Turning visitors into regulars

A café, a salon, a chocolate shop, a flower boutique. What they have in common is that the same people could come back every week, and a lot of them don’t, simply because nothing reminds them to. A loyalty app is a small, practical fix for that: it gives people a reason to return, and gives you a way to reach them when they haven’t in a while.

Why it works

The idea is old and it is old because it works. Collect enough visits and you earn something. The paper card in your wallet did the same job, until it got lost or went through the wash. Moving it into an app fixes the losing, and adds the part paper never could: you can see what is happening, and you can reach the person holding it.

What you get that paper can’t give you

• Nobody loses their stamps. The card lives in the app, so a regular never starts from zero because they cleaned out their wallet.
• You can see the pattern. Who comes in, how often, which rewards they actually chase. Quiet Tuesday afternoon? You can see it, and do something about it.
• You can reach a phone directly. A new seasonal offer, or a gentle nudge to someone who hasn’t visited in a month, goes straight to them.
• One programme, every branch. Run the same scheme across all your locations, from a single screen.

Keep it simple to start

The programmes that work are the ones people understand in a sentence. Buy five, the sixth is on us. Earn a point per visit, climb a tier, unlock a perk. Start there, watch what your customers respond to, and adjust. You don’t need a complicated scheme; you need one people bother to use.

A regular is worth far more than a first-time visitor. A loyalty app is just a reason to become one.

Where to start

This is exactly what our own loyalty app, dPoints App, is built for, and it’s live today. Take it as a subscription, or have it deployed for you. Have a look at dPoints App, or tell us about your venue.