Published on March 24th, 2016 | by Guest

7 Fallacies of Mobile Customer Loyalty Programs

The mobile app industry is in the phase of continuos changes that help in bringing the new revolutions in this realm. Few years back, the mobile apps were used to epitomize the status of the business. In present scenario, such apps have become a need for the businesses. The increasing impact of mobile apps enriches the users with a plenty of options to solve their product/service related needs. Thereby, for the businesses holding the mobile apps, it has become quite challenging to ensure that their customers never switch their loyalty to similar other apps.

Approximately 57% of the mobile apps conduct the programs for mobile customer loyalty but the ones that derive the expected outcome are very few. A survey by brand loyalty service by ClickFox 2012, 48% of consumers believe that the ideal time to ensure mobile customer loyalty is the first interaction of the users with the mobile app. Currently, the users keeps their hopes high to receive a qualitative service from the customer loyalty programs run by the mobile apps. Apps that lack the exceptional service are prone to be aborted by the users

It has been seen that companies often commit mistakes while executing the customer loyalty programs that results in their heavy loss. The key factors in such loyalty programs are observing the preferences and behavior of the customers.

Let’s figure out the common mistakes and solutions to them:

1. Improper Focus on Retaining the Customers

Acquiring the customers is just like winning the half battle. The real task is to retain them for permanently or for a long-term. Few of the surveys resulted in heartbreaking stats that say 80% of the mobile app users stop trusting an app after using it twice or thrice. While practicing the efforts for bringing the customers back, re-engagement of the customers is highly recommended.

Remarketing ads and deep-linking are the reliable ways to re-engage the customers. Feeding the customers with an ad of the app that they have aborted or stopped using is a perfect way to get them re-engaged with the same. On the other hand, deep-linking helps an app get exposure over the channels of social media as well as search engines.

2. Customer Complaints are Left Unattended

A complaint from the user should be considered as a bliss as it gives an opportunity to the app moderator to add more to its user-friendly nature. A survey by Sprout Social admits that 80% customer complaints are left unattended and the rest 20% are kept in the waiting queue of more than 10 hours. It is pretty fair if a customer doesn’t receive a proper response for the complaint and s/he switches to a better alternative. Reverting to the customer complaints/queries is an inseparable part of the customer loyalty program.

3. Not Compelling the Users to Give a Feedback

Waiting for the customers to report an issue or raise a query is not at all a wise move. The app marketers should make a contact with the users regarding their experience and feedback of the app. A customers hardly bothers to report an issue proactively as s/he has too many alternatives available. Keeping a tab on the issues reported by the customers helps you nip the same in the bud. Apptentive Data states in its survey that more than 60% customers remain loyal with an app that gives them liberty to have a word with the app makers to convey their concerns.

4. Hitches in Customer Loyalty Program Execution

Customer loyalty is one such program that should be initiated right from the time when an app developer equips the app with rich functionality for human use. Once the product is launched, the role of the executive team comes into the play to furnish the app in the best way and to remain interactive with the customers who report issues or post their feedbacks. If all the divisions of a business adopt the policy of ‘customer-comes-first’, then it gets easy to maintain a cordial and long-term relation with the customers.

5. Adopting “Birds of a Feather Flock Together” Approach for All Customers

Making a misconception that you can treat all the customers in the same fashion may backfire on your customer loyalty programs. You customer base is divergent and every user belongs to a different background in terms of the geographical location, age, sex, etc. How can their needs be same! So treating them in the similar way would be a deadly mistake. The fundamentals of customer loyalty programs suggest that every customer should be dealt accordingly after observing their reviews and ratings for the app.

6. Making Delay in Implementing Customer Loyalty Programs

It is already discussed in this post that the exercise of loyalty program should be performed right from the time an app is given final shape by the developer. A delay in the incorporation of loyalty program may cause for a dent in the customer base. Customer loyalty is one such imperative thing that needs to be focused by every team.

7. Poor Timing of Push Notifications

Push notifications are the perfect medium to furnish the personalized offers and other imperative things about the different facets of an app. But the point that deserves a mention is that if the timing of notifications is not appropriate, then they may appear annoying for the users. You must be the keen observer of users’ preferences and purchasing behavior to schedule the well-timed push notifications.

Let’s Wrap it up Here!

Customer loyalty program for a mobile app can be the decisive factor that either makes or breaks the reputation on an app as well as a business in the marketplace. There is no better way of customer retention and re-engagement rather than exercising the healthy loyalty programs. In this post, the common blunders have been mentioned; preventing them will surely help you in your efforts of running a successful customer loyalty program.

Author’s Bio:

The blog has been penned by Ashni Sharma, an application developer working with AppsChopper. With a penchant for writing interesting and highly informative blogs, she has been contributing to various magazines and forums.

Tags: customer, fallacies, loyalty, mobile, programs