Article  Incentive Programs: A Great Way to Keep Customers Buying With today’s economy in the shape that it is, people aren’t spending as much money as they have in previous years.  And when potential consumers do open their pocketbooks, they are being choosier about where they spend their hard earned money. With companies competing for a piece of a smaller pie, it’s important to give potential customers reasons to buy from your company and also to keep them coming back for more.  By offering incentive programs, you can give your business the competitive edge that is needed in today’s marketplace. Incentive programs are a great way to entice buyers to shop at your place of business, spending their money on your products.  When customers can gather points for shopping at a certain store they feel they are getting a little extra bang for their buck.  Offering points to redeem online after a certain dollar threshold is met is an incentive program that will keep customers loyal to your company and coming back for more. The most popular and common type of incentive program is a rewards system.  With a rewards system, customers earn, or are “rewarded” points every time they make a purchase in your store.  After they have collected so many rewards, they can then trade them in for products or gift certificates that are offered in an online 'catalogue' that they can browse through at their convenience, and order too. Customer rewards program options are very popular. With this kind of incentive program, the customer quite often feels like they are getting something for free when they cash in their points and order something through your company.   Including not only items that require a lot of points, but also things that can be ordered for a lower number of points will keep customers coming back.  Some will have their eye on a big ticket item and want to gather enough points to get it while others will be more into instant gratification, wanting to cash in their points as soon as possible. One of the other incentive programs that is quite popular and offers instant gratification is a store or company discount card.  By purchasing a discount card from your business, frequent shoppers can receive an instant discount whenever they purchase something in your store.  There are usually also sales and other benefits from having a company discount card such as free offers and special discounts. These types may keep your customers coming back for a little while, but often rewards programs are more successful. You can also keep things local by looking to incorporate rewards that are tickets to concerts, sporting events, and more. By incorporating a variety of rewards in a successful incentive program, you are sure to keep your customers happy. You'll find that many customers will start to tell their friends about the great program you have, and has the potential to turn into additional profit for your company. With incentive programs you are enticing potential customers to not only give your company a try, but to become loyal customers, thinking of your store or business first when they need to make a purchase.  By offering customers more bang for their buck and helping them stretch their money further, you will not only create grateful clients, but also increase your company’s bottom line. Category Business Author Anonymous Add To Favorites Print This Article Email Article To A Friend Post Comments   Rate This Article (0) 1 - Poor2345 - Good678910 - Excellent Added On 05-21-2009