A loyalty program required for a small business and an enterprise are poles apart, and so should their loyalty software’s features be.
But can there be a software which can address the requirements of small businesses as well as that of enterprises? The answer is ‘yes’, but a manager must be clear about the features that one requires for a certain size of business, so that it can be ensured that in the name of a comprehensive Loyalty Program Software, we do not end up subscribing to a software that lags features for our business’ size.
Loyalty Program software for Small Businesses
Small businesses have to work carefully on their customer retention programs, as retaining old customers creates a base for them to grow further.
To have an efficient and inexpensive loyalty program is important for small businesses. A loyalty software should enable small business owners to define their goals and then create a program to gain repeat business from existing customers and to attract new customers.
Here are a few features that a loyalty program for small businesses should have:
Synced with Point of Sale Software: A small business or retail store will find value in a loyalty software that can be linked to its point of sale software to avoid duplication of effort.
Reward tracking by customers: A loyalty software should allow shoppers to track their purchases and rewards while deciding about their current and future purchases.
Branding: Getting a white-labelled loyalty program can go a long way for creating a strong brand for a small business.
Notification, SMS or E-mail Marketing: It is important to educate your customers about the upcoming or running offers and promotions. A loyalty program should be able to do that.
Social Media Integration: A loyalty software that is connected to social media platforms allows small businesses to get a wider reach on their offers, making marketing efficient.
Mobile app: Small businesses prefer low setup cost, hence a loyalty program app for the business and its shoppers are of great value.
Loyalty Program software for Enterprises
Big businesses require a more sophisticated software to track sales, reward customers and create loyalty promotions. Enterprises spend huge amounts of money on creating a program to deliver value to customers and to motivate them to return to the business’ stores—online and offline. These efforts should be matched by the features of the loyalty software that they plan to implement their program through.
Here are a few features that are ideal for a loyalty software for an enterprise:
360-degree integration: Integration with POS, ERP, and other sales and inventory-related software is a must for enterprises, as they have to keep track of large stocks of inventory, more employees and a large customer base.
Customization: Big businesses, as they scale to bigger sizes, want specific features to implement and monitor the effectiveness of their loyalty program. Customization of features in a loyalty software is sometimes important for a big business.
White-labelled software: An enterprise generally spends a lot of money on branding, and they prefer doing justice to it in all possible ways. Therefore, having a white-labelled version of the loyalty software is important for big businesses.
Employee engagement and rewards: An enterprise has to enlist the interest of their employees to make their loyalty program a success. Unique employee codes required to add loyalty customers and to add or redeem loyalty rewards are a great way to track and reward employees for their contribution.
Larger server bandwidth: A big business requires a larger server bandwidth to ensure that they can maintain comprehensive databases.
Analysis: Analytics of the use and effectiveness of a loyalty program is important to allow the business to alter their loyalty program or enhance it in future.
Besides these main points, there are many features that your small business or enterprise might require.
The ideal way to figure out what will work for your business is to list all the features that you will require in a loyalty program software, and then look for a provider.
Softwares like Loyera, which offer a comprehensive software solution to small businesses and enterprises, are an efficient and cost-effective way to implement a loyalty program. They offer white-label and customisation services to add value for the subscribers.
Make a checklist of your desired features, and then ensure that your loyalty software offers them all to empower your business to reach its full potential.