Create A Customer Of The Month Program: A Guide

Updated: October 8th, 2022

What Is A Customer Of the Month Program?

Customer of the month is a loyalty program that aims at promoting brand loyalty in order to increase your profits through repeat buying.

According to a study published by Havard Business School, holding on to just 5% of your customers can increase your profits by as much as 25% to an astounding 95%.

One of the effective strategies when it comes to brand loyalty is the customer of the month program. The employee of the month award goes to the customer who brought more value to the business. By rewarding the customer, you challenge other customers to perform better in order to scope next month’s award.

Topic
Relationships
Cost
Low
Difficulty
Easy
Result
Brand Loyalty
Cost Details
The total cost depends on the model of awarding the winners

Key Takeaways

  • Customer loyalty programs build stronger customer relationships
  • A company's most loyal customers are also its most profitable (source)
  • Have a clear definition of what determines the winner
  • Offer a valuable prize to gain attention for the program
  • Invest in customer research to make sure you craft the right program

Understanding How Customer Of The Month Program Works

Customer of the month programs encourage brand loyalty and build long-term relationships with customers.

It is important that there is a clear definition of the criteria for the 'customer of the month' is clear, and public information. It is important that you are fair in your decision.

To pick your "customer of the month", you should look at the following criteria:

  • Volume of purchases
  • Repeat purchase cadence
  • Ability to purchase more products and services
  • Speed of payment
  • Customer profitability
  • Loyalty over time

How to Set Up A Successful Customer Of The Month Program

  1. Study your current customers through surveys, interviews and monitoring customer comments
  2. Set goals and measure them
  3. Set a budget
  4. Pick the right customer
    • Let them know they won
    • Let the public know they won via social media
  5. Ensure you do this every month!

Benefits of running a customer of the month program

  • Retain existing customers
  • Increases customer lifetime value
  • Builds personal relationships
  • Creates brand advocates

A dedicated customer of the month program is a great way to say a big thank you.

Real-World Examples Of Successful Customer Of The month Programs

Here are inspiring examples of the successful customer of the month programs you can copy from

1. Your Co-op Rewards Customers For Providing Insights To Improve Products and Services

Your Co-op is a UK company providing broadband, energy, phone, and mobile services to residential and commercial customers.

The company, set up a customer of the month program, aiming at rewarding their loyal customers for providing insights to improve the products and services.

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The winner receives a free credit and is recognized on the company’s website. From this example, it is clear that running a customer of the month program does not have to be expensive.

Customers are delighted to receive freebies and even recognition. Besides, a customer of the month program does not have to be based on rewarding customers for spending. You can reward the customers for merely contributing to product design or even referrals.

2. Steadfast Rewards Loyal Customer Of The Month

Steadfast is a managed IT infrastructure company focusing on providing solutions that best suit customer's requirements.

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To boost brand loyalty and establish long-lasting relationships, the company set up a customer loyalty program that saw winners enjoy free brand exposure on steadfast blogs, social media announcements, and a personalized customer of the month plaque.

The program was open to new and existing customers. To enter, the customers just needed to share their steadfast stories.

Steadfast choose a participation matrix that is simple and straightforward to the customers. Besides, the company knew that their target customers are interested in brand publicity and so they choose to reward them with a free chance to be featured on the company’s blog, social media posts as well as a personalized customer plaque

meet the author
Pat Walls

I'm Pat Walls and I created Starter Story - a website dedicated to helping people start businesses. We interview entrepreneurs from around the world about how they started and grew their businesses.