Development of loyalty systems for businesses

A loyalty program is a system that helps a business build lasting relationships with customers. It can include cumulative discounts, bonus points, personalized offers, cashback, gifts for recommendations, and much more. But the main thing is not the format, but how the program is integrated into business processes and how effectively it works with data.

A single discount system becomes part of the company's automation ecosystem. It collects information about customer behavior, analyzes transactions, allows you to segment the audience and launch personalized interaction scenarios. All this helps the business better understand its audience, act in a targeted and reasoned manner. Implementing a loyalty program in a short time brings tangible and measurable results to the business:

• Customer retention. As the cost of acquiring a customer continues to rise, customer retention becomes strategically important. A loyalty program helps reduce churn and focus on long-term customer value (LTV), not just one-time sales.
• Profit growth. Segmentation and communication automation allows you to launch accurate and relevant offers. This increases response, stimulates repeat purchases and increases average revenue without the cost of attracting new customers. Simply put, regular customers spend more, go to competitors less often and recommend you for free, bringing in a new audience. Thus, the bonus, discount and cumulative discount system in a beauty salon, restaurant, service sector and retail directly affects the stability of revenue.
• Data for analytics. Every customer interaction with the loyalty system is a source of data for analysis. Segmentation, analysis of frequency and cost of purchases, reaction to offers – all this allows you to build personalized scenarios and make informed decisions. With a digital loyalty system, your business receives not only a motivation tool, but also an analytical base for flexible demand management.
• Centralization of the customer base. All customer data is stored in a single digital space – purchase history, activity, accrued bonuses, reviews of promotions. This simplifies management, speeds up decision-making, and eliminates information fragmentation between departments.
• Automatic generation of offers. The discount system itself generates individual offers based on customer behavior, purchase frequency, average check, and other parameters. You don't waste time on manual analysis, the loyalty program does it for you.
• Improving customer experience (CX). A modern loyalty system helps to interact with customers in a targeted, timely manner and in a format convenient for them: push, email, chatbot, increasing satisfaction with the service, strengthening trust and forming an emotional attachment to the brand.
• Reduced staff workload. Manual management of loyalty programs often leads to errors and reduced efficiency. Automation reduces staff workload, speeds up customer service, and ensures accurate accounting of bonuses and discounts.

A successful loyalty program should take into account the consumption pattern, frequency of purchases and expectations of customers in a specific industry. Let's consider how the loyalty program bonus system works in individual industries and what business objectives it helps to solve:

• Retail (clothing, footwear, cosmetics, appliances). In retail, it is especially important to build a cycle of repeat sales. The optimal solution is a simple discount or bonus loyalty system that takes into account the customer's behavior and purchase history. It stimulates repeat purchases, allows you to segment the audience and work with personalized offers.
• Discount loyalty program for grocery chains and supermarkets. Due to the high frequency of purchases and price sensitivity, a simple discount system with instant benefits works well here - discounts at the checkout, cashback, fixed promotions. Quick access to benefits is provided by a digital card in the customer's smartphone, which automates the process and reduces service time.
• Loyalty system for a cafe, restaurant, coffee shop. To encourage repeat visits, a cumulative loyalty program for a coffee shop is advisable - for example, a bonus for each order or a system of virtual stamps. Limited-time offers also work well - promotions for lunchtime or weekends. Since not only benefits are important for customers, but also emotions, a loyalty system for a restaurant should evoke a sense of personal approach and care. A classic example of how a cumulative discount system works is every 10th coffee as a gift.
• Loyalty program for gas station, car service, tire fitting customers. In such a business, customers often return by the usual route - this opens up opportunities for building long-term relationships. A loyalty program for regular customers helps motivate not only for repeat visits, but also for additional purchases: car wash, tire change, MOT. For example, bonuses for each gas station or service can be exchanged for a discount or gift. This model is especially relevant for corporate clients - taxi, delivery and logistics services - where a large number of transactions directly affects savings.
• Loyalty program for beauty salons, barbershops, SPAs. Programs that take into account individual habits and encourage regularity work well in personalized service. Due to segmentation by type of service, automatic appointment reminders, and holiday greetings, the loyalty system for beauty salon clients increases the level of service and customer trust.
• Loyalty system for fitness centers and gyms. Stable attendance is critically important for this business. Just like the loyalty system for a beauty salon, a discount program for gyms and fitness studios includes stamp cards, bonuses for the number of workouts, personal discounts for regular customers and push communication. All this helps not only to retain the client, but also to maintain his motivation for regular classes.
• Discount program for medical institutions (clinics, dentistry). The loyalty program here should be delicate, confidential and as informative as possible. There are systems of discounts for repeat appointments, bonuses for recommendations, as well as targeted communication about new services or preventive programs.
• Loyalty system of an online store and delivery service. In a digital environment, a customer easily switches between brands. A program with cashback or accumulation of bonuses helps to form attachment to the platform. It is important that the card is always available on the smartphone, and the offers are adapted to the user's behavior.

The electronic loyalty system for businesses has long gone beyond simply accumulating points or providing discounts. Modern solutions, such as the EfirCards platform, allow for the implementation of a wide range of functions and mechanics that make programs fully digital, more flexible, more personalized and effective for both businesses and customers.

In the Personal Account for administrators and managers, you can implement the following functionality.

Choosing a loyalty program

Depending on the type of loyalty program, you can create different types of cards, each focused on different ways to motivate customers. For example:

• A discount card that provides the customer with a fixed percentage discount on purchases.
• A discount card with accumulation, which calculates the discount amount depending on the total amount spent by the customer, and can increase as turnover accumulates.
• A cashback card, where part of the funds spent is returned to the client in the form of bonuses or a certain amount of money on the card.
• Stamp card – the customer receives a stamp for each purchase, and if they accumulate a certain number of stamps, they are awarded a bonus.

All parameters of such cards can be configured in detail: validity period, amount of discounts and cashback, rules for accrual and redemption of bonuses. Such flexibility allows you to test different incentive mechanics and adapt the program to different audience segments.

Visual setup

Visual customization helps to preserve the corporate identity and make the loyalty program part of the brand. In the program, you can flexibly customize the appearance of virtual cards: change the background, add logos and active links to the website or social networks, and for stamp cards – choose color schemes and icons. When developing a loyalty program individually, you get a completely unique corporate design of the cards and the program interface.

Integration with internal systems

The API opens up flexible possibilities for automating any business processes related to the loyalty system, so that everything works clearly, quickly and without errors. The program can implement integrations with cash registers and other systems to automatically:

• earn cashback or stamps when making a purchase;
• record all transactions in the system;
• send messages and triggers to the client.

In addition to working with cash registers, through the API you can implement other useful integrations to scale marketing and improve customer experience - for example, transferring data to CRM - a complete history of interactions, purchase data, source of customer engagement.

Analytics and reports

Built-in analytical tools in the loyalty program allow you to track:

• number of cards issued;
• customer activity and number of transactions;
• the total amount of purchases for each type of card.

This data helps analyze the effectiveness of each loyalty mechanic and make decisions about their optimization and improvement. The ability to work with different card templates and audience segments makes programs more targeted and effective.

Communications and mailing management

In the customer loyalty program, you can set up trigger mailings to automatically send them en masse or upon certain events: card activation, reaching a specified number of stamps, approaching card expiration date, or customer birthday.

You can add one or more communication channels – Email, SMS, push notifications or Telegram, set the time for sending messages (before or after the event) with the necessary delay. With the help of such functions, you can build personalized and timely communication.

Chatbot in Telegram/ WhatsApp/ Viber

Integrating a loyalty program with a chatbot will provide customers with quick access to information about the balance of bonuses and cashback, terms of loyalty programs, and will also allow them to issue a virtual card and receive current offers.

Audience segmentation

The audience segmentation feature allows you to separate groups of customers based on various criteria – for example, gender, age, activity level, purchase amount or preferences. This allows you to create targeted and personalized offers, increasing the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and customer loyalty.

Client's personal account

In the Personal Account, the client can access:

• current balance of bonuses and cashback, transaction history and accumulated stamps;
• up-to-date information about current promotions and special offers;
• virtual card management – activation, blocking, updating personal data;
• setting up preferred communication channels and sending messages.

The personal account of the manager and client in an individual loyalty program provides centralized control of all processes and convenient access to data, significantly increasing the efficiency of management and the quality of service for the end user.

All these tools help analyze the effectiveness of each loyalty mechanic and make informed decisions about their optimization and improvement. The ability to work with different card templates and audience segments makes programs more targeted and effective.

EfirCards team has many years of experience in developing modern high-tech B2B systems, allowing us to develop loyalty systems that work for results. With us, you get a full cycle of services - from business process analysis to implementation and support of your discount loyalty program.

You can choose the best path – a ready-made solution, customization or order the development of a loyalty system from scratch – depending on your goals and budget. We have created our own product EfirCards, which can be quickly integrated into your business or adapted to specific tasks. If necessary, we will create an individual solution for any area and model of interaction with customers. We study business processes, design UX, implement the system, integrate with cash registers, CRM and analytics, and support you after launch so that the program remains effective in the long term.