5 Reasons Why Customers Aren't Joining Your Loyalty Program

By Cavan Koh · 17th November, 2024

5 Reasons Why Customers Aren't Joining Your Loyalty Program | EasyStore

Loyalty programs are crucial for customer retention and driving repeat sales. However, if your customers aren't signing up, your program might be missing the mark. 

In fact, studies show that 76% of consumers view loyalty programs as a key part of their relationship with brands, making them essential for building long-term customer loyalty. So, why aren’t your customers signing up? 

Before we delve into it, we first need to differentiate between loyalty program and membership.

Loyalty Program vs Membership: What's the Difference? 

Many people often confuse loyalty programs with membership programs, but understanding the differences is key to choosing the right approach for customer retention.

  • Membership Program: Membership Program require customers to pay an upfront fee or subscription to unlock exclusive benefits. Once paid, anyone can become a member and gain immediate access to perks such as special discounts, early product releases, or exclusive offers.

  • Loyalty Program: Unlike membership program, loyalty programs focus on long-term retention by rewarding customers for continued engagement. Customers earn their "membership" status through repeat purchases or actions, encouraging deeper brand interaction and progression over time. 

Designed to build trust and sustained value, loyalty programs require more effort to create, maintain, and personalize than membership programs.

The Top 5 Reasons Why Customers Aren't Joining Your Loyalty Program

Now, let's explore five common reasons why customers aren't signing up for your loyalty program, along with actionable tips to boost engagement and ensure its success.

1. Customers Don't Even Know About Your Loyalty Program

Getting customers to join your loyalty program starts with ensuring they are aware of it. 

A key challenge for businesses is making sure customers know about your program. Even the best loyalty program won’t be effective if it remains unnoticed. Whether due to lack of promotion or visibility, customers can easily miss out on the benefits.

What You Can Do:

Promote the program effectively using clear calls to action and offer sign-up incentives across key touchpoints like social media and in-store checkout, emphasizing the immediate benefits to spark interest.

  • In-store: Ask customers, "Are you a member?" or display membership details near the checkout counter to grab attention and prompt sign-ups.

  • Online: Implement announcements or pop-ups on your website, ensuring customers see the program's benefits with every visit and are motivated to join.

 

2. Customers Don't Know What They've Earned

A common challenge with loyalty programs is that customers often lose track of their points and rewards. When they’re unsure of what they’ve earned or how close they are to unlocking their next reward, the excitement diminishes, leading to disengagement.

Why It Happens:

  • Inconsistent Updates: Customers aren’t kept informed about their progress, causing them to forget or lose interest.

  • Complex Systems: Difficult-to-navigate platforms make it frustrating for users to track their rewards.

  • Unfocused Messaging: Impersonal or irrelevant communication fails to capture attention and reinforce the value of the program.

What You Can Do:

EasyStore’s Loyalty Program provides real-time updates, allowing customers to track their points and rewards easily. 

Send regular broadcasts about their earned points, update them on exclusive rewards, and offer a dedicated page on your online store for voucher collection and membership details. 

This keeps customers engaged and encourages timely reward redemption. 

3. Customers Feel That It's Spammy 

Loyalty programs are a great way for customers to earn rewards, but poor communication can diminish their effectiveness.

From a customer’s perspective, receiving too many emails can feel overwhelming, while not getting enough updates can also lead to forgetting about the program, both of which result in missed rewards and higher churn.

What You Can Do:

To improve engagement and reduce churn, brands should send personalized loyalty program updates based on customer activity, such as sending appreciation card upon customer's purchase to build the relationship between customers and businesses without flooding customers with spam inboxes. 

4. Not Seeing Enough Saving or Values

Loyalty programs should offer more than just rewards—they should provide meaningful value that keeps customers excited and engaged. 

Sultera’s tier-based program exemplifies this, where customers enjoy greater benefits as they move up the tiers. For example, their highest tier only requires 30 points for a RM 1 discount, while regular customers need 100 points for the same reward. This encourages customers to engage more, enhancing their loyalty and satisfaction.

When rewards are common or hard to claim, customers may feel undervalued, leading to disengagement.

What You Can Do:

Provide rewards that align with customer interests, simplify redemption for a seamless experience, and implement a tier-based system where exclusive perks are unlocked as customers advance, encouraging a deeper engagement of customers with the business. 

5. Over-Traditional Loyalty Program

In today’s digital era, businesses still using traditional loyalty programs, like collecting stamps on physical cards, risk being seen as outdated. 

Customers expect convenience, and digital loyalty programs provide just that—allowing them to collect points via their smartphones anytime they shop. This eliminates the hassle of lost or damaged cards while creating a seamless, modern experience. 

What You Can Do:

By upgrading to digital loyalty programs, businesses can offer customers a convenient way to collect and redeem points through smartphones. 

An omnichannel approach ensures a seamless experience across in-store, online, and mobile platforms. Partnering with a digital provider like EasyStore simplifies setup and offers valuable data insights, where it boosts customer loyalty and business growth.

Loyalty Program That Keeps Customers

Give your customers a reason to keep coming back by offering rewards and exclusive perks they can enjoy anytime, anywhere with EasyStore Loyalty Program.

Whether they’re browsing your online store, shopping in-person, or using your app, EasyStore’s Loyalty Program lets them earn points and unlock benefits effortlessly across all your sales channels.

A unified loyalty experience shows customers how much you care by offering them seamless rewards for their continued support. This program strengthens relationships, increases repeat purchases, and encourages long-term brand loyalty.

And it’s all part of EasyStore’s unified commerce solution, unify customer experience across online and offline operations to deliver the kind of experience that keeps customers coming back for more, every time.

Conclusion 

To build a successful loyalty program, it's essential to address common challenges like poor communication, complicated redemptions, and lack of meaningful rewards. 

By partnering with a unified commerce solution like EasyStore, brands can create a seamless, transparent, and customer-friendly experience that drives engagement and long-term loyalty. 

When customers feel valued and their rewards are easy to access, loyalty programs become a powerful tool for business growth.

EasyStore Unified Commerce Solution

EasyStore is a unified commerce solution that unifies retail and ecommerce business.

Over 50,000 brands have grown their businesses by embracing unified customer experiences (UCX) strategy through EasyStore across multiple sales channels - online store, retail outlets, marketplaces, and social media, ensuring consistency in product and service offerings for a seamless shopping journey.

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