Customer registration allows businesses to gather information that helps them reach consumers, improve service, create value, and develop incentives for brand loyalty. This is why new user signup is one of the most important features of any website, whether a company is big or small.
While it’s often overlooked when a brand has a large customer base and fewer new registrants, user-friendly registration is still key. After all, if a customer can’t sign up for an account, how can they continue to use your services? Monitoring new user registration should be considered a critical task for your support teams.
What happens when a customer can’t register for your rewards program?
Over the weekend I decided to buy a sub from Subway. I’ve tried to order off the app before, but my wife has a gluten allergy and they do not have the gluten-free bread menu option on the app. This time I was ordering solo and decided to try out the app experience.
Image source: www.subway.com
When you open the app the very first screen promotes registration, which allows the user to earn rewards from purchases. Data shows registered users spend considerably more and visit more often than non-registered users. It’s the reason many companies have rewards programs—such as PC Optimum, Air Miles, Scene+, etc.
I tried to register on the app, but I was redirected to an error screen. Luckily for me (thanks to good app design), I could continue to order without registering by ordering as a guest.
The rest of my ordering experience was smooth because overall, the app is really well built. It’s organized, intuitive, and helps you build your sandwich in the same order you would at the store. But once I’d placed my order, the app tried to encourage registration again. I clicked on the button one more time, but it was the same error result.
Image source: www.subway.com
When tech isn’t seamless, the user experience suffers
Digging a little deeper, I found Subway offloads registration from the app to a website fronted by Akamai Technologies. It is an API that is built to handle registration and authentication for the mobile site and app as well as the legacy desktop/mobile websites. It uses an industry standard OAUTH 2.0 web standard for authentication. But the website was in an error state, resulting in two big problems
- The registration flow was broken because the website was either down or the link between the website and the mobile app wasn’t working correctly.
- The user was given a very bad error message instead of a branded, user-friendly note.
The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60 to 70%
Subway is leaving a lot of money on the table by not making it quick and easy for new customers to sign up. A past customer is a warm lead, and there are countless statistics that show just how important it is to have a good loyalty program.
In fact, 58.7% of internet users believe earning rewards and loyalty points is one of the most valued aspects of the shopping experience. This was the second-most common answer, only below “quick and easy checkout,” which stood at a high 83%. Rewarding customers for their loyalty in a meaningful way should therefore be one of the top priorities of any business.
Shoppers will gladly swap info for rewards
Research shows 87% of Americans are willing to have many details of their activity tracked in exchange for more personalized rewards and brand experiences. This correlates to a sharp increase in people’s openness to being observed, and will lead to a completely new age of brand loyalty. Younger generations are increasingly willing to share more and more of their life with the world, and the trend doesn’t seem likely to slow down anytime soon.
Over 70% of consumers are more likely to recommend a brand with a good loyalty program
Loyalty program statistics and trends show how essential these services are for brands and businesses around the world. So much so that 77% of people are more likely to continue using a brand’s services if it has a loyalty program.
To make sure your brand loyalty program is easy to sign up for—and avoid the same registration fail I experienced on Subway’s app—follow these two recommendations:
- No matter how much you test, no matter how much you monitor, be prepared that your app might go down. Create a user-friendly, appropriate error message for if it does.
- Monitor and fix critical journeys on your website. You can monitor these pathways using third- party plugins like App Dynamics, New Relic, and more.
Thanks for reading! Check out more of our Website Nightmares here.
