Everyone uses a loyalty program. You choose a certain credit card so that you can rack up airline miles. You pull out a plastic card for the cashier to swipe at the grocery store that gives you access to certain discounts. I carry a plastic tag on my key ring for Starbucks that gives me a free drink on my birthday and free soy milk in my drinks. There are plastic cards for the loyalty programs at office supply stores, pet stores and so many more.

The definition of a loyalty program is to provide discounts, prizes, or other incentives to encourage continued patronage of a business, according to Wikipedia. Generally, loyalty programs are considered less expensive to maintain than allowing customer defection or “churn.”

Jarrett Paschel, Ph.D. is the vice president of strategy and innovation for research consultancy The Hartman Group and he wrote about the results of research done on retail loyalty programs. “We’ve been listening to frustrated consumers complain about retail loyalty programs for years, so we were not surprised that our recent research confirmed this position. Looking at the chart we find that 74 percent of consumers somewhat or strongly agree that ‘retailers need new and better ways of rewarding loyal customers’.”

We love loyal customers. It is in rewarding those customers that we have the opportunity to turn them into raving fans. We must not lose that opportunity.

Loyalty programs are a “selfless acknowledgment of your store’s appreciation for your customer’s continued patronage and support with a gift or service of substantive or meaningful value,” says Paschel. That chosen gift should not have any strings attached to it – otherwise it isn’t freely given. It also should be able to be used immediately – which differentiates it from a bounce back coupon. (A bounce back coupon is a coupon given to a customer offering a discount on a purchase to be made within certain future time constraints.)

Our goal is to reward our customers for making the right decision and choosing to shop with us. Look at your own behavior. Are you motivated simply by discounts, miles or points? No. Those don’t necessarily cause you to change your behavior and drive out of your way to go to a store.

Loyalty is inspired by making an important difference in your customer’s life. It will necessarily include a shock, surprise and awe component.

It isn’t hard. You only need to know one thing. What matters to your best customers? Go to your computer and pull up the list of your customers sorted by sales volume. Look at them. Picture them. What is important to them? What type of lifestyle do they lead? What do they buy from you? Start a list.

Force yourself to write down at least 25 entries. You will see commonalities. What could you gift them with that would make a meaningful impact?