Fly Buys goes into business

29 September 2008

Fly Buys goes into business

New Zealand’s iconic loyalty programme, Fly Buys, is extending its offer to businesses.

After 12 years and more than half a billion dollars in rewards, Fly Buys is launching Fly Buys for Business, a programme designed for the often overlooked small to medium sized businesses (SME) market.

SMEs account for 37 percent of GDP – more than $30 billion annually – and the Department of Statistics says around 97% of businesses are defined as one.

But because of their size, SMEs have historically received relatively little recognition for their loyalty to the companies from whom they purchase products and services.

This may be about to change.

“Fly Buys for Business will enable owners of small and medium-sized enterprises to collect Fly Buys points on their business spend across a range of Participating companies who specialise in offering goods and services to New Zealand SMEs,” says Loyalty New Zealand Chief Executive Andy Symons.

Mr Symons says SMEs have historically been difficult customers to reach.

“They tend to shop around and have limited loyalty to particular suppliers, while their spend often falls below the threshold required to be assigned an account manager.

“We want to turn ad hoc, infrequent SME customers into committed, regular customers.

“By launching Fly Buys for Business we’re creating an opportunity for companies which service SMEs to reward their customers though a programme that New Zealanders have already embraced.”

Mr Symons said in addition to rewarding and retaining customers, Fly Buys for Business will allow them to develop relationships and grow their sales with businesses that are currently anonymous to them.

“We are actively acquiring new Participants who specialise in providing goods and services to businesses. We’ve recently brought on board Packaging House, Protector Safety and Blackwood Paykels, bringing the number of brands businesses can collect Fly Buys points from to 14.

Given the scale of purchases by SMEs, New Zealanders who sign up for Fly Buys for Business will typically be able to get bigger, better and more rewards.

Based on three typical small business categories - a builder, a small restaurant and metal work manufacturer - most small businesses can expect to collect between 2,500 and 6,500 points per year based on conservative estimates of expenditure. This is enough, for example, to get a Bose iPod Sound Dock, a quad biking experience for four, a Sony hard drive DVD or a Foosball table.

ENDS

© Scoop Media