The San Mateo Chamber of Commerce has partnered with digital loyalty app Chatterfly to create a neighborhood rewards program for its 1,000 members. Participating local businesses will leverage the app to reward customers for visiting their business, making in-store purchases or sharing news of their visit on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.
Along with the partnership, the company is also launching a new version of its mobile app today on both iPhone and Android, with plans for BlackBerry and Palm (Palm? What?) planned soon.
Update: The company now says it mistakenly listed BlackBerry and Palm in its release, but this was an error. There are no plans for other platforms at this time.
In version 1.5, there’s now a QR code button for instant scans and “check-ins,” an instant alerts feature that tells you when rewards are nearby and “vast enhancements” to the interface. the company claims.
Sadly, these enhancements seem more subtle than vast, I’d say:
Maybe I’ve just been spoiled on the Instagrams and Foursquares of the mobile app world, but I don’t enjoy this app’s design at all, despite the changes. It’s an improvement, yes, but that tiled homescreen with black & white icons needs to go.
In any event, good for Chatterfly for moving forward based on its concepts surrounding digital loyalty, if not its actual implementation. The company says that more partnerships with local business networks and chambers are on their way, too.
Chatterfly was founded in June 2010 by Charles Michael Yim, formerly in business development at Fortify Software. It is privately funded.