Frozen yogurt shops offer the best of both worlds: Customers can either linger and enjoy their treats in a location, or make a swift exit to get home before they melt.
Thanks to the power of mobile technology, Orange Leaf is taking the speed and convenience of the frozen yogurt experience to a whole new level. The chain, which was named one of the top three new franchises by Entrepreneur, is rolling out a new mobile app that combines payment, a loyalty program and offer redemption into a unified experience. The release builds upon Orange Leaf’s initial app, called My Orange Leaf.
The mobile app is taking the Orange Leaf loyalty program, called Ounce Back, to new heights, helping the merchant better engage with its highly connected, younger consumer base. Orange Leaf will roll out the app to its 300-plus locations throughout 2014.
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“We have a high rate of customers already participating in our loyalty card program, and we plan to use that existing relationship with the customer to increase mobile app and wallet adoption,” said Michael Christy, Director of Information Technology at Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt, in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. “Our target customers are very tech-savvy and we anticipate a high adoption rate of the new mobile and improved loyalty experience.”
Powered by FIS Mobile Wallet, the new app will allow Orange Leaf to offer superior payment capabilities within its own branded mobile app. As a result, consumers will have an updated app and improved loyalty program experience.
“We plan to improve not just the technical experience but also the overall customer experience with the deployment of the new mobile app and wallet,” Christy said. “It will improve the overall speed of service and provide Orange Leaf the ability to reach our customers via a media better-suited for our brand.”
Loyalty programs have been a staple in retailers’ acquisition and marketing methods for decades, but adding mobile to the mix presents a plethora of new opportunities, Christy noted.
“When paired with a mobile wallet, we feel it will give our customers something to get excited about,” Christy said. “Our new app will add value to our Ounce Back program and offer customers more opportunities for in-store discounts and coupons.”
Keeping Pace With Loyalty And Payment Trends
To ensure the new mobile app met the needs of dedicated customers, Orange Leaf collaborated closely with FIS and Paydiant, which powers the mobile loyalty component, “to determine what features would make the cut on this release,” Christy said. “We want to make sure we focus on improving the customer experience with a technology they are already familiar with today and not overwhelm them with too many new technologies too soon.”
The cloud-based mobile wallet stores all user credentials securely in the cloud, so information is only transmitted during a transaction. Because the app will work with existing smartphones and in-store POS systems, Orange Leaf won’t need to invest in costly hardware upgrades.
“The FIS solution allows our stores to use the existing infrastructure with minimal software updates,” Christy said. “To complete a system-wide rollout, we knew the technical requirements must be lower to reach our customers quickly.”
FIS Mobile Wallet also can easily accept new payment methods, which offers greater flexibility to Orange Leaf and in turn, its customers. Because the solution allows for future payment types, “knowing the mobile payment industry is still growing,” Christy said, “we felt the FIS solution best suited our needs.”
Taking a phased approach to the implementation, Orange Leaf is currently piloting the mobile app in select regions and stores for testing and analysis, Christy explained. “Once this phase is complete, we expect to see a brand-wide rollout that will begin later this year.”
