Should My Business Use Front Flip? A Few Things You Should Know.

Yesterday, one of my clients in the Florida tourism industry told me she was approached by a company with a novel idea: We want to give you an app to keep up with your best customers, as well as those who’ve fallen by the wayside. The company can’t claim anything close to the name recognition status of Groupon, LivingSocial or Foursquare, but it’s gaining popularity quickly. It’s called Front Flip, and in my opinion, is worth looking into as a potential addition to your social marketing mix.

My client was offered to be a part of the app’s launch into her market, and asked me very simply, “Should my business use Front Flip?” I decided to turn my answer into a blog post, so I could share it with others.

What is Front Flip?

Front Flip in action

Think of it as a digital loyalty punch card, but a lot more fun and with built-in analytics you can use for further targeted efforts. What makes it more fun than a punch card is the instant-win, scratch-off theme of the app, where users can actually swipe the screen to “scratch” off and reveal whether or not they won a prize. In my opinion, it’s one of the best ways I’ve seen QR codes used in marketing. The companies website points to these five primary features for businesses:

  • Connect with customers and engage them on a local level
  • Reward loyal customers and motivate them to visit more frequently
  • Capture new customers and win-back people you haven’t seen in a while
  • Increase sales and influence buying decisions
  • Generate valuable buzz within your customers’ social networks

Each scratch-off instant win is time-sensitive, pushing customers to act sooner than later — a nice feature for business owners. The app also allows users to easily share the fact that they won on Twitter and Facebook. Even better, users can share a gift with a friend, which creates a reason for “sharing” the deal rather than just posting to Twitter or Facebook that the user won the prize in the first place. This one-on-one style social sharing has a big impact on the recipient. Another cool feature is the ability to send “gifts” (deals that don’t require a lucky scratch-off result) to loyal guests or those who haven’t visited in a while, without requiring them to check in. This is a nice proactive feature akin to what you might accomplish with opt-in SMS (text message) marketing.

Why Front Flip is very different from Groupon, LivingSocial, Amazon Local, Google Offers and all of the other daily deal sites

At first glance, it’s easy to look at Front Flip as another daily deal-style app with a unique spin. In fact, it’s actually more like Foursquare than the daily deals apps because a) it’s location-based (the others aren’t really) and b) it’s focused on bringing people back (loyalty marketing) rather than getting new customers in the first place, which is what Foursquare offers through mayor status and multiple check-ins. Also, Front Flip doesn’t take a portion of your sales as a result of the deals. Instead, they charge an upfront fee based on company size.

Front Flip fills in gaps where Foursquare is lacking

As I mentioned, Front Flip is more about bringing folks back than it is bringing them in the first place. Foursquare is much better at doing this than the daily deals sites, however there are a few features of Front Flip that fill a current gap in Foursquare, and that is the ability to send offers to a consumer regardless of whether or not there was a check-in. This could be very useful in bringing back customers who were once loyal, but stopped visiting for some reason. A Front Flip “gift” could be just the engagement they need to come back. I really like this feature because it uses the insights used from incentivized check-ins (which is what Foursquare is good at doing) and proactive messaging (which is what SMS, or text message, marketing is good at doing). So, essentially you have proactive, but informed, outreach to engage two certain types of customer we should all be interested in: the loyal customer and the once loyal customer.

Should my business use Front Flip?

The idea of gleaning user data from frequent visits is actually not a new concept at all. Grocery stores have been doing this for ages. CVS and Walgreen’s have both physical and digital rewards cards. My local Moe’s Southwestern Grill has a POS (point-of-sale) system that captures visits through mobile phone collection, and rewards accordingly through SMS (text message) marketing. Another local restaurant I visit offers a magnetic strip card that, when swiped by my server, tracks my visits and rewards after a number of visits. None of this is new. A location-based “check-in” style app is also not a new concept. Foursquare and its competitors are built for this very purpose and major social networks like Facebook and Google+ have functionality built in to their mobile apps and mobile websites. Apps allowing business to offer deals that drive action is also not a new concept as Groupon, LivingSocial have shown. Proactive marketing to lists is as old as sending texts and emails to an opt-in list.

Despite the lack of novelty of each of the main pieces of the Front Flip puzzle, it’s the way these pieces come together in an integrated, all-in-one package that really impresses me. Front Flip has created a simple system that is easy and inexpensive to do combine things that were once disconnected, custom-only, or expensive solutions (if not all three). Front Flip gives the power of “sophisticated enough” loyalty marketing to those who can’t afford a complex custom solution. When Square launched, it certainly wasn’t the first company to allow businesses to accept credit cards, but it did revolutionize the market in that it made the cost of entry very low and easy to launch for small businesses. Front Flip does the same for basic loyalty marketing and, in my opinion, is worth a try for small businesses, especially those in the tourism industry like my client’s that have physical locations with visiting customers (think restaurants, attractions, shopping outlets, retail stores, etc.). Where I don’t see a match currently is a service industry where customer retention is a bit more complex and perhaps less frequent, and where a physical “check-in” may not be possible (think about many involved in the wedding industry, for example). Overall, I am very impressed by Front Flip and look forward to helping clients add it to their marketing mix.

What are your thoughts on Front Flip? Has your business used Front Flip to successfully achieve a loyalty marketing goal? I would love to hear about it.

6 Comments
  1. Reply

    I am an attraction owner in NE Florida and my customer base is tourists that comes to this destination. In most cases, these people comes only once but we may have a very few locals that brings their relatives while visiting the town. Any ideas how I could benefit from Front Flip?

      • Nate Long
      • May 27, 2013
      Reply

      Hi Gunnar, thanks for stopping by! I would love to chat more about some specific ideas on how your business can benefit from Front Flip. I’ve connected with you on LinkedIn and we can set up a time to chat through that channel. I’m a fan of the Pirate show, by the way. Looks like a lot of fun!

  2. Reply

    The sad part is that front flip sounds a lot better than it really is! The app is junk! The qr code rarely scans since its on a lamaneted card usually hidden away amidst the other marketing propaganda at a business. Then when trying to use the map on the app to locate a business if you pan around or try to zoom in and see what’s where the app crashes! It also crashes if you try to share a deal on Facebook. The pitch sounds wonderful from the outside looking in but the reality is its too much trouble to even use it just to possibly win something free. Which also rarely happens. Yeah that’s right! I’ve tried to use this app at several businesses in Kansas City where the company started and it sucks when you don’t win and well… That’s the last straw for me… In my opinion, a rewards program should be just that… Rewarding! Don’t make me spend 5 min trying to get the stupid code to scan to scratch of a message that says “sorry try again next time” good luck front flip… Your app needs a lot of work!
    -unhappy user

    • Reply

      Marc, I’m guessing your phone isn’t working properly and causing the app to malfunction. I’ve used the app in several states and it worked perfectly each time. I don’t always win but it’s fun to be able to have the chance to win at that time instead of having come back in a certain number of times to get a small discount that everyone gets. With this app my friends have won different prizes from me at the same time. I think it’s a great app and every restaurant should use this 🙂 it’s more fun than collecting points that take FOREVER to add up.

  3. Reply

    Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Front Flip for local merchants, Nate! It’s truly like no other marketing tool that I have seen before and I’m very excited to share this opportunity with my clients and friends throughout Tampa bay. ‘Launch Partner’ slots are filling up quickly, as there will be added PR and press benefits for being on the Front Flip platform during our June launch. To readers who’d like to know more about Front Flip and how to leverage the power of mobile outreach and loyalty marketing, please contact me directly via email: Jessica.Dwyer@FrontFlip.com or on my cell: (727) 412-4432. Thanks!

  4. Pingback: Should My Business Use Front Flip? A Third-Party Perspective | Loyalty Unleashed

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