Loyalty programs are used as part of a variety of business marketing strategies. Customers who already enjoy returning are incentivized to do so even more by these programs. So, fortunately, customer loyalty program software makes it simple to run these types of reward programs.
But what exactly is customer loyalty program software and what isn’t it? What are the benefits of utilizing customer loyalty program software? How do you compare loyalty software to find the best match for your company? Also, which customer loyalty software is free or best suited for small businesses? In this comprehensive guide to customer loyalty program software, we’ll help you answer these questions and more.
What is a Loyalty Program?
Setting up a rewards or loyalty program is a smart way to increase the probability of returning customers. Customer loyalty services will also aid in the retention and benefit of customers.
A loyalty program is a form of rewards program, not a referral program. So, customer loyalty services incentivize regular transactions in the hopes of and customer loyalty.
As a reward, a customer loyalty program can include a discount, a free item, or exclusive products. So, this occurs after a customer has made a certain number of qualifying transactions. Loyalty services are also used by a wide range of companies, including airlines, restaurants, and online retailers.
The majority of early loyalty schemes gave the consumer a reward tracking card. Nowadays, customer loyalty software is available. So instead of monitoring transactions with a physical card, tracking can be done with an app.
What is a Small Business Loyalty Program Software?
Small business loyalty programs software is a technology that assists small businesses in running and automating their customer loyalty programs. The tool assists in tracking reward points, managing loyalty rewards, and tracking customer actions in order to provide promotional offers.
What are the tech deployment solutions for Small Business Customer Loyalty Programs?
Before deciding on a small business loyalty programs scheme, you should be aware of the various implementation choices. The following are the two major deployment types:
#1. Cloud-based:
Vendors can host this program on their own or third-party servers. They also have maintenance and support for these resources. Also, users may gain access to the tool through the internet in exchange for a subscription fee, which is usually paid monthly or annually.
#2. On-premise:
Companies that choose on-premise apps host it on their own network, so only devices linked to the network can access the tool. Such companies must be responsible for the tool’s support and maintenance. On-premise tools usually have a one-time license fee.
The following is an important question to ask a vendor before making a purchase: What is the standard implementation period for your product?
Common Features of Small Business Loyalty Program Software
Understanding the general features of small business customer loyalty programs applications can assist you in shortlisting items that suit your needs.
Here are some common features to look for:
- Rewards management: Set a reward system by determining when a consumer qualifies for loyalty points and how they can be redeemed. Gamification may be used to personalize the process and increase customer interaction.
- Loyalty card: Customers may be given physical or digital loyalty cards. So one can use these cards to monitor customer behavior and gain a better understanding of customer actions.
- Member Portal: Allows members to keep track of their rewards and loyalty points, as well as learn how to redeem them. Members can also use this site to obtain promotional deals and updates.
- Discounts: Provide consumers with discounts based on previous orders. Set discount rules based on the loyalty incentives.
Free Customer Loyalty Programs Software
#1. Telbee
Telbee allows you to integrate voice messaging into your website or build standalone voice recorder URLs to share via social media, podcast, email, or QR code. Your guests, clients, and also community members should express themselves when it is convenient for them, then go about their business – no more anger. You can listen to or read their messages transcribed in 50+ languages in our team inbox, your email client, or anywhere else through Zapier (coming soon). It is also a free customer loyalty program software.
#2. Tribe
It’s one of the most popular free customer loyalty program software. The online community network can be customized to link, engage, and attract users. So, the tribe is a cloud-based online community software platform that enables the next generation of branded communities. Allow your users to interact and discuss under your name. Users can create surveys, write posts, ask questions, send responses, upvote, comment, and also share a variety of material.
#3. The Tango Card
Give people the digital incentives they want in a jiffy. So, Tango Card’s Reward Delivery Platform, digital reward library, and expert program help make digital rewards simple to submit and amazing to receive. Hence, e-gift cards, credit cards, and non-profit donations are simple to give and wonderful to receive. It is also a free customer loyalty program software.
The Best Customer Loyalty Software for Small Businesses
#1. Belly
Belly offers small businesses personalized loyalty programs in which they can select their rewards, monitor their customer growth and also engagement, and sell directly to current customers. Customers must sign in each time they enter the shop, and the system is different from the company’s POS terminal. So, for customers concerned about security, Belly’s hardware communicates with Apple Passbook, Google Wallet, and is equipped with iBeacon for near-field data transfer.
#2. The Loyalty Box
The Loyalty Box is a personalized customer loyalty app designed for brick-and-mortar and eCommerce store spaces. Hence, this rule-based software allows for almost limitless customizations based on the types of loyalty programs your organization wishes to run. Also, loyalty services can run via the POS, the company website, a mobile app, or Facebook.
#3. Badgeville
Badgeville by Callidus Cloud is a custom-built small business customer loyalty programs rewards and gamification software. It promotes internal as well as external loyalty and commitment. So the framework is highly adaptable, allowing businesses to create their own directed experiences that direct consumers and employees through training, interaction, and loyalty tools.
#4. Vend
Vend is a retail and small business point-of-sale system. One can download it directly to an existing iPad and used it to extend from brick-and-mortar to eCommerce. Employees still know whether a customer is eligible for incentives because a customer’s incentive balance is readily visible on the pay and checkout screens.
#5. Square
Square is widely regarded as the go-to small business POS app due to its elegant user interface and convenient hardware. Customers can sign up for the Square Loyalty program by entering their phone number, which is an add-on to the POS program. So, you can send text marketing messages to certain phone numbers, and reward customers based on how much they spend. Consequently, customer spending and consumption data are compiled in analytic reports to help you better understand your customers’ purchasing patterns.
Enterprise Customer Loyalty Software
Enterprise business loyalty software will have many of the same features as small business loyalty software but expect a higher price tag to reflect the greater customization and complexity of the business. To distinguish an enterprise loyalty program software, look for the following features:
- Custom-made software and/or white-labeled solutions
- Increased integration capability for business intelligence, ERP, and other internal business-critical applications.
- Increased data storage and cloud room
In addition to customer loyalty programs, employee engagement, employee advocacy, and gamification programs for internal resources are available.
Before you start searching for the best customer loyalty software for your business, make a list of the features you know you’ll need right away and those you can live without. This will assist you in deciding between all of the available choices.
Best Enterprise Customer Loyalty Software
#1. PugPharm Picnic
Picnic is available in two flavors: a turnkey solution and a platform for businesses with more technological capital and a need for greater flexibility. The Picnic Basket turnkey solutions were created by video game developers. So, they include badges, personalized codewords, incentives, and selection games to increase short-term loyalty.
#2. Revelry Systems
Revel Systems is a provider of transaction-based loyalty programs for fast service, restaurant and bar, and retail POS software and hardware. Customers can be rewarded based on their overall purchase, each transaction, or individual items. You can also segment and advertise to consumers based on their purchasing history, resulting in repeat visits by marketing.
#3. Loyalty Lion
LoyaltyLion offers eCommerce sites with consumer loyalty solutions. While many solutions only offer purchase-based incentives, LoyaltyLion can monitor virtually every activity or movement on your website, allowing you to reward consumers for leaving feedback, commenting on blog posts, watching videos, or simply browsing your offerings. LoyaltyLion currently supports Shopify, BigCommerce, and Magento eCommerce shops, as well as major email marketing tools.
#4. Smile.io
Smile.io is designed is to work with the eCommerce platforms Shopify and BigCommerce out of the box. However, it can easily extend to any eCommerce platform or custom website through API integration. Track consumer behaviors on social media platforms for purchases or social activity. Also, Customers can track their progress toward rewards, which vary from regular discounts and percentages off to custom rewards created using the API. Smile.io also provides referral and VIP services to increase customer loyalty.
#5. Loyalis
Loyalis has a customer loyalty platform with built-in market analytics tools that assists businesses in increasing their overall revenue totals. The app includes modules for loyalty, social media, feedback, and gamification, all of which provide integrated data analysis to help you better understand your consumers and their purchasing patterns. So, loyalis is a completely white-label solution that never competes with the branding of your store. It is also currently available for Shopify and BigCommerce.
Best B2B Customer Loyalty Software
#1. LoyaltyZen
LoyaltyZen is intended for B2B and retail brands to create their own personalized loyalty program. It also includes built models that can be linked to an existing website or customer portal. Companies may use mobile marketing solutions to keep in contact with consumers and also entice them to return to the loyalty site with discounts and referrals. LoyaltyZen is designed is basically for increase businesses and agencies looking to increase customer loyalty. It supports various locations and program reporting.
#2. Loyalty
Loyalty works assist businesses in developing customized loyalty and also rewards services for both internal sales and revenue growth and external customer involvement. Via education and online training, as well as valuable consumer rewards, the customer loyalty program works to create long-term B2B customers. Look to advanced analytics to help focus promotions and markets to target markets more effectively.
#3. Openloyalty.io
Openloyalty.io employs a cloud SaaS loyalty model that provides businesses with various views for administrators, customers, and even a POS-specific view. Hence, customers are kept engaged by over 150 built-in rules focused on purchasing actions, segments, and individual settings. Through the API, you can connect to almost any platform or interact with other apps.
How to Calculate the Return on Investment
Historically, measuring the efficacy of loyalty has been limited to a gradual model: consumers collect benefits or offers, and a company waits to see who responds over a certain time span. Analytics tools make it easier to calculate the ROI of your loyalty program apps. So, you can monitor the effectiveness of your efforts using an uplift model.
An uplift model provides a control group against which the returns of the loyalty offers can be tested. So, the control group consists of consumers who were not introduced to the customer loyalty program. Thus, it allows you to compare the effect of the independent variable—your benefits and rewards—to the control. Some top-tier vendors provide this in their software platform; you can also build your own uplift model.
After allowing the model to run for a few months, you will review the data to determine the rewards and benefits that are most successful at increasing engagement and which strategies result in the most significant return for your company.
Advantages of Software for Loyalty Programs
Some of the benefits of using a software loyalty program include the following;#
#1. Allows clients to become cardless
All loyalty program information is maintained on the phones. This means customers can be at ease even when they forget their cards.
#2. Flexible rewards
It allows you to create your ideal loyalty program and rewards structures that best suit your customers.
#3. Automation
Set up other processes to trigger if certain circumstances are met (such as birthday rewards, VIP invites, and reactivation texts/emails, or reminders to update clients via phone call), saving you time and hassle.
#4. Tracks Record
It also gets and evaluates customers’ behaviors.
How can customer loyalty software help businesses improve customer experience?
Customer loyalty software can help businesses improve customer experience by making it easier to offer personalized rewards and incentives, and by providing real-time feedback and insights about customer behavior.
What is the difference between customer loyalty software and customer relationship management (CRM) software?
Customer loyalty software is specifically designed to manage and grow customer loyalty programs, while CRM software is designed to manage customer interactions and relationships more broadly.
How can customer loyalty software help businesses gain a competitive advantage?
Customer loyalty software can help businesses gain a competitive advantage by providing the tools and resources needed to manage and grow customer loyalty programs, and by providing real-time insights into customer behavior and preferences.
How does customer loyalty software integrate with other business systems and technologies?
Customer loyalty software typically integrates with other business systems and technologies, such as CRM software, marketing automation tools, and e-commerce platforms.
What are the key considerations when selecting customer loyalty software?
Key considerations when selecting customer loyalty software include the software’s features and capabilities, integration with existing systems and technologies, ease of use, and overall cost.
What role do mobile apps play in customer loyalty software?
Mobile apps often play a critical role in customer loyalty software, as they provide customers with easy access to their loyalty program information and rewards, and can help drive engagement and loyalty.
Customer Loyalty Software FAQs
What are the four types of customer loyalty?
Four types of loyal customers you need to know
- Active Loyals (43% of the adult population) Stay loyal to brands for both routine and special purchases. …
- Habitual Loyals (23%) Stay loyal for routine buys but shop around for special purchases. …
- Situational Loyals (9%) …
- Active Disloyals (27%)
What is loyalty management system?
Loyalty management software helps businesses create, manage, and analyze customer loyalty programs. These products allow businesses to identify either repeat customers or potential repeat customers, and then send them incentives such as discounts or rewards points so they return to that business
How do you manage loyalty programs?
Steps to develop a customer loyalty program
- Study your current customers. Here are some questions to ask about each customer: …
- Prepare your customer loyalty program. …
- Set goals, and measure them with a CRM. …
- Set a budget. …
- Decide which customers to target. …
- Choose tactics that will encourage client loyalty.
