Whether you own a small or large business, your customers’ satisfaction comes first, and so does the application of smart loyalty features for your venture’s future success.
To keep customers coming back to your brand, loyalty features come quite in handy.
Different businesses can rely on different loyalty features to attract upcoming customers and keep loyal ones on board – from loyalty cards to free punch card apps.
For instance, coffee shop owners can implement customer loyalty programs specifically intended for cafes, thus ensuring the growth of new customers, while keeping loyal ones afloat and happy with your brand.
A study by the Harvard Business Review showed that businesses focused on customer loyalty and loyalty features grew 2.5 times faster. What’s more, a 2018 survey by the e-commerce marketing platform Yotpo, found that 39% of loyal customers spent more on products from a business they’re loyal to – even if cheaper options exist elsewhere.
After looking into over two dozen loyalty programs, we have chosen the best for your brand, based on their offered loyalty features, setup simplicity, relevant industries, price, and more!
Top Loyalty Features for Growing Your Business
6. Goody
New Zealand-based Goody was created in 2014 as a universal loyalty system that any business could use. Today, it offers a full stack of loyalty rewards, marketing, and customer relationship management (CRM) tools. We chose it as the best for building customer relationships because it provides businesses with robust customer insights, marketing automation, and third-party integrations.
Goody lets merchants create custom, points-based loyalty programs with rewards and coupons. The platform offers a number of advanced features, such as sharing points across locations, sending coupons to encourage visits to new locations, and alerts for suspicious transactions or point redemption.
Goody also offers customer management and marketing automation features to create a loyalty program on steroids. Advanced reporting lets merchants get real-time data on customer demographics, visits, and buying behaviour, as well as reports of their store activity.
From there, merchants can segment their customers based on their life cycle behaviour and target them with custom email marketing campaigns, automated coupons, and point balance reminders.
Goody lets customers register via email, phone number, or mobile app scan and integrates with over two dozen POS and third party marketing apps – including Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, Square, Lightspeed, Vend, and Mailchimp.
Goody offers two pricing plans suitable for most businesses, as well as an enterprise-level plan. Prices are available by consultation only, but the company claims that its plans start at $79 per month.
5. Loyverse
Loyverse was developed in 2014 as a free point-of-sale (POS) customer loyalty program for coffee shops, restaurants, bars, and retailers. We chose it as the best for restaurants since it offers a free integrated POS and loyalty platform with affordable add-on loyalty features.
Loyverse makes it easy for restaurants, cafes, and retailers to turn any smartphone or tablet into a cash register. Users can track inventory, manage multiple registers or locations, and accept credit card payments.
With its loyalty features, Loyverse lets businesses reward customers for their purchases with a built-in loyalty rewards program – no additional hardware or software required. Customers can automatically enroll in a rewards program with their first purchase and get a rewards card that can be scanned at any business location.
Because Loyverse is a fully integrated POS, users can track the purchase and visit the history of any customer to identify their most loyal customers, make notes about their purchasing preferences, and award them bonus points for their loyalty.
As a part of the customer loyalty programs for coffee shops and restaurants, Loyverse is free to set up and use, and offers paid add-ons that allow users to manage their employees and get access to advanced inventory management tools.
4. Smile.io
Originally developed in 2012 as a points-based loyalty program for the Magento e-commerce platform, Smile.io now also offers VIP and referral programs for over 25,000 businesses. We chose it as the best for e-commerce because it makes it easy for customers to earn rewards from online stores through purchases, social sharing, and social referrals.
With Smile.io, merchants can create a points-based, VIP, or referral loyalty program with just a few clicks. Users can assign points to different actions like creating an account, sharing and referring friends on social media, and making purchases – then rewarding customers with discounts, free products, or free shipping. Customers can also get email alerts when their points are about to expire to encourage engagement.
In addition, users can create VIP programs to offer customers additional rewards and higher status the longer they stay with the brand. Set milestones based on points or dollar amounts and award VIP customers with bonus gifts, contest entries, special events and sales, and more.
Smile.io works with popular e-commerce platforms Shopify, BigCommerce, and Wix, and integrates with over two dozen third-party platforms, including Mailchimp, HubSpot, and Reviews.io.
Smile.io offers pricing plans for small, medium-sized, and growing businesses, as well as enterprise plans and free plans for businesses that just need a basic rewards program.
3. CandyBar
CandyBar is a digital loyalty punch card that was launched in 2017 by referral marketing company ReferralCandy. We chose it as our runner-up because it lets businesses set up a point-based loyalty program with no app download that customers can access via text.
Setting up a CandyBar account takes just three steps. First, a user signs up for an account that can be used free of charge for 14 days. Next, they enter their reward milestones, like five stamps for a muffin at a coffee shop, or 20 stamps for a 40% discount at a retail store. Finally, the merchant sets up one smartphone or tablet as a customer check-in device, and another that can be left under the register or carried in their pocket.
Redeeming rewards using this loyalty feature is easy and doesn’t require downloading a dedicated free punch card app. When a customer enters their phone number on the store’s login device, it pings the merchant’s device. From there, the merchant digitally stamps the customer’s card once they make a purchase. The customer then gets a text message with a link that lets them see how many stamps they need to earn their next reward.
The CandyBar loyalty feature provides merchants with a business dashboard that has the basic insights on enrollment, busiest days and times, and how often loyalty members visit the business. The software is entirely web-based and doesn’t integrate with any cash register systems or third-party apps.
There’s no cost to start a CandyBar account, and merchants can use it free of charge for the first 14 days.
2. Loopy Loyalty
Loopy Loyalty is a customer loyalty platform that allows businesses to create digital punch cards that customers can store in their Apple Wallet or Google Pay digital wallets. Merchants download the Loopy Loyalty app on a smartphone and scan the QR code on a customer’s loyalty card to issue a stamp on their phones. We chose it as the best overall because it lets businesses create a simple, points-based loyalty program with push and location-triggered messages.
Businesses using this loyalty feature can set up a digital loyalty rewards card in minutes and customize it with their own text, logo, and colors. They can choose either a single reward card that offers a reward when a card is full (for example, buy 10 coffees and get 1 free), or a multi-reward card that offers rewards at different stamped milestones (ex. collect four stamps and get $5 off, collect eight stamps and get a free appetizer).
Loopy Loyalty also lets merchants send notifications to all customers or a select group, and can also trigger notification via GPS or unique beacon ID (UUID) when a customer is near a business’ location. Finally, merchants can track key metrics to see which customers are the most loyal and retarget them with special deals or rewards.
Loopy Loyalty lets users try any of its plans free for 15 days. No credit card is required and they can cancel anytime.
… But on the top of the list, comes the leading loyalty solution – Glue Loyalty!
1. Glue Loyalty
Glue offers a complete suite of the most advanced, retention-driving, loyalty-proven solutions on the market. Glue’s products can be managed manually or automatically using Glue’s automated loyalty manager.
Glue is a cloud-based loyalty program builder that enables local business owners to retain a strong customer base using rewards, points, and coupon-oriented programs. Administrators can utilize a centralized dashboard to gain insights into several metrics, such as lifetime revenue per member, estimated total club value, total revenue, and many more.
Glue’s main features include automated loyalty programs, reminders, a shipping calculator, customizable mobile app, payment processing, client targeting, notification campaign builder, referral programs, and the list goes on. Users can choose from pre-built, industry-specific templates to generate basic applications and then customize logos, colors, icons, and beyond.
With Glue, every business gets their very own branded and personalized members club, just like the big-name retailers, and a vast variety of channels to communicate with your clients – bringing your business and your customers together wherever they are through Mobile Apps, WhatsApp, Your Website, Facebook, SMS, Email, and the Glue Website.
Glue facilitates integration with several third-party applications such as Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, and iCal sync, among others. Pricing is available on monthly subscriptions and support is provided via an online portal.
Glue does exactly what an in-house loyalty manager does, only better and at a fraction of the cost. Making retention a totally hassle-free operation, so all you have to do is practice saying ‘Welcome Back!’
If You Ask Us – Choose Glue!
As an in-house loyalty manager, Glue Loyalty is the cutting-edge loyalty answer.
You can have a branded members club and a complete suite of loyalty solutions that include everything from rewards and points, to punch cards and text updates. Most importantly, we automatically send the right incentive to the right individual at the right time, thus saving you time, money, and effort!
