Launching a Customer Club

Opening a customer club is one of the important stages of launching customer loyalty and reward system. Doing this job requires applications directly connected to sales system whether sales are happening online or directly in a shop. The cashier enters the customer’s info and issues the membership card to the customer. You can use more modern methods by employing mobile applications. Ways of Attracting Members to Customer Club You need members to create a customer club, and you need to gather customers’ information to have members. Gathering information is something that requires strategy. First, you need to determine conditions of membership in your customer club. z The most important condition is that they should make purchases from you. The famous store Costco receives fees from people who want to be members of its customer club and benefit its services. In different membership levels, these fees are figures such as 45 dollars and 99 dollars, and the club offers special incentive plans in VIP membership Social media are one of the great tools to establish a relationship with customer. This is because social media platforms provide some options such as running a contest that both attracts new customers and establish a relationship with current customers; it even provides a platform for sales. By using social media, information gathering can be easily done and communicating with customers becomes much less costly. There are applications that teach you how to attract people on social networks. Facebook has recently started its sales division activity. It has also started allocating a section for sales and promotion. It also recommends different methods which you can use to lead your customer toward your product’s sales link. z One method of collecting information is to put a note in your product’s package and write directly to your customer that you will send them a purchase coupon to their address or email if they send you their information. You can also consider a gift in social media for those who send you their information. By gathering this information, you can build a customer club because a customer club would be meaningless without members.

Another way is an old method in the form of cashback, but many companies are using it. For example, when a customer purchases a laptop from you with a price of 1000 dollars, there’s a form inside the package of that laptop which customers are expected to fill. By filling and sending this card to the company, the customer will receive a 50-dollar cheque. Years ago, companies used to gather information in this way. Now that such information’s value has become obvious, we realize that those companies have been preparing themselves for the present market from years ago. Those companies were practically creating a customer club while that concept as we currently know it didn’t exist back in the day. Designing interesting games is one of successful methods you can use to attract customers to a customer club. Nowadays, many people are accustomed to computer games and you can design various games for various purposes. One of the benefits of providing a game is gathering information from individuals. A customer must enter his/her basic information to be able to start the game. In this way, you will obtain the information of your potential customers. Another purpose of designing a game is to create interest for customers. Customer can sometimes win a prize immediately after he/she enters the game. You can also give your customers points for playing the game or during the time they are playing it. You can then ask your customers to register their points in their user accounts in the customer club to go to the next level or use their points in different forms. The benefit of this method is that it makes the customer committed to you – it easily offers you customer’s commitment. That is why computer games are so popular and make it possible for customers and company to interact. You can upload these games to your website or social media or provide the game requirements in your store. Games attract customers to your customer club. While designing game, be careful not to drift away from your main business. Your business is not a game, but rather the game must lead and relate to selling your services. Don’t forget that your goal is to develop your business. Therefore, game must result in more sales, generate more revenue, and lead to more brand exposure. Game can help branding, but if sales doesn’t happen, you won’t benefit at all from the whole process. You can close a contract with providers of famous online games and receive a certain game with a discount of around 40 or 50% and put it in your website. Now, you either give the entire amount of this discount to your customers so they can play the game through you. By that, you have provided a hybrid service to your customer. Furthermore, you can include a part of that discount in your offer to your customer for using that game or you can choose to offer a yearly discount to individuals who join your customer clubs. Consequently, you will have ongoing customer commitment. It is attractive for a customer when you put a popular game on the website, but the most important thing is that the game should be related to your business and that it should be beneficial for your customer club. z Another way to attract customers to your customer club is to consider some benefits for customers who make their first purchase from you. Make it possible in your system to identify first-time buyers and consider offering benefits which you can use to persuade these new customers to join your customer club.

Offering VIP Services for Members of Customer Club

What benefits do the members of the customer club bring to the table for the company? This matter requires you to design a plan in accordance with your business. Use guidance and advice of expert business counselors to avoid loss and eventual bankruptcy of the company because of such matters. You may conclude that you need to receive a membership fee in return for using options offered in your customer club just like Costco does. Such decisions are related to policy and strategy of your company regarding customer loyalty. Notice that infrastructure must be prepared and properly put in place before implementing any plan. Years ago, I had implemented a point allotment plan and I eventually had to stop it after suffering a 500-thousand-dollar loss because customers were unaware of that plan and infrastructures were unprepared and unavailable. We were ten years ahead of the market, but the market structures weren’t ready for implementing that plan. One of loyalty programs is that the members of customer club have priority in purchases. For example, Apple presents its latest model to its customer club members before presenting it to the public. Your customer must feel that membership in customer club brings him/her some special benefits in addition to registering points. These benefits can be incentive plans specially designed for members. In fact, you are telling the customer, “as long as you are a member of our club, you can benefit from us.” Here, customer is not tiered, and they can use special services and benefits of membership because they are a member of your customer club. For example, airlines provide VIP airport lounges for members of their customer club. Some companies launch customer club based on their customers’ characteristics such as their gender. For example, a well-known shoe store gives a pair of shoes as a gift to children of women who purchase shoes from them. This is an exclusive club that addresses a certain group. The target market of this company is women who have children. Another method for that company is to give a pair of shoes to charity in exchange for purchasing a pair of shoes by customers. The gift is not directly given to the buyers because the brand wants the number of consumers to increase. Consider special benefits for a customer who is a first-time buyer and is not a customer club member yet. Some companies use special incentive plans to attract customers and increase the members of their customer club. Paying cost for attracting customer is justified. Using customer’s information to provide customized services is one of the benefits of having a customer club. In the modern world, aim for the customer in a customized manner. When you have your customers’ information, you can define an exclusive incentive plan for every one.

of them. For example, provide them with special offers on their birthday or consider a gift for them based on special occasions such as Mother’s Day or Father’s Day. You can send a gift appropriate to their ages. It’s better to surprise your customer on other occasions and times. You can use the company’s anniversary or founder’s day to offer incentive or loyalty rewards to your customers. The more exclusive your incentive plans, the more extensive your recognition in the market. No matter what tools you use, you won’t become a brand until customers are involved. The more customized services you offer to customers, the easier and faster the branding happens Joint Customers Club.

Joint customer clubs are seen frequently these days. They have become an interesting option because they both create direct consumption and bring mutual benefits. So, such club is an item which should be considered as a part of business marketing plan. Sometimes, several companies that offer joint incentive plans launch a joint customer club. For example, you see places in airports where logos of several companies can be seen and customers of all those companies are accepted, or, say, several airlines have launched a customer club together. Currently, big hotels in the world have established a customer club together. Many credits cards companies in the world also have gone the same way. A while ago, I was watching TV in a hotel room in LA when I stumbled upon an incentive plan; a mobile operator was announcing that those who buy SIM card of that company can use Netflix services for free. If Netflix also advertises for the mobile operator, then it’s the same concept of joint customer club. This type of customer club is increasing day by day. For example, a telecommunication company with regular customers starts a joint customer club with a widely used chain store. You constantly use your cell phone. You also buy things from a chain store. Using this joint method, you can use the cell phone line and at the same time, you buy from the store which has a contract with your phone operator

When a joint customer club is going to be established, companies’ sizes must be in proportion to each other. In this method, a win-win mutual relation is created, and both sides benefit from each other’s customers. For example, you can benefit from hundreds of companies using a cash gift card. In the joint discount method, each company’s amount of gift is decided based on mutual agreement. The prime cost of products is different among companies. Each company offers certain services and products based on its own calculation and in return for certain points. The calculations of each company are based on the interest that company receives, but in the long run, other companies may realize that the company participating in their joint discount plan hasn’t paid much cost but it’s gaining a huge profit. Such issues are related to long-term performance. At the beginning of the job, diversity of incentive plans is of greater importance. As mentioned before, several companies can present a joint loyalty reward system together. Many years ago, when American Airline launched Miles system, another company launched another system which called Air Miles. The reason for such similar naming was that “Miles” was already a known name. Air Miles was launched to provide services for those companies that had intended to start a loyalty reward system but lacked technical resources. Back in the days, launching and managing this system was too costly. It is still very difficult to run this system because it requires managing various variables.

At first, some hotels joined this club for two reasons: first, reducing cost and second, diversifying services for customer. Someone may need no ticket so he/she can use the point to stay at a hotel. For the reasons mentioned above, some companies were founded for the sole purpose of creating customer club. Air Miles gathered in its customer club a great number of companies working in the transportation industry. After that, this system was expanded and right now, Air Miles discounts are even accepted in chain grocery stores. Variety on how to use points is the most interesting thing about this method. Customer doesn’t have to spend a supermarket point in a supermarket and he/she can buy a plane ticket with his points, and vice versa. Another exciting thing about this method is that there are many suppliers offering their services to a customer. Through suppliers in this system, a customer can fulfill a set of his/her daily needs, including foods, clothing and entertainment. Customer concludes that in addition to fulfilling all of his/her needs, he/she can obtain points and use them again to make purchases by having an Air Miles card.