What to write in a loyalty notification

Your customer is walking, waiting for a bus or putting the shopping away. The phone buzzes, they glance down, and they read one sentence. If they understand what you are offering and until when, you have won. If not, the phone goes back in the pocket and the message is lost.

With Digikart, a message is 120 characters at most. That is short, and that is a good thing: a notification is not a newsletter. Get to the point: no pleasantries, no signature, those are words you could use for what you are offering.

A good message has three parts, in this order.

• What is happening: one precise thing, not “an exceptional offer”. “A free brioche” is clear, “some surprises” is not.
• For whom, or on what condition, if there is one: “when you buy two”, “when you show your card”.
• Until when: a day, a time. With no date, nothing is urgent, and the customer forgets.

On iPhone with the large-format card, the message also appears at the top of the card, on a single line cut off after a few words. So put the most important thing first: “Free brioche this morning” rather than “This morning, come and discover our free brioche”.

On the card, the offer stays displayed for 24 hours, 48 hours or 7 days, as you choose: remove it by hand if it ends sooner.

They all fit within the limit. Replace what needs replacing, and keep the shape.

• A quiet Tuesday: “Quiet Tuesday: a free coffee with any pastry, until 11 am.”
• The end of the day: “A few éclairs left: buy two, get one free, until closing time.”
• Something new: “New: the apple tart arrives on Friday morning. It goes fast, come early.”
• Valentine's Day: “Valentine's Day: book your table for two before Thursday evening.”
• Mother's Day: “Mother's Day is on Sunday: order your bouquet by Friday, it will be ready on time.”
• Christmas: “Christmas logs: orders open until 20 December, at the counter or by phone.”
• Back to school: “Back to school: a free child's cut with any adult cut, until Saturday.”
• A closure: “Closed from 12 to 26 August, back on the 27th. Your card and your stamps are waiting.”
• New opening hours: “From Monday we open at 7:30: your coffee is ready before your train.”

The Notifications screen in Digikart suggests the occasions of the moment next to the field: one click fills in the message, you correct it, and you send it.

Your customer can turn off your card's notifications in two taps, or remove it from their phone. Either way, you can no longer reach them. Four habits lead straight there.

• Writing for no reason. “Have a nice day, everyone” gives no reason to come, and teaches the customer to ignore your messages.
• Shouting. Capitals, “URGENT”, three exclamation marks: that is the tone of messages people delete unread.
• Inventing urgency. “Last places” when there are plenty left, an “exceptional” offer every week: customers notice, and false scarcity is a misleading commercial practice. Only say what is true.
• Repeating yourself. The same message every week ends up unread, then annoying.

Send it while the customer can still act. A morning offer is read the evening before or early that morning, not at noon. A restaurant writes before its customers have decided where to eat. A hair salon writes when people are still looking at their week.

There is no ideal time that suits every business, so be wary of anyone who gives you one. The simplest way is to try two moments, a few weeks apart, and look at your visits the next day.

Better a few messages that give a real reason to come than many that do not. Manual notifications start with the Plus plan, at €17 per month, with 3 sends per month: enough for something new, an occasion and a quiet spell. The Pro plan, at €49 per month, removes the limit and adds what goes out by itself: bringing back inactive customers, birthdays, proximity (see pricing).

To compare with SMS, figures included, read Wallet notification or SMS. For the customer who no longer comes, it is a different message: Bringing back a customer who has stopped coming.