7 Strategies to Create a First-Class Customer Loyalty Experience That’ll Drive LTV
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: to generate substantial recurring revenue from your subscription program, you cannot treat it as a set-it-and-forget-it element of your retention funnel. The same applies to customer loyalty, membership, and rewards.
The brands crushing it on subscription loyalty aren’t running a simple points-based program or your typical discounted redemptions; the winners go further to offer a meaningful, unmatched customer experience with a loyal community built around your brand.
Here’s how you can do it, too…
Customer loyalty strategy #1: Allow subscribers to sample & test unreleased products
Most merchants use the free sample as a low barrier to entry, a way to convert shoppers from non-customers to customers.
But that doesn’t entirely cover the full extent of what a free sample can do for your brand.
When you use it as part of an offer to existing subscribers, you turn the free sample into a strategy to increase customer loyalty.
Say, for instance, you have a new product in its early stages of development, a new flavor or color, or a new SKU, but your team isn’t sure if they want it on the product catalog. Your most loyal customers can tell you whether or not it lands with them.
But you have to offer it to them first.
You could do this in a few ways:
- Feature new/ trial products in your customer’s portal (if you don’t want to offer this deal to all subscribers, you can segment them, offering the deal to only your most loyal customers.) Clicking the banner or product will open a modal to add the product to their purchase option defined in the setup.
- Include these samples as a surprise gift in a subscriber’s upcoming order.
Split-test samples or test products as free gifts in select orders using ExperienceEngine.
Customer loyalty strategy #2: Delight loyal customers with early access or exclusive releases
Providing your existing subscribers with early access is a zero-cost effort that helps retain customers while also bringing in vital feedback on products you’ll soon run to the broader public.
Aura Bora is a great example of this strategy in action. They give subscribers a chance to try new, limited-time flavors through their “Flavor of the Month Club.”
Here’s how they do it:
1. They set aside 1-2 new products that are in development or will soon be added to their product catalog.
2. Using our in-portal banner ad the Aura Bora team gives subscribers access to new SKUs before anyone else and encourages them to add them to an upcoming order.
3. They change their banner ad and selected products with every product update to keep subscribers engaged and excited.
Customer loyalty strategy #3: Surprise subscribers with exclusive community events
Experiences tend to add to the value of a customer’s regular purchases. If customers associate your brand with a positive memory or experience they’ll never forget, it can go a long way toward building customer loyalty.
If you can invest in hosting community events for subscribers, you will have endless opportunities to connect with your customers.
Let’s say your brand is fitness or health-related and has a loyal customer base in a major city like Chicago or Boston. You could rent a yoga or pilates studio for an evening event and invite your loyal customers to come out, mingle, and have a good time together.
If you have a food and beverage product, host a virtual Zoom cooking class with a well-known celebrity chef. Email loyalty members an invitation, and then send a care package to those who RSVP with all the ingredients needed and a branded apron to make the event successful.
To boost customer retention, though, you don’t have to host an event. You could simply surprise your loyal buyers with access to events already occurring in the industry.
For example, if you’re a fashion brand, you could surprise loyal customers with tickets to a fashion show.
If your brand partners with a celebrity, you could reward long-term customer loyalty with a VIP meet-and-greet at an event they’re hosting.
Customer loyalty strategy #4: Exclusive member discounts & deals
Discounts and deals are one of the most common ways to reward brand loyalty, and for good reason.
They enhance the customer experience by demonstrating that you’re both listening to and appreciating them. They’ll reward you by becoming brand advocates that help to bring in new customers, and provide more positive customer feedback.
It doesn’t require much on your end, either. Simply offer exclusive members-only discounts for add-on products or one-time purchases directly in your customer portals. It’s best if these bonuses aren’t offered in other sitewide promotions.
Mint & Lilly are a great example. They use their in-portal banner ad to highlight a member-exclusive 40% discount on the upcoming order:
While exclusive deals are amazing and valued by customers, they don’t want just any deal. If you want to build a successful loyalty program, you need to know the kind of deals your customers would appreciate most. To do that, you have to collect the right customer data.
The traditional recommendation is to collect feedback through surveys, emails, or even social media polls, but this doesn’t offer the degree of accuracy needed for true impact.
A/B testing and enhanced customer insights through AI help you see which offers increase customer lifetime value and AOV.
Customer loyalty strategy #5: Offer priority customer service & personalized experiences
Most brands start and end their personalization efforts by adding the customer name to communications. But most customers are blind to these minor bits of personalization efforts these days.
To truly capture their attention, you have to go beyond the small talk to offer personalized experiences such as:
- Priority customer service
- Personal shopping assistance
- Individual product recommendations
- Product recommendations based on purchase history
- Birthday rewards
- Personalized notifications
- Implementing their feedback
- Product customization
- Personalized service
- Roadmaps and plans based on customer habits (for subscriptions in health and fitness)
- A separate CX email or SMS contact for faster service
Certain subscriptions, like Stitch Fix, are based entirely on personalization. Each customer receives an order of clothing every month based on personal style preferences, body shape and size, color palettes that work with their skin tones, and the recommendations of their in-house stylists.
While it isn’t feasible for every brand to have this level of personalization, successful customer loyalty programs should offer something beyond names and basic personal data.
Customer loyalty strategy #6: Celebrate special customer milestones together
Customize your membership program to celebrate personalized subscriber milestones including birthdays, anniversaries, brand events, and more. Offer these members bonus points, exclusive rewards, credits, or any other gift that would resonate.
You could also send them personalized birthday emails, texts, or even physical cards.
If you’re going above and beyond, you might send them a free gift with their next purchase. If you create a birthday-themed catalog to point them to, they can choose a gift to add to their subscription box.
If you use customer loyalty tiers, you could provide more elaborate gifts for customers in higher tiers — personalized video messages from the team, a spotlight on their website or social media, or a birthday package of products they typically buy or have shown interest in.
Using Stay’s first-to-market integration with Inveterate, members can easily see their points or credit balances directly in their subscription portal, allowing them to redeem rewards and manage their subscriptions conveniently in one place:
Customer loyalty strategy #7: Create a highly visual customer rewards journey with digital punch cards
By leveraging a highly visual subscriber journey, you can boost customer engagement throughout their order cycles and show them their progress toward exciting and exclusive rewards.
Why?
Research into human behavior reveals that the closer customers see themselves reaching a goal, the more likely they are to make repeat purchases to reach it.
The easiest way to offer digital punch cards and rewards to your existing customers is within your loyalty program or customer portal. Using a simple widget, subscribers can see their progress toward reaching the goal and the rewards they claim for each tier.
By gamifying the reward experience with fun, punchy visuals, you can take reward strategy to the next level.
Our Digital Punch Card widget lives in the upper portion of the Customer Portal, making it seamless for subscribers to log in and view their progress at any time to see how close they are to their next reward.
Looking to boost your subscription retention rate, or provide a top-tier subscriber experience? Stay AI’s out-of-the-box tools are designed to boost your subscription revenue, while delighting your VIP customers.
Stay Subscribed
Join 70K marketers getting better business insights & strategies weekly.
