As an adult retail store owner, you spend a considerable amount of time trying to increase your customer base, tap into new markets and drive up your revenue. But don’t put so much focus on luring new shoppers that you neglect your regulars. It’s important to spend time and allocate resources toward customer retention.
One way to ensure repeat business is to develop a loyalty program. Whether you use a point system, social media check-ins or a game concept, these kinds of programs will boost engagement and make your customers likely to come back and spend more money.
Kirk Haines, vice president of Boudoir Noir in Fort Wayne, Indiana, created a loyalty program for his store 20 years ago.
“We were one of the first in the industry to offer any kind of rewards program,” Haines said. “Our program is set up with a money-back incentive in $10 increments. For every $10 the customer spends, they get $1 back. And 20 years later, we have an extremely loyal customer base.”
He added, “Any program that incentivizes the customer to return is a great idea, but it needs to be a win/win. The customer needs to see the value in your business and of course we see the value in our customer.”
Keeping Score
Every business is different, so whatever loyalty program you develop, make sure it’s reflective of your brand and appeals to your particular customer. Here are some ideas for a loyalty program you can implement in your store:
Points: This is sort of a way of keeping score of how much customers spend in your store. For example, every $1 they spend, they get one point, or a set number of points. Of course these points will translate into a financial incentive or free product. But don’t miss an opportunity to have some fun with this program. Instead of receiving points, have your customers receive “O’s,” which is short for orgasms, or tier your points program from “Virgin” up to “Master of Sex.” The more they buy, the more they score. See? This can go on and on ...
Social Media: As you are well aware, our industry is still challenged by stigma issues. One way to help mainstream our business is to encourage your customers to follow and like your social media pages and check in online when they visit your store. Encourage customers first to follow you on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter and maybe incentivize with 10 percent off a purchase or add points with every follow. Then every time they check in at your store, give them another 10 percent off or additional points. It’s good to encourage check-ins because they promote your business. Every time a customer checks in on his or her social media page, that post works as an advertisement for your store that pops up in other people’s timelines, helping create awareness (and intrigue!).
Games: You’ll have some regular customers who may not be interested in joining your loyalty program for one reason or another. One way to generate interest is to turn your loyalty program into a game. According to Concur.com, 54 percent of customers are inactive in loyalty programs, but gamification of your program can increase engagement by almost one-third. Also keep in mind that millennials, a major portion of today’s market, are a generation raised on video games.
If you’re using a point system, have a visual progress bar that customers can track each time they come in. Give “titles” to customers that hit certain milestones. Hold a drawing once a month for all of your loyalty program customers where the winner gets a free product or a serious discount on their next purchase.
Once you nail down what kind of loyalty program you want to run, you’ll want to measure the success of this program. Haines uses his POS to see his customers’ balances and their repeat visits.
“Reporting and tracking is key,” said Haines. “Make sure you get a ROI in everything you do. Track email, track customer info and always market upcoming promotions through these channels.”
There’s an App for That
There are many online apps that can help you set up a loyalty program in minutes and can provide valuable analytics of your customers’ spending habits in your store. Even though it’ll cost money to use one of these apps, you save yourself the time and energy of developing your own loyalty program.
UpCity.com has listed its Top 20 Loyalty Rewards Program Apps for Small Businesses. Some of the apps they feature are FiveStars, which allows you to send your customers reward messages via email or text, and LoyalZoo, which integrates into your current POS system.
We hope this article inspires you to experiment with increasing your customer engagement. Good luck with developing and implementing a successful loyalty program! And, as always, remember that the best way to keep your customers coming back is to be an informed and reliable source of sexual health knowledge. At Eldorado we encourage our clients to become “sexperts” by completing our free online program at Elevate U. The more you know, the more reason your loyal customers have to come back.
This article by Allison Travers, Eldorado Trading’s director of marketing communications, originally appeared in the adult distributor’s monthly newsletter. To sign up for the newsletter, email [email protected].
