A Wren Says

There are multiple reasons why you might want to start a loyalty program for your business. Often times the reason is to encourage shoppers up the consumption escalator. If you can get them to be more loyal to your brand, they will buy more products. On the other hand, the reason why many have started loyalty programs is as a way to capture customer data. Getting an idea of shopping behaviors, spending habits, and bit of demographic data can be useful when it comes to making business decisions. The question then comes, “How do you get customers to join? Well, the one thing you want to avoid is forcing them to join.

In response to my experience at Ulta, where it appeared that the cashiers were essentially trying to force membership, I went about looking in to best practices that should be used. One of them is that you shouldn’t force it. You should entice people to participate, not trap them. The way you introduce the customer to the loyalty program is an extension of their customer service experience. If there is an experience of coercion at the register, that will reflect poorly on the overall shopping experience. Remember, this is a loyalty program. You want repeat purchases, which means you want them to come back. And following down the line, you want them to have a good experience and a good opinion of you. Find ways to introduce and enact your loyalty program in a way that elevates your overall offering.

There is a second thing you should be aware of. Some cashers take customers information without explicitly telling them that it’s being used to enter them into the program. They start the cash interaction by asking for the phone number or email address and an account is created. The employee is just trying to hit the numbers they were told to hit for sign-ups per day. But truthfully, that is unethical and could violates consumer data protection laws. The customer should have the option to choose whether or not they a want to share their data with you, and they should know how you plan to use it. If you do not cover that information (i.e. invite them to sign up vs sign them up immediately), you’re putting yourself in some murky waters.

Remember, loyalty should be earned, not forced.