TLDR:
- Smile does not reward customers for fun things like submitting a photo, completing a survey, etc.
- Smile only allows you to give points (though they can be branded) - no Cashback or accumulated store credit
- Smile redemption is confusing to consumers
- Smile VIP Tiers only accessible for the Pro account ($199/month)
- Smile gives minimal access to customer data making hard to communicate to your customer
- Smile only gives you a launcher - you must page $199/month for a custom landing page
- Smile analytics are really not helpful
- Smile has many integrations but very few subscription integrations
- Smile does not cover other aspects of retention such as Paid Memberships, Wallet Passes and more
Minimal Ways to Reward Your Customers
Smile does not have many out of the box reward activities.
A Head to Head of Reward Activities:
| Activity | Toki | Smile | ||
| Store Credit for Purchase | X | X | ||
| Sign Up | X | X | ||
| Sign up for Subscription | X | |||
| Subscription Continuation | X | |||
| Goal Spend | X | |||
| Refer a friend to purchase | X | X | ||
| Refer a friend to sign up for the loyalty program | X | |||
| Refer a friend to to an activity | X | |||
| Complete profile | X | |||
| Complete a quiz | X | |||
| Complete a poll | X | |||
| Complete a survey | X | |||
| Submit a photo | X | |||
| Submit a video | X | |||
| Social Like | FB, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter | Only FB | ||
| Social Follow | FB, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter | Only Insta, TikTok + Twitter | ||
| Social Post + Tag | FB, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter | |||
| Join Group (Facebook) | X | |||
| Share Purchase on Social | FB + Twitter | FB + Twitter | ||
| Challenges | X | |||
| Birthday | X | X | ||
| Click a link | X | |||
| Download Apple Wallet Pass | X | |||
| Scan QR code | X | |||
| Newsletter Sign Up | X | |||
| Login | X | |||
| Write a Review | X | X | ||
| SMS Sign Up | X | |||
| Airdrops | X |
Toki Activities:
Activities with Toki can be:
- Scheduled
- Limited (daily, weekly, monthly, one time)
- Segmented (reward different people with different amounts)
- Rewarded with points, discounts, gifts or collectibles
Cashback/Store credit Structuring
With Smile, you are giving points to your customers and they can, in fact, be branded.
With Toki, the points can be branded as well (for example: Beast Bucks) but you can also use store credit/cash/store currency (for example: follow us on Instagram and get $10 in store credit or $5 in direct cash).
How this looks in the Toki platform:
Redemption Limitations
With Smile, you can redeem your points at any given time for discount codes. However, this type of redemption structure is quite limiting to customers. The customers only have specific transaction options and not full control of their rewards.
With Toki, users can choose how many of their points/store credits they want to spend at any given time. And you, the marketer, can set limitations that fit with your margin expectations.
What the user sees (with Toki):
What you (the marketer) can control (with Toki):
Gating of VIP Tiers
With Smile, you have to be on their Growth plan of $199/month to do VIP tiers. With Toki, VIP tiers are an out of the box offering to anyone and everyone.
Poor Understanding of your customer
With Smile, you get very little viewership or control over your customers. With Toki, there is advanced customer segmentation so you can take a deep look at each user, create segments based on their behaviors and use it in your marketing automation.
Toki syndicated bilaterally with CRM data to maximize your segmented outcomes.
Smile's Customer Profiles:
Toki's Customer Profiles:
Inability to Customize Settings
With Toki you have more customization within the program:
| Settings | Toki | Smile |
| Allow you to control discount stackability | X | |
| Allow point expiration | X | Must be on Plus ($199/month) |
| Multicurrency | X | |
| Translations | X | |
| Display cash value | X | |
| Points branding | X | |
| Maintain Status | X | |
| Tier Stacking | X | |
| Cash out | X | |
| Giftcards | X | |
| Product Rewards | X | Must be on Plus ($199/month) |
Design Customization not Available:
With Smile, you have the ability to have a "Launcher" but to have a Rewards Page you need to contact their customer support where they will build it custom for $199/month. There are no other ways to communicate to your customer about your rewards program making it hard for your customers to know, what they have and how to use their credits.
Toki has over 20 onsite components to choose from:
Whereas this is the Smile launcher:
You can only have the Rewards Page or Redeem at checkout if you are on the Advanced Plan ($199/month)
Minimal Integrations:
Toki has over 19 integrations, whereas Smile has 13.
Integrations:
| Integration | Toki | Smile |
| Klaviyo | X | X |
| Postscript | X | |
| Attentive | X | |
| Mailchimp | X | |
| Sendlane | X | |
| Omnisend | X | X |
| Snowflake | X | |
| Sendlane | X | X |
| Judge.me | X | X |
| Recharge | X | X |
| Reamaze | X | |
| Stay AI | X | |
| Loop Subscriptions | X | |
| Bold Subscriptions | X | |
| Skio Subscriptions | X | |
| Prive Subscriptions | X | |
| Fairing | X | |
| Gorgias | X | X |
| Loox | X | X |
| Okendo | X | X |
| Reviews.io | X | X |
| Smartrr | X | |
| Stamped.io | X | X |
| Yotpo Reviews | X | X |
Decent Analytics:
With Smile, the analytics dash is really poor. Marketers are given very little visibility into the success of their program.
Smile Analytics:
Toki Analytics:
Features Toki has that Smile doesn't:
- Paid Memberships (like Amazon Prime)
- Zero Party Data i.e. Reward for Completing Profile, Quizzes, surveys, polls
- Co-creation portals! Allowing your customers to vote on brand related decisions and have their votes count based on their tier!
- Gamification i.e. Challenges, Quests, treasure hunts, Leaderboards
- Wishlists
- Apple Wallet Passes (+ push notifications)
Bugs + Pay to Play Mentality
In looking into customer feedback and reviews, the majority of negative reviews related to Smile were related to the bugs and the product not working unless you are on the $199/month plan.
