With Realistic Milestones Toward Sustainable Customer Loyalty

Many aspects of daily life have shifted from the analog world into the digital one—and now onto our smartphones. Digital interactions with companies increasingly take place on mobile devices, and more and more apps offer services that were once firmly rooted in the offline world. “A lot of what we do in everyday life—learning languages, planning workouts, managing finances—now happens through apps. They help us plan our goals, stay on track, and monitor our progress,” says Eckert.

One striking feature: many of these apps allow users to define a goal they want to achieve, set milestones, and track their progress. But while many apps offer goal‑setting features, the question remains: How effective are they—for users who want to reach their goals and for companies hoping to strengthen customer loyalty?

This is exactly where Eckert’s research comes in.

Wrong Goals Lead to Dead Ends

For her latest study, Eckert and her colleagues Prof. Dr. Andre Bonfrer and Dr. Jake An examined an Australian banking app that allowed users to set concrete savings goals. The results, however, were not what they expected. “Using goals alone is not enough to get users to save or to deliver the customer loyalty companies are hoping for,” Eckert explains. In fact, the team found “that a significant share of users did not benefit from using the app—they actually saved less than they normally would have.”

The reason lies in poorly chosen goals. Only when the researchers analyzed how goals were set did the real lever become clear: goals that are too big tend to discourage rather than motivate. Goals that are too small fail to inspire. Only when goals match users’ abilities and circumstances do they create real value. What matters is not the big end goal, but the definition of realistic milestones that move users forward step by step. “Without meaningful personalization, goal‑setting in apps doesn’t achieve much—the kind of individualized guidance we know from the analog world needs to be replicated digitally,” says Eckert.

If this succeeds, the effects are consistently positive for both consumers and providers: users are more likely to reach their goals, and those who successfully save with the app remain loyal for much longer. “We observed a genuine win‑win situation—one that represents a real advantage for providers, especially given the generally low user retention in apps,” Eckert summarizes.

“In our study, we focused on a banking app, but the underlying principle is very similar in many other apps. That’s why it’s highly likely that our findings also apply to health apps, language‑learning apps, and many others. With a bit of digital support, we can all end up richer, smarter, and healthier,” she says with a laugh.