Enhanced customer expectations have led many brands to consider and implement customer loyalty programs that can help glean greater customer insights that can be leveraged for effective personalized engagement.
Loyalty360 CEO and CMO Mark Johnson led a compelling panel discussion titled, “The Changing Role of Leadership in Building Customer Loyalty,” on Tuesday at the 9th Annual Loyalty Expo, presented by Loyalty360 – The Association for Customer Loyalty. Loyalty Expo is slated for May 24-26, 2016, at the DoubleTree Universal in Orlando, Florida.
“The biggest trend is getting into this space,” Seth Rabinowitz, Senior Vice President, Marketing & Fan Engagement, New York Jets, told attendees.
Bob Macdonald, President, Bond Brand Loyalty told attendees that customers today expect brands to know them and make unique offers to them on a personalized basis.
Jamie Russo, VP of Loyalty Programs & Customer Engagement, Choice Hotels talked about avoiding a “sea of sameness.”
“How do we engage with customers differently than before,” he said.
Russo noted that there seems to be an awareness challenge.
“This is a customer dynamic we have to get past,” he said. “Some customers see the word enhancement and think it means devaluation.”
Regarding technology, Rabinowitz said the Jets used an RFID card.
“We don’t want to go too crazy,” he explained. “We’ll move toward mobile, but we’re not in a rush. We’ve tried to put our money upfront where our fans can get the most from it. We’re trying to take a more balanced view regarding our season ticket-holders.”
Understanding what is sacrosanct for a brand is imperative, Macdonald noted.
“Aligning your program against your brand is absolutely critical,” he said. “Find out how members want to engage with you.”
Given customer expectations, creating engaging experiences with a brand’s unique assets can be very challenging.
“The biggest challenge for us is we start with loyalty,” Rabinowitz said, referring to incredibly loyal Jets fans. “We’re doing a loyalty program to identify those behaviors that offer the most universality. If we fall short there, we would’ve set the whole concept back. It means a lot to a lot of people. It’s a blessing and a real challenge. Well take hate. We don’t want apathy.”
Macdonald talked about brands such as Harley-Davidson and Starbucks that engender deep emotional connections.
“Your loyalty program has to support every other interaction a customer can have with a brand,” he said.
A decade ago, Macdonald said loyalty was a “delayed discount payoff to the side. The biggest change we’ve seen is loyalty has raised its profile, causing some tension among brands as far as what decisions sit where.”
Russo said Choice Hotels is very focused on the user experience.
“What can we do to make it easier for you,” Russo said.
Communication looms as a challenge, Rabinowitz said.
“Comprehension sometimes is frustratingly low,” he noted. “We have to live up to a lot of expectations.”