Loyal Zoo

We were looking for a loyalty product that would not require a customer to download an app. Everyone has hundreds of apps these days, offering another one for a rare usage goes with resistance and unnecessary steps. They still have an app available, but optional for those who want it.

The sign-up at the front counter is instant. People can use emails or phone numbers to register. The app is fully integrated with Clover POS, and a few other POS to some extent. The customer gets a notification that points have been applied. They have a backend app just for staff to use for manual check-ins and quick adjustments. There is also an admin panel where you can see all the trends and general business settings. All three accesses (the customer-facing one, staff's access and the admin panel) can be open also in your browser, so you can literally open them on any device.

A nice bonus that you can send scheduled promotions to the signed-up customers via the admin panel. It is easy and powerful, the email looks professional and optimized for mobiles and desktops. The clients agree to the promos during the sign-up process and can easily unsubscribe within a promo email.

It is a fast, simple and efficient tool.

A few things that I wish could be changed or added to the app:

- The app divides customers into three categories, depending on their frequency of purchases: New, Slipping away and VIP customers. You cannot control that algorithm or place a person into a category manually when just implementing the system at your business. As an owner of a business, I like to have control of all the aspects that influence the experience at my facility, with some customers you develop more special relationships that cannot be calculated by unclear algorithms. One time a person comes as a VIP and another, as New and you can't really explain why. We are currently not using this option at all.

-The app offers your customers to sign-up for the loyalty program either by phone or email, they choose only one of them during the registration process. We could not leave the email as the only choice. I am sure it is not a big deal for the most, but in our case, we wish to eliminate phone numbers. People generally forget what they used in the first place and sometimes it creates confusion with missing points due to the multiple accounts.

Considering the cost and the load of benefits you get with Loyal Zoo, I can't really complain about anything.