How To Use Incentives For Engaged Customers? 12 Tips

leadership philosophy examples

With so many companies treating customers like numbers on a list, there is a real chance to stand out with a strategic approach to sales incentives. Being rewarded for taking action is the best thing there is, after all.

We can use digital rewards to not only keep customers satisfied and increase our renewal rate but also to motivate them to spread the word about us. Our efforts to generate leads are ultimately aided by this. You can use incentives to get customers to stay engaged by reading this article.

What Is An Sales Incentive?

An incentive for sales is merely a gift or expression of gratitude you give to a client after they take some action. Filling out a feedback form is an example of constructive action. Reporting a service issue is an example of constructive action. With the help of the sales incentive, you can get to know your customers and win their loyalty over time.

Sales incentives work well because people enjoy receiving rewards for their efforts. A customer can be thanked and encouraged to keep engaging with your brand through even the smallest actions, such as leaving a review, reporting a bug, or sharing a competition online.

When used properly, sales incentives can also aid in boosting your company’s revenue, customer loyalty, and brand recognition.

When Should These Customer Engagement Sales Incentives Be Used?

Customer incentive programs are frequently misunderstood as merely being used to promote sales or reward loyal customers. There is much more to it, though, including a ton of fantastic ways to use these incentives to express gratitude to, inspire, engage, and reward your clients.

Consider the various interactions your customers have with you when developing your sales incentive strategy. Consider which of these interactions you can reward your customers for. Then, look for rewards that fit their unique objectives, preferences, and interests. When you combine these, you have a successful incentive strategy.

How To Use Incentives For Engaged Customers?

incentives for engaged customers

Give Customers Some Discounts

By offering a lower price, discounts encourage customers to buy. Although they are very motivating, especially if they are widely and frequently available, they can frequently be seen as devaluing a brand or product. Discounts, when used sparingly, can be a potent tool for boosting customer value.

Encourage Customers To Attend A Sales Meeting

It can be difficult to get your clients to attend a sales meeting. They may be speaking to several potential suppliers at once and juggling many priorities. Giving them a sales incentive can increase the likelihood that they’ll attend your meeting or listen to your pitch.

Not every incentive will be effective in this case. A loyalty program is unlikely to persuade someone to spend time on a sales call with you, but a tempting discount or an added bonus might help sweeten the deal.

Apologize For An Error Or Interruption To The Service

When things don’t go according to plan, a customer may become displeased, angry, or disappointed with your product, service, or support. It won’t take much of an incentive to mend that important customer relationship.

Free goods, services, and gifts are popular ways to mend fences with customers. They will have a better customer experience than they anticipated if you provide them with something of value to them that is personalized to their situation, if at all possible.

Send A Personalized Free Gift

Free stuff is a big deal, as everyone knows. Customers are sure to appreciate a little something extra, whether you send them some branded swag or an accessory for their most recent purchase.

Giving away free gifts, however, without taking into account your customers’ preferences or the context of their shopping experience, represents a missed opportunity for engaging with your customers fully.

Knowing your audience and selecting gifts appropriately is key. Any way you can, personalize the gift to make the recipient feel truly special. Depending on their product preferences, you might want to divide your customer base into different groups and send each group unique gifts.

Alternatively, consider including a personalized note of thanks with the freebie. Customers will value personalized attention, which will increase their motivation to participate in your program.

Spice Up Product Discounts With Creative Currency

By offering a lower price, discounts encourage customers to buy. Despite the fact that they are very motivating, especially if they are widely and frequently accessible, they can frequently be seen as devaluing a brand or product. Discounts, when used sparingly, can be a potent tool for boosting customer value.

Launch A Vip Program To Reward Your Most Loyal Customers

Traditional point programs can be upgraded to a whole new level with VIP rewards programs—literally! Your customers can advance to higher levels with VIP tiers by making purchases, accruing more points, or other actions that will grant them access to more perks.

Make Free Shipping The Standard

Shipping costs are the main reason for lost customers at the checkout in 2017, as evidenced by Statista’s finding that 54% of consumers will abandon their shopping carts if they are too expensive. Free shipping is rapidly evolving into not only the desired perk but also an expectation in a time when more and more customers are using the internet to conduct their business.

Free shipping is now one of the most crucial perks to provide customers, especially in light of the fact that major rivals like Walmart and Amazon offer it on the majority of their orders.

Free shipping can be used in a variety of ways to encourage customer engagement with your rewards program because it is such a highly desired perk. Make free shipping a benefit available only to members, if you can afford the expense, to entice more customers to sign up for your program.

incentives for engaged customers

Offer it to members who spend over a certain amount if this kind of perk is too expensive for you to afford right now.

Express Gratitude For Completing A Task

It’s not always necessary for sales incentives to influence a customer to make a purchase. They can occasionally be used to thank clients for a previous action, such as sharing your content on social media or writing a review.

Offering points-based VIP rewards is a fantastic way to express your appreciation to your clients. Gamify their experience to make it more enjoyable and allow them to accumulate points through a variety of actions and then exchange those points for rewards.

Reward Customer Loyalty

Particularly if you run a retailer or SaaS business, customers can be fickle and easily seduced by rivals. Despite having many options, they continue to do business with you for a variety of reasons. With a motivational factor or reward, let’s celebrate that.

Create a customer loyalty program with perks they’re interested in or can pick out for themselves. You can use incentives like stacking discounts, free gifts with purchases, and exclusive access to new goods and services as rewards.

Use A Bonus Points Event To Combat Seasonal Dips

Most e-commerce retailers are scrambling to get organized in order to make a killing this holiday season as the Christmas rush is right around the corner. Although it’s the most wonderful time of the year for both customers and merchants, what should we do when the new year arrives and consumer spending (and, consequently, program engagement) slows?

Bonus point events are one way to combat the decline in customer engagement following the holidays. If you’re wondering what a bonus points event is, it’s exactly what it sounds like: it’s a time period or event where customers can either earn more points for their purchases or maximize the value of the points they already have.

Encourage More Brand Advocates With A Referral Program

Although a referral program is frequently considered a growth tool, it can actually do wonders for the level of customer engagement in your store. The beauty of referral programs is that they encourage consumers to engage with your brand in two very distinct ways: as a customer and as an advocate.

The fact that referrals are made by a reliable source gives them their true power. You probably know the person who sent you a referral link, whether they are a close friend, coworker, or family member, and you value their opinion of a brand as a result. Social proof is a psychological concept that states people are more likely to carry out an action if they believe others have already done it or will do it in the future.

It is clear that this kind of reward benefits greatly from social proof. You will undoubtedly place more value on a recommendation from a friend than one from a complete stranger if the friend is someone you respect.

Thank Them For Reporting Bugs Or Issues

Nothing consistently operates flawlessly. There are probably bugs somewhere if you provide tools or software as a service. By providing rewards to users who report bugs, problems, or errors, you can persuade your customers to aid in your search for them.

Offering a discount or a free month is a great way to say “thank you” to someone for reporting the error because bugs and issues can cost you money.

Conclusions

Although they are effective, sales incentives can be challenging to manage, particularly if you are unsure of what the reward should be. As I hope this list demonstrates, it’s not impossible to get your customers involved in your rewards program, but it does require some strategic planning.