A great loyalty program understands why customers are loyal.
I have always held that at the end of the day if all things are equal, people buy from people; and they buy from people they like. They buy from people who share the same interests, are positioned as experts, and who exhibit a genuine desire to serve. They seek advice and then act on it (usually in the form of a purchase). They like being recognized (who doesn’t) and value being appreciated. They only grow more loyal when their support of the business is rewarded.
The rewards can be incentives, special deals, offers or events, but they can also be a careful and thoughtful response to a question. I have found that most customers come to an independent garden center for information and inspiration. They buy what the see, but often don’t have all the information to communicate what they’ve seen. That’s one of the main reasons we added a very simple feature to the epunched customer loyalty app. It is the ‘Ask Us’, or ‘Snap & Send’. It allows customers to take photos of plants they like or problems they’re facing. You see many times customers simply don’t know they name of the plant, or don’t remember to bring along a sample of a diseased plant (sounds just as bad as it seems).
So the ability for them to tap an app (ideally, yours), tap ‘Ask Us’ and then snap a picture with a simple caption, then it is magical when someone actually reads and responds to their question. And in the case of retailers like Fairview Greenhouses, they have seen a direct correlation of their ‘Ask Us’ submissions and sales at the register.
The epunched app platform allows you to not only respond to the question, but also save it as a ‘blog post’ and add it to a FAQ section on your website. In addition you can ‘reward’ any individual account with a time sensitive incentive. “Have a problem with Japanese Beetles? Stop by and pick up a Japanese Beetle trap. We’ve put one aside at the register for you. Also, check your rewards, we’v included a $1 off coupon.”
Just imagine if that was your experience at any retailer!
With that in mind I thought I would share some observations from a couple of companies using the epunched app platform.
