Great customer service worths great efforts, but the result is what you need – loyal customers. And loyal customers are satisfied returning customers. Exactly they bring the largest part of income to companies, not the new ones.
According to Loyalty360, loyal customers visit their favorite shops and places two times more often and purchase higher-margin items. That’s why for businesses it’s extremely important to engage existing customers and provide them with quality service to build their loyalty.
Therefore, succeeding in it requires understanding of their preferences and minds. As well as choosing the right approach to reach them.
Why custom mobile app development?
One of the best methods to get in touch with your customers is mobile applications development, maybe as a part of customer loyalty program. Today everybody has a smartphone and always has it at hand.
The study shows that an average American spends two hours a day with his mobile phone. Also the number of smartphones is growing at a rapid pace. As well as of apps and their usage.
The conclusion is pretty simple: a mobile app is probably the most convenient, fast, and easiest way to reach customers and provide them with an engaging experience. Thus, creating efficient loyalty apps that add real value to customer’s experience leads to raising company’s profit.
Noteworthy that not only business benefits from implementing a customer loyalty mobile app, customers also do. Surely, the advantages (their amount) that your product brings them, depends on features it has and the problems it solves.
Through a customer loyalty app, you can send push notifications to your customers, that contain valuable information, offers, discounts, and so on. But it’s not the end of your possibilities.
You can make a feature that enables users to make orders and pays in queues like Starbucks did. Such an option will allow your customers to save time and money and you will receive more happy clients, more daily orders, more purchases and higher income as a result.
Another great example is a customer loyalty app. Thanks to this mobile solution people can check and reserve rooms, order various hotel services like a morning paper and breakfast and even use their phones (with the installed app) as a room key.
It should be noted that both Starbucks and apps run on iOS and Android which allows these international companies to cover the maximum possible audience.
So, how to build such efficient customer loyalty apps as these ones? How to boost sales and create brand and customer loyalty with the help of mobile applications development? How to choose the right features the app must have to gain success?
1. Define the processes that can be automated to add value for customers
Which processes can be optimized and streamlined to save customers time and provide them with higher services quality? Think about all the stages of client interaction with your business.
Which of them can be automated and how? For example, queues in supermarkets, cafes, shops. Or quick and simple services like hotel rooms, flights, tickets, and taxi.
Thus, with the help custom mobile app development, you can not only engage your customers but also to cultivate their loyalty and boost sales as a result of it. As returning customers purchase more often and just more.
2. Determine what you can offer to engage them
The link with your services is direct. You need to think out the strategy that will help you boost sales and engage customers. It implies calculating of benefits that your offers will be giving both to your company and customers.
All discounts, shares, point collection systems must clearly show the value to clients and also bring you profit as a result of their active usage. Make your customer loyalty app motivational and useful for your users.
3. Implement a simple point system within a customer loyalty app
The most common and widespread loyalty program methodology. Customers earn points and then change them for some type of reward, for example, a freebie, discount, present, or something else.
The more points a client possesses, the more valuable reward he receives.
Such a motivational system will make your customers work toward a certain amount of points to redeem desired rewards, and purchase more. In mobile applications development, it’s important to keep the conversions simple, convenient, and intuitive: a customer mustn’t think about your offers.
However, a customer loyalty app point system isn’t the most efficient option for every business type. It works best for companies that support frequent and short-term purchases like ones in the food sector, services, entertainment, retail, and so on.
4. Use a tier system to reward initial loyalty and encourage more purchases
Not so frequent decision in comparison with the previous one, but its right implementation can bring great results. The point is the long-term motivation you provide with the help of a customer loyalty app.
Present small rewards for basic purchases and services, and then motivate your customers by increasing the value of rewards as they move to a higher level of your program. It looks like a loyalty ladder: the higher level a client has, the more rewards and benefits he receives.
For example, collecting of 100 points within a customer loyalty app is the first level which provides 5% discount on all company services, products, etc. 200 points is equal to 10% discount and also a 10% discount for other company services, e.g., hair and nail salon (which is your business partner).
And for 300 points a customer becomes a VIP one meaning special treatment, access to other services, and a 40% discount. For example, a gym can offer access to VIP-rooms, new sauna, innovative import exercise equipment, and much more.
A tier system implemented within your customer loyalty app will help solve the problem of clients’ forgetting about their points, so you avoid the situation of a long time between collecting points and making purchases with their usage.
A mobile loyalty app supporting tier system works best for building long-term value from reward program. So, it will be an efficient solution for higher price-point businesses, such as airlines and insurance companies.
Thus, custom mobile app development can bring a lot of benefits: build customer loyalty, boost sales, increase revenue, enhance services, provide clients with a better experience.
Read more about advantages that customer loyalty apps can bring your business.