Six benefits of loyalty card schemes for builders' merchants

How many loyalty cards do you have in your wallet? If you're anything like us, you'll have several! Loyalty card schemes hold many positives for customers. The chance to gain exclusive promotions or build points towards a discount, all for free, seems too good to be true – but businesses certainly gain from the arrangement, too.

In today's article, we explore the benefits of implementing loyalty card schemes at your builders' merchant business. If you're a Trader customer, the Trade Card module can help you build loyalty schemes quickly and easily – and there are plenty of ways you can find a return on your investment.

#1 Improve security

By linking Trade Cards to specific trade accounts, you can ensure that no unauthorised purchases are made during visits to your store. From your records at the point of sale, you'll be able to see whether customers should have their own cards, and reject imposters who try to make purchases without one. Trade Cards speed up any identification and anti-fraud processes that you use at the point of sale. Businesses can also easily cancel the Trade Cards of former employees to avoid fraud.

#2 Encourage new custom

Often, loyalty cards come with the promise of discounts, points or early access to sales. By issuing loyalty cards with a generous discount attached to the first transaction with the card, you can encourage new and repeat sales. Although some new customers will only sign up to the card to take advantage of the initial discount, many more will return to make the most of any future reward opportunities.

#3 Track customer spending habits

Each time a customer completes a transaction with a Trade Card, a record will automatically be stored in your database. Over time, you'll build comprehensive records of your customers' spending habits. Such data can be extremely valuable for marketing and sales purposes, helping you with segmentation, targeting, and personalised promotions and recommendations.

Data is only useful if you can convert it into information – so decide which metrics are important to you, and track those instead of getting lost in endless data.

#4 Gain contact information

When a customer signs up to your loyalty card scheme, use this as an opportunity to gather their contact details. You should collect an email address and/or phone number for verification purposes – but, by law, you must notify customers if you'd like to use their information to send them marketing emails.  Phrase this request by reinforcing the benefits of it: customers will learn about new deals and discounts before anyone else.

#5 Improve speed and accuracy at the point of sale

Instead of having to trawl through your database every time a trade customer wants to buy something, a swipe or scan of a Trade Card immediately takes you to the right record, and ensures that everything is charged to the correct account. Loyalty cards can significantly speed up the point-of-sale process and reduce human error.

#6 Promotional items

Finally, loyalty cards can be branded with your company logo and contact information, acting as free adverts for your business.

Loyalty card schemes are adaptable and effective methods for increasing custom in the short term, and the long term. By offering your customers Trade Cards, you give them another reason to visit your store, rather than anyone else's.

Trader customers can activate the Trade Card module today to get started with their own loyalty schemes. Contact your account manager to learn more.