Discount Strategies to Enhance Customer Loyalty One of the simple and smart ways of engaging your customers is through sales and discounts. Wondering whether it would work for the shopaholics, casual and need based customers equally. Put yourself in the customers’ shoes and think about it, would you not develop association with a brand that always has exciting discount deals on your desirable products? Sales/Discounts traditionally were and are the most promising and effective marketing approach. Here are a few suggestions to make these even more worthwhile for customer loyalty. Membership Cards and Special Discounts Membership cards are a great way to make your customers feel privileged. The purpose of member ship cards should not be merely providing bonus points to the customers but you should use them to develop a brand - customer relationship. Regular customers should be given special discounts on every purchase, this would help you strengthen your bond with them and you are likely to get “new customers” referred by the loyal ones. People like to recommend those brands to their friends and loved ones that have “a lot” to offer them. Research by Nielson says that “84% of consumers say they either completely or somewhat trust recommendations from family and friends about products – making these recommendations the information source ranked highest for trustworthiness.” Brand Loyalty and Customer Care Brand loyalty is directly proportional to premium Customer Care Services. Give more to your customers and they will stick with you. Most brands offers seasonal sales, so be more surprising and announce a three day or one week sale every once in a while. You can give exclusive discounts on your anniversary celebrations or new outlet’s opening. Up to 20% or 30% off on relatively new products would make your customers happier than ever. Do segmentation of your audience and then define your customer reward plans, this is likely to get you instant results for branding. Discounts Create an Arena of Competition Competing businesses always want to excel each other when it comes to marketing and sales strategies. If one brand announces a sale or discount deals, most of the other contemporary brands have to offer their customers extra perks to retain them. So the customers get an array of choices that way with many brands offering amazing sales and discounts. It works well for the brands as well, since they are able to generate more revenue through exclusive offerings, as “Mega Sale” allures even the impulsive and wandering customers. Tips to Make Discounts More Customer Engaging According to the statistics, loyal customers are only 20 percent of the customer base but they contribute around 50 percent to a business' earnings. Sales/discounts can be made more engaging for the customers to earn their trust; first tip is to make a list of regular customers and offer them loyalty cards with considerable bonus points. Send a text message and e-mail to every customer a couple of days before the sale. If a regular customer runs out of bonus points on the membership card, be flexible enough to bend the rules. Going out of the way to facilitate your customers would definitely earn you brand loyalty.
Case in Perspective “Mango” is an affordable trendy clothing and accessories brand that has outlets across 140 countries. This fashion retailer offers its customers special sales and discounts throughout the year. In countries where the brand was comparatively new; frequent enticing discount deals earned it popularity since it was quite surprising for the first time shoppers to have such a fabulous fashion wear at reasonable price range. “Mango” is retaining its customers because of terrific quality products and exceptional customer service (that includes) providing likable discount offerings. Do you have any interesting ideas about making sales/discounts more winning for the customer retention? Feel free to share your thoughts with us!