Loyalty participation is reaching new highs across the small- to large-business landscapes—and small business owners need to build a competitive advantage to make sure their loyalty programs are successful. Signing customers up as soon as your program is up and running and keeping those signups high are essential steps to grow a plentiful pool of contacts to reach out to with your marketing activities.These contacts turn into returning customers—which means your business keeps growing.

Equally important: knowing how many of your customers are returning, and what’s inspiring the repeat visits. It can be hard to keep track of these essential numbers, and many business owners miss out on these important numbers, to find out what’s working and what still needs work. Fivestars gives you those tools. Therefore, it is critical to your marketing program’s success to sign up as many customers as possible in the first few months. Getting these signups will give you a real audit of your customers’ visit frequency. The more customers you sign up and check in regularly, the better idea you’ll have of how to tailor your loyalty and marketing programs. As a result, this information will allow you to target and message your list for the best return on investment.

It all starts with sign ups.

To fast track your sign ups:

• Train every employee on how to sign up customers. Have them watch our video tutorial. Tell them about the rewards/promotions you are offering and get them involved by having them suggest a few ideas to implement. Like anything new, it takes time to acclimate; both staff and customers are going to have to be reminded to check in at first. The more value your staff sees in your loyalty program, the easier it becomes for them to promote it to your customers. Make sure to keep your employees involved.

• Set a personal goal for each staff member and an overall goal for the business each month. These goals help ensure your team will get into the habit of using the program. Make the goals part of your review process with your staff so that they know how important these are to the business.

• Highlight the superstars by checking your dashboard on which days are slow and which days have great sign ups. Leverage the most successful employees to work with those that are struggling because peer-to-peer interactions are often the best way to promote good habits.

Above all, we’re always here to help. If you need some one-on-one guidance, please don’t hesitate to contact Fivestars support.