Why Building Customer Loyalty Shouldn't Be Hard.

For small business owners, finding and attracting customers may feel like swimming alone in a vast ocean with just a life vest. If you can find a customer in the same sea, you’ll reach out to them. But like 2 ships passing in the night that need to signal each other, first you have to get their attention.

Similarly, consumers seeking the perfect brand that will deliver the quality, service and style they expect can be equally overwhelming. But when the two — business and consumer — meet, the union is worthy of a celebration. And if they can stay with each other to weather any storm, growing more loyal with each day, the benefits to both parties are as vast as the deep blue sea.

But how can businesses build brand loyalty of that magnitude? Fortunately, it’s easier than you might think.

Implement a Successful Customer Loyalty Program

For many businesses, the first step to brand loyalty is implementing an effective customer loyalty program. Your program must be customized to your brand and rewarding to your unique customers, delivering perks, benefits, discounts and deals they will delight in receiving. Meanwhile, it should offer your business robust data, as that information will allow you to create relevant offers and promotions and connect with your customers in deeper, more meaningful ways. Understanding your best customers, ones that need some love, and ways in which to reward them creates an opportunity to build a real connection.

Make Your Customer Loyalty Program Easy to Use

The easier a program is to use, the more likely consumers are to use it. It’s that simple. Key fobs and loyalty cards can be lost and forgotten. Account logins are cumbersome for online shoppers. Many people don’t want to share their phone number with a sales clerk in the middle of a crowded store.

To build brand loyalty and help customers see the value of their rewards, the loyalty program must be used consistently. A loyalty program like Twism that can cover multiple brands with one login and that connects directly to credit and debit cards to track purchases will be used more frequently, can’t be lost or forgotten, and makes it easy for customers to get rewarded for each purchase. With Twism, their unique digital wallet app enables seamless management from one single place, that never loses value or gets forgotten.

Reward Customers Frequently with Perks of Value

Customers shouldn’t have to wait forever to begin deriving rewards from your loyalty program. Offering a sign-up bonus with an immediate discount or freebie can start your relationship off on the right foot. Make sure rewards are frequent enough — and deliver enough value — that customers find it worthwhile to use your program.

Track Customer Data to Deliver More Relevant Offers

Punch cards and other manual rewards programs may help in building customer loyalty. But if you’re using this kind of outdated system, you aren’t maximizing the value of your program for your business. Customers can be loyal for a number of reasons, including your pricing, sales, and the value you deliver. But when customers feel like you really understand their needs, that’s when you start building true brand loyalty. It is that special and unique connection which drives loyalty, referrals, word of mouth marketing, social shouts outs and more, all leading to expanding your business growth potential.

Leverage your rewards program to track customer purchase data and deliver meaningful, relevant rewards and deals that will resonate with buyers as a key step in building customer loyalty.

Create a Dialogue with Your Customers where They Are

Just as you want to deliver value to your customers with relevant coupons, sales, and rewards, you want to build relationships with consumers, as well. Organic and paid social media marketing campaigns can help you reach your market where they are online. Make it fun for people to engage with your brand, using hashtags and encouraging user-generated content.

Reward Customers for Spreading the Word about Your Business

While reward programs can be one tool for building customer loyalty, referral programs can also be an effective way to encourage word-of-mouth marketing about your brand. Between 83% percent and 90% percent of people say they trust suggestions from family and friends, based on various surveys.
People love talking about their favorite brands, but you can make it even more enticing by offering referral codes for existing customers to receive discounts for every customer they refer who makes a purchase. One study pointed to word-of-mouth marketing as the top “point-of-influence” for consumers in the market for everything from cars to beauty products and electronics, with 74% relying on word-of-mouth to help them make an informed buying decision.

Create Consistent, Recognizable Branding

Throughout your social media campaigns, customer loyalty programs and referral programs, you want to ensure your branding is consistent, recognizable, and in line with what resonates with your target market. Like Nike’s undeniable trademark “Swoosh,” the Tesla emblem, the Starbucks mermaid or so many other brand insignias that we know without even seeing the company name, your brand’s colors, font and styling should be easily recognizable across platforms.

Using a customer loyalty rewards system with a business-branded digital currency that allows you to customize the experience while putting all the customer rewards on one, easy-to-access and intuitive-to-use platform can help create a consistent brand experience.

Deliver an Exemplary Experience

Above all else, you want to deliver an exemplary experience where customers feel valued, rewarded and understood. This could mean leveraging technology like chat-bots on your website to make it easier for customers to reach out with questions. It could mean auditing your website to ensure a seamless checkout process. Or it could mean providing multiple payment methods, including contactless payment, in a brick-and-mortar location.

At every step of the way, you want to think about what your customers would want and how you can deliver that to them without increasing your costs substantially. With every program you integrate, think about the return on investment.

Building Loyalty with Twism

At Twism, we exist to connect, which is why we’re dedicated to making it as easy and as affordable as possible for companies to implement rewards for building customer loyalty. With an intuitive mobile platform, consumers won’t forget their card or have to fumble with key fobs. Plus, they can use, save or share their rewards, which come in the form of digital currency.

We know that brand loyalty goes far beyond driving sales. It is the very fabric of our society. Our mission is to change the way connections are formed within the commerce ecosystem. We exist to share a platform that helps business owners and customers alike realize that we are not a single consumer, but part of a deeper interconnected world where our voices, patronage, and contribution is rewarded, acknowledged and seen, and heard.

Are you ready to be at the forefront of the loyalty movement? Get started with Twism for free today.