The five steps of the loyalty customer journey are well-known to online brands: awareness, thought, purchase, retention, and support. You can increase your sales if you make your customer journey fit your most interested customers.

This post will talk about the journey of a loyal customer. This will help you figure out who your customers are. Because of this, you can make your customer journey better for those shoppers, which is good for both you and them.

Stage 1: Awareness – Making customers aware of your loyalty program

During the notice stage of the loyalty customer journey, you can make a good first impact on people who might become buyers. Shoppers are just now learning about the program you provide.

Of course, to do this, you need to make sure that enough people see your content through the right means and that it clearly describes your business.

Best practices for creating awareness of your loyalty program

We will recommend some strategic ways to increase brand awareness:

• Prioritise consistency.
• Leveraging brand values and social responsibility for loyalty.

1.1. Prioritise consistency

When it comes to how you show off your business, “consistency” means a lot of different things. But what does continuity mean?

You should ensure your loyalty program branding aligns with your overall brand identity. This means using consistent colors, fonts, and messaging across all channels.

For example, if your brand is known for its modern and minimalist aesthetic, your loyalty program should reflect this style. This consistency will help customers easily identify your program and associate it with the positive qualities of your brand.

1.2. Leveraging brand values and social responsibility for loyalty

A strong brand identity and social responsibility can significantly enhance your loyalty program. When customers align with your brand’s values, they are more likely to become loyal advocates.

That is, having a stand for something pays off.  Adding social responsibility projects to your reward program can help you connect with your customers more deeply and get them more involved. By writing down and supporting your ideals, you can stand out from the crowd. Also, make connections that help spread the word about your brand.

For example, you could give people rewards for being eco-friendly or give some of the money from your membership program to a good cause.

Stage 2: Enrollment – Getting customers to join the loyalty program

Once you’ve laid the groundwork for your loyalty program, the next step is to entice your customers to join.

Here are some strategies to maximize enrollment:

• Make the sign-up process as easy as possible. A streamlined, user-friendly experience can significantly boost enrollment rates.
• Ensure your sign-up form is mobile-friendly. Many customers prefer to sign up on their smartphones.

We recommend reducing the number of steps required to complete the enrollment process. The fewer hoops your customers have to jump through, the more likely they are to sign up.

Incentives to encourage sign-ups

Customers will only join your reward program if you give them strong reasons to do so. You can give these rewards in many forms.

• Welcome bonuses like exclusive rewards or discounts to new members.
• Provide tiered rewards based on spending or engagement levels to incentivize continued participation.
• Exclusive content or access, such as behind-the-scenes footage, early product releases, or personalized recommendations.
• Birthday rewards to foster loyalty and customer appreciation.

Stage 3: Engagement – Encouraging active participation in the program

To make themselves alluring, customer loyalty programs cleverly play on deep psychological truths. At their core, neuroscience says that loyalty programs take advantage of our natural desire for benefits by using the strong effects of dopamine. This chemical is linked to happiness and pleasure.

Dopamine is released in customers’ brains when they get rewards. This makes them feel good and encourages them to keep doing the things that get their rewards. This process uses the brain’s reward system to gently encourage customers to buy more often and stay loyal to the brand. 

Engagement tactics for loyalty programs

There are more than just rewards that you need to use to keep your customers interested and driven:

Gamification elements:

We recommend you set up a tiered system so that customers can earn badges and levels for doing certain things. It is like buying a certain number of items or telling their friends about your business.

In this article, we have instructions on how to set up a tiered loyalty program.

Also, fun challenges and competitions should be organized to encourage participation and friendly rivalry. For instance, you could challenge customers to earn a certain number of points within a specific timeframe.

Personalized reward suggestions:

You can use customer data to identify their preferences. Then, you can offer personalized rewards that align with their interests.

For example, if a customer frequently purchases a particular product, you could offer a discount on a complementary item.

Social media integration:

We recommend you allow customers to share their rewards and achievements on social media. It will increase brand visibility and word-of-mouth marketing.

Also, organize social media contests where customers can compete for exclusive rewards.

Stage 4: Retention – Sustaining long-term engagement with the loyalty program

A lot of brands stop at the engagement stage, forgetting about the people they already have while focusing on new leads. This is a very bad guess about the customer’s journey since many customers keep going on their trips after they’ve converted. 

Brands that keep in touch with customers they’ve already won over can benefit from their trust in many ways. It such as higher sales from return purchases, higher lifetime values, and more leads.

Recommend some customer retention strategies

To be successful in the long run, you need to use tactics that keep customers coming back. Here are some good ways to do it:

• Exclusive member events, such as product launches, workshops, or parties.
• Actively seek feedback from your customers to improve your loyalty program. Use surveys, social media, or in-store feedback forms to gather insights. We have some tips for getting customer reviews for you.
• Send personalized messages to customers, such as birthday greetings, thank-you notes, or tailored product recommendations.
• Community building by creating online forums, social media groups, or in-person events. We have a guide to building a community for small businesses.

Avoiding common retention pitfalls

One common mistake is overcomplicating the reward structure. A complex program with multiple tiers points systems, and expiration dates can confuse customers and discourage participation. Keep your program simple and easy to understand.

Another pitfall is failing to personalize the customer experience. Generic rewards and offers are less likely to resonate with customers. By leveraging data analytics, you can identify individual preferences and tailor your rewards accordingly.

Find more solutions at 10 tips for customer retention on Shopify.

Stage 5: Advocacy – Turning loyal customers into advocates

Once you have a group of loyal customers, you should give them the incentives they need to become brand advocates. You can greatly increase the spread and image of your brand by asking your loyal customers to tell others about their good experiences.

Encouraging advocacy among loyal customers

At this point, you want to get happy customers to spread the word about your brand enthusiastically. Customers have built a strong and good connection with your brand and are eager to share it with their friends, family, and everyone else they know.

Here are a few strategies to foster customer advocacy:

• Create a referral program that pays customers for telling their friends and family about your business. As an encouragement, you could offer savings, special rewards, or gifts to a good cause.
• Encourage customers to share their experiences on social media by offering incentives like points, badges, or exclusive content.
• Encourage customers to create user-generated content, such as reviews, photos, or videos, and share it on social media. We have some tips for getting customer reviews for you.
• Create a special tier for your most loyal customers and offer exclusive perks. It such as personalized experiences, priority customer support, or early access to new products.

Measuring and leveraging advocacy impact

It’s important to keep track of and measure key data to really understand the effects of customer support. By keeping an eye on these measures, you can find tactics that work and make your lobbying efforts even stronger.

Here are some key metrics to track:

• Referral rates. Track the number of new customers acquired through referrals and the associated revenue generated.
• User-generated content. Track the volume and quality of user-generated content, such as reviews, social media posts, and blog comments.
• Social media mentions. Track brand mentions on social media platforms and analyze sentiment to gauge customer satisfaction.
• Net Promoter Score (NPS). Measure customer loyalty and advocacy by asking customers to rate their likelihood of recommending your brand to others.

By looking at these measures, you can find your most important supporters and give them the rewards they deserve. This can help build better ties and keep people advocating.

Conclusion

Awareness, enrollment, engagement, retention, and advocacy are the five steps of your loyalty customer journey. If you understand them, you can create a complete loyalty program with rewards that make customers happy to spread the word.

We suggest that you use the BON Loyalty app if you have a Shopify shop and want to make a successful reward program. This Shopify loyalty app has many features and tools that can help you get new customers, keep old ones, and keep them coming back.