Companies face many challenges in today's business world; especially in the last few years. Customers have a wide range of products / services available and have more information about those than ever before. This is why connecting with consumers/customers and keeping them is the key to success these days. Loyal customers are the ultimate result of a great, satisfactory product / service and strong competitive advantages of a particular business. Every business makes significant efforts to identify and understand its consumer’s needs. In order to be as successful as possible at that, businesses invest in the development of CRM, i.e. strategies for customer relationship management. Loyalty programs stand out as one of the most important elements of this strategy. Today they are synonymous to a marketing tool that turns satisfied customers into a loyal system by rewarding their loyalty. Loyalty programs improve businesses by collecting thorough information which are stored in databases. CRM structures this database information which are then applied all the way from consumers/customers to certain functional areas of a businesses such as production, marketing, finance, etc. ... They justify their importance at highly competitive market conditions by creating a base for establishing programs better than the competitors. The purpose of this thesis is to show how reward systems influence the creation of long-term loyal relationships. Reward systems, as loyalty programs, demonstrate the importance of customer relationship management and the businesses commitment to customer satisfaction. In order to confirm and justify this, a research was conducted through a survey questionnaire indicating the importance of a customer relationship management strategy and the role of a loyalty program in that strategy.