Here's the letter from Mrs. Adams:
Those businesses that opened two Sundays
ago for the Taste of Tonbridge day did exceptionally well, with reported
crowds in our town centre of over 20,000.
I was surprised how many shops managed to find
window space to advertise a show in Tunbridge Wells that was on at
the same time, but not for this event that would keep the public in
Tonbridge.
To build on the Taste of
Tonbridge success, the Town Team aim to launch a Tonbridge Loyalty
Card on 1st October. A basic overview of the scheme is as follows (N.B.
IT IS NOT A DISCOUNT SCHEME) :
- Cards are given out to
shoppers at no cost (available from various locations in the town, from
participating traders, shops, businesses)
- Participating shop,
businesses, traders each have a unique Tonbridge rubber stamp
- Every time someone
spends £10, their card is stamped (maximum of 3 cards/18 stamps in
any one spend) - if participants collectively felt a £10 spend was not
enough, or indeed too much, this could be tweaked
- Once a card is full (6 stamps in total) shoppers then
"post" the completed card into prize boxes - these would be
hosted at various town locations.
- Once a month there will be a prize draw, the
owner of the winning card is issued with £50 of Tonbridge vouchers (issued
in various denominations) to be redeemed in any of the participating shops
and businesses.
- How the redemption works - for example someone buys a
bike from you and has £50 of Tonbridge Loyalty vouchers - you would
validate the vouchers and deduct £50 from their spend. You then
return the validated vouchers to the Town Team, who in turn refund you
£50. Therefore even though the vouchers have been redeemed in your
shop, you are not at a loss.
That in a nutshell is how the proposed scheme
would operate (there would have to be a set of rules and standards, ie any
winning card agrees to have their picture in the local press, as a prize draw
with no visual winner is not good promotion for the scheme) - it's not
a discount scheme and businesses are not actually giving money away to
customers, it's all about promoting shopping and using local shops
and businesses and a networking means for participants. There
would be advertising in the local paper with a photo of the monthly winner
being presented with their vouchers by a participating business, and underneath
the article (how this works elsewhere) a list of the participating businesses.
The cost to each participating business would be
£50 a year, and for this each would be issued with a unique Tonbridge rubber
stamp, cards to go in their window and by the till, and also a number of
cards for giving to customers for stamping. The scheme would run January
to December, so anyone joining in the first year would get 15 months
for the price of 12 (ie October 2013 to December 2014).
Nothing is set in concrete. The prize draw
figures could be altered and if the scheme grew we could then afford to have a
number of monthly draws, a bumper month or could decide to say put on a late
night shoppers event etc etc Also this type of scheme is not limited just
to High Street shops, we see it including all town trades, shops and businesses
in Tonbridge.
Members of the Town Team will call on you
shortly to request your involvement. Any
questions, please do not hesitate to ask them, or email me.
Kind regards
Susan Adams
3 comments:
So do your sums, What will the £50 cost you when set against your business costs? Then if none of the prize vouchers are spent in your shop then that what you lose. But if one voucher is spent what profit will you make on that sale? Nothing like your outlay I suspect.
To me I doubt whether it will bring extra customers to the town or your shop, its too Micky Mouse and the same scheme as they operate in Sevenoaks (13 shops signed up). Now give your customers a cup of tea and I am sure they will come back.
manofkent rightly describes the Tonbridge Town Team loyalty card scheme as "Mickey Mouse", and I whole heartedly agree with this sentiment. Spend £50 to be entered in a monthly prize draw, big deal! That's not going to entice me to shop in the town, and neither I suspect will it encourage many other people.
What persuade me to shop in Tonbridge is for shops to provide goods and services I actually want, otherwise my money stays firmly in my pocket, or I shop somewhere that CAN provide these things.
Shops in Tonbridge need to up their game, and I'm pleased to see that some already have - the new butchers for example and, dare I say it, MR Books. Unfortunately these are rare examples of independent shops offering what people actually want, but as others have pointed out, most of the town consists of hairdressers and charity shops!
Tonbridge Town Team are missing the point with their gimmicky loyalty scheme. What they should be doing is enticing independent traders back into the town.For example, Tonbridge is crying out for a record shop, or a proper gents outfitters, and how about a decent off-licence selling traditional, or hard to obtain beers?? (No, I'm not planning to start one up again, given the high rents, excessive business rates and unsocial hours involved.)
Towns such as Lewes have managed this quite successfully. Surely Tonbridge Town Team could come up with something similar, rather than a few moth-eaten cards and a rubber stamp?
ps. Following up on manofkent's suggestion, when are you going to start offering cups of tea in your shop, TB?
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