Customers Not Joining Your Loyalty Program? Discover WHY Directly From Your Visitors

At SocialSign.in, app acquisition and loyalty signups are top retail client priorities. Utilizing SocialSign.in’s platform, retailers are able to collect First-Party opt-in data from customers in return for Guest Wi-Fi access. Because Guest Wi-Fi leverages technology already present in the store, it can also reach customers who use Wi-Fi but not apps and aren’t currently loyalty members, allowing retailers to identify the customer profiles most likely to take advantage of particular offers can go beyond one-size-fits-all strategies to send in-store promotions to customers on-premise when they’re most likely to make or add to a purchase. This is the most significant advantage that brick and mortar businesses have over digital businesses - a captive audience who are physically present and engaged with your brand at that moment.

While we have spoken about app acquisition at length here (Driving Downloads On-premise: Developing an App Acquisition Strategy That Works!), in this blog we want to dive into loyalty memberships, specifically some reasons why program enrollment is lower than expected, and how to increase loyalty memberships through on-premise survey questions via Wi-Fi. 

We have found that for our customers, one of the most effective ways to uncover why program enrollment is low is to simply ask your customers why they aren't signing up- this is simple yet highly effective. Below we use an anonymized but real example of one of our clients, a large regional gas station and convenience store, using simple, multistep survey cards to uncover valuable data about their loyalty program enrollment.

Although not addressed in the questions below, at SocialSign.in we have found over the years that the biggest impediment to loyalty program sign ups is asking at the wrong time. Asking your customers after they leave the store loses urgency, and at the register, customers usually want to quickly finish their transaction with the least amount of friction. Asking while they are in the location but before they get to the POS is the optimal period to take action from a friction conscious approach. Additionally,  asking prior to checkout can result in increased basket sizes due to in-store promotions advertised over Guest Wi-Fi.

Case Study Results

The initial “Are you a Rewards Member” question was answered in 46.8% of Wi-Fi sign ins.

The ‘Are you a Rewards Member?’ received thousands of responses in the review period of about 30 days. 

Response Breakdown (time frame ~30 days)
Yes: 26%
No: 74%

The follow up question of ‘Why not? (If answered No)’ was responded to 70% of the time.

Reponses 70% responded to follow up question

Not interested: 60%
Didn’t know about it: 28%
Only shop for fuel: 12%

We find that survey questions are one of our most effective cards and an important tool in the customer experience journey. Overall, across our entire network, on-premise guests respond to surveys on Wi-Fi at a rate of 35 - 50%. In this example, approximately 47% of customers who logged into Guest Wi-Fi responded to the survey questions. Over 70% of those that engaged on the initial survey also responded to the follow up questions.

#1 Not Interested. 59% of customers who responded are not interested. This is not that compelling of a data point on its own, which is why we recommended and executed the follow up question below.

#1a Follow up Question - Why not interested?

58% - Not enough incentives or unaware of incentives - Coupons, Exclusive loyalty discounts, points for repeat purposes, timed offers are key to loyalty programs. Most customers primarily join loyalty programs to collect and redeem points for rewards and discounts.

19% - Too cumbersome to sign up - Customers are most likely to to take actions such as joining loyalty programs at the Point of Sale, especially if offering an incentive at the register. Yes you can email them at a later date if you get their email, but the urgency is lost. At SocialSign.in, our customers use a one click content card that redirects them directly to the sign up link. We recommend that the sign up process be 1-2 steps at most.

17% - Have too many loyalty programs already - Customers will not engage with more than a few loyalty programs, so it's important to provide personalization AND value - go beyond standard coupons and personalize offers directly to the customer.

6% - Concerned about data security - This was lower on the list than expected. This is most likely due to the fact that customers who log on to Guest Wi-Fi are already less concerned about giving information to brands they trust. 

#2 Didn't Know About It - Raising awareness of the loyalty program, including reasons for joining, are key to sign ups. In this multi chain gas and convenience store, adding signage around the pumps and on the exterior (sign up for the loyalty program for a free coffee today- Use SSID #FREE_WIFI to access the Free Guest Wi-Fi). 

#3 Only Shop For Fuel (Singular shopping focus) - This is an indicator of the business needing to focus on demonstrating value and awareness of secondary products in store. Some tactics may involve using bundled offers (Spend $25 on gas, get a free latte), Timed offers (such as 2FOR1 soft drinks only 12-2PM) on at least an introductory basis. Marketers can focus more of their energy on the products that the customers expressed interests in below.

#3a - Follow up Question - What other products would you shop for here?

This is also a great opportunity to highlight your brands and sponsors in-store. Knowing what products and services customers are interested in can expand your advertising revenue and extend your digital advertising right into the hands of your customers. 

Out of the products below, which ones would you be most interested in?
Automotive Products- offer loyalty discounts
Coffee- Introduce a coffee club/loyalty program or timed offers.
Pizza or other food items- Free items with points, time offers at lunch or late night. 

Using these simple survey questions, the gas station was able to revamp and expand its loyalty programs based on what their customers wanted, directly from their customers' responses in a low cost, low friction manner.

To learn more, see SocialSign.in’s Guest Wi-Fi demo in action, View Demo, or visit our industry playbooks to see all of the marketing initiatives that Guest Wi-Fi can promote.

Infrastructure Details

Cisco
Cisco Meraki
Aruba
Extreme Networks
Aerohive
Juniper Mist
Ubiquiti
Ruckus

Wi-Fi Integrations

Mailchimp
Salesforce CRM
None
Hubspot
Tessitura
Twilio Sendgrid
Snowflake
AdRoll