8 Best Customer Loyalty Program Software and Apps to Increase Customer Retention in 2023 [Full Review]

Are you a small business owner or a marketing manager?

Then you probably know about the struggles of keeping your customers loyal and increasing retention.

We have the solution to this problem: loyalty software. It’s easy to integrate, doesn’t cost much, and it has lots of benefits for your company.

In this article, you will talk about the top loyalty platforms and apps for increasing retention.

Regardless if you own a small or a large business, there is a solution for everyone.

How to Evaluate Loyalty Program Software and How We Rate Them

Before we get started, here’s how we rate loyalty software and which factors you should use when choosing loyalty software for business:

1. User reviews.
2. Demos & trials availability.
3. Price range.
4. Product features & functionality.

And now, here are the top loyalty programs to use!

How to Set Up and Run a Successful Loyalty Program?

One thing is for certain- you will not only want to simply set up a loyalty program, but you will want to create a loyalty program that lasts!

It is therefore very important to take each development step carefully and thoughtfully and to design a simple, appealing and comprehensive loyalty program.

Here is a guideline of key questions to consider, when deciding how to set up and run a successful loyalty program:

• Set your goals– define clearly what you are trying to achieve with the loyalty program. For example: are you wanting to encourage brand engagement; drive footfall; enhance personalization; or to incentivize repeat purchases? These goals should be unique to your business.
• Try to understand your customers first– conduct surveys or questionnaires to help you understand what type of rewards or point systems will benefit and attract your customers the most. What products or services have a stronger attraction in your store? Are there possibly alternative new products or services that your customers would be interested in?
• Numbers– how will you measure results? Find a data capturing system that is easy to implement and follow.
• Target audience– what is your target audience and what percentage of customers do you want to be a part of the loyalty program?
• Money– how much are you going to spend on your loyalty program? How will this fit within your budget and what possible adjustments will need to be made?
• Technology– how will you implement your loyalty program? Selecting the right loyalty software for your unique business and marketing objectives, is crucial for the success of your loyalty program. So make sure to check out our list of loyalty software and apps below to help you find the perfect app. However, don’t stop there! Look carefully at other reviews and app comparisons to find the software that suits your business the best. Then identify how you will link your loyalty software/app to your online store and POS.
• Actions– identify what customer actions you are trying to encourage?
• Incentives– what incentives or rewards are you going to offer? Try to implement a unique set of rewards, not just freebies, using rewards such as gift cards or a tiered rewards point system. Find something unique to your business and simple for customers to follow and understand. If it is too complicated, it could become burdensome.
• Promote– how to keep people engaged long term? Socialize your program across different social media platforms. Send regular media posts out to remind customers of your program, without bombarding them with too many advertisements.
• Adjust– generate customer feedback and assess how you can improve your loyalty program? Encourage customers to provide you with reviews and feedback on your loyalty program. Then actually take the necessary steps to improve your program and software. Ensure that you have a professional, competent and highly responsive support team in place to deal with customer enquiries and feedback. 

Let’s take a closer look at the top loyalty programs and software to use for your loyalty program:

The 6 Best Customer Loyalty Platforms

1.Preferred Patron

Preferred Patron Loyalty is a private-label program for loyalty marketing, customer engagement, marketing automation and gift card processing.

They offer one of the most complete loyalty solutions available today, serving small, medium and large businesses across most industries since 2004, including B2C (business to consumer), B2B (business to business) and B2E (business to employee).

From incentive programs to VIP points, digital rewards, cash back, referrals and gamification to SMS and Email Marketing, your loyalty program won’t go unnoticed! Supply your own rewards or offer digital rewards from major brands.

Preferred Patron Loyalty is best used by brick-and-mortar businesses, either standalone or within POS platforms such as Square, Clover and VendHQ Retail POS.

Additionally, clients with an online presence benefit from seamless integrations to e-Commerce systems like Shopify, Pxier and Gloria Foods Online Ordering, as well as options for selling eGift Cards online.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Offers many features and is highly configurable.
• Simple to use.
• Offered as Web Software or PC Software.
• Can recognize customers for a variety of behaviors, including spend, visits or specific actions.
• A REST API for custom integrations in available.
• Customer service is highly rated, based on customer review history.

Cons:

• The Standard edition is not 100% white labeled.
• Premium plans are required for true 360-degree private branding.
• POS Integrations are limited to a few major options.

Pricing: $29.95 to $299/mo per store.

Website: https://www.preferredpatron.com

P2P Rating: 4.5/5

2.Smile.io (+ Shopify App)

And, of course, our favorite loyalty software, Smile.io!

Smile.io allows you to launch a program with features such as VIP, points, and referrals. It currently serves over 50 million members and keeps growing.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

1. Easy to operate.
2. It has a good reputation.
3. You can reward customers for a variety of actions such as product reviews, social media sharing, and others.

Cons:

1. There are not enough placement and customizable options.
2. Some members keep creating multiple accounts which confuses other members.

Website: smile.io

Pricing: $59-$299/month

P2P Rating: 4.5/5

3.Candy Bar

Candy Bar is a web-based loyalty software for brick-and-mortar stores. It aims to create reward programs for engaging repeat customers. With every visit, customers earn a stamp that resembles a digital version of a standard loyalty punch card.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

1. Collect valuable customer personal data and access the ‘analytics dashboard’.
2. It’s a two-way messaging concept at the base of the software.
3. CandyBar is available on desktop computer or mobile device.

Cons:

1. Loyalty programs are based on store visits rather than total spend.
2. No automation and POS integration.

Website: https://www.candybar.co/

Pricing: 30-day free trial, then $45/month.

P2P Rating: 4/5

4.Perkville

Perkville is perfect for membership-based businesses that are looking to reward their customers. Perkville integrates with various industry-specific POS systems allowing you to give out rewards to those who complete certain actions.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

1. Integrates with many popular POS, membership, and CRM programs such as Mindbody, Lightspeed, and Vend.
2. Rewards your customers for a wide variety of actions such as purchases, referrals, and more.
3. A lot of flexibility.

Cons:

1. Only businesses that require customers to sign up for an account can use this software.

Website: https://www.perkville.com/

Pricing: Starts at $99/month per location.

P2P Rating: 3.5/5

5.SpotOn

SpotOn is a loyal software best used by brick-and-mortar businesses that want to increase new foot traffic. It has various additional features such as online review access, marketing solutions, and an analytics dashboard. There is an app for customers to find your business, search for deals, and track rewards from multiple businesses.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

1. Customers can see all the deals in your store through their app and check the points they earned.
2. Create multiple reward options for your customers and track which opportunities they take advantage of.

Cons:

1. Customers can’t earn points for actions other than purchases.
2. It requires your customers to download the app to be able to participate.

Website: https://www.spoton.com/

Pricing: $35-$195/month

P2P Rating: 3.5/5

6.Loyalzoo

Loyalzoo is a loyalty software that uses the gamification concept to help businesses improve their retention. Just like CandyBar and SpotOn, it works with digitized punch-cards. LoyalZoo strives to increase the interaction between the merchant and customers.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

1. It supports both stamps and point-based loyalty programs.
2. Customers can check-in from their phones, so there are no problems when using QR-codes.
3. The app also integrates with Facebook.
4. Customers can post automatically to their feeds when they check-in.

Cons:

1. Customers are required to download the app to participate.

Website: https://www.loyalzoo.com/

Pricing: Free trial, then $27-$7-/month per store.

P2P Rating: 4/5

The 2 Best Shopify Customer Loyalty Apps

1.Marsello

Marsello is a very effective omnichannel marketing app, which focuses on turning promising shoppers into loyal customers. This Shopify app offers a great customized rewards program, through targeted SMS and email marketing campaigns. Marsello is a wonderful tool for assisting you in your business, particularly when it comes to understanding your marketing and reaching out to your customers in the most effective way. Behind the scenes, the app will segment customers based on their shopping history, spend data and visit frequencies, and automatically send emails that encourage customer engagement, customer retention, and increased purchase frequency.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

1. User-friendly
2. Automated email marketing campaigns that can be integrated with Mailchimp. Or if preferred, you can stop using Mailchimp.
3. Great customer service and support. Quick to make adjustments and improvements based on customer feedback.
4. Can be integrated into e-commerce stores.

Cons:

1. Limited customization of templates allowed.

Pricing: starts at $49 per month, with additional add ons.

P2P Rating: 4.5/5

2.Rise.ai

Rise.ai is a great, user friendly Shopify app, used to boost a business’s customer sales and loyalty through an automated credit store solution. Customers who participate in the program receive a store-valued digital loyalty card and are able to top up and purchase items accordingly. This app also allows businesses to customize their loyalty programs through automated rule settings, based on order values, customer lifetime values and other customer segmentations. Customers are also able to follow an easy referral process through the app.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

1. Setting up an advanced, complete gift card program.
2. Developing a rewards system that is easy to follow for customers, using your unique store’s currency.
3. 7 day free trial available for all their different plans.

Cons:

1.   App may require a level of technical know-how to set up.

Pricing: $19.99 – $599.99/ month

P2P Rating: 3.5/5

Our Two Top Picks for Customer Loyalty Software

For those of who are still unsure about what customer loyalty software to use, here are our picks:

• Best overall: Smile.io has the best features businesses of any size could desire.
• For brick-and-mortar businesses: Preferred Patron is the best in this category.

Final Thoughts

All in all, loyalty programs are perfect for raising loyalty levels and increasing retention. These are definitely the 10 best tools around. So, if you use one of these, you will definitely succeed in your job.