Loyalty programs are incredibly popular. So for years brands have routinely relied on the rewards of strong programs to incentivize customer loyalty. Traditionally, this meant issuing membership cards to customers. But as the popularity of loyalty programs grew, so did the number of cards consumers were forced to carry. Soon they grew tired of shuffling through massive plastic decks just to collect a few points.
Many believed that apps were the answer to this problem. However, as more loyalty programs began going digital, more apps began to spontaneously and exponentially explode onto the scene. And customers also soon grew tired of screen swiping through innumerable pages of downloads.
This is called App fatigue. But by avoiding plastic cards and mobile apps altogether, Currito, a Cincinnati-based burrito chain, may be part of a new solution. Through the use of Google Wallet, Currito is making digital rewards available on the native digital wallet of Android phones. This announcement comes just after Google released details regarding its plans to pre-install Google Wallet on all Android devices.
Previously, Currito had already allowed access to its popular loyalty program through Passbook, Apple’s own iPhone digital wallet app.
“We have seen great results with our mobile loyalty program,” said John Lanni, co-founder and COO of Currito. “In contrast to all other mobile loyalty programs, our program is app-free and our customers just have to download the card and save it on their digital wallet apps, iPhone Passbook or Google Wallet. This makes it easier for them to subscribe to the program and stay in it.”
These integrations with Google Wallet and Apple’s Passbook help customers manage a wide range of digital loyalty programs, and Currito hopes that it will bring a new level of ease and convenience to its customers as well.
“Customers like the fact that we have a mobile solution that does not require an application download,” said Lanni. “We are not competing with millions of other apps out there. We just want to be in users’ digital wallets and build better relationships with our 
customers.”
Virtual Next powers Currito’s loyalty program. And, in addition to acting as a data analysis platform, it offers Currito the ability to provide mobile payments, couponing, and gift cards to customers.
“We looked at a lot of restaurant apps out there and realized that with the exception of Starbucks, all are struggling because they don't have Starbucks' frequency of visits,” said Bijan Shahrokhi, CEO of Virtual Next. “If a restaurant’s customers are not visiting them multiple times per week, they will not download their app. If they do, over 80 percent of them delete it in a month. With app-free digital cards, over 95 percent of the users stay in the program one year after joining it. Digital cards also cost less than apps and are more flexible since their content can be changed at any time without programming or coding.”