Ukrainian Starbucks analog launches the most successful app

Aroma Kava can be called the Ukrainian analog of world-famous coffee shop Starbucks. Thousands of people visit it on a daily basis to get delicious drinks, original desserts, and sandwiches that don’t pull too much money out of the customers’ pockets.

For these and many other reasons, this coffee shop company keeps the position of one of the favorite brands in this niche. Located in more than 20 Ukrainian cities, Aroma Kava aims at widening horizons and increasing the number of customers with the help of different resources available in the modern world.

One of the methods to increase brand awareness as well as the number of loyal customers is launching a mobile application that features the place and its unique propositions. There are many successful examples on the market demonstrating how a mobile app can actually influence sales through implementation of appropriate loyalty programs. For example, Caribou Coffee, the second largest and most popular coffee brand in the U.S. after Starbucks, has streamlined the check out process and suggested many perks through the mobile app. It was a very good move that provided the company with more customers and higher revenue.

Aroma Kava recently invested into the development of a mobile app that can work on both iOS and Android, and be the touchpoint for all the customers who appreciate the online interaction. It adds value to the business and allows it to:

• provide customers with better service
• implement loyalty programs
• share important information about company
• gather data for further analysis and practical usage

All these goals can be reached with the help of one mobile application, and result in a significant increase in the number of loyal customers. While any business appreciates returning clients, the food and beverage industry requires them to survive and prosper.

As mentioned above, Aroma Kava recognized the statistics that prove the potential of app-delivered loyalty programs. There are many examples, such as the Starbucks app, that show the success of mobile-based reward programs. The Ukrainian coffee shop joined them with over 52 thousand users all over the country. Within the first three months after the official launch, the application reached the top position in the industry and continues to gain users.

It became possible thanks to many factors. One of the most important is the intuitive and truly user-friendly design. Each user downloading the app from App Store or Google Play understands right away how to create an account, and how to start using the app to actually get rewards and participate in loyalty programs. This simplicity is strengthened with the gamification elements incorporated into the application dashboard. It doesn’t feel too serious, more like a fun game that makes the process of purchasing coffee even more pleasant every day.

The main objective, of course, is to provide customers with the actual information that they might use. For example, number of points already gathered by buying coffee from Aroma Kava, the most up-to-date reward programs, personalized special offers, or current news about the company. All this information is structured and positioned in a way that fits customers’ needs. To reach this goal, the company building the app – Dinarys – has developed the design from scratch. It not only has satisfied the business needs of the company, but also expectations of the coffee shop clients.

The app provides customers with the possibility of account creation. Which is useful as it stores all the personal information, including the number of bonuses, discounts, and special deals. Due to this fact, the backend of the application required integration of CRM and maintaining all the security policies. The safety of information is on the highest level, which keeps users happy, and makes them more happy about the whole idea of being loyal to one company.

To make sure that the customers don’t forget to use the Aroma Kava application, the notification system has been integrated. Some people are annoyed with notifications falling from everywhere around; however, in this case, the whole idea was well thought through. For the best performance, push notifications can be customized to particular user’s taste to be useful instead of annoying. More to that, many customers of the coffee shop actually appreciate notifications that inform them about things like:

• they have enough points to get a free coffee
• the price of their favorite dessert got lower
• new type of drink appeared in the menu and is 50% off
• they won a free ticket to some interesting event

When somebody gets a notification, it’s more likely for this person to actually go and perform some action. For example, get that free dessert or try the new type of the drink on menu. The good thing here is that all the stakeholders are satisfied: customers get what they want along with good service, while the business gets more chances to grow and develop.

Being one of the largest coffee shop networks, Aroma Kava also uses the app as a useful marketing tool. It provides the company specialists with valuable data gathered from customer profiles and their behavior patterns. For example, some customers always buy the same type of coffee with the same type of dessert.

Having analyzed this information, the coffee shop may customize the reward for this customer to include exactly what they like. Not only does it give more chances for the sale to happen, but also sends a message that the company does care about the customers. This is how loyal customers are created, or become even more loyal.

Interactions like this through the mobile application builds a strong connection between the brand and its customers. Loyalty cannot be bought, but it can be gained through regular communication. Mobile application satisfies this need by providing an effective channel of communication between the company and its customers.

It’s widely known that loyal customers tend to visit the place more often and spend more money on suggested goods, especially if the special deals are offered personally. It is likely that in the near future many other Ukrainian companies will follow the example of Aroma Kava and invest in the development of mobile apps. In the meantime, Aroma Kava wins the prize.