Mobile loyalty programs are becoming increasingly popular among smartphone users, and retailers, restaurant owners, and other merchants are starting to recognize the size of the potential that they hold. However, all loyalty programs are not created equal over the mobile channel, so it is important to know how to evaluate one for its efficacy.
Use the following questions to help to decide whether or not a mobile loyalty program has the best chances of success:
• Is the program transactional? Even though it is being used through a new technology and channel, the basic rules of loyalty programs remain the same. If it has been properly designed, then it should provide customers with rewards based on their purchases on an individual transaction basis.
• Is there compatibility between the plug-and-play and the current POS environment? In order to for it to work properly, this solution has to be able to send the transactional data directly from the POS at the time of the sale, in real time, or following the purchase in batch processing reports.
• Does it provide adequate security? Though loyalty programs based on plastic cards are on their way out, what consumers do like about them – and what is causing them to cling to them – is the fact that they are highly secure both for reward redemption and throughout the accumulation of benefits.
• Has it been proven to work? This may be a new channel, but you want a program that has already proven itself to work and won’t put off customers with its complications, crashes, bugs, problems, and unpredictable results.
