If cafe hopping is one of your favorite activities, then the nect™ app is a must have for you. Made in Malaysia and designed to be light weight, non-intrusive and rewarding to its users, nect lets you harvest points which can be used later to redeem specials and freebies at the participating merchants’ stores. As of now, they are mostly cafes in the Klang Valley.
As long as you have a smartphone with data and bluetooth capability, you are are able to use nect. But if you ask me, the best thing about nect is that you don’t need to do a lot in order to earn points – because the app is smart enough to work by itself automatically. The only thing you need to ‘worry’ about when using nect is which cafe you wish to go next, and what’s the special in store for you as a loyal customer.
Another way to look at nect is to visualize a bee’s world. Bees (you) collect nectar (points) from plants (merchants) and pollinate (invite friends) plants as they do. When enough nectar is collected, it becomes honey (freebies) ready to be harvested (redeemed). Makes sense? That’s how the app got its name too!
To start harvesting, simply head to any nect-powered location, fire up the app and turn on its “discovery mode”. This will enable the app to connect to the installed beacons and start collecting points.
For every 5 minutes spent at a nect-powered location, you will earn 1 nect point (NP) up to a maximum of 12 NP per store per day. In other words, nect stops harvesting after 1 hour at the store. Also, the accumulated points can only be redeemed at the same location where it’s harvested. These measures are put in place to prevent users from abusing the app.
Out of the hundreds of cafes available, I selected Closer Kitchen & Espresso whose specials included a “Duck! Here Comes Our Special Offer” that lets you enjoy 50% off their “When Duck Meets Lychee Sandwich” or free pancakes when you order any of their meals. While we were enjoying our food, the app ran in the background and pinged whenever a point is farmed.
Before we knew it, we had enough points to redeem a special. To do that, simply scan the QR code provided by the merchant.
Here’s the free pancakes we got simply for having a breakfast at Closer. Not too shabby for using a free app that requires you to do almost nothing, right? Last but not least, if you refer friends to use this awesome app, you will earn extra 50XP and instantly unlock the ‘Pollinator’ achievement! Here’s my invite code if anyone wants to use it: 1B0AB.
To make the app more fun to use, nect is also built with gamification in mind to be more engaging with the users. You will gain experience points, level up and unlock various achievements while using nect. And all of these perks earned will let you to harvest points faster and redeem more and better freebies. To know more about nect, go to http://www.nectarize.com, the app is available for both iOS and Android devices.
