Customer Loyalty via card machine

Challenges surrounding customer loyalty have increased as the card payments landscape has become progressively frictionless. Previously companies have relied upon traditional card stamps, barcode receipts and vouchers, apps, and email contacts to entice returning customers. However, these additional layers of contact often result in customers unwilling to reap the potential rewards of loyalty programmes.

When looking to switch card machine hardware and providers hospitality and retail businesses are becoming more aware of the benefits surrounding integrated loyalty software. The systems can offer one off purchase rewards, seasonal options and returning customer points/discounts. For example, the traditional buy six coffees get your seventh one free is commonly used in nationwide coffee shop brands as well as smaller boutiques. This can now be integrated into card machines, creating a streamlined loyalty solution.

Card machine hardware has moved on leaps and bounds from the traditional bulky chip and pin terminals often associated with stereotypical retail till points. Customer loyalty card software works with the likes of PAX devices, Castle Terminals and Verifone. This means that should you wish to implement rewards systems, you’ve got plenty to choose from when it comes to chip and pin machine hardware.

Adding a customer rewards card system to your payments offering has multiple benefits to both customers and your business some of which include;

• Frictionless offers and rewards without the need for a third party
• Branding and logos in line with your company guidelines offered as standard
• Limit hurdles such as third-party apps, and traditional receipts or stamp cards
• Software can be added to existing terminals and merchant accounts with ease
• Manage seasonal campaigns with your own online portal allowing multiple offers and rewards with the click of a button
• Automatically present rewards and offers without the need for staff prompting
• Customers can redeem benefits as soon as they qualify for current deals

Applying to add customer loyalty card software to your payments offering is straight forward. First of all, you need to check that your existing merchant account provider has payment loyalty enabled, not all do, so if you are needing to switch merchant account our team can help. Then you’ll be ready to register online, which takes moments. After that your business can then create campaigns and sync them to your terminals.

Integrated loyalty systems may look fancy – but how do they work? The software works by linking customer payment cards and methods prompting related reward offers at checkout when transaction is authorised. So, let’s take a look at how this is set up;

1. The rewards are then managed by you, the merchant, via an online portal which means that you can generate campaigns that sync directly to your terminal with ease.
2. Once the offer is up and running, customers are asked if they wish to participate in the campaign – they simply opt in and out.
3. The customer will nominate a preferred payment card, it doesn’t matter which method they use (can be contactless, or ApplePay via a phone or watch) every time they pay in that way the linked offers and rewards will appear on the card terminal display.
4. Both the reward and redemption are built into the payment ecosystem meaning that there is no additional paperwork for you or your staff.
5. Access Backoffice data via the portal meaning that you can make informed decisions of which campaigns work well for you and your customers, before creating a new offer.

There are two main kinds of campaign which are ordinarily offered via customer loyalty card apps.

Nominate loyalty – Basically the digital version of card stamps rewarding customers when they make purchases via the registered card. These kinds of rewards tend to work with lower value high volume transactions, commonly used in the following businesses;

Coffee Shops – Bars and Restaurants – Car Washes – Florists – Food-to-go outlets – Dry Cleaning – Hairdressers and beauty – Gyms – Bakeries.

Win loyalty – entice returning customers with the opportunity to win rewards and prizes via a game of chance, delivered via your card terminal. The streamlined offering is used within a wide variety of businesses including;

Spas – Hotels – Restaurants – Pop-up shops and events – High end Retail – Holiday and travel – Boutique shops – Homeware

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