How can AR increase customer loyalty?

By leveraging the engagement and tailored experiences that can [and should] be achieved, AR and MR have the possibility to push the industrial digital transformation, allowing the shop-floor operators to perform their work in a more interactive, helpful and efficient way, effectively establishing a new paradigm in human-machine interaction.

Previously Marketers and brands were creating video and imagery content to allow users to see the products explored by their a famous celebrity, with time there comes a behavioral shift in experiences. Customers and end users started craving for personalized experience. Everyone wanted to try the product or the experience with themselves, and with the social wave carved the pathway for the AR experiences to shine and reach to the mass audience. Brands are now creating AR experience that allow users to try virtual Makeup, Apparels, Personal Accessories, Furniture & Electronic products, and list goes on and on. With this, AR users are highly prevalent in Tourism, Education, Medical, Hospitality, Gaming, Real Estate and many industries.

Beyond personalized experiences, when employed effectively, AR has the potential to generate collective experiences that foster social interactions and human connections. Similar to multiplayer platforms that enable users to form bonds, AR has the capacity to unite entire communities and facilitate shared experiences through augmented content. The fusion of customization and collective intelligence becomes a compelling combination, with MR and AR serving as instrumental tools to support such experiences. It's crucial to remember the fundamental purpose of activating an AR layer or applying a filter. It revolves around enhancing visual communication among individuals and communities, strengthening connections through augmented interactions.

In addition to personalization, AR offers a range of unique positive perspectives. Firstly, it enhances education by making complex concepts tangible, allowing students to interact with 3D models, historical reenactments, or immersive simulations, fostering better learning outcomes. Secondly, AR can streamline remote collaboration, enabling teams to visualize and manipulate 3D designs or data in real-time from different locations, improving productivity. Lastly, AR can revolutionize tourism by providing interactive guided tours, historical recreations, and language translations, enhancing the overall travel experience and cultural appreciation. These diverse applications underscore AR's transformative potential in various sectors.

Imagine walking down the street, seeing the street through your mobile phone, you see a few beams of light dropping down the street, labelling each with taglines such as 'Puma 50% off' or 'Starbucks buy 1 get 1' and there is a long list to the beams on the street. Such strategies are personalization of announcing their offerings.

True, not all AR activations achieve this. It's about the tailored narrative. Pokémon Go! was a success impacting individuals and real estate owners, but the current AR landscape offers various solutions, often lacking compelling stories or sufficient gamification for user retention. Learning from gaming tactics is essential for user retention and should be integrated into customer engagement strategies. Rewards, fostering a sense of belonging, building a community, offering discounts, and more are ways to give back to those who keep your brand relevant.

Pizza Hut UK did pull in some footsteps to their store when they allowed an AR game to be played and allow users to win discounts on a next order. These AR strategies are pure Customer Engagement, increasing to their fandom.

In addition to enhancing customer engagement, AR offers unique advantages such as personalized experiences. AR can tailor content and recommendations based on individual preferences and behaviors, making interactions more meaningful. Moreover, AR can serve as an educational tool, providing users with informative overlays and tutorials, thus improving their product knowledge and satisfaction. Lastly, AR can boost brand innovation by fostering creativity and experimentation, allowing companies to continually surprise and delight their audience, further solidifying brand loyalty.

In the content era, where people are either creating content, or consuming content AR adds a personalize touch with in it by involving the users to play around the content. This helps in buying users attention and showcasing the desired content in much creative/gamified way. The attention span of users is decreasing, where a creative and innovative AR experience can prove this otherwise.

The text makes AR in the same level of gamification, which by itself will create immense engagement. For AR based applications to standout and create effective engagement and retention you need to add interaction between user and environment. Hands free interactions, multiplayer experiences and connect AR directly into the social network interactions. These are initial examples how to leverage the best engagement on top of existing gamification techniques.

Users wants to keep coming back to the experience which has values such as, 1) The experience that offers Emotional/loyalty value, 2) The experience that offers Commercial value, and 3) The experience that offers Educational value. And, a well though-out AR experiences can offer one or multiple values out of the above. These values can than become the reason for the users retention. Examples: - Emotional/Loyalty values: A Star War fanboy trying out laser sword in AR. - Commercial value: Rewards, coupons, offers by participating in an AR campaign - Education value: An scientific theory explained with a 3D visualization and interactive animation.

Absolutely! Customer retention and engagement can be significantly enhanced through the right experiences. Combining a user-friendly interface (UX) with geolocated AR and Tag-based AR is a promising approach. Exploring the versatility of technology is the way forward. With AR, you can initiate an interactive ad to redeem a voucher, guide the user to a geolocation-based AR experience within a mall, and conclude with an AR filter in the fitting room. This multifaceted approach enhances the overall customer journey and strengthens brand engagement.

Kids loved when Mamy poko introduced AR game with Poko Chan. Take this as a Pokemon go but for kids. They would force their parents buy Mamy Poko pants for their little siblings than any other brand. Similarly, Pizza Hut UK did pull in some footsteps to their store when they allowed an AR game to be played and allow users to win discounts on a next order. These AR strategies are pure Customer Retention.

Yes I agree that AR can drive retention, beware that when creating AR experiences you need to have focus on retention on the AR itself. This could backfire and have low retention after while. Using AR with sole purpose to drive retention should be used with care and good research of your market needs.

An important aspect of AR shopping experience is that it is a huge time and effort saver. One can instantly find out the suitability of a product rather than wait for a product to reach them and then in case it is not suitable precious time is wasted in exchanging or returning it. With AR this exercise becomes unnecessary. Additionally , AR helps a customer arrive at a decision without investing any money into the product. All from the comfort of a device. When AR provides exciting,gamified and enhanced customer buying experience , and also saves a customer’s time and effort , without requiring the customer to first buy a product, then these attributes of AR contribute in a big way to enhance brand loyalty.

In addition to fostering customer advocacy, Augmented Reality (AR) offers several other unique benefits. AR can enhance customer engagement through interactive experiences, driving deeper connections. It can also improve product visualization, enabling customers to better understand and appreciate products before purchasing. Furthermore, AR can provide valuable data insights, helping brands gather user behavior data for personalized marketing strategies. Lastly, AR can promote brand innovation by creating opportunities for novel and immersive marketing campaigns, setting brands apart in competitive markets.

In addition to brand differentiation, AR offers several more advantages. Firstly, it enhances customer engagement through interactive and immersive experiences, increasing customer satisfaction and retention. Secondly, AR can boost sales by allowing customers to try products virtually, reducing purchase hesitation. Thirdly, it provides valuable data on customer behavior and preferences, aiding in targeted marketing efforts. Lastly, AR can streamline training and support for employees, improving overall operational efficiency. Services like AppReal can help businesses harness these benefits across various industries.

As more and more brands hop on the AR train, I believe adding layers of intrigue to the experience (scavenger hunt or even "flip the lever on the building" to trigger the AR event- that will be the next iteration of where an AR experience can differentiate a brand and start using the collective experience to build community around the brand.

Many customers are loyal to brands. We have seen the great fan following Apple, Tata, Samsung, Dabur, Reliance, Pedilite, DLF, & more have. Brands like themselves, in some or the other way, are able to help their non-loyals visualize things and turn them into customers before winning their loyalty. Additionally, several groups (say Tata Neu, Reliance) do offer loyalty cashback. Similar groups in US offer scratch cards in AR and win better loyalty , by taking their personalized interactivity to the net level.

Several groups (say Tata Neu, Reliance) do offer loyalty cashback. Similar groups in US offer scratch cards in AR and win better loyalty , by taking their personalized interactivity to the net level.

In my experience costs are the main drive for AR projects. Sure you create easily a simple interaction. For this to be cost effective the project should try maximize retention and engagement, keep it simple and interact with the user to drive value to the user, which too often is ignored.

A story... Back in the '90s as a DJ, I'd carry my Amiga PC into clubs & besides using it to trigger song samples, it could "draw" on the big screen - sending greets to (loyal) patrons who'd then naturally bring in their friends (driving advocacy) to the club on their birthdays etc, to show them their names 'up in lights' on the club screens. - Their two-minutes-of-fame. Now with cellphone AR and soon, video-see thru / optical see-thru visors, how much more can be done to drive AR 'foursquare' like location based experiences? Likewise for clothing - minus the NFTs, please! Therein lies the power of AR marketing. Digital content, pin registered to real-world locations, revealed thru AR. A new era for personalized customer experiences.