Case study: Nolan's supermarket

Nolans supermarket in Clontarf was set up in 1958 and is one of the remaining independently owned grocery stores in Dublin. It employs 125 people and set up its loyalty programme in April this year.

“We have introduced quite a simple loyalty programme as we do not want to be too intrusive into our customers’ lives,” says operations manager Aidan Whelan. “Our application form is very easy to fill out and asks for minimal information and has been very well received. We signed up around 6,500 members in six months which was well beyond our expectations.

“Initially we simply rewarded points per euro spent. Now we are adding in new features (using new software) that will allow us to look after our customers even better. For example shoppers will be able to use their points in our coffee shop instead of only in the supermarket and we are introducing clubs such as a baby club and a wine club that customers can join. This means we can send them information about the products that are of specific interests rather than just a general mailshot.”

Whelan says the scheme was introduced to give something back to shoppers based on feedback from customer focus groups. “Yes, we take the hit for the cost of the programme but it’s a form of PR and advertising in one and so far we’re very happy with the customer response to it. We will continue to fine tune it as time goes on. At the moment we are still really only in the process of building our basic database. But for us this is very valuable as we didn’t have this before,” he adds.

“Having the scheme up and running means we can start going more into the reporting side of the system and using the information more effectively from a marketing point of view. We have a Christmas draw each year which involves customers filling out entry forms at the checkouts. This got a bit chaotic when the store was busy. This year it will be so much easier to do with our loyalty card.”

Whelan estimates that it cost about €10,000 to set up the nuts and bolts of the scheme such as the loyalty cards, key fobs, reward wallets and other associated printing. It also cost in terms of the labour involved inputting customer details and this is an ongoing process as new people join. There was also time involved in educating staff about the scheme as they play a major role in telling customers about it.

“In the current climate you can’t rely on business to keep coming to you. We need to retain existing customers and recruit new ones. Introducing the loyalty card is one of the things we identified as of potential help in this process. So far the level of sign-up is very encouraging and that’s without any external advertising - purely on what’s been generated in-store,” Whelan says.