Siddharth Rai3/25/2022Loyalty cards have become such a popular way to reward your customers that they are now in virtually every industry. Loyalty cards are used by businesses to offer their customers benefits, discounts, and gifts in exchange for their patronage. These cards can be redeemed at any point during an individual's lifetime, which means you can also collect a lot of information about your customer's lifestyle and habits as well. If you're looking to launch your own loyalty card app, there are tons of resources online with advice for what steps to take when designing it. Read on for some of the best tips on how to make your app successful!
A loyalty card app is basically software that helps run loyalty programs on your e-commerce store. These loyalty program apps offer customers earn points on every purchase. With these points, customers may earn perks or discounts on their next purchase with you. There are calls to action also associated with these apps like requesting and directing customers to follow your brand on social media.
Customers nowadays have a mega mall in their pocket through easy use mobile devices. These phones assure them access to their favorite stores at their fingertips. So the challenge is to level up customer loyalty through reward cards or membership cards to retain loyal customers.
Finding the right balance between acquiring new customers and existing loyal customers is vital. If you want to increase customer retention rate, you need to increase customer loyalty. And, one of the most trusted and effective ways of doing it is to introduce a loyalty card app.
So, if you are planning to go big on your customer retention plan with a dedicated loyalty card app, here are a few points for your consideration-
Digital Loyalty Cards
It's no secret that plastic cards are outdated and customers don't prefer to use them anymore. Loyalty cards can be digitized in two different ways. One is to integrate it in the loyalty app, other is to offer it through a wallet application.
Mobile Wallet is a far more convenient and preferred mode by the customer. They are easy to use because they are installed in the form of app and accessible through customer's smartphone. These wallets can hold digital loyalty card, store coupons and event passes. Their easy access through smartphones makes customers use them frequently. Mobile wallet also enables brands and stores to send push notifications to the customers.
However, if you go ahead to make it a part of your loyalty card app, the customers will have to manually open the app and navigate to their loyalty ID for accessing their reward.
App Clips
Launched by Apple very recently, App Clips work even when customer doesn't have your dedicated app installed in the smartphone. Then how does it work? App Clips event starts with a special App Clip tag or QR code or NFC tag. As the customer enters the store, a brochure with information on rewards is received. The customer will have to hover the phone over mark covering the NFC tag. This works in the form of prize wheel offering reward points or gifts.
A loyalty card app is undeniably beneficial for the customer, but it is also a powerful tool for your business. As per a recent survey report, more than 68% of customers are up for joining the loyalty programs. More than 58% of the surveyed customers are loyal with their brands even with cheaper options available. So here are a few things that loyalty card apps do for your business-
- For marketing strategies, a loyalty card app allows data to be captured and stored for the loyal customers.
- The stored database through loyalty card app provides valuable insight to your business as who are your loyal customers and how frequently they visit your business. This insight forms the basis of your future marketing strategies.
- A loyalty card app is an easy and effective medium to build a strong and lasting customer relationship.
- Loyalty card app encourages repeat purchases from your customers. With this you increase profits and lifetime value of the customer.
- A loyalty card app is a simple and economical way of holding on to your customers.
- Loyalty card apps reduce the implementation of various advertisement and marketing campaigns.
- Customers who are a part of your loyalty program through app forms the list of your best customers. They are likely to spend more money with your business.
- With perks and incentives, these customers are likely to become loyal to your brand and recommend your store to others.
Here are the pros of a loyalty card app-
1. Customer Retention- Customer retention is one of the primary motive of a loyalty card app. Rewards and incentives encourage customers to be loyal to your store.
2. Customer Data and Consumer Trends- A loyalty card app records customer data which helps sending the customers push notifications of your offers and perks on purchases. It also gives an insight into customer's buying habits, trends and preferences for customized marketing.
3. Enhanced Cart Value- After consumer data is collected, your store can use it to cross-sell and up-sell its products. You can offer extended warranties on purchased items, offer accessories that goes well with it. You can also offer discounts on the related purchases.
4. Reducing Unprofitable Customers- A well-designed loyalty card app allows customer segmentation thereby discovering profitable and unprofitable customers. It helps you make your marketing strategy focused on the profitable customers.
5. Better Communication with Customer- A loyalty card app makes communication with customers much easier. You can announce new products, promote sales, offer services with directly communicating it to the customers.
Here are the cons of a loyalty card app-
1. Maintenance Required- An effective loyalty card app will require a certain level of attention and maintenance at regular intervals. You will have to adjust and tweak as per the needs of your customers. It may take few attempts from you before you can settle to an appropriate strategy.
2. Reduced Profits- There is a fine line between the profit you take out from your business and the loyalty rewards that you offer to the customers. You can easily fall into the trap where you offer so good to the customers that you aren't turning a profit.
3. Complexity Involved- If your loyalty card app isn't an easy use app, it may turn away your customers instead of retention.
4. Inconsistent Profitability- With changing buying behaviour of the customers, there may be an inconsistency in your profitability with the loyalty card app.
5. Loyalty Data Limitations- A loyalty card app may inform you about the customer's preferences, but it doesn't present to you the picture of customer's entire buying behaviour.App StoreBest LoyaltyCredit Card
Customer retention is one of the major motive behind a loyalty card app. Through this app, customers get rewards for their purchase making them feel like they are saving money. Consistent rewards, perks and bonus points give customers a reason to shop more. It also makes them feel good about their shopping. With these loyalty card apps, customers get direct push notifications, messages and mails reducing their browsing time by giving them a choice. So, there are many ways that customers benefit from loyalty card apps and therefore it is important for them.Loyalty Program
There are multiple factors that influence the cost to build a loyalty card app. These are-
1. Complexity- A loyalty card app with more features will cost more than an easy use app.
2. Tech stack- Various technologies available to build an app may cost differently.
3. Third-party integrations- Third party service charge or commission may cost you for your loyalty card app.
4. Development team- The hourly rate of development teams may vary depending on multiple factors.Small Business
Here are a few tips on how can a company create their own loyalty card app-
1. Use a loyalty app provider
Instead of investing money in developing your own loyalty card app from scratch, companies can use a loyalty app provider. It is more convenient and comes with a monthly or annual fee for their service.
2. Keep it Simple
You must consider to develop an easy use app which makes customer feel good. This will create a profitable customer relationship for a long term.
3. Understand Loyal Customers
You must understand and give preference to your most loyal customers. A targeted marketing strategy and reward or perks must be designed for customer retention.
4. Review Loyalty Objectives
A review on what you expect from your loyalty card app is a must. It gives you an insight on your target and the means to achieve it.
5. Incentivize Customers for using your App
It is important that the customers get some incentive for using your app so that they come and use your app again and again.Business Cards
Mobile wallets or mobile apps for loyalty programs are becoming popular among customers. It allows customers to have easy access to the info on rewards and other offers through their smartphone. With an effective loyalty program, you can give your customer retention program a boost, reach your customers easily and uplift your marketing activity to another level. With growing technology, loyalty card apps will get even more significant tool in the coming years.
