10 tips on running a customer loyalty programme

1. Look at what your rivals do — it will give you ideas for the type of scheme that works, and allow you to be competitive. There’s no point kicking off with a 10% or 1p in the £1 discount if a competitor does 20% and 3p in the £1.
2. Don’t make it unobtainable — a scheme needs to be realistic to grab customers, with an easily reached first milestone, such as ‘buy eight and get the ninth free’, and obtainable goals after that.
3. Make it as simple as possible for customers to understand — you need to grab customers fast, so clearly list the benefits of signing up in your promotional material.
4. Make it just as simple for staff to understand and operate — if a customer comes to redeem and staff don’t know how to process the offer, the scheme fails.
5. Consult with regular customers. Once you’ve got your scheme laid out, ask key customers what they think and whether they will sign up. 
6. Collect the customer data you need on sign-up — as well as first and last name, email, mobile, sign-up date and date of birth, you may also want a couple of extra categories to help with marketing. 
7. Plan the customer experience — messages to customers might include a sign-up email, monthly or bi-weekly emails featuring member offers, a birthday email, and re-engagement emails if customers stop using the scheme.
8. Include partners — you can refresh and add value to a scheme by adding other local or national businesses that you think your customers might enjoy using.
9. Use technology. There are platforms available to help manage loyalty. Talk to your till provider and research systems available. 
10. Consider the measurement of your scheme. You need to know whether it’s working, so be clear from the outset how you are going to measure success — or failure.

Tips supplied by Dan Brookman, commercial director of digital marketing specialist PowerText​