Why loyalty programs do not make customers loyal?

Having loyal customers have always been the goal of all businesses, the long-term survival of all start-ups depends on this. This is why all entrepreneurs employ several techniques and programs in the bid to gain the loyalty of their customers. There are a lot of tricks and business practices entrepreneurs engage in to keep customers, amongst them are loyalty programs.

Loyalty programs

I’m sure most of you reading this are familiar with the term loyalty programs, but for those who don’t fully understand what loyalty programs are I’ll briefly delve into it. Loyalty programs are planned marketing techniques business owners use to convince customers to keep patronizing them. Loyalty programs are also referred to as a form of unified virtual currency. A currency with a one-way cash flow because of the fact that reward points can be swapped for goods or services but never for cash. A loyalty program may involve giving customers free products, discounts, rewards, coupons and so on.

Why?

At this point, I’m sure most of you are probably asking the question “why then do loyalty programs not make customers loyal?” The answer to this question is very simple yet complex, in today’s market implementing a loyalty program is just not enough. The competition for customers in all industries is as high as Everest and simple solutions like loyalty programs just won’t earn you the loyalty of your customers, you have to go the extra mile, do what your competitors aren’t doing if you want your customers to remain your customers over the long-term. The fact that almost all businesses offer loyalty programs is sufficient enough to make a smart business owner know that he/she needs to do more for the business to stand head and shoulders above the rest. The principle behind loyalty programs is flawed because it entails offering goods at a discount price to people who are going to buy the goods anyway, and it should also be noted that these programs on most occasions rarely generate good returns on the investment. As a matter of fact, an extensive study conducted in the United States in 2015 shows that loyalty cards don’t offer any real value to customers. Most entrepreneurs today go down the path of loyalty programs because it’s the easy path to follow and need I remind you that easy never earns you anything worthy especially something as valuable as real loyalty from customers. Loyalty programs are a sad unending journey that will cost a business money, time and effort and in the end, it’ll defy the very reason it was created.

How?

Sadly, this cogent fact is what most business owners fail to realize. You might argue in favor of loyalty programs but believe me, what all experienced business owners that have gone down that path knows is that no loyalty program or discount can make a customer loyal to a business in the long-term, nothing serves this purpose like offering good products and top quality services to your customers. The positive experience a customer has patronizing a business goes a long way in earning such a customer’s loyalty.

Having said all these, any smart entrepreneur reading this should have the mindset of ‘good products and services over loyalty programs’ but having the mindset isn’t enough you have to make it a reality “don’t just have a theory, build a model that proves it’ and for those reading this who want to provide their customers with these three paramount factors (good products, good services and a positive experience) and by so doing earn their loyalty you’re in luck because you've just found the perfect tool you can employ that’ll aid your efforts to deliver these three ingredients enormously.

What?

The tool you’ve all been waiting to learn about is StampnGo. StampnGo is a platform on a whole new level, it combines marketing management tools with customer relationship management (CRM). StampnGo is a free mobile app that can effectively change the direction of how your customers see your business, the app can assist you in offering better services to customers, it doesn’t just tell you who your customers are, it tells you which of them are more likely to return. Customers download the StampnGo app to find offers nearby and start collecting stamps via scanning unique QR codes generated via special StampnGo Merchant app. The offers created via StampnGo platform for merchants enable business owners to register for free and fill in the information about their business and offers. When users collect stamps, the business owners can see who their customers are and who is more likely to keep patronizing them. StampnGo provides full analytics in real time to adjust offers quickly to see how customers react on the offers. StampnGo is a geo-location based app so users can see offers nearby and also businesses can get direct feedback from the customers.

The opportunities StampnGo opens a business up to are endless, and you haven’t even heard the best part. It’s almost unbelievable that it’s free to get on this train. Yeah, you heard that right! StampnGo is a free platform. So, for those wondering on what is required to start using StampnGo, all you need to do is fill in the form (business name, country) then click register and just like that you have a juggernaut of an app at your disposal, an app that if perfectly utilized can make the difference to your business.