Sterling Rewards Q&A with
Executive Director John Miglino
1. In your own words, what is Sterling Rewards?
Sterling Rewards is an industry leading rewards or loyalty program for merchants of all sizes. It is full-featured, flexible, and most of all, affordable for merchants searching for a program that will reward current merchants for their frequent visits and bring in new customers.
Rewards programs increase “top of mind” awareness among customers and impact customer loyalty. Think of how many rewards programs you belong to. In fact, research has shown that U.S. households have an average of 14 rewards program memberships, so a merchant without a rewards program today is losing a great opportunity to grow their business.
2. What does Sterling's Rewards program offer merchants that other similar programs don't?
I think one of the major differences between our program and others on the market today is flexibility. A merchant has the opportunity to design their own program – they can set the reward percentage, maximum reward amount and rewards availability. So if a restaurant is slow on Tuesday, they can offer rewards on that day – or on Tuesday only at lunch. If they’re busy on the weekend – they don’t have to offer rewards on those days. And we create a customized web portal for the merchant to display their rewards schedule. They can use the portal as a standalone website or link to it from their own site.
The other unique aspect of Sterling Rewards is its marketing tools. Sterling provides customized marketing materials, including email and text messaging. Each message is sent automatically based on customer preferences or special offers. For example, a merchant could send a welcome email message for joining the program, a thank you for coming in, a birthday greeting, or a miss you message if the customer has not frequented the merchant within a set period of time. Customized text messages can also be sent from the web portal letting customers know about special offers. Rewards merchants also receive, as part of the program, point-of-sale displays, window signs and buttons.
Another feature not found in most rewards programs is the customer demographic information that merchants can access through their customized web reports. They have access to email addresses, text message numbers, birthdays, and their customers’ spending habits so they can track the success of their program.
3. Why should merchants consider offering a Rewards program, particularly Sterling's?
It’s all in the numbers – research has shown that it takes six to eight times more effort to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one. In fact, nearly 30 percent of customers surveyed report they are “extremely likely” to increase their visits to a business if they have a rewards card from them.
4. What types of merchants would most benefit from offering Sterling's Rewards program?
Merchants that want to increase frequency of visits by rewarding customer loyalty. This would definitely include restaurants of all types, from fast casual to fine dining, but also auto repair, quick lube, car washes, retail establishments, ice cream or coffee shops.
5. What makes Sterling Payment Technologies stand out from the competition?
I think Sterling prides itself on the innovation of its products and the outstanding service and support we offer our merchants. Sterling’s goal has been to offer the latest technologies normally only available to larger merchants to small and regional sized businesses. Sterling puts the power of the cutting edge tools in the hands of merchants who only recently could not afford such products.
6. Do you have a specific example you can share about how using Sterling's Rewards program dramatically enhanced a merchant's business?
We have a small chain of restaurants participating in Sterling Rewards and they have nearly tripled their business over the past two months with the program. They are taking advantage of the custom reporting to adjust the amount and frequency of the rewards they offer and find their customers are very responsive to both the text and email messages. In fact, since they have implemented Sterling Rewards, they’ve been able to cut back on their print advertising – so not only have they increased business, they’ve saved money on their advertising. It really is a win-win for the merchant and their customers.
To lean more about Sterling Rewards, contact your Sterling Representative or call 800-383-0561.
