Dell−which earned the Best Use of Customer Insight or Voice of the Customer in Loyalty Marketing, Bronze Winner at the inaugural Loyalty360 Awards at the 7th Annual Loyalty Expo, presented by Loyalty360 – The Loyalty Marketer’s Association−knows how to treat its customers in an engaging and impactful way.
Ryan Massimo, Director, Customer Strategy & Loyalty, Dell participated in a compelling Q&A with Loyalty360 to discuss the Dell Canada Advantage loyalty program, and how the company remains true to its customer-centric mission.
Can you give our audience an update on the Dell Canada Advantage loyalty program? How is it going this year and what specific customer insights have been gleaned that have helped enhance the program?
It has been one year since we launched Dell Advantage in Canada and it has been received very positively by our customers. Membership is growing at a rate of approximately 15% per month (CAGR). More than 50% of registrants repurchase on an active basis. We’re on track to share more than $1M in rewards with our customers by the end of October 2015. We continue to enhance the program and look for ways we can reward our customers even more.
What is the biggest key to success for the program?
The biggest success of Dell Advantage is our ability to provide true value to our customers – whether it’s the automatic 5% back in rewards or the exclusive offers. By regularly engaging them and rewarding them we increase their loyalty. Dell Advantage members are twice as likely to repurchase Dell products.
How important is listening to your customers and responding to their changing expectations?
Listening to our customers has always been our No. 1 priority at Dell. It’s hard not to be inspired by the roughly two billion customer inputs we receive annually. Since going private last year, we can respond faster to our customers and their needs. We genuinely listen to our customers and implement their feedback directly into every aspect of our business – from our loyalty program to product design to simplifying our website (Dell.com), and much more. Customers enjoy working with us because we 
are always open to listening to them and customizing our products and solutions for their needs.
What does Customer Experience/Customer Engagement mean to Dell?
At Dell, we are relentlessly focused on making technology work better for our customers. We have a rich heritage of listening to and engaging with our customers. As our company evolves, our focus on our customers remains constant. Every team member at Dell owns the customer experience. More than 100,000 Dell team members worldwide are dedicated to our customers’ success—and we are dedicated to empowering all team members to delight our customers.
How does Dell stay on top of rapidly changing technologies and what role do they play in customer engagement/experience initiatives?
We are constantly watching how our customers use technology and we can give credit to them for many of our innovations– they share what they want and we do our best to deliver. For instance, they recently indicated they’d like to purchase with Bitcoin, so within two weeks we worked to offer it in the U.S. We listen to our customers everywhere—through events, surveys and social media—translating what we hear into deeper customer relationships, process improvements, and innovation.
How do you define customer loyalty and has that definition changed or evolved in recent years?
Customer Experience is about looking at the entire journey through the customer’s eyes, recognizing what is most important to them and determining how we best meet their needs. Our customers tell us they want us to - “Know my business”, “Make it easy to do business with Dell”, “Offer trouble-free products and solutions” and “Provide fast and easy resolution”. If anything, the evolution of social media over the years has given us greater access to our customers, to listen to their needs. Our robust social media program and listening posts have been incredibly helpful as we work to meet their evolving needs.