No more plastic loyalty cards, coupons or receipts, punch cards or even key fobs. Customers want more, and expect more. Fumbling through a mega wallet is not an ideal situation when you are trying to locate the right loyalty card in sufficient time, it can be daunting. Most customers feel defeated even before they attempt to accumulate their rewards and would rather decline another punch or stamp, than attempt to search through their purse or wallet and hold up the line, and risk further embarrassment…sound familiar? The frustration customers feel is real and there is a stress free solution. A smart phone loyalty app.
Based on results from an online survey of 1,000 Canadian adults conducted earlier this year, the report estimates that 56 per cent of the population uses a smartphone, up from 33 per cent in early 2012. With an average of 26-40 different apps consumers spend at least 2 hours a day on their mobile devices, the loyalty app for a business has the potential to deliver high rewards by increasing revenues considering the relatively low cost to implement. The development of the loyalty app is the most influential marketing tool to be made available to SME, (small and medium enterprises). It allows businesses to create direct personal links with its customers, in the most current and up to date channels available. Brands/businesses must push themselves forward, to meet the demand of its customers, so the goal is to create an app that is repeatedly useful and keeps them coming back. Since approximately only 22% of mobile apps are used only once, it is essential that it provides a service or function that is original and valuable. Consumers will download apps that they find personally relevant and would like to use on a regular basis. Currently consumers are still reluctant to use a mobile device or app for payment transactions, but have fully embraced the technology of a mobile loyalty app. If the loyalty apps fail to meet the customers needs, it will most probably be deleted.
The standard procedure in today’s market place are loyalty apps that bring a business into their environment, where they will promote that app, and not their brand or business. This system places businesses under the same umbrella as their competition, and does not distinguish their business or allow them to differentiate themselves from others. It is critical when building a brand that a business promotes their message uniformly across all platforms. For example, “Joe’s Pizza” would be better off with a “Joe’s Pizza” app, that allows him to be original and further his brand, instead of being included in a loyalty program that promotes many other businesses. The point of a loyalty program should be to keep your customers loyal, by not sharing them with your competition, right? Mass Mobile Apps provides a customizeable loyalty app that allows the business to promote and push their own brand across what is the largest growing segment in technology today, the mobile device. Weather it is a smartphone, or tablet, mobile devices are now out selling the traditional desk top. More consumers are also now accessing the internet via a mobile device. It is therefore imperative that a business has a mobile strategy in place, or are in the process of implementing one.
