ORLANDO – The theme of all three general sessions on Thursday at the 6th annual Loyalty Expo was customer experience – understanding and delivering consistent, amazing experiences, and surprising and delighting your customers.
Mark Johnson, CEO and Chief Marketing Officer for Loyalty 360, opened the day with a comprehensive look at building long-term customer relationships and the challenges brands face in defining and measuring loyalty.
“Loyalty is about behavior,” he said. “The challenge is to understand customers and understand the rapidly changing landscape.”
Phil Rubin, CEO and Founder of rDialogue, and Maggie Lang, Senior Director Loyalty and Relationship Marketing, Kimpton Hotels & Resorts, talked about how focusing on little data can help brands create meaningful and memorable customer relationships.
“Little data used judiciously and used for planning is about us as human beings and what we’re trying to deliver for them,” Rubin said. “We’re all trying to figure this out. Take little bits of data and applied correctly they do amazing things to customers.”
During the entertaining and informative Loyalty Expert Panel Discussion: Delivering Amazing Customer Experiences, Lillian Murphy, Vice President, Customer Retention & Loyalty, Orbitz Worldwide, said her company has a renewed focus on the customer experience.
“Relevancy lends itself to personalization, which is a good thing as long as it’s not to the point of Big Brother,” Murphy said. “Relevancy is one of the key things we’re focused on.”
After lunch, 12 compelling and informative breakout sessions were held throughout the rest of the day followed by the ever popular marketing-only peer-to-peer roundtables. What’s more, a networking reception was held in the Exhibit Hall.