Loyalty Cards: How to Reward Customers, So They Keep Coming Back

Did you know that over 90% of companies have a form of customer loyalty program? They have proved to increase revenue and promote brand loyalty for many years. It also costs a lot less to keep customers coming back than it costs to acquire new customers - an unsurprising fact when 84% of customers prefer brands that offer them.

So, why do customer loyalty programs work? Simply, they reward customers who repeatedly act with a brand. It’s an excellent strategy for retaining customers that encourages them to shop with your brand over competitors. In addition, the more a customer engages with a brand, the more they are rewarded with discounts, free products, rewards, or insider perks.

Of course, from a business owner’s perspective, it does mean that you’ll have to give away something, but the rewards outweigh that investment. Some of the ways a loyalty program can benefit a business is:

• Higher customer retention
• More sales (reservations)
• Brand advocacy
• More customer referrals

These factors are why so many companies invest in some sort of loyalty program. They have been successful for more prominent brands like Starbucks, Sephora, The North Face, and Amazon. So, how can this success be applied to a rental business?

Creating a rental loyalty program

Rental businesses aren’t like other eCommerce stores. They don’t sell a product; they sell a service - the ability to use equipment for a limited time. So, it can be challenging to think of a way to reward customers with a loyalty program. However, there are some ways that rental companies have been able to establish them successfully.

The best way for a rental business to create a loyalty program is by simply offering customers a small discount in return for creating a customer account. This is easy to achieve with Booqable as you can apply recurring discounts to customer accounts. You simply need to add one when creating a customer account or editing it later.

Customers can then use the account to sign in when checking out in your online store to apply the discount to their order automatically. This small detail makes the process easier for you and your customers and is likely to be something that sticks in their minds and keeps them coming back.

In addition, the idea of having a physical loyalty card is very assuring for customers as they guarantee the discount will be applied. Booqable allows you to link a customer to a QR code which you can then have printed on a physical card that customers can use when they make an in-person booking or pick up an order.

Should you charge for your loyalty program?

This is likely something you will be thinking about when deciding to implement a loyalty program. Many businesses give rewards away for free, but some, like Amazon Prime, charge a small amount for the privilege. This decision is entirely up to you, but it depends on how lucrative a loyalty program is for your business.

For example, if you have the profit margin to afford a 10% discount and think offering this discount will increase return customers, it’s likely a better decision to offer it for free. However, if you don’t have the margin or can’t absorb the cost of printing physical cards, you may want to charge a joining fee.

Stand out with loyalty cards

The last decade has proven that loyalty programs work as an effective way to retain customers, boost their lifetime value and provide better customer service. Of course, you could use the good old punch-card style of a loyalty program, but bringing it into the 21st century will be more successful.

Loyalty cards help customers feel like they’re members of an exclusive club that gets discounts not available to everyone. You can also have a lot of fun creating designs that make people proud to be carrying your loyalty card in their wallet.