Loyalty Program

[ARS]

We are interested in starting a Loyalty card or program. We already give our customers a punch after each oil change with the 6th free. But we are looking for something for how much money is spent, etc. To keep them here. We have many customers that jump from place to place...

So, Some Questions:
1. Have you used a loyal card or program?
2. How does it work?
3. How do you keep track of dollars or points?
4. How do the Customers earn points?
5. How & when do points get redeemed?
6. Is there a company you use for this?
7. Have you had success with it? Has it enhanced your business? or are you losing money on it?
8. Does Mitchell offer anything like this?
9. Do you need extra equipment to keep track of of the points? What is the cost?

Thanks for your help with this! ARS

[marcdaniels]

Hello we are currently using a loyalty program and have been for the probably the last 6-7 years. Their name is Valutec and it is very easy and simple. It's an actual credit card sized card with our name, phone number, website on it. Processes just like a credit card thru our terminal. The cost for them to maintain the program is $45 a month. The way it works is a client comes in, we either sign them up if they are first timers or take their card for repeats. We scan the card like a credit card transaction and add the total from the invoice on the card. It does a points and dollar system. So for every 300 points a client gets they inturn get $15.00 added on the card like a debit. We have each dollar spent is a point. They never expire and for every 300 points another $15 is added to the card. I've had clients over time earn enough to buy new tires for their car. It does work good and it does create good repeat clients. They upgrade your existing credit card terminal to take their card along with still taking credit cards. Plus they have a whole back end reporting feature that allows you to go in and see good customers, customers that haven't used it in a while and who has money on their card you can market to to get them spend it.

www.valutec.net

[nickscarcare]

I also just do an oil change loyalty. I did briefly browse the link, and it looks cool. may have to check into it.

[fortknoxx]

Marc, this program kinda works like a reloadable gift card. I like the idea. you add the invoice dollars spent, does it give you the option for a reference number eg. using the invoice number. Do you add the credit to the card, or is it done from the company?

[marcdaniels]

Tina,

It is like a reloadable gift card. All you simply do is swipe the card and input the dollars spent. When you set the program up you give them your specifics as to what you want each point to be worth. Mine just happens to be 300 points gets you $15.00. I chose the 300 points because my avg RO runs between $300-$340 and the $15.00 works as a good value back to them. I do not believe there is a way to add invoice number as a reference number but have never tried. Haven't seen a reason to. It provides a receipt for the customer and the company handles all the processing and calculating of the balance on the card.

[ARS]

Sounds very interesting... We will check into it! Thanks, ARS

[Crescentbunny]

The re-loadable gift card type loyalty card sounds like a much better idea than the program we used. We used a program called Royalty Rewards for a few years. The way they work is they send a special terminal for swiping their cards and then mail out coupons based on amount of points on the card. Most of the time clients would bring the card in, hand it to me, and say they had money on it and I would need to explain no you don't they send them in the mail. Then inevitably the client says they never got any. I probably went through the explanation 5 or more times with each good client that had the card. Most of them wouldn't even bother giving it to me for transactions to get points on it after awhile. So I think the direct to card savings route would be much better. We wound up dropping it after a few years because their back end reporting system was GROSSLY over-exaggerating sales it said it was generating. All our reporting showed that it didn't affect customer loyalty enough to justify the monthly expenditures to keep the program going so we dropped it.