Retailers
Loyalty has value to your business
As more farm shops open, it is important for the owners to retain their current customers and to attract more customers from the people who are realising the value of buying farm fresh foods locally, and changing their shopping habits.
Loyalty has value to small-scale retailers yet many shop owners spend so much time and energy attracting new customers and pay little attention to retaining their existing customers who are demonstrating their loyalty but are unrecognised for it!
Building a customer database is sound business. Loyalty is a two-way-street based on allegiance and customer service to build relationships. It is relationships that are the foundation of real loyalty.
This loyalty programme for farm fresh foods provides a different level of loyalty to those that operate on an impersonal, national scale. Because it's local, it's personal, individual and provides a basis for relationships that bring tangible value to both the shop owner and the customer.
Benefits
The benefits of the Triple f Loyalty programme for shop owners are that there is no capital outlay as the programme is accessed on the Internet. It also provides a means to get to know customers by their name. The database can be used for mailings such as special or seasonal offers, shop Open Day or a seasonal Food Fair, newsletters and, of course, the customer loyalty bonus letters. The programme also generates a variety of useful management reports.
Tailoring the Farm Fresh Foods Loyalty programme to suit your shop
The programme allows each shop owner to set their own threshold sum - that is the level of business before bonus calculations begin - on weekly shopping. It is flexible so the sum can be changed by the shop owner at any time. This ensures that there is 'base turnover' to cover fixed overheads before the loyalty bonus is calculated.
The frequency of bonus payments is also flexible, although most shops find that once every three months works well. This ensures that there is a levelling over peak months, such as December with Christmas trading and January which is generally a quiet month. It also means that administration is not onerous!
Recording trading data is simple. If you can have a screen and keyboard next to your till each member's shopping amount can be entered straight on to the programme. If this is not possible then the members shopping amount is recorded and entered into the programme at convenient times.
Trends and practices
In the months when bonus certificates are exchanged for goods, there is a clear trend for turnover to increase indicating that customers spend more than their bonus amounts. There is also an increase in new members of the loyalty programme during these months with indicates that current loyal customers are spreading the word and telling others about the farm fresh foods loyalty programme at their local farm shop. In brief "What is given freely comes back three-fold!"
Shop owner quotes
"We find that the Farm Fresh
Foods loyalty programme is a useful tool that provides us with an analysis of our customer base which helps target our advertising.
It also encourages customers to shop with us."
D Palmer, Bower Hinton Farm Shop, Somerset
"The Triple f Loyalty programme helps us identify individual customers who at one extreme come
in once a month to spend a large amount to those who may come in several times a week to spend small amounts. It is also possible
to identify members who have not spent anything for a while. It is by putting these patterns together that one can then consider
action for marketing."
G Reece-Smith, Sue's Pantry,
Somerset
"The best feature of the Triple f Loyalty programme is that we have an up to date database of
all our customers which we use for direct mail for our farm shop open days. We also appreciate information about shopping patterns
from the loyalty programme reports"
R Jones, Smeaton Farm, Cornwall
What does the Triple f Loyalty programme cost?
Annual subscription to use the farm fresh foods programme is based on just over 80p per day - £299 for the year (no VAT) - which includes operational support for the first month of use; ongoing programme support and programme upgrades.
There is an initial registration fee of £60 which will give you your own password for secure access to the programme and includes the supply of tailored master copies of the Triple f stationery.
The cost of the tailored printed promotion cards is dependent upon requirements.
Click here to see the Annual Agreement that underpins this subscription.
Reports & Stationery
Click here for information on the reports and stationery available as part of the programme.