Traditional loyalty programs based solely on points have hit a plateau. This has been the subject of a webinar I attended, and I have read several articles about it. The problem is that almost every business now in Australia is doing it, so the problem is that a business program is now competing with so many companies that it is struggling to make its program noticed. 

For some businesses, points work brilliantly, and we have no reason to believe that a traditional program of buying eleven cards/coffee and the 12th is free would not work well in the future. 

However, many businesses need differentiation, which is why many loyalty programs are moving into personalisation! Its called CRM.

"Mass marketing is dead. Personalization is the new frontier for loyalty programs." 

Now, I am worried about this in my client base:

The Challenges of Personalization for Smaller Retailers

Many of my clients are not huge and will face the following problems.

• Limited Data: Unlike large corporations, they might not have vast troves of customer behaviour data.
• Experts: Access to sophisticated consultants is lacking; they are often too busy to attend the many conferences that discuss this to get ideas.
• Scale: It's tough to match the "wow" factor of rewards programs offered by big brands with extensive resources.
• Time: Large brands are willing to run at a loss for ages to establish their program.

Overcoming the Obstacles: Practical Solutions

We have what we have; we can only play the hand we have, so we need actionable strategies for small retailers to personalise their loyalty programs:

• Focus on Key Data: Your POS System collects the most valuable data points, e.g. purchase frequency and spending habits.
• Simple Personalization: Often simple ideas work well, e.g. birthday discounts and email alerts for new products based on previous purchases; if a parent buys back-to-school products from you, what is wrong next year sending the parent an email that you have back-to-school products?
• Local: Emphasize the genuine connection you have with the local community.
• Local SEO: Make sure you appear in the local Google search high up.
• The Human Touch: Enhance personalisation with handwritten thank you notes on your packing.

Affordable Tech to Boost Your Program

• Your POS as a CRM: Your Point-of-Sale systems include built-in customer relationship management tools that allow you to track data, send targeted promotions, and build customer profiles.
• Social Media Power: Please interact directly with your customers on social platforms such as Facebook (consider it free advertising).
• Email Marketing: Use email newsletters to tell people you exist. Let me know if you do not know how to do this, and I will point you through it.

Additional Tips:

• Be Adaptable: Don't be afraid to experiment and refine your rewards program based on what works for you.
• Are you an expert in something you sell?: If so why not run a short course? 

Conclusion

"Personalization is the heart of every successful business. Treat every customer as a unique individual, not a number."

Personalisation doesn't require breaking the bank or having massive amounts of data. You can start with meaningful steps and gradually build on them. Remember, genuine connection is the ultimate competitive edge! Take the first step, experiment with personalisation, and watch your loyal customer base grow.

I understand how frustrating it can be to lose a customer. Even though it may appear to be a defeat, it does not have to be the end of the road. Keep your cool.

Retailers can use a variety of tactics to regain lost customers and maintain a strong relationship with them. Our POS Software does provide you with tools to help.

Communication

If you can communicate with them, you can do something. You can provide the customer with a solution or compensation, follow up, demonstrating your dedication to them. It is also great to request feedback from them. Remember that sometimes the causes of the loss are beyond your control. Also, remember that former customers often make up reasons for a decision after doing it. Maybe they want to keep you in the good books with them, or they want to hurt you, or perhaps they want a better price. The list is endless.

Even if you aren't directly to blame for mistakes, you should take responsibility for them. Please show that you value their business. You must provide a solution. As Mahatma Gandhi, who was a very wise man, said.

Offer a good deal to try to get them back. Something is better than nothing.

Loyalty program

First, measuring and tracking customer loss is essential. You may only know that a customer has left your business if you do it.

Here a loyalty program can be a big help in this situation. It gives retailers tracking and measures customer loss. This makes it easier to understand how it affects their business and spot patterns or trends. It is also a great way to communicate with a lost customer, besides maintaining a solid relationship by regularly following up. And it is free in your POS System; you have a retail CRM in your POS Software right now?

Assessment

Well, this can be painful. Openness is of the utmost importance. What is the point of lying to yourself? It happened. What have you learnt from this experience? What can you do to stop it from happening again? Was it because of a negative encounter with your product or service? Or were they able to find a better deal somewhere else? Determine the most efficient strategy is comprehending your churn's underlying cause.

Make use of the experience to enhance the customer experience as a whole. Look for areas where you can make adjustments to stop similar problems from happening again.

Summing up

Although losing a customer can be disheartening for any business, it does not mean the end of the road. You can often regain many lost customers if you use the right strategies. Communication is essential for retaining customers.

Retailers can understand the impact of customer loss and identify it by measuring them through a loyalty program.

To show that you value their business, these essential steps include:

• Following up with lost customers.

• Checking in with them.

• Providing solutions or compensation.

• Taking responsibility for mistakes.

Additionally, customer feedback can help determine the churn's root cause. This allows you to make necessary adjustments.

Losing a customer is not fatal; it's a chance to learn and develop.

Note that the picture of Gandhi above was given to me by one of my bosses when I started going on my own. He was also a wise bloke who kept a copy before his desk.

Many retailers use CRM; our clients have a great one for free.

Although I have not seen any of our clients report any significant customer churn. I have checked our CRM, I can find little sign there yet the figures now coming out from other suppliers of CRM are saying that companies have noticed that "customers are leaving at extraordinary rates." We all expected this as the COVID crisis was a prolonged crisis. This was long enough to change the public's habits. With the reopening, people are now coming out. As the old patterns are just memories, we are now looking at something new. We are trying new shops, restaurants, doing new things, etc.

Meeting the danger

This customer relationship emergency needs to be met with a return to nuts and bolts. We need to review our customer relationship. The problem is not that people's needs have changed, but they are now exploring.

I would also suggest you look into your CRM system.

There is a "Great Reassessment" across society.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems are being implemented by everyone now. 

You can install one, too, as your Software has a CRM inbuilt. This gives you the tools to build thoughtful relationships. It is harder to get new customers than to develop current ones. This is what CRM helps you to do.  We give you the means to know your customers better without the need for extra and costly CRM software.

Your business's best CRM solution is your POS software, as it knows your customers, stock and sales.  So it can often deal automatically to better market to your existing customers and so improve customer value. Also, it targets your audience to provide you with customised marketing campaigns. That makes your front-end sales efforts go further. You will also get access to detailed reports about how much sales and profit are coming in on any campaign.

A POS software CRM system offers you the features that your business needs to expand.

We are confident that we are giving you our users, the best CRM for your business free. So I was pleased that salesforce who are the number one in this filed invited us to attend their conference on their CRMs yesterday. I checked them out.

Click here if you wish to see some of the talks here.

One talk I do recommend that you listen to is this one by Mathew Sweezey [link removed]" He spoke well. His message was that everything is changing. A *NEW* normal is forming. People that you have never had a chance before to turn into customers are coming into your shop. Goods that you never sold, you can sell now. It's all changing. Everything has taken a new turn. There is no going back.

Some of the other talks were good too. Some of these guest speakers were very experienced retailers. They saw a CRM as a must for them. Included were retailers of all sizes who sold many different products.

Okay, what did I get out of it?

Modern retailers use CRM to track their sales process so they know what worked.

Do they want a CRM to sell more to each of their customers?

They want a CRM to tell them what is *NOT* working.

Your system has a CRM; why not try and use it? At the very least, you will get a feel of how they work.

When you talk to retail managers of large retail companies, what is interesting is that they consider their CRM more critical than the Point of Sale Software. One of the first questions they will ask does it talk to Salesforce or IMS. We go YES as we have more integration than anyone I think. only then they are interested in talking to us.

These people feel I think correctly that relationships are the heart of any business, and this is their top priority. This is why we provide a CRM module free in our software.  

Ask yourself this, does not every sale that is done in your shop represents a relationship. The more control you have, the more bits of information you have on the sale e.g. the customer’s name, the items they bought, how they brought it etc. the better. Bluntly these people do not care much about one of their shops in XYZ or the one in ABC, what they care about is the customer. They are spending big with loyalty programs which cost them about 1% to 2% of sales, to get this information. 

Think back when you were much smaller, you probably knew almost every person that you did business with their names, maybe family members, etc.  Do you think that this information helped your business?

Once your business starts to get over fifty customers, it starts to get impossible to do this with a paper note.  There is too much information. Now what you will find is the information you require is scattered over many different places e.g. filing cabinets, computers, handwritten notes, someone memory, etc. and you soon lose track. Now you start to look impersonal.

Where did you put all the personal information about your customers – like birthdays, names of children and avid interests? In what file did you keep all the service issues and complaints? In which spreadsheet did you track customer responses from your marketing campaigns?

This is where customer relationship management (CRM) software comes into play.

It automates many tasks. The CRM does not forget birthdays, it does not forget that the customer is starting to run out of the perfume, dog food, photocopy paper, etc. and it knows peoples names. It puts all the information in one place, which gives you better relationships by helping you to understand your customer and the customer’s history and experience with your business.

I suggest trying our CRM module to try to get your business to grow.

If you feel after a while you want a bigger package, at least you will know more about what you need, and there is no problem with us going to something like Salesforce.

Large companies for years have been integrating their CRM (Customer relationship management) into their point of sale software. Today with coronavirus its more important than ever, so we are pleased to announce that we have added and extended our CRM facility in our software.

You will find this new CRM section in our reporting menu here.  

I urge you to go through this section. You can find some details on it here to start you off

Consider the genuine benefits for CRM your business, enjoy!