The slew of businesses that offer the same brands that you offer means that customers have the ability to use whichever delivery service is most convenient. So how do you keep a customer coming back? Using a simple to understand and realistic rewards program that puts the value of your customer’s time at the forefront of their experience!

Staying ahead of the competition is a difficult task in an arena with limited marketshare. Hands down, the driving force to a rewards program is customer satisfaction. Happy customers are sure to tell their friends about a great experience and those friends more times than not, will soon find their way to your businesses. This word-of-mouth marketing is incredibly valuable to your business and should be a target that is aimed for with each interaction.

Reward programs keep the attention on your business as a source of reliable product while giving incentives for customers to return, resulting in a heightened sense of loyalty. Customers buy into a brand or business because of the emotional connection they feel with a given group of personnel and the uniform experience that is provided. This bond, when paired with a seamless experience and customer rewards program maintains your position as a top source for cannabis products.

Related: 7 Questions to Ask When Purchasing Software for Your Cannabis Delivery Service

Explore the endless benefits of starting a digital points reward system that can be banked by the customer to save up for something of a higher value. Looking to offer tiered rewards? Try a system that can be purchased with various perks at or awards from the start. Looking for exclusivity or a way to engage the customer on a more personal level? Use patient appreciation days or “members only” rewards program that invites your customers to high-end, exclusive events that give value by way of promoting brand interaction with guests and the opportunity to network.

Rewards programs work so long as your customer feels like they are receiving equal value in return for the monetary value they bring to your business.

Providing realistic and tangible rewards in order to promote a sense of urgency makes loyalty systems pay for themselves. Think of how useless it would be to create a rewards program with unrealistic expectations and ROI for your customer. Organizing a reward program that is effective comes down to providing value to your customers, loyalty to your delivery service, and bringing in new consumers.

Related: Customer Service Best Practices for Your Dispensary

A single enjoyable customer experience has the ability to bring in revenue based on word-of-mouth and posting on social media. This plays right into offering an incentive that keeps customers returning to your cannabis business.

Brands that use social media in an effective way that listens to their audience are highly successful. Oftentimes providing fans on Instagram with t-shirts, stickers, hats, and useful branded “swag” allows for your brand to be worn anywhere around the world. The outreach possibilities through social media are limitless!

Word of mouth marketing is an effective tactic and with the ability to post pictures, videos, and reviews on an international platform, customers know what value this has. Loyal customers that refer friends on social media, take word of mouth marketing into their own hands & accesses a much larger audience.

Related: The Do’s and Dont’s of Cannabis Loyalty Programs by Sonia Luna

Ultimately, the type of reward system that you establish will be based on more than just a single factor. One of the most important factors is whether or not the program you implement provides reciprocal value between your customers and delivery service. If customers don’t see value in your program, they simply wont use it! Customer satisfaction goes hand-in-hand with value being offered so give your customers something they can’t resist by implementing the following programs!

1. Points Rewards Build on Your Customer’s Loyalty

One of the most common ways of retaining customers and creating loyalty to your delivery service is to offer a points system for purchases made. Like with anything else, there’s a right and a wrong way to implementing this rewards system.

Do:

-Stay compliant and remember laws on giveaways for cannabis goods.

-Make points simple and easy to understand ie. $1 spent = 1 point earned.

-Include swag and branded material as part of available rewards for marketing purposes.

-Update customers on their status with a text message each time they make a purchase.

Don’t:

-Forget to report to METRC.

-Create unrealistic, intangible goals for rewards.

-Change the terms of redeeming points without notifying your customers.

-Allow your customer’s points to go unredeemed!

Points systems rely on a sense of anticipation that is created for the next time a customer purchases product from your delivery service. Give them a subtle reason to continue to use your service over a competitor by offering an effective points rewards system.

2. Tiered Rewards Aim at Variable Offerings

Loyalty rewards programs are grounded in the ability to create a balance of desired product and realistic attainment of the rewards offered. By offering benefits at the early stages of the program, tiered rewards systems depend on the initial “hook” that sets up your customer to return time and time again.

In the cannabis industry, this could mean a product at a discounted amount or an add-on to the purchase order at a reduced fee. A delivery service might be able to offer a tiered rewards system that guarantees product delivery within 30 minutes of ordering, an express method of ordering, or even a unique experience that makes their investment worth more at the start.

This methodology of rewards offered to customers helps provide an initial incentive that is retained as the customer continues to use your delivery service over a competitor.

3. “Members Only Rewards”

As humans, it’s in our nature to gravitate towards things that make us feel good. Rewards make us feel good and so does exclusive membership to businesses that promote a certain degree of stature.

“Members only” rewards programs give you the ability to offer perks such as sneak peeks into new facilities, invites to brand parties and networking events, and perhaps an inside look at the newest developments of your delivery service. Weekend barbecues for members, patient appreciation days, and discounts on brands that you have partnerships with are all ways that “members only” discounts might be effective in generating revenue for your delivery service.