On the third and final day of the 2019 Loyalty Expo, attendees gathered in the Carolina ballroom to hear Loyatly360’s CEO, Mark Johnson, present a preview of the 2019 Loyalty Landscape Report (the full report will be available next week).
Johnson began his presentation with a quote from Einstein: “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.” He expressed that the challenges facing today’s loyalty markers require a new mode of thinking, as the landscape has changed significantly in a short amount of time.
A key takeaway from the preview was that loyalty programs are not as static as they once were. The 2019 Loyalty Landscape Report is based on survey data from senior level marketers, and an overwhelming majority indicated that they will making changes to their programs within the next 12 months. Some will offer enhancements in personalization; others will totally revamp or relaunch their programs.
Another interesting highlight was the data gathered from responses to the question, “Does your company have an explicit customer loyalty program with a clearly defined currency for members to accrue and redeem?” A majority responded “yes,” but not as many as in previous years. Johnson noted that this change reflects that fact that loyalty is no longer about redemptions, exclusively. Many brands are using loyalty instead for the purpose of driving engagement.
The preview also indicates challenges faced by the entirety of the loyalty industry. Johnson noted that while most survey respondents indicated that their programs were meeting or exceeding their goals, more than 11 percent of respondents stated that they did not know whether their programs were effective or not.
In addition, more than half of the respondents stated that they felt there was a challenge in getting additional resources for their customer loyalty and customer experience efforts. Asked whether they felt their current technology providers understood the needs of their brands regarding personalization strategies, more than half of the respondents also expressed that they did not or were unsure. Johnson suggested that this was a problem the industry is facing and a problem that Loyalty360 will work to address.
Interestingly, Johnson highlighted that brands are still mostly in the early stages of figuring out how to leverage AI and machine learning. A plurality of respondents (34 percent) indicated that they were in the initial discussion stage. 31 percent have started a POC, and 13 percent have not yet discussed it.
Johnson’s talk and the coming report will help illuminate matters in the loyalty space that have not yet been fully discussed. This is a starting point in a changing industry.