Customer Rewards and the Virtual PBX - How They Can Work Together

Optimizing the customer experience is a key element to creating loyalty and sustainable revenue streams. But in a market of intense competition, it can be a challenge to set your company apart from others offering similar products or services. If you want customers to view your business as the standard in the industry, you have to give them a reason to keep coming back.

For a number of companies, the key to repeat customers is to offer a loyalty program that rewards them for their patronage. Customers don’t want to have to carry a punch card, however. It’s time to invest in technology-based solutions that can accomplish the same goal, without relying on archaic methods.

A recent blog post by virtual PBX provider, Nextiva, explored three digital loyalty programs that may be worth considering. The first, Belly, offers an iPad for the company and bar-coded loyalty cards to hand out to customers. The iPad is used to scan the barcode, but next generation customers may instead prefer the Belly mobile app. The program tracks visits, purchases, rewards earned, values redeemed and more. 

Perka takes the digital customer loyalty concept one step further, promoting the concept that customers shouldn’t have to do extra work to receive loyalty perks. Customers simply tell the sales clerk their name to find them in the Perka app. The app will work on smartphones or through SMS for older phones, and will collect information about each customer.

Tie into a customer’s debit or credit card directly with Swipely. Retailers can simply upgrade the POS to use Swipely’s Payment Marketing platform, making customer signup easy. Customers simply send a text message to register. Once a payment is made, Swipely captures information to provide the right loyalty rewards, targeting customers with customized messages so they keep coming back.

So, what do such programs have to do with a virtual PBX? They both enable a company to grow the customer base while also keeping current customers happy. For instance, adding a toll free number to a company website offers customers the opportunity to instantly connect with a live person. If that number is integrated with the company’s customer relationship management (CRM) system, the company can track whether or not the call is coming from a current client and instantly update their available rewards if applicable.

If the rewards program is so successful that the business grows faster than anticipated, the virtual PBX makes it easy to add extensions for new employees, regardless of location. Plus, phone systems used on the virtual PBX are designed for ease-of-use, ensuring there is no lengthy onboarding process to get new employees up and running. The same is true for the company that wants to franchise the business or expand into new areas.

With a viable rewards program and a virtual PBX, you position your company to stay top connected and top of mind. This not only benefits customers through added rewards, it also ensures you have the tools in place to deliver a better experience when interacting with the current or potential customer.