points are part of a kitty system on the customer's account. First of all, the customer must be part of the loyalty program. Events are organized to earn loyalty points. There are two main ways to earn points: a fixed number of points for each checkout, or a number of points indexed to the amount of the basket (generally 1 point for 1 euro).
The loyalty program is very flexible: you can also allocate points to certain events. For example, to celebrate a birthday, to reward a referral, in exchange for an online review... At any time, customers can convert their points into benefits or gifts, to choose from a wide range of rewards.
* Gamification involves inserting game-like mechanisms, particularly video games, to make the customer experience more fun.
** Comarch / TNS study " the future of retail " (2016)
*** Futurum / SAS study " Experience 2030 - The future of customer experience " (2019)
