What does brand
loyalty mean to you? Does it equate to money off vouchers, in-store credit and
points accumulation, or should loyalty be rewarded with behavioral change that
makes our lives easier, more meaningful and improves our wellbeing?
For anyone with a
plastic brand loyalty card that’s always impossible to find in a bag or wallet
when you’re called upon to present it at the check-out, loyalty may have lost
its appeal and can often be associated with follow-up junk mail or offers you
would never consider using as they haven’t been targeted specifically for you.
For brands fully
embracing the mobile revolution however, apps are an opportunity to change the
way we all think about loyalty by redefining the customer relationship and
rewarding loyalty with more personalized experiences.
Take Starbucks
for example. 'Mobile Order and Pay' allows Starbucks’ customers to order in
advance via the app and pick up their food and beverage from the chosen
location, thus eliminating waiting time.
The loyalty
reward isn’t cheaper coffee or collect 20 stamps for a free latte. It’s
removing the need to wait in line, which in turn improves not only the customer
experience but also the brands’ operational efficiencies.
Coffee shops
and loyalty apps
Recently, I had a
truly terrible experience in a Starbucks at Chicago airport involving uncooked
food. The app allowed me to report the incident and as a result, Starbucks
customer services immediately reached out to me, refunded my expense,
apologised and turned a bad experience into a positive.
When you think
about loyalty as part of your mobile app strategy, don’t opt for simply moving
the discount loyalty card schemes of old onto the mobile platform
Most of us would
never return to a restaurant or retail outlet as a result of something like
this occurring. The app however enabled Starbucks to maintain and build on its
relationship with me as a customer and more often than not, this is what
inspires brand loyalty.
As our world
grows increasingly more depersonalized, we are constantly looking for more
personalized experiences.
Harris + Hoole, a
chain of artisan coffee shops has put personalization at the heart of its
mobile loyalty strategy. Through the app, customers can check-in to a local
Harris + Hoole, request their usual beverage or build their perfect tea, coffee
or hot chocolate remotely.
Then, not only do
they get an alert when it’s ready but the barista is able to address every
customer by name without having to ask or scribble it on the side of the cup.
Hotels and
other retailers
For hotel chains,
rewarding regular stays and loyal app users may take the form of mobile
check-ins, which alert you when your room is ready, transforms the app into
your personal room key and avoids you having to queue-up at reception.
While major
retailers may wish to use granular app data to reward customer profiles with
truly relevant experiences.
This is what
Harvey Nichols began doing in May 2015 when it launched its mobile app after
discovering that 80% of its customers didn’t want another loyalty card.
Instead of
offering the usual in-store discounts, Harvey Nichols focused on tailoring
personalized experiences to user profiles. This allowed them to offer
pedicures, blow-drys and other beauty treatments as well as dinner for two at
London’s Oxo Tower or tickets to the Monaco Grand Prix for top spending
customers.
The largest
in-app experience loyalty scheme in the UK in terms of registered and active
users is, of course O2 Priority. They’ve mastered the physiological aspect of
how loyalty makes someone feel and as a result, an offer is redeemed every 12
seconds, with those app users much less likely to ever change their mobile
network.
However, many
brands aren’t able to offer money-can’t-buy experiences or incur the costs
involved with changing all hotel door-locks to make them app compatible.
For these brands,
sometimes just having a well-designed app that people actually want to use can
have its own positive impact on customer loyalty.
EasyJet’s app for
example has made it so easy to check-in, change allocated seats, add additional
baggage and all the other functionality that you would associate with the
airport experience.
If you simply
have to target the price sensitive customer, then providing a seamless
experience through an app’s functionality is certainly the way to go. It gets
me choosing EasyJet for all my short-haul European travel.
So when you think
about loyalty as part of your mobile app strategy, don’t opt for simply moving
the discount loyalty card schemes of old onto the mobile platform.
That’s no longer
what loyalty means. Think beyond the plastic to the customer experience and
consider, what meaningful improvements to their daily lives can your app offer
in exchange for their long-term loyalty?
No comments:
Post a Comment