Wouldn't it be nice to have a simple rule in creating a loyalty program? Yes, it would. But this simple rule will certainly be invalid because every business is different. Size, culture, industry, budget, location are some of the main factors that differentiate businesses. For example, fuel discounts for Coles and Woolworths customers would be more attractive than getting frequent flyer points alone. This is because we need to fill our cars up every week. Hence, we are motivated to shop at the supermarket weekly to get fuel discounts. Clearly, there are several things you need to consider when designing and implementing your loyalty program:

• Your target market
• The loyalty program's objectives
• Make it attractive
• Keep it easy to understand
• Easy to join
• Promote it

Firstly, you need to understand your target market or the groups of customers who shop from you the most. This is vital in all businesses. It allows you to list out incentives that you can provide and your customers can appreciate.

The second point is about defining the objectives for the loyalty program. How much will you give away to attract how many customers and to increase what percentage of sales? An example could be to increase sales by 10% every year after having the loyalty program. You can have a couple of objectives to start with, then you can add or fine-tune them later. Having clear objectives will allow you to evaluate the effectiveness of the loyalty program and make adjustments to improve it. Knowing what you are aiming for also makes it easy to design a program that works.

Your business will benefit a lot from a well-designed loyalty program. It encourages sales and allows you to understand your customers' motivation and behaviour. So make the rewards attractive. Give your customers what they want. It's easy when most people come to you for coffee - you can just give them a free one after several purchases. But giving out planting seeds to all Bunning's loyal customers will not work because Bunnings sell so many products and people shop there for different things each time. This is why big businesses like Bunnings and Myer give out gift vouchers so customers can pick what to redeem their hard-earned points on.

The loyalty program should be simple for customers to understand. If they don't, they will not participate. You could have one reward level applied to everyone or have multiple reward levels for different groups of customers with different spending amount. For example, you can give more rewards to customers who spend over $1000 at your store in one year. The key point here is to keep the structure of the program simple to understand.

Stamp cards are the most convenient way for customers to join. The downside is you can't really track and understand your customers' purchasing behaviour and evaluate the effectiveness of the program. If you have a form for people to fill, make it simple, relevant, along with instructions and information about the rewards offering. MazeCard makes it so easy for customers to join, either through their smartphones or online.

Lastly, the loyalty program cannot give your business any benefits if no one knows about it. You need to promote it - same as any other products or services you are offering. So make sure information about your loyalty program is current, readily available and visible in the shop  online. Talk to your customers. Ask if they already are or want to become a member. Make your customers fully aware of the rewards so they will want to get on board.

There are many marketing firms that can help you design a loyalty program for your business. I hope this article gives you a few things to think of before implementing one.

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