How QR Codes Can Enhance Customer Loyalty Programs

Customer loyalty programs are so important in today’s retail environment. They benefit both the customer and the retailer by providing the user with discounts and freebies and the retailer with increased sales. QR codes for loyalty programs are an effective tool to both increase signup rates and retail engagement.

Customer loyalty programs start with answering the question: what’s in it for the customer. Answering that question will determine what incentive programs you create and how you’ll market them to your customers. Some of the most popular loyalty programs are:

• Points towards discounts or free product rewards
• Gamification, exciting games and competitions, where members compete for special prizes.
• Free trials
• Multiple product discounts and freebies
• Seasonal discounts

Make sure that the program you create for your customer has a real “value” for your customer, and make sure you quantify that value. For example, if you’re giving away a free sample, ensure that they know the original value of that sample so that they feel like they are receiving something substantial. If you’re using points, make sure that you’re giving your points a dollar value so that they have an idea of what their points actually equate to. This helps increase engagement and lends weight and credibility to your program.

Retail companies often use seasonal discounts, to help increase sales. But what if you gave your loyalty plan customers an early discount time period so they’re not competing with the general public!

Restaurants often give people loyalty punch cards for how many times they’ve ordered a specific item. How cool would it be if being a loyalty member gave them early access or a discount to new food items, or a secret menu!

Wellness industries like fitness clubs already have memberships, but what if you were able to track how often they come by scanning their QR Code membership and then give them discounts based on how often they workout? This would work exceptionally well for independent wellness providers, such as yoga instructors, outdoor sports and fitness activities. It also helps you keep a quick track of attendance! The bonus for the customer is its increased motivation to show up!

Once you’ve planned out and created the loyalty program for your customer, you’ll need to figure out how to roll the program out and get your customers buy-in. One of the most important strategies is to ensure you’re giving your customers multiple opportunities to enroll in your loyalty program. This can involve anything from a verbal prompt from your in-store associate, to digital or print materials.

This is where QR Codes are going to help increase your loyalty program signup rate significantly! QR Codes for loyalty programs will give your customers quick and simple access to signup, across multiple advertising mediums.

Your QR Code linked to your loyalty program signup page can be used on all of your marketing materials. Some ideas are:

Printed Materials

• Product price tags
• Customer receipts and invoices
• In-package materials, such as thankyou cards, instructions, etc.
• Print advertisements and signage
• Stickers and signage around your cash register

Digital Media

• TV streaming ads
• Email messaging
• Digital ad boards
• Online ads
• In-store or trade show kiosks

Make sure all communications that showcase the loyalty QR Code, have clearly expressed the benefits of signup. For example “Scan and sign up to our loyalty program to receive 25% off your first order!” or “Scan the QR Code to start tracking your reward points”

QR Codes relieve the consumer from the burden of typing in a URL, and in our mobile world, it leverages the mobile convenience and captures users at the point of interest. With just a quick scan, they’re taken to the signup, website login, or app to check their points or discounts. This makes any interaction with the loyalty program much faster.

QR Hive can also give you advanced information about the success of your program. With QR Hive’s tracking, you can see how many people scan the code, vs how many signups you have received. This is an integral part of ensuring that you’ve targeted the right type of incentive. If you found that QR Hive shows multiple scans in-store but only 10% of those scans result in a signup, it’s very likely that your program incentive isn’t quite right.

Whatever your loyalty program and how it functions, QR Codes provide quick access to all kinds of information for your customers and streamline your loyalty program processes. QR Hive provides you with a wealth of information that you can use to calculate how successful your loyalty program is.