Offer Frequent Shopper Benefits Beyond Discounts

According to retailing experts at Hofstra University, your customers' favorite frequent shopper reward has been a percentage discount on new purchases. But this is no longer a distinctive feature of the programs. Retailers are increasingly using discount coupons made available to all consumers, not only those with the loyalty club cards. Sites like coupons.com and coolsavings.com are reporting record traffic. More than just shoppers retrieving coupons via their computers before heading out to the store, people are using smart phones to scan a product's bar code while shopping to instantly retrieve instructions for getting a discount.
     Certainly consider participating in these discount coupon programs. But to best maintain your customer database that comes from frequent shopper programs, offer customer benefits beyond discounts. An example of this is a program recently introduced by grocery retailer Kroger Co. They are using their sales databases to notify each customer when an item the customer previously purchased is being recalled for safety reasons.
     Research suggests that many of your customers will consider a program like this to show a caring attitude and a social consciousness. Both of these can build business for you. But take steps to avoid possible problems:

• Publicize that you're doing this, but be clear that you expect to make these calls only rarely. You don't want to have a reputation for selling products that often end up being recalled!
• Allow loyalty club members to opt out of receiving the calls. Early experience with the Kroger program shows that some of their customers don't like to be reminded that every purchase is being tracked.
• When possible, have store staff make the telephone calls at times customers are likely to find convenient. The Kroger program is using automated robo-calling. In my opinion, this undercuts the demonstration of personal caring.