11 Characteristics of a Loyalty App Your Guests Can't Ignore

Loyalty apps enrich and accelerate customer engagement and provide restaurants with valuable data insights. Compared to old school, analog loyalty programs like physical punch cards, loyalty apps give you access to real-time updates about customer trends and integrate with mobile payment systems. 

But how difficult is it to create your restaurant’s loyalty app? Fortunately, with the right guidance and strategies in place, you can develop, launch, and optimize a loyalty app that both enhances customer retention and increases sales. 

11 Stages of Building a Loyalty App 

To launch a successful loyalty app for your restaurant, there are certain key features and characteristics that you need, including:  

1. User-Friendly Design 

Great loyalty apps have a user-friendly design that’s intuitive and easy to use. Let’s face it: your customers aren’t going to spend time interacting with a mobile app that loads slowly, is hard to understand, or feels incomplete.

2. Personalized Rewards 

A one-size-fits-all loyalty rewards program no longer entices customers to engage nor motivates them to continue spending money with your brand.  For example, if you’re a bakery or coffee shop and the first reward customers receive is a muffin, some customers don’t eat muffins. This isn’t a good reward for them and they’ll likely feel like a number in a spreadsheet instead of a human valued by your business.  

Instead, having a loyalty app that offers a personalized reward based on their past purchase history or gives them a choice of rewards is a better option. Customers will be much more motivated to rack up loyalty points if they know there’s a reward they actually want waiting for them. 

3. Reward Tracking 

Transparency is key in any interaction with customers. They should be able to see how far away they are from receiving rewards. Your loyalty app should show them how many points they’ve racked up and how many more they need to get the next reward from inside the app. 

4. Mobile Payment Integration 

In many cases already, customers can pay for purchases within a restaurant’s or convenience store’s app. Many hospitality and retail businesses have already incorporated mobile payments into their main app or loyalty app. For example, at many of the quick service restaurants in Walt Disney World, you can order your meal from your smartphone and pay for it so you simply go to the counter to pick it up.  

5. Push Notifications 

Push notifications are an important feature for your restaurant to send reminders or notifications of rewards to customers. Sometimes this triggers a customer to return simply by reminding them that it’s an option.  

6. Geolocation-Based Offers 

What if you can send an offer to customers who happen to be traveling nearby? With geolocation-based offers, you can set up a geo fence near your restaurant. When customers pass into the area located around your restaurant, a special offer can pop up as a notification to encourage customers to stop by.

7. Referral Program 

Inside your loyalty app, you can make it possible for current customers to get rewards for referring new customers to your restaurant. For instance, if they share on social media about your restaurant, you can reward them with extra points. This could make customers much more likely to refer their friends and family to your restaurant.

8. Online Ordering 

Much like mobile pay, online ordering that can be done through your loyalty app streamlines the process and makes it easier for customers to place an order. This functionality could convince someone to download your app in the first place as a way to place their order online. 

9. Loyalty Tiers 

Incorporating loyalty tiers  rewards your most loyal customers with a higher status. Maybe bronze customers receive 1 point per $1 spent, but gold customers receive 2 points per $1 spent. This could encourage customers to spend more to reach the gold status than they otherwise would have spent. 

10. Customer Feedback 

Giving customers the ability to leave feedback anywhere they interact with your business is key to excellent customer service. This allows customers to know that you care about their experience. It also gives you the opportunity to address any issues that arise to minimize its impact. 

11. Integration with Existing POS and CRM Systems

Ideally, your loyalty app should integrate with your existing POS and CRM systems. You don’t want to be forced to migrate to a different platform to connect your business tools or have to keep information separated.  

Promoting Your Loyalty App 

For widespread customer buy-in, it’s important to have a launch plan for your new loyalty program. You must educate customers about the new app and what’s in it for them if they download it. These initial promotions should encourage downloads and registration.  

You should also use a multi-channel strategy to promote your app. This includes email marketing campaigns, social media posts, and in-store promotions to increase app adoption and engagement. 

After this initial launch, you’ll always need to gently remind new customers that it’s available. You can incentivize the use of your loyalty app with app-exclusive offers or bonus points for orders placed through the app. 

Measuring App Performance and Engagement 

Once you have your loyalty app in place, you need to make sure that it’s working well. You can use tools to measure app engagement, user satisfaction, and the app’s overall impact on sales. Some popular options to consider include Google Analytics, Mixpanel, and Amplitude. 

You can use A/B testing to add new app features or refine existing app features based on user behavior and preferences. By launching new features to a targeted group, you can see how your customers react to the change before launching it to all customers. Continuously add new features and updates to keep users engaged with your app over time. 

The Bottom Line 

The strategic advantages of developing and launching a loyalty app for your restaurant cannot be overstated. It can encourage customers to visit your restaurant more often and spend more, while also referring your restaurant to their friends and family.  

Customers have grown to expect restaurants to have apps. You can embrace this expectation and have this technology benefit your business. Start by making a list of the types of features you need and find a mobile app developer to help bring your ideas to life.  

If you’re ready to incorporate other strategies for improving customer engagement, try a demo of our guest management solutions. Book your demo now to see Paytronix’s solutions first-hand.