Love is in the Air - And Not Just Because it's Valentine's Day

For many, the principles of a successful real-time loyalty program are the same as those found in our most endearing personal relationships-that is to treat our special someone with respect, shower them with tokens of affection and demonstrate our unwavering loyalty. By applying these same fundamentals to a loyalty program, merchants stand to realize the same sense of fondness from their customers.

Merchants have learned to treat each customer encounter, correspondence, and telephone call as if it was with their own personal "Mr. or Mrs. Right" - these are the basic customer service principles that most businesses strive to achieve. Think of good customer service like you would a first date. You want the interaction to be pleasant, meaningful, and you might like to learn a little more about the customer. Following this reasoning a little further, asking a customer to join a loyalty program is a little like asking for a second date! Once the ice has been broken and the first step has been made, the courtship really begins.

One way to acknowledge your customer is to send them little notes every time you come in contact with them via your point of sale receipt - little things that let them know how much you value them. Showing how much your best customers mean to you by rewarding them with gifts of gratitude in exchange for their devotion is what loyalty is all about. After all, what better way to show your appreciation than by bestowing them with tokens of affection and meaningful little "goodies" (and it doesn't need to be a chocolate heart---a free dessert, appetizer or ball cap would work just fine).

Finally, once you've got them "hooked" don't let the relationship go stale...keep it fresh and help bring the relationship to the next level by introducing sweepstakes offers, multi-merchant redemption capabilities, or use your imagination-after all no one knows your "devoted" better than you do.

Please visit Ernex's Promotional Tool Kit for more information on how we can give any marketing campaign real-time results at the point of sale.