Thursday, November 6, 2008

Loyalty Cards & Customer Promotions

Many retailers have discovered the value of loyalty card programs and customer promotions to differentiate and bring customers back to their stores in the hyper competitive supermarket industry. The idea of getting supermarket customers to sign up for a ‘loyalty card’ in exchange for discounts and other incentives started back in the 90’s. The airlines recognized the marketing potential long before with frequent flyer programs.

The ability to identify a customer at the POS and target them has revolutionized the customer experience, allowing the grocer to build a loyal customer base that enjoys these types of inducements. STCR offers services to our customers to help rollout a full blown loyalty card program. These programs typically follow the crawl, walk, run deployment approach, offering an immediate attraction for signing up to get a card and subsequent savings on items if the card is used in the order. However, these programs can develop into sophisticated marketing tools that require a significant level of planning and administration. Other grocers want to advertise a promotion to all customers in an effort to bring more in the door but are unsure how to set it up in their system.

If you are unsure how to proceed with your loyalty program, please call the STCR Support Center at (607) 757-0181 to request assistance. If your question is a “how to” we would be glad to assist you. If your question requires a more involved setup, testing, and implementation, we can assist you with getting quotes on services needed to accomplish the desired promotion. Let us help you take full advantage of your systems ability to promote and bring more customers back to your store.