Impact Is Hands Down My Favourite Loyalty Program. Here’s Why.
Updated: Jul 2
“Which is your favourite loyalty program?” read Venkatesh’s LinkedIn post on the morning of 21st September 2022.
Upon seeing this, I immediately made a mental list of all the loyalty programs that I love such as
CRED points loyalty program
Amazon Prime premium loyalty program
Zivame tiered loyalty program
but you know something?
None among these were my first choice because I was in awe of an app that had recently become part of my daily routine - Impact.
While Impact doesn't have a specified loyalty program that offers exclusivity, they were still able to tap into customer loyalty. Let's find out how.
Impact - A Blend of Fitness and Kindness
What if I told you that you can save someone’s life by going for a simple walk in a park? Or you can sweat to educate?
You may say, “How’s that even possible?” and trust me, I’ve been there too till I started using Impact - a health, fitness and charity app.
The app has raised more than 2.3 billion for charity and has over 10 lac downloads.
With a ‘Get fit, Do good’ mantra, the app enables you to workout, track steps and convert them to money for charity.
You can donate ₹10 for every kilometre you cover to various social causes.
Here’s how it works.
Impact app onboards an NGO supporting a social cause
Companies pledge a donation amount to a cause
Once a cause goes LIVE, users workout to achieve target amount virtually
After donation amount is complete, companies transfer money to the NGO
How Did Impact Start Impacting Me?
On 4th August, I saw a leaderboard pop up in our Flyy WhatsApp group. This was followed by an interesting conversation between Venky and Prakash.
While it was nice to see such a competitive spirit, I thought, “What’s all the hype about?”.
My doubt soon vanished into the thin air when Prakash shared a link to join the app.
As I was a bit curious, I ended up installing the Impact app but wasn’t curious enough to explore it, honestly.
But something changed on 7th August when I saw Venky share another leaderboard.
This time, he’d secured 1st position on the leaderboard and challenged Prakash by saying “I need some competition.” “Okay, this app has got to be something!” I wondered, opened the app and the rest is history now.
Since I work out anyway, I decided to utilise it for a good cause and began engaging with Impact more.
Impact Started Growing On Me
I like to go for morning walks with a usual routine of putting on my running shoes, plugging-in my Airpods and opening Spotify.
But there’s been a change ever since the Impact app came into my life. Now, before Spotify, I open the Impact app and set my workout mode to ‘outdoor’.
That’s not all when it comes to my interest and inclination towards the Impact app.
During an evening stroll with my mom on a nearby park’s track, I asked her to take 2 more laps so that I could bag more steps.
Moreover, I started to look forward to my morning walks with a new determination.
Why? Because I was motivated to
See how much I can donate through my steps
Maintain my daily streak so that I can win more badges
Beat my co-workers and level up on the leaderboard
And you know the best part? The moment when I see my steps getting converted into virtual money for a good cause.
But if we were to go back to the start, what was the main reason behind Impact making it to the top of my favourite loyalty programs list?
Because they put gamification at the centre of their loyalty program.
Impact Got Gamification Right
Let me tell you a short story about how much of a difference gamification can make.
In 2018, I decided to sign up for a gym membership. I was so excited that I paid ₹7000 for a 6-month membership, and spent ₹3000 more for gym shoes and clothes from Decathlon.
1 week into ‘Oh I’m going to be so fit’ goal, I gave up! I quit because
The friend who’d decided to go to gym with me backed out
I was too lazy to walk all the way to the gym on my own
Basically, I didn’t have any motivation. In fact, before quitting the gym, I’d even skipped a few days because it just didn’t matter.
So what changed in the case of the Impact app? I mean, it was just an app, right? How did I become so regular with it?
Turns out, there were 3 main gamification factors:
1. Daily Streak Maintaining a daily streak literally pushes me to return to the Impact app everyday and achieve my daily goal. This is because I don’t like to break my streak for the fear of losing something I gained after days of effort. No one likes it, right?
As per Psychologists, this is because we’ve this emotional reaction to losing something we’ve created, and that’s what keeps us going with streaks.
2. Leaderboard This is really interesting. Everyday when I get back to my Impact app to donate my steps or maintain my streak, I also check my team leaderboard.
When I see the position I’m at, it fills me up with a competitive spirit to beat the co-worker at-least before me.
For example, I’ve been trying to leave my colleague and good friend, Aadhi, behind and well, I almost did till she told me, “Oh, wait. I’m yet to donate my steps for today”. Sigh!
3. Badges Badges are another reason why I look forward to using the Impact app everyday. I don’t know why but badges give me a true sense of accomplishment especially since I’m working towards a good cause.
For example, being awarded with a title of Changemaker or Healthcare Hero makes me more invested in the app because I feel acknowledged. But the badges that I actually chase are Daily Streak badges. Here’s why. 1. I was checking into the app everyday in order to main my daily streak
2. After 7 days, I earned 7-Day Streak badge and that felt good
3. Next, I knew that I had to be consistent in order to win 15-Days Streak badge Sadly, I broke my streak yesterday and now I’m back to zero.
So you see, badges really help me keep going and this time I’ll make sure I win the next badge and flaunt it on my fitness achievement wall.
For example, I’ve been trying to leave my colleague and good friend, Aadhi, behind and well, I almost did till she told me, “Oh, wait. I’m yet to donate my steps for today”. Sigh!
Impact Loyalty Rewards Program
So far, it’s clear that gamification is the reason behind me choosing Impact as my favourite loyalty program but I just realised that’s not all.
There's one more reason - value.
Frankly speaking, if it was really that easy to achieve my fitness goals, my Apple Health App goals rings would never be incomplete.
But I rarely track my goals. Sometimes I forget to watch my Apple watch while other times I don’t really work towards achieving my fitness goals.
Turns out, it’s because I don’t connect with the goals on a deeper level. Now what if this was combined with a cause that I strongly believed in? Bingo!
That’s exactly what the Impact app does by offering a value-based loyalty program.
Their non-monetary rewards like charity donations help me see the bigger picture where I can actually change someone’s life for the better.
Loyalty Program Gamification
As per Adobe Digital Index, repeat customers are 9 times more likely to convert than a first time shopper. But how to ensure that such customers engage with your brand on a regular basis?
By adding gamification! KFC Japan used gamification to increase the previous year's sales by 106%. I’m going to talk more about it in my upcoming articles.
In the meantime, if you’d like to explore gamification in your referral and loyalty program, Flyy can help. Learn more here.
