Loyal Subjects Rewards and loyalty programs for pros can be effective tools for achieving a variety of worthwhile business goals. Here are some tips for managing them effectively:
- Use rewards programs to gather information and gain the confidence of your most profitable customers, then leverage that data to target and personalize your sales efforts to those pros.
- Consider joining (or forming) a local, non-competitive consortium or piggybacking a national program to relieve sales and administrative staff of managing the logistics of calculating points and fulfilling redemptions. At the very least, centralize the program and dedicate staff to it.
- If you want to use trips as networking opportunities, fill the calendar with destinations your pros will want to visit, and mix big trips with smaller, shorter excursions to broaden the appeal.
- Use technology to transform customer data into targeted marketing messages, such as personalized e-mails and Web sites, as well as to analyze purchasing habits and other trends that help sharpen your focus and measure the program’s success and return on investment.
- Avoid rewards that can be duplicated by a competitor, such as discounts on future purchases, which also erodes your pricing structure and profit margins.
- Set a start and end date for an incentive program to motivate pros to earn and redeem points and rewards and enable you to more easily and accurately measure its success and ROI.
- Tie points to prompt payments, which steadies cash flow and often earns discounts or incentives upstream from distributors or manufacturers that reward dealers who pay on time, as well.
