How Payment Technology Companies and Agents can use Loyalty Programs

In today’s cutthroat business environment, it is imperative that we as payment technology professionals find ways to help small and mid-sized businesses keep pace with their larger competitors. One highly effective way to do so is by offering a robust customer loyalty program.

According to Queue it, 65% of a company’s revenue comes from the repeat business of existing customers. Meanwhile, it’s at least 5x (and as much as 25x) more expensive for a merchant to acquire a new customer than it is to keep an existing one. Add in the fact that 84% of consumers are more likely to stick with a brand that offers a loyalty program while the average annual spend of members who redeem rewards is 3.1x that of members who don’t, and the power of customer loyalty is clear.

Loyalty programs don’t just help businesses unleash the earning power of repeat purchasers and higher customer spends, they also allow merchants to:

• Attract new customers through the positive word of mouth of their most loyal customers/brand ambassadors.
• Collect invaluable insights into their customers’ preferences and purchasing patterns.
• Use that data to create more effective marketing campaigns.

Loyalty programs also pay for themselves. To wit: 90% of loyalty program owners reported a positive return on investment with the average ROI being 4.8x. Additionally, a 5% increase in customer retention can help businesses see a 25% increase in profits.

Given these figures, payment technology companies and their Agents would do well to focus on offering merchants flexible and powerful customer loyalty programs that clearly demonstrate our added value while simultaneously creating more stickiness with merchants.

Given that more than 90% of businesses now offer some form of loyalty program, it’s important that the program we offer to merchants provides maximum customization and ease of use to give ourselves a competitive advantage.

By allowing merchants to tailor the program to their specific business — from how many points are required to earn a reward, to what that reward is — merchants can easily build and manage a loyalty program that keeps their customers coming through their doors while attracting new ones.

Furthermore, given that 79% of shoppers say they are more likely to join a rewards program that doesn’t require them to carry a physical card, offering a digital rewards program is critically important. Modern programs that allow customers to easily track their rewards points through SMS messages and email notifications or on receipts can be very effective.

As popular as loyalty programs are already, the future for loyalty is even brighter. In fact, while the customer loyalty management market is currently valued at more than $5.5 billion, it is expected to surpass $24 billion by the end of 2028.

Are you ready to help small to mid-sized businesses drive both revenue and return visits? All while retaining and attracting more merchants than ever before? Go North to partner with the payments technology and loyalty program leader. Call 888.229.5229 or visit GoNorth.com for more details.