Client Overview
The Client is a mid-size retail technology company revolutionizing customer engagement across omnichannel experiences. With over 300 partner retailers nationwide, Client offers membership-based, location-specific loyalty programs that drive customer retention through personalized rewards and real-time point accrual systems.
Members can generate prescription discount codes and support selected charities through the Client’s Charity Network. In partnership with major retail chains, our Client also offers delivery of prescription drugs and at-home health kits in eligible areas.
Reason for Collaboration:
Our client’s loyalty program had three big problems: rewards were too slow to update, their systems didn’t work together properly, and their mobile app kept crashing. As they grew to work with over 300 retail stores, these issues were making customers lose trust. They partnered with us to rebuild their entire loyalty program using Salesforce and Heroku.
Challenges:
- Fragmented Loyalty Systems: The client’s reward program was scattered across disconnected systems that could not keep up with 300+ retail partners’ requirements. Their membership data was in silos, point balances showed up late, and membership tier updates took so long. This wasn’t just inconvenient; it was costing them customer trust.
- Slow Reward Processing: When a customer scanned their QR code at checkout, the system was too slow, taking hours to show the new points. Points took hours to appear, promotional rules often didn’t work right, and that “instant reward” feeling turned into frustration. Their technology just couldn’t keep up with customer expectations.
- Frustrating Mobile App Experience: Their React Native app had potential, but it was slow and unreliable under real-world use. Features like checking points or redeeming rewards didn’t work well, and their app often showed outdated information, leading customers to stop using it.
- System Couldn’t Handle Growth: As they added more retail partners, their backend couldn’t keep up. During flash sales, the system would slow down or stop working completely, requiring manual fixes and causing problems for stores and customers.
Solutions:
We leveraged Salesforce Cloud (Sales, Marketing, Service, Experience) with third-party integration, replacing their legacy systems with automated, HIPAA-compliant workflows. Here’s how we resolved their pain points:
- Unified Loyalty Platform: We implemented Salesforce Loyalty Management as the central system to manage all customer rewards, with Heroku automatically keeping everything in sync between the stores and the main database. Now, the customers can earn points that reflect immediately, eliminating guessing games. Heroku Connect replaced the old manual processes and made sure point balances and membership levels were always accurate and up-to-date in real time.
- Instant Reward System: Our team rebuilt the system to process rewards instantly using fast caching technology (Heroku Redis) and real-time data streaming (Heroku Kafka). Now, when customers make purchases, their points appear in real-time, and all special offers apply correctly every time.
- High-performance Mobile App Experience: We developed new, faster connections between the app and the rewards system using Heroku. The app now works smoothly even during peak load times, with quick loading for point balances, easy QR code scanning, and always-updated rewards. Features like special location-based offers and notifications keep customers engaged.
- Scalable Architecture: Our experts built a Heroku-based infrastructure that automatically scales to handle user load during peak times without slowing down. Updates that used to take weeks are completed in hours, and the system smoothly handles all transactions even during the busiest sales events.
