The Loyalty System – Proven Client Retention

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January saw the release of a new feature that we know many people have been waiting for – The New Loyalty System. And we can’t wait to tell you about it.

We’ve got the video ready as quickly as possible, and it’s below for your viewing.

Please keep reading for a more detailed run-through of the Loyalty system, what it can do for your business, and how to get the most out of it. 

Setting up your Loyalty System

From the Custom Features menu on your SimplyBook.me interface, you can find and enable the Loyalty System feature.

When you enable the Loyalty scheme feature, it will automatically allow Accept Payments, Client Login, and Coupons & Gift cards features. All of these features are necessary to use the loyalty system. 

As soon as you have enabled the loyalty system, you will be able to customise your client messages – or you can leave that until you are ready to introduce it to your clients. 

From the Loyalty System page in Custom Features, you can:

• Navigate to Services, where you can allocate the number of points to service
• Go to Reports, where you can see the number of points allocated, to whom, and the service
• View Clients and see the loyalty points they have.

When you click on any of these, it will open a new tab in your browser.

So services will direct you straight to your existing service list, where you can scroll to the bottom of the page and allocate points to each of your services – don’t forget to save before moving on to the next service or class.

Reports will take you to the reporting screen, where you can find the recently allocated points for each service.

Clients will take you to the client report and will let you see who had which service how many points they have earned in total.

For step by step details onhow oto set up points and voucher redemption checkout the thorough setup instructions on the help centre.

How to Allocate Points to Services & Classes

You get to decide how to allocate your points to each service. You also get to determine the value of your loyalty points once clients have earned them.

Look at some of your competitors and other loyalty schemes to see how you can find the correct balance of points earned and their value to the client. You don’t even have to look in the same business sector to get an idea. In all likelihood, you have some sort of loyalty card, whether that’s for a local coffee shop or your regular supermarket.

So if we look at those examples, they can follow different patterns.

Supermarkets – 

Everyone needs groceries all the time. Whether people do a substantial monthly shop and stock their freezers, or maybe they buy just enough for a week and keep going back. Overall the monthly expenditure is roughly similar. Most supermarkets operate on a $/£/€1 = 1 loyalty point and 1 loyalty point = 1p. So effectively it’s an earning of 1% on every shopping trip. 

It doesn’t sound like much, but it can stack up when you realise a family of four can spend upwards of €600 a month in the same supermarket.  

Depending on what your business offers, this might work for you. 

Coffee Shops – 

Have you ever bought a morning latte and had the barista hand you a little card with a stamp on it? In many cases, it’s a case of buying nine of your morning coffees and getting the tenth free. Sometimes it’s lower, and sometimes it’s higher. It depends on the company and their revenues.

If your morning coffee is €5 and you buy nine (€45), you’re effectively getting ten coffees for €4.50* a 10% saving on your expensive coffee habit.

*Yes, my morning coffee habit used to be this bad.

However you structure your loyalty points systems and the redeemable amounts, you have to make it worthwhile for the clients. Clients will not be impressed if they have to save points from their services for more than six months before redeeming them. 

Loyalty Points Redemption Timeline

If we look at the examples above, it depends significantly on how frequently they visit and how they spend on each visit.

In the coffee shop, they might go five or six days out of seven and spend €5 every day, but they will get a free coffee on the tenth day. So, by visiting frequently, they attain their reward sooner.

The Supermarket shoppers might only earn €6 worth of points per month, but if you add that up over six months, it’s €36 off their shopping. 

Many supermarkets also have cumulative voucher amounts. My local grocery store has 1000 points = €10, but the number of points required for subsequent voucher amounts is incrementally lower. So eventually, a €40 voucher needs only 3400 loyalty points, but I’ve only “earned” €34.

Retail and speciality stores are a little different still. Different shoppers have different shopping and spending habits

The overall idea is that your visitors should be able to redeem their earned loyalty points within six to ten visits to feel like they have something to show for their continued loyalty.

Redeeming Loyalty Points as Gift Cards

If you go to Manage>>Gift Cards & Coupons from your interface menu you can either update existing gift card amounts to enable purchasing them with loyalty points or create new ones.

I created a new €10 gift card, that clients can buy with money or purchase with loyalty points. I worked on the “supermarket” model for simplicity.

On your booking website, when a client goes to “Gift Cards” from your menu, they will see a lidtof available gift cards to purchase. If they have enough points for a specific gift card they can use them, if not the system will block the option.

Why are Loyalty Schemes Key to Client Retention?

If you are wondering why a client loyalty system is important to client retention, you clearly have never used one before. With a clearly defined reward system a client loyalty system gives clients a genuine feeling of value from their continued return.

A loyalty system allows you to formalise and automate for expediency, that little bit extra that will make you stand out from your competitors. You can’t afford to always compete in a race to the bottom on price in a saturated market. It’s the little extras and benefits you bring to your clients that will keep you competitive.

Loyalty should be freely given, but there’s nothing wrong with incentivising it. Reward client loyalty with a touch of your own loyalty to your clients – a loyalty system works for you both.