You have 47 opportunities a day to remind customers how great you are. Are you maximizing those opportunities?
Mobile phones might be an under- or untapped tool to boost loyalty, considering customers check their mobile devices 47 times a day, according to Deloitte’s Global Mobile Consumer Survey.
And all waking hours offer the opportunity: 40% of people check their phones within five minutes of waking up each day and almost as many check five minutes before going to sleep, the study found.
“Mobile is quickly becoming the remote control for our lives. For businesses, it’s the hub of interactions across digital channels and physical locations, and it paves the way for more and better customer experiences in both the real and virtual worlds,” says Brett Caine, president and CEO of Urban Airship, a digital growth platform.
Here are three ways you can pave the way for improved experiences and increased customer loyalty:
1.Ditch the (physical) loyalty cards
Many companies have leveraged Apple Wallet and Android Pay to accept mobile payments. Fewer have mobilized their loyalty programs. Making loyalty programs smartphone-accessible through mobile wallets has a powerful, positive impact on how customers perceive companies, according to research by Vibes.
In fact, the loyalty card route might be more useful than an all-on app because 60% of customers download two or fewer retail apps. Customers will more likely add your loyalty card (and its perks) to their mobile wallets, which are pre-loaded on most smartphones, researchers say.
2. Build your database
You probably already have a hearty email database of customers and send them mass messages. To complement email, build a mobile database for sending text messages.
Text messages get a 98% open rate and just a 5% opt out rate, one study found. So your chances of customers reading and acting on text are much greater than with email. The more they respond, the more loyal they’ll be.
You can gather more mobile phone numbers for your database by asking for them online, in email and in marketing campaigns. To get a bigger response, offer some kind of discount or promotion to customers who give their numbers.
3. Be frequent
If you go the app route, you’ll be glad to know that customers want notifications, and the more frequent those are the more likely customers will be to use and keep your app, according to research from Urban Airship.
Opt-in rates and engagement with notifications – customers acting on what they see and hear – have improved every year for the last three, researchers found.
The key to making messaging work: “effective frequency.” The more frequently customers are exposed to your company — through notifications, messages, promotions and useful information — the more likely they are to buy again. Researchers found that the sweet spot for frequency is between one and one-and-a-half per week.
