After all, a loyal customer buys more and spends more. In the arts, culture and entertainment world it is the difference between repeat, long standing customers and those that come only once or twice every 5 years. But maybe we should step back a moment, and look at why a customer comes to a venue or festival often, and why they might not.
Let's use a case in point: me. Like a lot of people in the industry - I love going to the theatre. But I don’t go as often as I would like. Sometimes it is just a matter of time (I haven't got any to spare), sometimes it is money (tickets for certain shows can be very expensive - this even before factoring in babysitters, a meal (or not) and a few drinks (of course) and transport or parking. Even if I can get a perfect storm of a free night, free babysitting (thank you family!), and reasonably priced tickets - sometimes I just don’t really fancy that particular show - or my wife doesn't. So with all that going against "let's go to the theatre," how can venues tempt me to visit them time and time again. How would you entice customers into your venues repeatedly?
Loyalty programmes or loyalty schemes are a great way to do just that. While there is no right or wrong way to set up a loyalty programme for your customers, first let's take a look at Carmarthenshire Theatre's loyalty programme, and then we will look at some other ways to grow your loyalty schemes as you progress.
Carmarthenshire Theatres
Carmarthenshire Theatre manages three venues in South Wales. One of their venues is the Ffwrnes, a £15 million state of the art arts centre in the heart of Llanelli which opened around 4 years ago. For the last 5 years, Carmarthenshire have been running a loyalty card scheme for their customers.
Why a Loyalty Scheme?
While there are many ways to encourage customers to attend more often, pinpointing exactly what your customer base is interested in is what works best. Carmarthenshire found that loyalty schemes were exactly what their patron base was interested in. The loyalty scheme will only benefit loyal (i.e., frequent) customers, so if customers sign up to the scheme and only attend once a year, they won’t get much value. Customers who attend five, six, seven times a year will be the ones that reap the benefits.
How the Scheme Works at Carmarthenshire
The aim of the loyalty scheme is to encourage their customers to come back over and over again. Customers must first sign up for the programme, which is free. Then they earn points for every pound they spend. Free sign up is key to encourage people to join. Unless you offer serious VIP level offerings charging for memberships will likely be a turn off for customers. As a general rule, Carmarthenshire set their standard reward rate for the scheme at 5% of the ticket value. So if a customer spends £10, they will get £0.50 back on their account.
Ticketsolve Does the Hard Work For You
The loyalty scheme runs directly through Ticketsolve, so there is no extra admin costs or extra work. Ticketsolve recognises that the customer is a member of the scheme and automatically adds the required points onto their account. Once the customer has enough points, they can use them to claim a free ticket. Ticketsolve also allows Carmarthenshire to change their reward rate per show or event, so that they can quickly give double or even triple points for certain shows or genres.
The Results: 3,172 Customers Signed Up to Carmarthenshire's Programme
Since the loyalty card scheme began around 5 years ago 3,172 members have signed up to the programme. Looking at the data just from Carmarthenshire’s 2014/15 financial year:
- 1714 loyalty card members joined
- The top customer visited 43 times
- 63 (4%) visited 10 times or more
- 277 (16%) visited 5 times or more
- Members saw 267 shows and attended 437 events
The Proof is In the Signups
Getting 16% of you membership to attend more than 5 times a year is an excellent result. Carmarthenshire are already looking at new ways to encourage loyalty card members to attend even more often. Ticketsolve's membership module makes things easier by:
- Segmenting members into different groups depending on the amount of times they visit.
- Creating targeted emails using our Mailchimp integration.
- Targeting members on social media platforms using custom audiences.
- Increasing reward rates to encourage art form crossover and increase audiences in experimental theatre pieces.
What else should you know about loyalty programmes?
- To get started, a basic points system is best. Rather than complicate things with various rewards, tiers or levels, start with basic points, and see how your customer base responds. You can build your program from there.
- When you think about a tiered system, try an early reward to encourage people into premium memberships. If you have sluggish sign ups try a reward for signing up, i.e., complimentary drink with your sign up and first ticket.
- As you build your program over time you may want to consider a partner for your loyalty program. Think of a partner that your customers would appreciate, a local restaurant, parking etc.
- Consider non-monetary awards - but not right away. Customers are going to be motivated primarily through earning points, especially if you have just started your scheme. Overtime, as your programme gains momentum, you can add in non-monetary rewards at certain tiers for certain actions.
- Don't forget to check out some basic dos and don'ts for loyalty programmes from other companies.
- Measure your results! Three things you can measure here: number of sign ups, customer retention, frequency of purchase, NPS (net promoter score - would they recommend you to a friend).
Customer loyalty programmes don't cost a fortune, so it is certainly worth testing it with your customer base. If you would like to know more about how Ticketsolve's loyalty functionality works, please get in touch, and we can take you step by step. We will be taking an even closer look into Carmarthenshire’s loyalty scheme in our next case study, so be on the look out!
