How to integrate a loyalty program to the mobile app?

Loyalty programs offer discounts, rewards, and other interesting incentives as a way to entice and retain clients/customers. They are provided by retailers, hotels, restaurants, and other businesses – small, medium, and large ones. They are designed to encourage customers to continue patronizing a business, offering them an incentive for store/brand loyalty. Usually, the more a customer buys from the business, the more rewards the customer gets.

‣ To reward customers for their continued patronage.

‣ To provide the business with consumer data. While businesses can assess anonymous purchases, a loyalty program gives additional information on goods that can be purchased together, and which incentives are most effective on customers.

‣ If properly executed, loyal customers may help in recruiting new customers – a marketing strategy that seems more effective and cheaper than traditional marketing strategies.

‣ When loyal programs are incorporated into a customer's daily activities, true brand loyalty is achieved. Customers will continue to patronize a grocery store, hotel, airline, store, restaurant, credit card, etc. because of reward points they've amassed in its loyalty program more than anything else.

Traditionally, loyalty programs are facilitated through loyalty cards. But through digitization, both big and small businesses can now integrate their loyalty programs into dedicated apps for the overall benefits of both the business and customers. The logic is that having your loyalty program app installed on your customers' gadgets means that you will always be one click away from them. And proximity is a keystone of loyalty.

‣ Apps are easier to manage and track than paper cards.

‣ There is no effective way to track redemptions with a paper card – your cashier will have to take notes while issuing stamps and rewards. Meanwhile, loyalty card apps compile the data in dashboards for your use. Plus, you get to track employee performance — which employees get the newest sign-ups? This information may be valuable data if you want to reward your staff.

‣ Loyalty program apps help you keep in touch with customers via push notification and Messaging.

‣ Engaging with your customers and earning their loyalty go hand in hand. And with a loyalty program app, you get to stay in touch with them through perfectly-timed messages using push notifications and SMS messaging.

‣ You cannot update paper cards, improve the reward, or send reminder emails to your customers – but you can do all these with a dedicated loyalty program app.

‣ Customers cannot misplace their apps.

Pew Research Center discovered that 43% of customers think that physical loyalty cards are their biggest obstacle to redeeming rewards. Physical cards can be clumsy to move around with and get lost easily. Instead, 71% of customers will likely open a loyalty program app if it is on their phone.

The latent problem, however, is not your customers losing their app or phone – it is your loyalty program app getting lost in a sea of other apps on their phones. Workin Geeks can help your business create smooth loyalty apps with a fantastically easy user interface.

When it comes to creating a loyalty program app, there are a few ways to go about it. The appropriate option for you would depend on factors like the type of your business, demography of your customers, the goals of your loyalty program, and the time and money you plan to invest in the app.

‣ Use a Loyalty App Provider.

It would be most convenient for your business to create and manage a loyalty program using a professional loyalty app provider. App development is complicated, and will definitely consume time and money. If you run a small business, it is advisable to simply pay an app provider for their service.

‣ Build your Own App.

Building your own loyalty program app can be done by hiring a professional app developer or an agency to develop the app according to your specifications and manage it.

This may involve huge costs to both create and keep the app running. If you run a small business or are just starting an operation, this option is not advisable.

‣ Use the Loyalty Module on your POS.

If the makers of your Point-of-Sales (POS) system offer a loyalty service, you may consider using it for your loyalty program. On the one hand, the loyalty system integrates directly with your POS, making it easy to calculate rewards and costs. The flip side is that some attached loyalty services can be basic and lacking in the features you may need.

Apart from the general tip that your loyalty app's interface should be user-friendly, here are important features you should consider integrating into your app:

‣ Onboarding: Onboarding should be as smooth as possible. It is good practice to offer several ways your customers can sign in, such as email, social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, etc.); loyalty ID, etc.

‣ Personal profiles: Your loyalty app should collect information about its users. If a new customer starts to use your app, you need to collect their names, date of birth, and location if you have shops in different cities.

‣ Reward system: If you already have a reward system in your loyalty program, you can just move it to your mobile application and combine it with more digital loyalty program strategies. A reward system should offer many ways to earn rewards. Rewards can include: bonuses; special offers; discounts; personal offers; internal currency (points, coins, gems, stars).

Rewards may be earned by hitting a specified purchase threshold, customers sharing a product on their social media profiles, by leaving a comment under your business posts, by placing an order through your social media accounts, etc.

‣ Push notifications: Push notification is essential. You have to notify your customers about new products/services, new bonuses, and special offers. Timely and interesting push notifications will also help you to retain customers and prompt them to always use their bonuses.

‣ Mobile payments: This goes without saying.

‣ Purchase history: Purchase history is valuable both for you and for your customers. You can see what goods your customers purchase most frequently and make special offers on such goods. Purchase history also helps you promote your goods around the time your customer will most likely purchase them.

Workin Geeks has built some of the most heavily downloaded mobile applications on Google Play and the App Store. Yet our excellent service extends to building and managing web applications for enterprises, medium, and small businesses.

We are also irresistibly good at product design. Our UI/UX designers are some of the most sought-after in the world. We create. We train. We develop.

If you are in need of an experienced, agile and affordable loyalty program app developer, please feel free to reach out to us at Workin Geeks. Leave a request on the website and we will contact you.