Customer loyalty is a key to the success of every business. Several big brands consider loyalty as a critical part of their online engagement strategies and employ various tools, from social check-ins to digital payment systems, to gain better involvement from customers. Retention and customer loyalty programs are becoming important revenue drivers in these highly crowded marketplaces.
Brands who are take the lead to prioritize their customers are proving to be early winners. About 43% of mobile app users are more likely to make a purchase when loyalty deals are a part of the app marketing campaign. That’s the level of influence mobile apps have on the lives of people and that’s the channel a business must target. Today we look some apps that (both from retailers themselves or through generic loyalty scheme service provider) that show how business can engage better with customers for a win-win deal –
A location based app, Shopkick offers exciting offers and discounts to customers who simply choose to walk into stores guided by the app. Some of the most prominent clients of Shopkick include Macy’s, Best Buy and Target. Currently Shopkick has been adding independent small retailers in select markets like Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco, New York, New Orleans, Washington DC, Dallas Seattle and Austin. Customers using Shopkick also get discounts by scanning products through the app. Shopkick is powered by shopBeacon, which helps users flag businesses of their choice around them.
Belly has proved to be a profitable choice for several businesses. The app allows businesses to track customer footfall wherein the plastic loyalty cards can be scanned on mobile devices and the data can be stored on the cloud. Belly also helps integrate this data over social media platforms and emails, helping spread the word among potential customers. Belly also enables businesses to customize their loyalty programs according to customer behavior and target the same through email messages. When customers scan their loyalty cards/QR codes on their devices, the data gets updated to the merchant database and increases potential leads.
Pirq was extensively used in regular business deals after being launched nationwide in the US in 2014. Unlike Belly, Pirq does not require using an in-store tablet. One of the most interesting features of Pirq is Facebook integration across different demographics and several varieties of deals. Pirq has been providing customers with some amazingly unique offers helping businesses do more with their customer loyalty programs.
Foursquare has been an extremely popular customer loyalty service for a decade now. Focusing mainly on social media, Foursquare adds your business listing to enable free analytics and tools. Businesses use these analytics to target demographics more specifically and work towards their business goals. Customers on the other hand use Foursquare for business searches and associated deals and offers. You can also set up special deals for highest purchases and frequent customers.
LoyalBlocks is another exciting app that automatically offers rewards to customers who simply choose to walk into store guided by the app. Business can register online and use an Android powered device as their base server to analyze and customize the rewards for their customers. Once the app has been installed, the interface automatically recognizes the customers and sends tailored rewards every time they walk into the store (powered by a location based tracking).
Mobile loyalty programs are a great benefit to startups and stores that are losing their customers to online retailers. Having such programs is easy and guarantees elaborate returns in the form of leads and profits.
