Cost-Effective Virtual Loyalty Rewards Programs

Customer rewards programs are marketing strategies employed to cultivate an ongoing relationship between a vendor and its customers. Successful loyalty programs encourage customers to buy frequently from the same vendor. Moreover, statistics show that businesses with an established customer rewards program have clients that patronize the establishment twice as often, while customers that redeem rewards spend up to four times as much.

Most loyalty programs revolve around loyalty cards, points cards, and other similar retailing implements. Customers can present such cards at affiliated establishments and receive a discount on their purchase or earn points that entitle them to a benefit once enough points have been earned.

Many customers would rather return to a business that rewards them for their purchases. Hence, many large chain stores offer extensive rewards programs to their clients, but spend hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars managing their rewards systems. In addition, large chain stores collect a large amount of data from clients who use their cards. This is data which they can then use to improve their business strategies.

While large companies may have the resources to implement large-scale loyalty rewards programs, many smaller businesses simply do not have the financial resources to create similar systems. Thankfully, many marketing companies that specialize in customer rewards programs are offering cost-effective methods that smaller businesses can implement in their operations. These rewards programs are usually web-based rather than desktop-applied, mostly because it is cheaper to store and update customer-related data over the Internet. Backing up customer-related data on in-store computers is time consuming and requires staff training.

Businesses can begin a loyalty rewards programs relatively quickly. They simply contact the marketing firm that offers such a service and fill out a contract that outlines items on sale and pricing. Also, businesses should send the marketing firm a copy of their logo for inclusion in their customized virtual loyalty cards.

Next, a customizable loyalty rewards program online account is set up for use in affiliated stores. A client can come to the store, make purchases, and have the data updated on their virtual card stored in the system. The client can gain discounts for certain purchases or earn points which are electronically recorded, which will eventually lead to the redemption of a reward.


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