Ask the people around you: how many loyalty apps from local shops are installed on your phone? The most common answer is zero. That is no accident, it is an accumulation of frictions.
The loyalty app journey, seen from the customer
- Search for the app on the store, under the right name.
- Download it (at the till, on mobile data, with the queue waiting behind).
- Create an account: email, password, sometimes date of birth.
- Confirm the email, accept notifications, accept the terms and conditions.
- And start again with every new phone.
Each of these steps eliminates a share of customers. In the end, the programme exists, but it is empty. And the shopkeeper concludes, wrongly, that "loyalty does not work" when it is the channel that does not work.
The same journey, with Lecy
The difference is not cosmetic, it is structural: an app asks the customer to make an effort before receiving any value at all. Lecy reverses the order: the customer receives their point first, in one second, and never gives anything compulsory in return.
"But with an app, we get the data…"
It is the classic argument. In practice, a database full of accounts created under duress produces poor-quality data and low open rates. Lecy takes the opposite path: basic loyalty is anonymous, and only customers who choose to receive offers share their number. A smaller database, but one that has really consented: that is the one that opens SMS messages and comes back to the shop.
The best loyalty app is the one the customer does not need to install.