How to Choose Loyalty Program Software for Your Business

Would you be surprised to know that selection of the wrong loyalty software is one of the major reasons many loyalty programs fail? We’ll teach you 6 steps for making the right choice. Raised to know that selection of the wrong loyalty software is one of the major reasons many loyalty programs fail? Well, you shouldn’t. Joining hands with the wrong loyalty software provider and anticipating the success of your loyalty program(s) is just similar to driving a vehicle with faulty brakes and hoping that you’ll reach your destination safely and sound.

Loyalty software can be likened to sophisticated vehicles. After all, they drive loyalty programs forward. Just like the vehicles of the future are going to be propelled more by software than hardware, contemporary digital loyalty programs are highly dependent on software.

They can also be equated to hygiene factors. The best loyalty software may not always guarantee a loyalty program’s success. But bad-quality software always leads to the failure of even the best thought-out loyalty programs. Always.

That’s why it’s extremely crucial to handpick the right (if not the best) loyalty program software for your business and join hands with a reputable and trustworthy loyalty solution provider that has years of experience and a proven track record of designing and deploying high-quality loyalty software for all types of businesses.

How Do I Choose a Loyalty Program Software?

Here are six Steps for Choosing the Best Loyalty Program Software:

1. Determine the loyalty software’s purpose and what you want to achieve from it.
2. List the features you want from the loyalty program software.
3. Set a reasonable budget for the loyalty software
4. Look for some reputable and trustworthy loyalty software providers
5. Contact some software providers and ask about their free demos
6. Ask your marketing team to use the software and seek their feedback

1. Determine the loyalty software’s purpose and what you want to achieve from it

“Start with Why.” The approach, as clichéd as it may sound, has changed the way individuals and businesses define their purposes. To determine the purpose of your loyalty software (as well as the loyalty program), you also need to find your ‘Why.’ Ask some relevant questions like:

• “Why do I need the loyalty software?”
• “What’s the purpose I want to achieve?”
• “How can it benefit my customers and business partners?”

After figuring out the answers, it will be easy for you to determine the purpose of your loyalty program, and it’ll give you immense clarity about what you want to achieve from the loyalty software.

2. List the features you want from the loyalty program software

After you understand your loyalty program software’s purpose, you would want to list out the features that would help you manage your loyalty programs in the best possible manner. 

• Omnichannel support:

This feature is extremely indispensable in the present time as a majority of people use multiple channels to interact with brands. The right loyalty program software should enable customers and business partners to access loyalty programs and collect rewards via smartphones, tablets, and personal computers. 

• CRM integration:

As per new research, about 50% of companies that participated in the survey said that their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system massively impacted their customer satisfaction rate. Over 90% of them said that using CRM is crucial to their customer-centricity objective. These stats indicate that CRM is an exceptionally effective tool for building customer loyalty. Sophisticated loyalty program software must be able to easily integrate with existing CRM systems.

• Gamification:

As per the latest data, brands that gamification their customer engagement strategies report a 22% increase in brand loyalty and a 47% increase in engagement. The gamification feature is extremely crucial in the present time. That’s why you must make sure that the loyalty software you invest in should have a gamification feature.

• Feedback notifications:

This feature is extremely useful to seek feedback from customers and business partners. Is it useful? Well, as per a recent study, more than three-quarters of customers view businesses in a favourable light if the latter asks for and implement feedback. As the name suggests, the feedback notification feature allows customers to give feedback, which keeps open the feedback loop around the clock.

• Integrated social actions:

In the age of social media, integrating loyalty programs with social buttons is extremely crucial. This will enable your customers and online community members to refer and share through social media.

• Advanced analytics and real-time reporting:

This feature enables you to measure the performance of loyalty programs and generate relevant reports in real-time. The feature enables businesses to know what’s right for their business and helps in taking necessary actions to accomplish the desired goals.

3. Set a reasonable budget for the loyalty software

After determining the purpose and features of your loyalty software, set a reasonable budget that would allow you to make the right investment to acquire the right software. It serves two purposes:

• It’ll enable you to set a reasonable upper limit and will prevent you from going beyond that amount.
• It’ll curb your temptation to under-invest in lower-quality software, even if you get amazing deals.

But do bear one thing in mind. Even though good things don’t come cheap, the right loyalty software doesn’t have to be prohibitively expensive. Some highly reputable and reliable software solution providers can equip you with the best-in-class software at extremely competitive prices. ‘Competitive.’ That’s the keyword!

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4. Look for some reputable and trustworthy loyalty software providers

According to recent stats, seven out of every ten millennials said that they won’t be loyal to a brand if it doesn’t have an effective loyalty program in place. Another study found that 8 out of every 10 customers leave a brand citing poor customer service and experience.

The above two data show why one needs to be extremely careful while partnering with a loyalty software provider. Handpicking the right one can play a huge role in ensuring the success of the loyalty program.

After hitting the enter button, you will get about ten to eleven websites. Visit the top-ranking ones and take a closer look at their platforms, features, testimonials, pricing plans, and contact information. Also, most software providers mention that they provide free demos on their websites.

Apart from software providers’ websites, you can also visit some aggregators’ websites such as Software Suggest or G2 to get a bird’s-eye-view on the top 10 or top 20 loyalty software providers and compare the specifications, features, prices, ratings, reviews, pros and cons, and more at one place.

Suggest Read: Robust, Fully Automated, And Cost-Effective Loyalty Program For Digisol

5. Contact some software providers and ask about their free demos

After shortlisting some promising loyalty software providers, contact each of them to know more details about their software, pricing plans, and of course, their free demos. Many loyalty software providers offer a week-long to 15 days of free demos. If any software provider says that they don’t offer a free demo, end the conversation politely and move on to the next. 

Rinse and repeat the process till you find one that provides a free demo for a reasonable period so that you can test how the software works for you and take an informed purchasing decision.

6. Ask your marketing team to use the software and seek their feedback

After availing of the free demo, introduce the trial version of the loyalty software to your marketing department and ask them to use it. Also, tell them to share their feedback daily. That will enable you to understand how your team can use the software with each passing day and it will also enable you to determine the level of compatibility. If everything goes well, consider buying the software without wasting any more time.

Suggest Read: Choose a Loyalty Software Provider That Fits For Your Business

To sum up,

Equipping your business with good quality loyalty software is as important as planning and designing effective loyalty programs. Investing in bad software is worse than not investing in one altogether. It leads to a waste of time, money, and effort.

At LoyaltyXpert, we have provided all types and sizes of businesses with the best-in-class loyalty programs. If you are looking for the right loyalty software, then contact us today to book a free demo.