19 Aug Welcome to iBe!

Welcome!

iBe is now live to order food at Cutlery Works in Sheffield.

 

As of today, you’re now able to order your food from Cutlery Works in Sheffield using iBe! This marks a huge step for us, as after years of development, testing, reworks, redesigns, failures, successes, more testing and then even more testing, we’re finally happy to let iBe into the wild and get people using it!

 

iBe offers business users 0% commission on sales, which completely goes against what every other similar platform does. We wanted businesses to feel like they had complete control over their presence on a 3rd-Party application that thousands of people used, so that they could increase their sales effectively. iBe is currently being released without any monthly fees as well, so they and iBe can grow side by side without any financial downsides.

 

 

Cutlery Works will be going through a transitional period, and will be phasing out their old app out for iBe. In this period, people will be able to switch their earned loyalty points over to iBe, so they can immediately see how the new loyalty system works. On the old app, ‘The Milestone Group App’, people had to spend a certain amount of money before they could then redeem points, and then use them against purchases. iBe makes the system far simpler and more transparent. People who have accrued points from their spend are offered the option to use their points for a discount when they check out on their order.

 

We’ve found, through a probationary test period that customers often spend more, more often, as they know they’ll be getting a discount on each order they do.

 

The Pioneers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With such a large site as Cutlery Works coming on board to help pioneer iBe, we’ve got a huge pool of businesses to use. This will allow us to test the app in an enclosed, real-world environment, and help us to catch anything we might have missed during previous testing! The staff at Cutlery Works are already geared up to show customers how the new app works while we iron out any kinks, so any errors we haven’t caught can be smoothed out with the customers, instead of leaving a bad first impression.

 

To access the app yourself, use your mobile device to open the webpage http://app.ibeloyalty.com . This will allow you to create your username (you can pick a really good one at the moment with so few users!), log in, and start ordering when you’re inside cutlery works. You’re able to add a payment card, order food and drinks directly to your table, pay through the app, earn loyalty points, then spend those points on your next order!

 

Downloadable versions of the apps will become available as soon as the app is as complete as we want it to be. Having it as a web app for now allows us to push out updates quickly and effectively in case something is completely broken. If we were to launch iBe as downloable apps on the Apple and Android app stores, we’d have to go through the entire app approval process every time we updated something.

 

 

iBe was developed partially-based on feedback from users of ‘The Milestone Group App’. Customers complained about a difficult user interface, they couldn’t find locations easily, it was slow at peak times, loyalty was confusing and non-effective, and people tended to order once or twice, then delete the app completely.

Business users complained about lack of transparency regarding how customers were using their loyalty, and also had next to no control over their presence on the app itself. They had no branding, no product images, and couldn’t even add new products to the app without asking the support team for help. As soon as iBe loyalty reports came through, they realised they were giving up to 15% away for free with the old app, and they are now giving far less away with iBe. This, along with lower commission and transaction fees, the vendors are making far more money than they were doing previously!

 

With iBe, we’ve seen to sort these issues out. Loyalty makes sense, finding locations couldn’t be any clearer, the app is snappy and fast, and has a plethora of new features for customers! Business users can now enjoy complete customisation on how they appear on the app. They’re able to manage their own personalised location page now, with imagery, site description, and a completely custom menu with images attached to products. They can sync their own locations now to add/remove products on their menu, and are able to see how many loyalty points people have used against each order as and when they come in to their POS.

 

Moving Forward

We hope that you love iBe as much as we’ve come to love it. We’ve poured our heart and soul into a product we feel is amazing to use, and hopefully, we’ll be able to welcome hundreds of other independent businesses onto the app so they can reap the benefits. We hope customers will see iBe as a platform to keep coming back to time and time again, as their favourite local places join, and they will feel as if they’re being rewarded absolutely everywhere.