When businesses expand, they invest a lot of effort in keeping their company running by focusing on acquiring new customers and keeping current ones. Small-sized companies, SMBs and enterprise-sized enterprises know the importance of loyal customers. Making an app for loyalty is among the most efficient strategies to solve these two issues over the long term.
However, the effectiveness of their efforts depends on the approach, strategy they use for loyalty app development. With a wealth of background in this area, we assist our customers in dealing with all business and technical problems from the initial idea to the end of tech support. We then design an optimised rewards application for your company.
How Loyalty Apps Can Benefit Your Business?
Mobile apps are an effective tool for businesses to optimise and manage their loyalty programs. Few businesses have the financial or technological resources to build and deploy a dedicated application, but the available options allow businesses to reap the benefits of loyalty programs.
Improve Retention
There is no way to understate the importance of keeping customers. It leads to increased revenue because loyal customers pay an average of 67% more than new ones, but it's also five times less expensive to keep existing customers than to sign up new ones.
Therefore, if your business has a high churn percentage, the percentage of customers who quit doing business with you during a specific time, you're not getting affordable, high-value custom.
Your loyalty programs can greatly improve customer retention and lower churn percentage, turning once-buyers into regular customers.
Companies like Starbucks have perfected this technique through their Starbucks Rewards program, in which customers receive points ('stars') for each purchase. These points can then be redeemed for free drinks or food products. This can encourage customers to return, which improves retention and reduces the number of customers who leave.
Transform Customers into Brand Ambassadors
The loyalty scheme can become a potent acquisition channel when you reward customers who recommend your company to others.
Loyalty programs often offer incentives for referrals that make customers brand ambassadors. Dropbox, for example, increased exponentially with its referral program, which provided additional storage space to both the referrer and the referred one.
Certain loyalty programs offer points for more than just purchases but also for actions that indirectly benefit the business. For instance, TOMS Shoes rewards customers for sharing their content on social media and engagement, forming a synergistic relationship wherein customers receive benefits and the company reaps positive word-of-mouth advertising.
Loyalty Programs Help you Stop Competing Purely on Price
Nowadays, it's easy for shoppers with discerning eyes to check out hundreds of prices with two clicks. If they're thinking of the products you offer instead of your brand and store and brand, you'll be in a race for pricing to the lowest. The larger retailers, such as Amazon, will win.
One of the most significant advantages of loyalty programs for customers is that they prevent your business from competing solely on price. By interacting with your customers' feelings, loyalty programs provide an opportunity to set your business and its products apart, providing a more enjoyable (and personalised) customer experience.
Let's discuss this.
Research has shown that when a buyer decides to purchase something, the purchase is highly emotional. Do you offer products customers purchase based on desire, not necessity? If yes, you must draw their attention to their feelings.
Rewards for customer loyalty can be a very effective way to entice and delight customers shoppers who purchase from you by rewarding them for something they previously did not notice.
When you give a gift to your customers, you'll appeal to their emotional side. In doing this, you begin to build an emotional connection. When that bond is established, customers consider you more than just a collection of goods. This, in turn, increases the loyalty of your customers - encouraging them to make purchases again, which boosts the profits you earn.
Increase CLV
The value of customer lifetime (CLV) refers to the amount of net profit attributed to the entire relationship you keep with your client. It reveals the value of a client to you right now and what the continuing relationship could have value in the near future.
Programs to reward loyalty improve customer loyalty by increasing the average value of orders and the purchase frequency of your customers. Customers will spend more and more frequently and will be with you for a longer period of time.
Increase Purchase Frequency
The loyalty programs encourage a higher buying frequency, especially for products with lower sales periods.
The most common example is the coffee shop: customers will be much more likely to make frequent purchases of coffee at takeaway when they are aware that they're earning loyalty points. For instance, the McDonald's McCafe Rewards program, which offers free drinks upon purchasing five items, will encourage customers to return more often to redeem the reward.
Collect more customer information.
Programs for loyalty are great tools for collecting customer information. Every interaction, from purchase history to reward-redeeming patterns, can provide insights into the customer's behavior.
You could also reward your customers for sharing details with you. For instance, you could offer birthday rewards, whereby you give your customer a gift to celebrate their birthday in return for sharing their birthday with you.
These data help companies make better-informed decision-making about their marketing and strategic plans.
Enhance communication and build your brand.
In the end, loyalty programs are a great way to boost your brand's image and increase customer communication.
Regular updates on rewards, exclusive deals and special events give you opportunities to interact with customers and improve the relationship between the brand and its customers.
Improve average order value.
Along with increasing the number of purchases, loyalty programs can boost the value of every purchase.
This is referred to as the Average order value (AOV). Companies can boost their customers' AOV by rewarding them based on their spending.
For instance, Nordstrom's The Nordy Club program offers customers more points for every dollar they spend during its 'bonus points events, ' which incentivises customers to make more money per transaction.
Even out Seasonality
Many businesses are affected by seasons of fluctuating sales and it's difficult to increase revenues during the slower months. Rewards programs can help reduce sales fluctuations by offering rewards or promotions during non-peak timeframes.
For instance, businesses that deal in travel, such as hotels and airlines, might offer double points on bookings in the low season to encourage travelers during these periods.
How to Create a Customer Loyalty Program App?
On demand laundry application development will significantly increase customer retention and engagement for your company. This article provides a complete guide to the most important steps needed to build a successful loyalty program, starting with defining your goals and identifying your target audience to create an intuitive interface and integrate the most important features. Utilise these tips to develop an app that improves customer satisfaction and growth for your business.
Define Your Goals
Know what you're hoping to accomplish through your loyalty program. Are you looking to boost customers' repeat purchases, improve customer engagement or collect information about your customers? A clear goal will guide the design and development process to ensure the app meets your company's requirements.
Know Your Audience
Find out who your customers identify and what features they are looking for. Make your app's features and rewards suit your customers' needs and preferences. This can enhance the appeal of your app and help increase the number of users who use it.
Choose the Right Features
Select the main characteristics of your application. Common features include points systems, exclusive discounts or personalised offers and referral rewards. Using features that align with your audience's needs and preferences will increase the application's efficiency.
Design a User-Friendly Interface
Be sure that your app is easy to use. A simple, clear design will keep users interested and allow them to earn and use rewards. Good design also helps reduce users' frustration and improve overall satisfaction.
Develop and Test
Develop with a skilled team to create your application. Check it out thoroughly to ensure it runs well and does not have bugs. An well-functioning app will reflect positively on your business and encourage repeat use.
Launch and Promote
Once you have your app ready, you can launch it and make it available to all your clients. Advertise it on your website or social media channels, as well as on store signage, to promote downloads. Effective promotion raises awareness and encourages downloads from the beginning.
Gather Feedback and Improve
Get feedback from users to determine what is working and what is not. Use this information to constantly improve your app. Monitoring your users' feedback can assist you in making changes that improve their experience and ensure their satisfaction.
Learning how to build a loyalty program that utilises the best software will significantly improve your company's relationships with its clients. Use these guidelines and modern tools to build an effective loyalty program.
Features of Customer Loyalty Apps
The experiences you provide to your customers are as crucial as quality products and services when establishing strong relationships with your clients. Loyalty and tailored rewards solutions are fantastic for businesses to offer seamless consumer experiences, especially as smartphones and other mobile devices are increasingly essential to modern consumers. The most common features of the loyalty and rewards apps are:
Personalised Rewards
The entire concept of loyalty programs is focused around rewards. A reputable rewards program should offer a variety of rewards based on a customer's activities and place of residence.
User-Friendly UI
Rewards and loyalty apps must be user-friendly, focusing on simple navigation. Customers should be able to monitor their activities, view their rewards and redeem them whenever they wish. The app's interface must also be visually appealing.
Point-of-Sale (PoS) Integration
Integrating your rewards and loyalty programs to the PoS system is essential for streamlining them. This will allow customers to quickly accumulate points and redeem rewards when purchasing items without unnecessary effort. In the ideal scenario, the loyalty app should immediately reflect the points or rewards that consumers earn upon purchasing.
Push notification
Loyalty apps allow users to send push notifications to customers, informing them of rewards that they could receive by engaging with the app. Push notifications are a potent device that, when used correctly, can increase engagement.
Gamification
The addition of elements that resemble games in an app can create a more engaging experience, which encourages users to stay longer browsing the application. Gamification is a new strategy that can create a sense of competitiveness or generate a sense of satisfaction among users and increase engagement.
Social Media Integration
Social media platforms are a great method of connecting with your target audience. Connecting your app with social media allows your users to post their achievements or the rewards they earn, spreading word-of-mouth and increasing your business's exposure.
The Key Takeaway
Creating an omni-channel CRM loyalty management app that resonates with your customers is more than a good idea. The most important factor to success is knowing your target audience—their requirements, behaviors and what keeps them interested.
But even the most successful loyalty program won't be effective without the proper technology partner to bring it to life. In today's highly competitive marketplace, loyalty programs can distinguish you from your competition and help keep your customers faithful. A rewards app is a must for your marketing plan if you want to keep loyal customers, boost the brand's visibility and increase sales.