Fidelity programs increase average ticket in pharmacies

Directly linked to customer fidelity, the search for more importance in the market of pharmacies has become a major concern of many entrepreneurs in the field. After all, in order to conquer the pocket and – why not? – the friendliness of the people, the game rule is to know your customers and, more importantly, the needs that lead them to your store.

Thinking this way, the US pharmacy network Rite Aid developed Wellness+, a fidelity program only for the franchise stores. Already in operation, the business intelligence team was able to notice a significant number of diabetic customers. And from there, he worked to create a proposal that is even more specific and focused on this audience, with content targeting the disease, integrated communications – including videos, visual and mobile merchandising – and exclusive promotions. For every 50 dollars spent in the category of diabetes, the customer earned 10 dollars discount in categories such as personal care, which ultimately stimulates an increase in the average ticket.

In an interview with the World Marketing portal, Craig Riner, Vice-President of Marketing for Rite Aid, said that, currently, Wellness+ helps guide the stock market, delivering solutions and reinforcing the importance of the network to customers. He pointed out that the entire project is based on the use of digital media. “Create digital habits to deliver content, convenience, be interactive and relevant”, advises the company executive with 4,700 stores in the United States.

Bombarded every day by a huge amount of information and stimuli, the challenge to make the customer come back is paramount. First, because those who always purchase are usually more profitable customers than those who have just arrived. Second, because when satisfied with a product or service, the customer will likely recommend it to others.

In this scenario, fidelity programs are being consecrated as a great strategy of consolidation and increased marketing share. It is the conclusion of a study released by marketing experts of LoyaltyOne and Epsilon International last year. According to the survey, approximately 27% of Brazilians that are part of a reward system feel motivated to buy more often from the same company.

But how to know where to start creating something of the kind that actually works? To answer this question, we list some tips that may be valuable in planning similar actions to your pharmacies network! See below:

# Understand why the customer is not returning

Why are customers returning infrequently? The cause for this can be crucial to leverage your sales.

# Decide the kind of reward

Many times, the quality of products is not enough argument to convince customers to return. According to a research by LoyaltyOne and Epsilon, almost 40% of Brazilians expect that the premiums and discounts of fidelity programs are goods and services that they could only buy with a lot of effort – something close to what, for them, has the weight of the realization of a dream.

# Choose the premiums

When customers say they want to win something very special as a premium, it does not mean that the reward cannot be what the company already sells.

# Set the regulation

Magnetic cards are one of the most effective ways to control how many points each customer has gathered and whether they can now be exchanged for a premium or discount.

# Determine how much each point is worth

What is the right way to lay down the value of each point? This factor depends a lot on the investment funds applied in a fidelity program. But remember that the points may not be so “cheap” so that the customer takes too long to swap them and thus lose interest.

# Assess whether the program is working

To find out if the program is working, you need to do the obvious – monitor the sales growth. Factors such as price and quality in the competition must be included in the analysis.

After conquering the relevance and fidelity, the next step is to measure the customer’s engagement through metrics and encourage them to share their experience. Linx can help in this. See how we can improve the management of your point of sales!