Stephanie Tully, Chief Marketing Officer for Qantas Loyalty – Qantas Airways, told Loyalty 360 that she hopes the new Aquire loyalty program set to launch in March targeting small- and medium-sized businesses will be as important to those companies as the Qantas Frequent Flyer program is to almost 10 million Australians.
Tully said there is currently no other airline-based coalition loyalty program in Australia targeting businesses. Aquire will be a stand-alone loyalty program tailored to businesses which will be able to earn Aquire Points via their everyday transactions, including travel. These Aquire Points can then be converted into Qantas Points in the name of an individual Qantas Frequent Flyer member.
All Australia-based small and medium businesses with an Australian business number can join.
Aquire will reward businesses for transactions they already make today, providing businesses with a central Aquire Points account for owners and employees.
Owners and employees can earn Aquire Points for a business, while still earning personal Qantas Points for themselves. For example, booking a Qantas flight will not only allow an individual to earn via the consumer program, but they will also earn Aquire Points for their business.
What’s more, businesses will be able to earn Aquire Points through other soon-to-be announced partners across financial services, professional services, vehicle, and office-related costs and other business expense categories.
The Aquire program will offer business owners a range of options on conversion of Aquire Points to Qantas Points that could have a positive impact on their bottom line, including:
Gifts to employees for reward and recognition
Flights for a business owner and employees for work or leisure
Flight upgrades for a business owner and employees
Products, experiences and gifts from the Qantas Store.
Tully explained that the concept of a loyalty program specifically for SMEs emerged about 12 months ago.
“Qantas Frequent Flyer is very in touch with its membership base and we understand our members well,” she said. “Our SME members are a significant percentage of our membership base so we talked to a number of them about how we could give them better value. Out of that research and feedback, Aquire was born.”
Tully said Aquire provides businesses with more ways to earn points that can be converted into real rewards.
“We’ve designed the Aquire program to cater for the needs of SMEs with rewards and benefits that resonate with our members,” she said. “Ultimately, a program that listens to their members and delivers on the program promise will have a positive impact on customer attraction and retention.”
With Aquire, Tully said it effectively means businesses can multiply their ability to earn points as they can do so via themselves and their employees across the program, while also still earning their own points as a consumer within the Qantas Frequent Flyer program.
“Aquire provides members with more ways to maximize earnings and therefore rewards across multiple partners plus an opportunity to double dip or even triple dip in earning points,” Tully explained. “The more opportunities we provide members to earn rewards faster, the more likely they are engaged in our program which will ultimately drive preference and stickiness to our brand.”
Tully said the program is designed specifically for business owners/employers and extensive research and program design took place to ensure that the core proposition would appeal to the target market.
“We understand that time and cost savings are two key areas of focus for our members and we developed a program addressing this need by making signup and participation easy and simple,” she said. “In terms of helping our SMEs save money, we have designed rewards that equate to real savings that benefit their bottom line.”
Customer loyalty is a key differentiator in the current marketplace, Tully said.
“To keep customers engaged and loyal, brands need to build an engaging and relevant relationship with customers by delivering the right information at the right time to the relevant channels while at the same time incorporating customer data to ensure brands are meeting expectations and needs,” she explained.
Qantas Frequent Flyer membership is targeted to reach 10 million this financial year, with the SME segment of the membership base in many cases already the most engaged in the consumer program in relation to earning and redeeming points.