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Loyalty apps have been given new recognition in recent years for several reasons. First, because customer loyalty programmes are offering a variety of benefits for businesses, but also because they have become an expected part of the contemporary consumer experience.
The age of engagement
For smaller businesses, money isn’t always free-flowing. There are important decisions to make about where to focus your investment. Should it be on attracting new customers? Or on making sure existing ones come back – time and time again? Retention often proves a more effective way to grow a business. And customer loyalty is a big part of it.
If you’re unsure whether you should focus on acquisition or retention, here’s why existing (and loyal) customers matter: 75% of customers say they would switch brands for a better loyalty programme.
What is customer loyalty?
Loyalty refers to customers opting for a particular business’s products and services consistently over its competitors. When customers are loyal to a specific business, their buying decisions are not influenced by price or availability. They would rather wait – and even pay more – to get the same quality service and product they are familiar with and appreciate.
Customer loyalty programmes play a huge role in retaining customers. In fact, the probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-70%, while the probability of selling to a new prospect ranges from 5% to 20%. In today’s highly competitive market, where customers are quickly switching from one brand to another upon facing any inconvenience, customer loyalty programmes show the way to growing your business.
Digitise your customer loyalty
Technology is fundamentally changing the way that consumers interact with businesses and make their purchases. Today, there are new ways to attract, retain, engage, and grow your customer base. If your business is not focused on this transformation and still relying heavily on analogue loyalty and rewards programmes for repeat business, you may be at risk of losing customers, and valuable opportunities, to generate actual long-term loyalty.
Furthermore, the days of carrying around plastic loyalty cards are over. They are lost easily, aren’t practical for carrying around in a wallet, and tracking redemptions can be difficult for businesses. These days, customers are rarely without their phones. Customers also prefer personal, relevant messaging and personalised offers over generic content and offers.
Almost 95% of loyalty programme members want to engage with their programme of choice through new and emerging technologies.
Going digital with your loyalty affords you access to real-time data and customer profiling so you can tailor your rewards around them. You can also deliver the right content to the right people at the right time, sparking more engagement as a result!
How a loyalty app benefits you
1. It helps you stay in touch with your customers
An average customer checks their mobile phone upwards of about 50 times a day. With a loyalty app, this access will allow your business to stay connected with your customers all the time and be sure that they’ll be receptive to your marketing campaign messages. You will be able to attract their attention to the important updates better and faster if you add a push notification option.
2. It allows you to personalise your offers
Many customers expect businesses to send them personalised offers based on their purchase history. Also, almost half of buyers tend to purchase products that they don’t initially plan to buy after receiving a personalised recommendation. Personalisation is often an underrated factor to loyalty programme success – highlighted by the fact that only 22% of loyalty programme members say they are very satisfied with the level of personalisation they receive. So, a loyalty app can help boost sales dramatically by providing customer segmentation and targeting abilities, based on basket-level data (ultimately turning payment information into actionable insights). Plus, it helps customers to save time searching for new products.
3. It makes your loyalty programme more convenient
Customers don’t have to worry about loyalty cards that might get lost. Neither do they need to check a business’s website in order to find some discounts. The only thing that is required to get a reward is an app installed on a smartphone. It will also notify customers about special offers.
4. It grows your business faster
Loyalty apps allow businesses to be flexible with their rewards. Since any ideas can be tested in practice straight away, you’ll better understand your target audience, their needs, and preferences. This means that you’ll be able to tailor your marketing campaigns to fit their needs that will facilitate the growth of your sales and business.
5. It improves your customer support
Loyalty apps are not only about bonuses and offers. They can also serve as a customer support mechanism and a way to gain valuable customer feedback. These days, thanks to the latest technologies, you can let your customers ask any questions related to your services or products anytime.
6. It lets you stand out from competitors
What can be better than a solution that’s different from all the others on the market? By being innovative, you can attract more prospects and turn them into your loyal customers. To get started with building your digital customer loyalty programme, you have to prioritise the customer experience first. That’s where we come in.
