6 Things Making Customer Loyalty Programs Rock!

Customer loyalty programs have been around for a long time. Their value is often debated so whenever we get a chance to really illustrate the full power of customer loyalty programs, we try to do so. Here is an account of a Convenience Store chain, Twice Daily and how they make customer loyalty programs work for them. Six months ago Twice Daily chose to use the TL Connects Customer loyalty program in 31 of their convenience stores, (after doing a three-store trial that lasted three months). Twice Daily had specific challenges they wanted to address using our platform. They needed an effective way to engage their customers to keep them walking into their stores and returning more often. They also wanted the ability to promote specific products to their customers and local consumers. Their main challenge, which involves their name sake, was to provide extra incentive for customers to come into the store not just daily, but twice daily. So what they needed was actually more than just a customer loyalty program. What they needed was a complete Customer Engagement Platform with features to attract new business, reward and engage loyal customers and retain the one who does not visit as often. Well, the new platform has worked, to say the least. After the first six months, their numbers are looking really good. Some of their numbers are really high and I want to stress that not everyone on our platform sees these kinds of numbers. A casual dining business will not see these sort of check-in numbers as I would bet not many people visit the same sit-down restaurant to eat twice in one day. However, with Twice Daily, that is completely attainable. It was an ambitious goal, but if you have the will, you can find a way to make it happen. Let me list the things for you that Twice Daily is doing to make their program so successful:

1. Choice of Reward

   Twice Daily is offering their customers what they want, coffee or a beverage.  These items are inexpensive for them to give away.  It is also what their customers are wanting. Most of convenience store customers want something to drink, especially coffee in the mornings.  They have set a FREE Coffee or Fountain Drink as the reward for sign-up, retention and loyalty rewards. They keep it simple. Their is no need to get fancy or offer a bunch of different things.

2. Attainable goals

   It is important for businesses not to make the loyalty goals too difficult for their subscribers to achieve. It will of course depend on the type of business, but what Twice Daily does is offer a Free Drink after only 3 visits. They want people to check-in twice a day. So, offering a reward so soon will keep the subscribers interested and engaged enough to keep coming back so they can get that free drink sooner. A restaurant may not want to offer a free entree that soon, a free beverage may make more sense. Businesses will need to think about that process, but it is important not to make it too hard to achieve or the subscriber may be put off by the long process. It is better to offer a less expensive reward that is easier to attain. Then it is best for both the merchant and the subscriber.

   * stats taken from 31 Twice Daily Stores over a six-month span

   

3. Consistent Engagement

   In a competitive market such as convenience stores, it is also important to keep your store on your customer’s minds. With TL Connects’ ability to send mass textALERTs to subscribers, Twice Daily can send text messages to promote special offers and deals to their best customers. These act as both a means to stay on top of customer’s minds and push promotional items or offers. Just yesterday, as this was written, they sent a textALERT offering free trail mix, which resulted in 798 redemptions in only one day! They have also used the textALERT feature to send offers of a “Free Hot Dog” and a “Free Medium Coffee and a Donut”, among others. See some stats from a couple of their textALERT examples below or read the full case study to see even more details.

   * stats taken from 31 Twice Daily Stores over a six-month span

4. Customer Retention Strategy

   In addition to the engagement is the utilization of the customer retention program. This is an auto-responder that automatically sends a text to any customer who has not checked-in within a certain amount of time. The time span is customizable, as are most features of our program. Twice Daily has set this time to 15 days, which is very smart for their type of business. After those 15 days are up, a text message is sent to the absent subscriber telling them they miss them. An offer of a free coffee or beverage is given to them redeemable within 7 days of receiving the text. Again, the offer is inexpensive but still has value to the consumer, providing real incentive for that customer to come back into their store soon. That is the point of the program and it works so well!

   * stats taken from 31 Twice Daily Stores over a six-month span

5. BounceBack Offer

   One of the cool things Twice Daily does for their subscribers is: once they check-in at the kiosk, another special reward is shown on the screen. That offer is redeemable only if they come back in with-in the same day. So, someone gets a cup of coffee and gas in the morning gets offered another free beverage if they stop by in the afternoon or evening after work. That has proved to be very successful for Twice Daily as well. Again, it wouldn’t work for some places and that is why our platform is so flexible and customizable.

6. Marketing

   One of the most important things to do to get more subscribers and participation in a loyalty program is to promote it. Twice Daily does a great job with that. You have to let people know it’s there and why they should sign-up for it. They have their employees talk about it. They mention it on social media and provide videos at the pumps to get  customers to go into the stores.

I need to reiterate that Twice Daily’s numbers are not the norm, but I hope this makes you think about your current offers and strategies with customer loyalty, retention and engagement in a different way. If you are already using the TL Connects’ Customer Engagement Platform, maybe it will inspire you to change up or improve your customer engagement. If you are currently looking for an engagement solution or if you are just now learning about such a possibility, drop us a line and we can give you a quick demo on how it could work for your business!