Using Reward Cards to retain customers & increase shopping frequency
It takes a compelling
incentive and an easy-to-use device to influence a customer's shopping behavior. A Reward
Card is a powerful way to provide continuous reasons for your customers to prefer your
business over another.
Points for purchases
The first step in creating a Loyalty Program is to decide what point value to assign to
customer purchases. You may assign points per dollar or per purchase (frequency). For
example: $1 = 1 point (recommended). $1 = 10 points (or other amount) 1 purchase = 10 points (or other amount)
Award levels & redemptions
Loyalty programs may be set up in a variety of ways to reward customers. The three most
common are Auto Rewards, Mutliple Rewards, and Open Rewards. See descriptions at right.
The Loyalty receipt
The terminal prints a receipt which tracks the points added to the customers Loyalty
account and provides a total for all points accumulated to date and available for
redemption (point balance). To eliminate confusion, no previous redemptions are shown.
Reports
The system will provide reports indicating loyalty points earned through purchases, a
summary of redemptions, transactions voided, balance inquiries and other activity relative
to that merchants program.
AUTO REWARDS
A simple, extremely powerful way to reward your customers by automatically converting
points to spendable value on the card. Merchants select a single point level and the
reward amount the points are worth.
For Example:
$1 spent = 1 point earned. 100 points = $10 reward added to the card.
The customer is motivated to keep their card because it will always have value either
points or dollar value, or both.
OPEN REWARDS
The most flexible approach to accruing and redeeming points. Most merchants use Open
Rewards when they want to offer a variety of rewards that have different point values.
Points simply accrue and are redeemed in any amount the merchant chooses. This allows a
merchant to change the metrics of their reward program at any time without making any
changes to the parameters that are set up in the host system. Merchants who anticipate
running continuous specials and one-day loyalty promotions should set up under the Open
Rewards program.
FLASH CARDS
Some merchants prefer the simplicity of a low-tech "show and receive" card
rather than a card that accrues points for a future reward. We call it a "flash
card" because the customer just needs to flash the card to receive the discount or
other incentive on their purchase. Carrying the card reminds the customer of the value
they can instantly receive by doing business with a particular merchant.