Who are you rewarding?

If you’re running a VIP Club or some similar loyalty program in your newsagency you might want to take a careful look at your numbers.  A business I have been working with recently was giving away thousands of dollars a year for nothing.  Sure, they were growing, but at a rate no better than others around them.  They we rewarding average behaviour. 

A good loyalty program rewards customers for going beyond the average.  If you reward just average behaviour you achieve nothing for your business.  The alternative is do a Coles and offer little or no reward – that’s what their FlyBys program is, a nothing reward program.

I created the industry’s first magazine category loyalty program in mid 2004.  We still run it today because of the growth it drives and for no other reason.  We regularly benchmark our performance against our region and state.  The moment we’re below a KPI we have set for ourselves we will either stop or change the program.  There is no point in being emotional about this.  It’s business. 

Be wary about the claims by newsagents around VIP / loyalty card success.  Ask to see the numbers.