With the incredibly intense competition in the business market around the world, acquiring loyal customers and retaining them has become extremely difficult. There are various pros and cons of virtual cards for consumers. Customer loyalty is a specialty which is rarely found in today’s world, therefore, companies work hard to make their loyal customers feel valued to hold on to them.
Companies generate their rewarding programs and offer their loyalty card benefits to create brand differentiation and gain a competitive edge over their rivals in the business market. These programs are aimed to repay your most faithful customers who have been purchasing your products consistently and providing you with good reviews. These consumers are called loyal since they have been with you for a long time and have obliquely helped in increasing your sales. Almost every company these days practice the premium programs including frequency programs, rebate plans, orbits, cashback, and earning points to name a few. These enable customers to be rewarded in several ways every time they purchase anything. Whereas, they do plenty of benefits for the company by leading consumers towards upselling, cross-selling, increasing brand awareness, and raising their return of investment (ROI). This incentivizing purchase is the way to retain your frequent customers and attract your new clients towards your business.
There are several other benefits and many other disadvantages of loyalty card benefits to consumers, therefore, we advise you to always weigh your options and plan accordingly if you are contemplating to be a part of any rewarding program and sign up for any loyalty card in the near future.
EARN POINTS AND REWARDING OFFERS
Loyalty card programs give you the leverage to do both, purchase and earn simultaneously if you sync your virtual cards to the program. This lets you win the rewards by buying and earning your loyalty points, or the grants that they have in store for you as a prize to you for buying their products frequently, keeping in mind the benefits, remunerations, and services they get every time they make a purchase.
MAKES CUSTOMERS FEEL VALUED
The initiative of loyalty card benefits fosters the consumers by taking care of them and making them feel valued. Since loyalty programs reward the company’s regular customers and make them feel appreciated due to this type of incentivized purchase. The enticements various loyalty programs provide lure customers to hold onto one company and perform recurrent purchases from that company as they get compensated each time they buy anything due to the loyalty platform.
BUILD RELATIONSHIP WITH CUSTOMERS
Loyalty programs require constant communication directly with the company creating a strong bond between the company and its consumers. Whether the company is sharing important announcements related to their products and services, advertising their promotional offers or updating their reward platforms, you are undeviatingly communicating with the organization. Be it online or offline, interaction with the company give them information regarding the purpose of providing insight into the client’s needs and wants, leading to better customer service.
ENHANCE PRODUCT AWARENESS
As companies maintain direct communication with their consumers via updates regarding the loyalty cards, they give out information regarding their products and acquire the information regarding the consumer’s point of view. Therefore, the clients become aware of the company’s items and create an identity of it according to the customer service and communication that is made with them.
FULFILLS CONSUMER NEEDS
Every time a customer signs up for a loyalty card, he or she shares a substantial amount of their personal details, all of which goes into the company’s database. The companies then use this data and determine their shopping patterns, including their interests, likes, and dislikes. Subsequently, they create products, fulfill requirements according to the consumer while also benefitting them with rewards on every purchase. Therefore, delivering consumer needs to the fullest, making their company a convenient one-stop-shop for all their needs.
The cons are not many but they are prominent enough for you to reconsider your plan for loyalty program initiation.
RISKY AND EXPENSIVE
Loyalty card benefits are sometimes costly as small amounts of discounts later have a significant impact on your overall budget and your buying behavior. So it is advised to always balance your buying and other loyalty offers to avoid any kind of mismanagement in your monthly budget. Your reward programs should be fruitful and must be beneficial for you, financially.
MARKET SATURATION
The surge in the loyalty card schemes has led to almost every company offering the redundant proposals and benefits of their loyalty card. This at times makes customers bored of the on-going trends and programs. Therefore, it is advised that customer must look for the best place which offers the maximum benefit on loyalty cards.
PRIVACY CONCERNS
When you sign up for a loyalty card, you need to provide a substantial amount of information to the company, this involves your name, age, email address, residential address, phone number and more. Companies can misplace or leak this data due to any reason, therefore data privacy is a major concern when it comes to loyalty card benefits.
CUSTOMERS TEND TO UPSELL
The data collected by companies in the process of loyalty card program signing can also be used by companies to influence your buying patterns in the future. This could lead to cross-selling and up-selling, burdening your budget and making you buy the stuff you don’t even need.
In a nutshell, there are pros and cons to almost everything in this world. It is upon us to counterbalance our options and choose wisely whatever suits us and our affordability. Although the pros of loyalty card benefits outweigh the cons, you can be the best judge of your budget, requirements, and needs, so you can decide accordingly.
