Repurposed review for Loloyal: Loyalty and Referral

Oct. 1, 2023

I decided to try Loloyalty because their pricing seemed reasonable for a store just starting its loyalty program. The Starter level is sufficient and does almost everything I need; I've been frustrated before by apps that have a free or low-priced option only to find that the money-saving tier is crippled to the point of not being usable, but that's not the case here. The app and its widget are highly customizable and I got them to reflect my site's style. The widget can be opened with a button or by using a URL. I have complete control over how many points are issued for each activity, whether it's transactional or social, again without any limits because I'm only on the Starter plan. Customer service has been available and friendly, and the developers seem very interested in customer input. The weak points are the notifications and the referrals portion of the program. I understand they're working toward letting us customize the emails, which is good because it's needed. I've opted to turn their emails off altogether. It needs better integration with Shopify's email module and Flow so we can plan our own communications rather than depend on theirs. I do like that the referral program lets me decide exactly what each party receives: I give the referring member points while the prospective customer gets a percentage off coupon, but you could just as easily change either to free shipping or a free gift. That said, the communications are terrible. If the member wants to send an email to a friend, it is so badly formatted as to be almost indecipherable. The landing page has zero branding and is so poorly translated that I am truly concerned that prospective customers will think it's a phishing attempt. Neither the referral link nor the discount code generated for the customer is exportable, so I can't create my own email campaign, and because the discount code is only available on the landing page, I can't opt to circumvent that. They mentioned that the referral link can be sent to Klaviyo, but what about those of us who don't use Klaviyo (and, for that matter, why only Klaviyo), plus that still requires us to use the terrible landing page. So, all of that is why I deducted a star. Even though I have complaints and think there are serious issues that need to be resolved, I am mostly happy with and am still using the app.