A web-based loyalty program platform to enhance customer relationship and encourage loyal buying behavior.

Executive Summary

Customer Y aims to provide businesses with a modern Customer Loyalty Program (CLP) platform that can take on the challenges of modern customer behavior, such as multiple channels purchasing and social networks’ interactions. The web-based application developed by LARION enables its clients to increase revenue through loyal buying behavior and enhance customer relationship. Customers also benefit from a lot of free promotion through all social media channels.

About Customer Y

Customer Y is a Dutch startup specialized in Customer Loyalty Program. It’s different from other traditional CLPs in such a way that it rewards loyal customers for almost any desirable behaviors such as purchases, claims on social media, registering for a newsletter, applications for e-mails and much more. Customer Y creates a constantly growing relationship between customers and brands, increases the frequency with which customers return to make purchases. In addition, a model on the basis of retention and loyalty is not only more effective, but also much cheaper.

Challenges

• Every business owner understands that loyal customers are the key source of revenue, and word-of-mouth is the most effective marketing channel. That is why companies have been relying on loyalty programs to encourage customers to return and increase their satisfaction.
• However, traditional loyalty programs such as membership cards have shown some serious drawbacks and cannot meet the demands of modern customers.
• Modern customers use multiple channels to purchase and interact with brands. These interactions could happen in both real world and online.
• Desirable behaviors from loyal customers do not necessarily result in a transaction. Other types of actions like registering for newsletters, or inputting such data as gender and age, could be considered no less important.
• Word-of-mouth no longer involves direct face-to-face conversation only. People nowadays increasingly interact with each other via electronic means, especially social network platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, etc
• Businesses therefore need a new tool to monitor and manage all customers’ activities and interactions across multiple channels and media.

Customer Y’s founders set out to build a modern loyalty program that could take on these challenges. Such a system would allow businesses and brands to:

• Generate revenue growth and lower marketing cost
• Promote brands’ images and identities
• Reduce sensitivity to price competition
• Lower cost to acquire new customers
• Gain better customer insight

The Solution

• Customer Y’s loyalty platform is built on the idea that every desirable action from customers will be rewarded certain points. Customers can accumulate their points for later benefits such as gift cards or discounted price offers.
• This platform consists of 3 major modules: Client Control Center for businesses which are its clients and Member View for individual customers who are its users, and the Administration Dashboard for its administrators.
• Member View is where users can manage all of their activities and are rewarded points, and has other related functions such as a leaderboard.
• After logging in, users can see their current accumulated points and the associated level. Users can get to higher levels by accumulating more points. They can also see the most recent activities.
• In the “Activities Page” view, users can see all the activities that are organized and offered by businesses, along with their associated points. For example, they can like a status on Facebook to earn 50 points, or retweet a post on Twitter to earn 5 points. Users are also able to filter these activities by channels such as Facebook, Twitter, online purchasing, etc.
• In the “Points Page” view, users can see the rewards for each number of accumulated points. For example, they will be eligible for winning a necklace with 1,000 points. Users also can make their own wishlists of rewards.
• The Client Control Center allows businesses to manage their offered activities and rewarding points. They can also check all the social activities related to their brands, such as how many users have liked or shared their Facebook status.
• Core technologies used in the project: Ruby on Rail, HTML & CSS, Haml, jQuery, PostgreSQL, SES, integrated with Social networks APIs (Facebook, Twitter), etc.

Results

• Customer Y is able to track and reward loyal customers for almost any desirable behaviors, which include not just purchasing but also activities on social media such as Shares, Likes, and Tweets about products or brands.
• Customer Y provides businesses with better insights on their loyal customers. Where do they come from, how old are they and what are they interested in? So businesses can run targeted campaigns.

Quotes

“It is a pleasure dealing with such a professional and competent team, and follow through with every details.”