Building the Loyal Customer: Cashing in on Customer Rewards

 

Move over traditional punch card, there’s a new loyalty program in town. Loyalty apps are hot in the market right now, enticing consumers to become repeat, loyal customers. Tracked by phone number, email address, or unique code, consumers are proud and eager to pull out their phones to snag extra points and be rewarded for customer loyalty.

 

C-stores can gain the confidence and loyalty of customers simply by providing a loyalty program, and a mobile app makes them more inclined to join because they don’t have to hunt for a card in their wallet. With convenience being their goal, c-stores are primed to be their number one spot to cash in on their rewards and come back to earn more.

 

Rewarding customers for purchases breaks down into two generalized forms: any purchase they make at the store, or specific category purchases.  The benefits of “any purchase” rewards are being able to capture just what type of products customers are coming in for, and customers are more impulsive with their purchases in order to rack up more reward points. But that can also be the downfall of “any purchase” rewards; customers may impulsively purchase things they do not want or intend to use, and this can mess up data received from loyalty apps. Rewarding only “specific purchases” drives customers towards a particular category: gas, candy, beverages, etc. This can either increase sales in these categories or keep them on their normal baseline because customers don’t care for what “specific purchase” they must buy to gain reward points.

 

Even if customers aren’t necessarily using the loyalty program app, most customers impulsively download it and sign up because of the opportunity to cash in on reward points and earn free products. This is an opportunity to grab customer data without asking the customer directly.

 

Capturing consumer data is one of the biggest benefits a c-store owner can have from providing a loyalty app to customers. Whether it’s to track what’s being bought in the store or grabbing contact data (such as phone number or email address), c-store owners have the opportunity to maximize on loyalty programs as much as customers do. Utilizing the contact information allows owners to send out email blasts about new products and bring customers back for more. Tracking what’s being purchased allows owners to cash in on products they should be buying more of and saving money on products that aren’t selling as well as they were intended.