Regular or Loyal?
The question I ask when people say they rely on growing their business with regular customers is, ‘just think of your relationship with your customers as you would do with your partner, and would you like them to be Regular or Loyal?’
Big companies spend hundreds of thousands on their loyalty schemes
The reason for this is that they work, some high street brands now get over 70% of their business through coupons and vouchers as part of these schemes, they work quietly in the background to keep their restaurants full.
How can a small Independent compete with this?
Its relatively easy to set up a loyalty scheme and there are lots of ways to do it, here is a list of ways
- Paper stamp cards – the easiest and simplist scheme, but its just a me too scheme and with lots of cards in people wallets you get lost in the mix
- General Apps – Good but can be expensive and the data is kept by the supplier and you have little control
- Bespoke Apps – Expensive to set up and run, only customers with smart phones are included and you have to pursuade the gusest to download it
- Email marketing – simple to set up, great value to run, scalable, works ondesktops as well as smartphones.
We have been running Loyalty Clubs for years and can prove they work, 96.3% of our guests said they visited more often because they were members of our VIP Club.
People generally enjoy supporting local businesses, however most independents don’t share their story with their guests or keep them updated with news and offers, having a loyalty club will do all this and more
