Now is a perfect time to start a loyalty program in your pizzeria. Setting up an attractive customer loyalty program will encourage repeat business, more spending per order, and more referrals. But before you get started, here’s an important statistic to consider: people belong, on average, to 14.8 loyalty programs but are only active in 6.7 of them.
This statistic reveals two things you should consider when setting up your customer loyalty program. First: customers love them! Loyalty programs offer customers the chance to save money, receive rewards, and have fun, which is why so many businesses are offering them these days (and you should, too!).
But this statistic also shows that people are active in less than half of the loyalty programs they join. This means that while many people may join your customer loyalty program upon launch, it’s up to you to make it attractive enough so they continue to use it throughout the year.
This article will share eight steps for creating a customer loyalty program in your pizza business, one that increases sales and revenue while making customers feel rewarded and appreciated.
8 Steps for Creating a Customer Loyalty Program
Here we share advice for pizzeria owners who are just getting started with loyalty programs. We’ll walk you through the main things to consider as you set up an attractive program that customers will love.
1. Choose Your Goals
What do you want to accomplish with your customer loyalty program? It’s essential to start by looking at your goals because they will help you determine how to structure your program. For example, some goals may include:
- Increasing the frequency of visits
- Increasing the amount spent per visit
- Increasing customer engagement
- Increasing referrals and word-of-mouth marketing
- Strengthening customer relationships
- Gathering more data on customers (to understand them more and improve personalization)
- Growing loyal brand advocates
When planning out your customer loyalty program, you’ll want to consider both short and long-term goals to build a program that will help you measure and reach the goals you’ve set.
2. Make It Simple
Another thing to keep in mind when designing your customer loyalty program is that you’ll want to make it as simple as possible for customers to join and use. Consider:
- Enrollment: Is it quick and easy to sign up for your customer loyalty program? What information must the customer provide to sign up? People may not want to join if it takes too long or invades privacy by asking too many questions.
- Benefits: Why should customers join your program? Can you explain the benefits quickly in a series of bullet point statements? When customers read the benefits, will they immediately understand them, or will they need more information?
- Rewards: How does a customer redeem rewards in your program? Is it simple and straightforward? If it sounds difficult or confusing to redeem rewards, customers may not want to join.
3. Choose Your Points System
The goals you set for your customer loyalty program will help you determine the points system you will use.
The most basic model is to reward customers with X points per dollar that they spend at your pizzeria. However, some other options include:
- Points per visit (perhaps with a minimum purchase required)
- Points per pizza (perhaps with a minimum size required)
- Bonus points for extra toppings
- Bonus points for sides
- Points for special occasions like birthday or anniversary of sign up
When creating your points system, keep in mind #2 above – keep it simple so customers can easily understand how it works! You can always have a base point system but run special promotions where the points change (such as 2x points on specific days or bonus points for a promotional window).
4. Select Rewards Customers Care About
Selecting attractive rewards is perhaps the most essential element of an effective customer loyalty program, as customers will wonder from the very beginning, “what’s in it for me?” Some ideas for pizzerias include:
- Money off the order total
- A free pizza
- A larger size pizza
- Extra toppings
- A free side
- Free delivery
- Free merchandise
If you’re not sure what rewards to offer, ask your customers to see what they would find attractive. If you’re in the planning stage, you could create a survey and offer customers a small incentive to share their opinions on your ideas. You may also discuss ideas with your employees at the front line who know what customers want. Finally, you can also analyze data from your POS to see who is frequenting your pizzeria, what they are ordering, what sales and discounts are most popular, etc.
When selecting rewards, you’ll also have to determine the number of points required for each reward, which essentially means determining how much you will want to make in sales from that customer before you offer them a $X reward. For help in calculating redemption value (with respect to actual and perceived value), check out this article.
5. Determine Your Delivery System
Before the internet, customer loyalty programs often took the form of a physical punch card that would be punched after each purchase and then redeemed when full. These days, customers prefer to use simple digital options, so you’ll want to keep that in mind when creating your loyalty program. Many POS systems have built-in loyalty programs. You may also consider using customer loyalty software or even a punch card app.
6. Name Your Program
Now that you have ironed out all the important details of your customer loyalty program, it’s time to give it a memorable and catchy name. Consider including the words ‘Rewards,’ ‘Points,’ ‘Club,’ ‘Circle,’ or ‘Insider’ as they immediately communicate the idea of a customer loyalty program. However, you can also get creative with your name and use it strategically to evoke a sense of emotion and belonging. For more tips on naming your customer loyalty program, check out this article.
7. Train Your Staff
Your employees should know all the details of your customer loyalty program and be prepared to answer questions that customers may have. Here are some key areas to consider when training your employees.
- Employees should know the rewards structure and be able to explain it.
- Employees should be trained to ask customers if they are part of the customer loyalty program when they interact with them to promote more sign-ups.
- Employees should be able to confidently explain the benefits of joining and answer questions and objections to signing up.
- Employees should know how the customer loyalty program works from the customer/user perspective.
- Employees should know the frequently asked questions about the program (and the answers!).
8. Market Your Customer Loyalty Program
No one will sign up for our loyalty program if they don’t know it exists. So, it is up to you to promote the program to create awareness and make the program look attractive to customers.
As mentioned above, employees play a crucial role in this. They can ask if the customer is a member of the loyalty program immediately at the beginning of an order or when they collect money, which will make every customer aware of your program. In addition, here are some other smart ways to market your customer loyalty program:
- Create a Landing Page: By creating a specific page dedicated to your loyalty program, you have one location to point customers to learn more and sign up. This page can share in-depth information about the program for customers who want more details and also offer simple instructions on how to sign up.
- Email: Tell everyone on your email list about your loyalty program as soon as you launch, so your most loyal customers can join right away. If your loyalty program is in the works, you may even send some teaser emails to get people excited. After the program is up and running, you will still want to send occasional promotional messages about the loyalty program, perhaps even with extra perks for joining now.
- Social Media: By posting about your program on social media, you’ll be able to tell your followers and anyone else who visits your social media page. Like email, you’ll want to send out periodic reminder posts. You can also create a custom profile header that promotes the program. Finally, to reach more potential customers in your local area, consider running a social media ad.
- SMS: If you have collected phone numbers and received permission to text, you can follow the same promotional strategies with text messages to your customers. If you don’t have the option to text your customers yet, it’s time to look into a cloud phone system that will enable you to do so!
- Promotional Messaging: Remember to also promote your customer loyalty program in your business, using signage on the windows, walls, and at the counter, flyers or cards given with each order, or even promotional messaging on your VoIP phone system so customers will hear about your loyalty program while they are on hold.
Creating Your Customer Loyalty Program
A customer loyalty program can bring significant benefits to your pizza business. It can boost sales and revenue, increase customer retention, promote customer engagement, and impact brand affinity and loyalty. By following the steps above, you’ll be able to create a customer loyalty program for your pizzeria that your customers are sure to love!
