Bob Daly, Senior Vice President of FlexPerks Rewards & Loyalty Operations for U.S. Bank−the fifth-largest commercial bank in the U.S.−is thrilled about the bank’s new mobile FlexPerks Rewards Visa Card benefit: Real-Time Rewards.
Daly shared with Loyalty360 that he believes Real-Time Rewards, a patented process that uniquely streamlines the redemption experience, will increase customer loyalty exponentially.
“Real-Time Rewards enhances the card member experience tenfold,” Daly explained. “We only have 90 days’ worth of mobile redemption data, but it’s already pretty compelling with customers redeeming points for everything from golf clubs to groceries.”
The overarching goal, Daly said, is to “put the power of instant rewards redemption in our card members’ hands, making it simple and convenient to use FlexPoints.”
Card members simply activate Real-Time Rewards, make a purchase with their FlexPerks Visa Card, and respond to a text message to accept or decline a redemption offer. For example, if you buy a dress at the mall, you’ll receive a text message, “You have 76,000 FlexPoints. Would you like to use 8,500 of them for the purchase you just made?” If you choose to do so, text back, “REDEEM,” and a statement credit equal to the purchase price of the dress is added to your FlexPerks Visa statement with the 8,500 FlexPoints deducted from your rewards balance.”
“In a nutshell, we have cardholders now redeeming who previously didn’t redeem; cardholders who redeemed before, but are now redeeming with more frequency; and cardholders who redeemed before who are now redeeming for more cost-effective rewards,” Daly explained. “These behavior changes result in greater engagement, and we know that greater engagement leads to more customer value, both in the near term and in the long term. However we slice the early results, they look very promising.”
Daly said he defines engagement as recency of redemption, card usage, and participation in events.
Regarding events, he explained: “We hosted over 100 events last year for cardholders all over the country and have found that simply inviting a customer to an event leads to an increase in their card usage. And, if a customer attends the event, their lift in card usage is even greater and we retain the customer for a longer period of time.”
Daly said U.S. Bank spends “a lot of time” analyzing data.
“We see a high correlation among redemption, engagement, and customer value,” he explained. “A straight line correlation. We’re eager for customers to redeem; the more people who redeem the better. ”
Real-Time Rewards offers a point of differentiation for U.S. Bank.
“We think this is unique,” Daly said. “We were granted a patent for the process. We’re 90 days in and we’re already experiencing favorable shifts in customer behavior.”
Daly stressed the positive impact of point redemption.
“We’ve long been advocates of point redemption,” he said. “A redeemer is more valuable than a non-redeemer and a multi-redeemer is more valuable than a one-time redeemer. Redemption is a good thing and Real-Time Rewards is enabling more redemptions.”