Archives

“The goal is for the loyalty program to be the “icing on the cake” for our customers”

Why did you start with a loyalty program?

Our main goal was to create a better customer experience. We wanted it to be easier than it was before, when we had paper coupon cards, and we wanted to get closer to our customers. We also wished to make it easier for our employees to have good customer dialogue in the store. With Diller, the customer just enters their phone number at checkout, and employees easily register new members or see purchase history and interests of existing members. It works great and provides a good customer experience.

What made you decide to switch to the Diller platform?

We have known for a long time that it is necessary to have a good loyalty program. We had a program before as well, but Diller has a much better recruitment system, and is very intuitive and easy to use. The old system had no integration to our cash register, so we decided to switch to Diller which is fully integrated with the checkout.

When we investigated whether Diller was right for us, I recognized the same features from loyalty programs I personally am a member of and that I believe are good. Diller has all the features that make me stay loyal to a company or store.

How did you hear about Diller?

We learned about Diller both through our own web searches and via Pål Bakken in ExtendaRetail. They deliver the ExtendaGO POS system that we use. We got a demonstration of Diller and decided to switch to a new loyalty platform and transfer the membership base, so that all existing members had the opportunity to join our new loyalty program.

What kind of results have you seen so far?

Already after only 1 month of running the new platform, we see that average sales are significantly higher for members compared to non-members. We also see that recruitment of new members in the store is going very well – above all expectations!

We started on September 21st 2021, and during the nine days of September we recruited 2080 new members. And to this day, on October 18th, we have recruited 5050 new members in October alone. We estimate that we get more new members in October with Diller than we recruited in total from October 2019 to September 2021. This is possible because it is so easy for employees to handle registration of new members at checkout. Everyone who shops with us gets asked if they want to join the loyalty program, and the employees tells them that they get a 10% welcome coupon, digital coupon cards, and other great benefits as a member.

We experience that sales and margins are higher despite providing an initial 10% discount. The customers tend to put a little extra in the shopping cart to make the most of the discount.

What are your goals for the loyalty program?

We aim to reach 100,000 new members within 1 year – and we believe that is a rather careful estimate. We open new stores in Vestby and Skien over the next few months, so there is potential for a good increase in the membership base.

The goal is for the loyalty program to be the “icing on the cake” for our customers, so that they wish to continue shopping with us.

What will you do going forward to keep the high recruitment rate?

We have several measures in progress. Today we have all employees ask customers at checkout if they want to become a member. Employees inform about the welcome gift of 10%, about digital coupon cards, and that members get offers before others in weekly newsletters. In addition to this, we are going to put up posters with QR codes in the stores, so that customers can register themselves before they get to the cash register. We’re also going to set up displays with member benefits in all of our warehouses, and seeing that some stores and employees are “super recruiters,” we’re also going to share more information between warehouses.

What do you think about the opportunities in segmenting the member base?

We see great potential to use segmentation to benefit our customers. Our customers belong to very different groups, and communicating to for example dog owners is completely different from reptile owners. Member segmentation help us navigate better to make sure we communicate in a good way to all our customers.

Today we divide members into different segments. First of all, we categorize members to their preferred store and what kind of pets they have. Next, we segment on interests, such as hunting, breeding, family with pets, hiking & outdoors, pet shows, agility, or feeding. Diller offers “multi choice” opportunity, which is great, because many multiple pets and interests.

Because of the segmentation, we can add many more tailormade member benefits into our program, such as invitation to free dog training for loyal members who have accumulated a certain bonus level.

What vision do you have for PetXL as a company?

We want to be the ultimate destination for pet owners. With us, you get everything you need for your pet, whether it’s products in the store, veterinary services, dog grooming or rehabilitation. All these services and products are to be made available to the pet owners in a simple and intuitive way, so that they get a great overall experience when shopping. With the loyalty program as the “icing on the cake”, it really pays off to shop with us. Loyal customers get great customized benefits and offers. We also want to build communities for like-minded pet owners with common interests.

How important is it that Diller is integrated with the cash register?

That was a decisive factor. It was essential with good integration between the POS and loyalty program. The alternative would be far too cumbersome, and we only want seamless, fully integrated solutions.

What do you think of your collaboration with Diller?

Very good! Knut Ole Hauge in Diller has been extremely good at following us up along the way, and we are very pleased with that.

How did you get started, and what do you envis imagine going forward?

It was important that the loyalty program had good benefits from the start, with a welcome coupon and digital coupon cards for different pet owners. We plan to have bonus points systems and different membership levels coming up, because this will create an even better loyalty program for our members.

Diller is really a marketing platform more than just a loyalty program, and we are very much looking forward to giving our customers great experiences in our stores. Even better segmentation and custom advantages should benefit our members going forward!

 

Diller® – the loyalty platform that has everything you need. Easy, intuitive, affordable and profitable.

The Diller® loyalty platform helps small and medium-sized businesses increase their competitiveness by getting customers to shop more, and more often. This saves costs and increases the lifetime value.

Diller® is a smart solution for companies that do not have a large marketing budgets, but still want to increase sales. Marketing is expensive, and a loyalty program offers huge savings because you do not spend precious funds getting new customers into the store and webshop.

With a good loyalty program, you can convert single sales to repeat sales and get much better customer dialogue.

“I would never buy a cash register system without an integrated loyalty program”

Why did you start a loyalty program?

I set up a program back in 2015, because I wanted to promote our loyal customers, those who chose to shop with us again and again. I wanted my customers to profit from being loyal and get something back as a thank you.

You switched over to Diller 6 months ago – why is that?

I switched the cash register system to Yabie, and Diller was a part of the POS. For me, it was essential to have a good loyalty program included in the POS, and that they were fully integrated with each other.

We had a transition with only Yabie before we started up with Diller. We were without a loyalty program for 6 months. We used excel and other things to keep track of members during that period, and it was incrediblydifficult and cumbersome. That half year of manual handling was terrible – I’ll never go back! It was anhuge difference not having a loyalty program. Our customers were disappointed because it didn’t work.

I was really pushing Yabie in the buying process, telling them that there had to be a loyalty program included in the POS. It was an absolute necessity. I would never buy a cash register system without an integrated loyalty program.

How was the Diller onboarding process?

It was really easy to set up the bonus program – everything was smooth and went very well. I had expected more problems and bugs at first, but everything went great.  I also got great help from Diller – excellent customer service!

The attitude from Support is always “no problem – we’ll fix this”. It’s fantastic, and I really feel like I’m getting the help I need.

What kind of results have you seen so far?

The biggest difference is from having a loyalty program to not having one. The half year of manual handling was terrible. What I like about our bonus program is that the customer’s bonus shows up as a kind of “lottery ticket”.

When we say they have a bonus to use, they’re so happy. It’s very, very positive. They say “I got a bonus from you again” and are so pleased.

In that sense, I don’t think that the bonus system is a direct reason for customers choosing us, but we are becoming much more “top of mind” to our customers, and become something positive to them. They chooseto  come to us instead of others, and I think the positivity pays off in this way.

Do you think Diller works well?

Yes, I think so. If there have been any problems, it is because we ourselves have done something wrong. It really works great. Very smooth!

Do you have examples of successful campaigns?

We mainly run a bonus program, and it works great. However, we did one SMS sendout – a campaign for everyone with a 300 kr unused bonus – and it was very well received. We should probably do this more, because we see that customers like it and we connect with them even when they are not in the store. We will also send out a market survey by SMS, where everyone who participates receives points as a thank you, or a gift when they shop.

What do you think of the collaboration with Diller?

Five stars! Support is there for me and it works superbly. Diller has first class customer service.

How do you recruit new members?

We do that at the checkout. We ask all customers if they would like to join. The majority accept, because they like our points-based system. All employees are good at recruiting new members, since it’s so easy. Just press a button and a text message will go out to new members for verification.

How did you train employees in using Diller at checkout?

We don’t have to teach them– everything is self-explanatory in the system. The only thing they need to learn is which of our store items are part of the bonus system. If you have a coupon card, for example, you don’t get a bonus.

How will you develop your loyalty program going forward?

We will have more SMS campaigns and probably also have more coupon cards, plus we’ll be sending out market research via SMS. We will basically be utilizing the system more in the future, because it is so easy to use.

Diller® – the loyalty platform that has everything you need. Easy, intuitive, affordable and profitable.

The Diller® loyalty platform helps small and medium-sized businesses increase their competitiveness by getting customers to shop more, and more often. This saves costs and increases the lifetime value.

Diller® is a smart solution for companies that do not have a large marketing budgets, but still want to increase sales. Marketing is expensive, and a loyalty program offers huge savings because you do not spend precious funds getting new customers into the store and webshop.

With a good loyalty program, you can convert single sales to repeat sales and get much better customer dialogue.