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What Loyalty Expo revealed about the future of customer loyalty strategy

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 18:39:41 GMT

What you need to know

Customer loyalty strategy is shifting away from program design to relationship discipline, requiring brands to deliver value, relevance and emotional connection consistently over time.
Customer retention strategy still depends on functional benefits like value and ease, but stronger growth materializes when customers feel recognized, understood and appreciated.
Loyalty program platforms play a critical role in helping brands turn customer insight into personalized experiences, meaningful rewards and frontline moments that build lasting connection.

For years, marketers have searched for the next feature, incentive, reward mechanic or program update to drive engagement at scale. But across conversations at Loyalty360’s 2026 Loyalty Expo, a different message emerged.

The clearest takeaway was that loyalty is rarely solved through a single innovation.

Discussions across the event, reinforced by ITA Group’s panel with Bank of America and Food Lion, point to a more complex reality that loyalty is built through sustained effort, deeper customer understanding and the ability to deliver personalized, meaningful experiences consistently over time. Loyalty is evolving beyond a program design challenge and into a relationship discipline.

Customer loyalty strategy is shifting away from macro-program design

That shift matters because one-size-fits-all loyalty strategies are no longer enough to create meaningful differentiation. Brands are moving away from generic, reward-led programs and toward more personalized approaches that reflect how customers behave, what they value and where the brand has the ability to create emotional connection.

Personalization brings new complexity, however. It’s now an expectation from today’s customers and delivering it well requires the right infrastructure, organizational alignment, tool flexibility, customer insight and ongoing commitment.

Key takeaway: The advantage now is being able to personalize your customer loyalty program consistently and meaningfully.

Customer retention strategy starts with value, but grows through emotional connection

Value and ease remain foundational to loyalty. Customers still need to understand what they receive, how to access it and why participation is worth their time. But functional benefits alone aren’t enough to maximize loyalty outcomes.

Our findings, in partnership with our market researcher CMB, show that advocacy is a clear signal of loyalty program success. Customers who advocate for a brand are significantly more likely to increase visits, spend and loyalty share.

The research also shows that a combination of perceived benefit, value, ease and emotional connection drive advocacy. Customers who feel emotionally connected show even stronger behavior. And customers who feel both deliver the highest level of value.

That finding reinforces an important evolution for any customer retention strategy: programs may win attention through value, but they drive growth (and sustain hurdles) by creating emotional connection.

Key takeaway: Loyalty programs need to deliver value customers can recognize and connection customers can feel.

Customer loyalty programs need to make emotional connection actionable

The panel discussion brough our research findings to life through two distinct industries, showing that emotional connection doesn’t look the same for every brand (and more importantly: it shouldn’t). It depends on the category, customer expectations, brand relationship and moments where the brand can create value.

For Food Lion, emotional connection has its foundation in personal relevance and community impact. In the grocery industry, Nicole Hulstein, Loyalty Marketing Manager at Food Lion, shared that savings are often the entry point. But deeper connections are built when those benefits feel relevant to the individual and when the brand shows up in ways that extend beyond the transaction. Food Lion highlighted how personalization within loyalty and customer relationship management (CRM) helps deliver more meaningful value based on customer behaviors. The brand's Food Lion Feeds initiative extends that connection into the community, reinforcing Food Lion's role beyond the shopping trip through hunger relief, education and outreach.

SuAnn Carriero, Head of Loyalty and Rewards Program for Product and Channel Integration and Business Insights at Bank of America, shared that emotional connection is based on trust, consistency and credibility. In financial services, loyalty depends heavily on reliability. Customers need transparency, ease and confidence that the brand understands their needs. Recognition may come through moments that matter, such as acknowledging milestones, providing relevant benefits or offering value-added services. But those moments must feel appropriate, helpful and aligned with the customer relationship, not overly promotional.

Together, these examples show why loyalty program platforms need to do more than administer rewards. They need to help brands understand customers, activate relevant experiences and deliver the right kind of value in the right context.

Key takeaway: Emotional connection is the result of designing loyalty experiences around what customers value, expect and trust from the brand.

Customer loyalty strategy depends on frontline enablement

Another major takeaway from the Loyalty Expo was the growing importance of frontline employees in delivering loyalty experiences.

It’s not enough for frontline workers to know a loyalty program exists. They need to understand:

How it works
Why it matters
How to communicate its value in real time

Brands are increasingly asking whether frontline teams can explain the program clearly, reinforce its value with customers and connect loyalty to relevant engagement or upsell opportunities.

Even well-designed programs can fall short if they aren’t activated during key customer interactions. A reward may be compelling, a program may be sophisticated and a campaign may be well-timed. But if the customer experience breaks down at the point of frontline interaction, the loyalty program loses momentum.

Key takeaway: Loyalty programs are best delivered through informed frontline teams and the technology platform.

Customer retention strategy is moving beyond points to meaningful rewards

Another emerging trend is the evolution of what constitutes value. Brands are moving beyond traditional points and discounts to more tangible, experiential and personalized rewards. This may include:

Customer gifting
Exclusive access
Surprise-and-delight moments
Personalized offers or segment-specific benefits designed to create stronger engagement

This shift recognizes that points alone may not always create emotional resonance.

For some customers, value comes from savings. For others, it comes from convenience, recognition, access, status, ease or feeling understood. Stronger customer retention strategy depends on knowing which type of value matters to which audience and delivering customer gifting in a way that feels intentional.

Key takeaway: The future of customer loyalty value is tied to more meaningful rewards and gifting opportunities.

Effective loyalty program platforms help brands start with what matters most

For many brands, this evolution can feel overwhelming. But meaningful progress doesn’t require a complete program overhaul.

Brands can start by strengthening the core elements that make loyalty easier to understand, easier to experience and more rewarding to continue. Simplify and accelerate the redemption path. Reduce friction. Make early interactions more intuitive. Use time-bound campaigns, surprise elements or dynamic experiences to create motivation. Demonstrate appreciation through personalized moments, exclusive access, thoughtful gestures or relevant gifts. Empower frontline team members to form real relationships with customers.

Loyalty program platforms support this work. The right platform centralizes data, activates personalization, supports frontline teams and measures what’s working. The strategy behind the program matters just as much as the platform technology. The strongest customer loyalty programs are built around a clear understanding of what customers value, how relationships deepen and what it takes to deliver consistently.

Explore ITA Group’s emotional connection research in our guide, "Quantifying customer loyalty’s hidden drivers," to learn how one of loyalty’s most underleveraged drivers can strengthen your customer loyalty strategy. Check out the guide now and see how to apply those insights across the moments that matter most to your customers.

Contact Centers Play an Important Role in Customer Loyalty

Thu, 12 Nov 2020 07:46:47 GMT

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically shifted daily routines, forcing business leaders to react quickly to adapt engagement strategies and support for employees and customers. Almost immediately, hundreds of thousands of support agents and customer service representatives transitioned to working remotely, all the while looking for new ways to help their customers adjust to the pandemic. Through it all, organizations have seen an increase in the value of customer service and support, making contact centers a more critical touchpoint to maintain and build customer loyalty.

To uncover the changing pandemic-driven perceptions and roles of customer service and support teams, Calabrio conducted a study with U.S. and U.K. contact center managers across the retail, utilities, distribution, airline, financial services and healthcare industries. The study reinforced that almost three-quarters of contact center managers believe that most of the changes made to accommodate the pandemic will become the new standard for the customer service industry.

Many of these changes relied on adopting new technology and have shown a positive impact on both agent satisfaction and customer experience (CX). And by leveraging technologies and tools – such as analytics-driven insights, omnichannel strategies, cloud-based software and automated workforce management systems – contact centers can elevate their perception among employees and end-customers, thus playing an ever-larger role in creating a positive customer experience, essential to a brand’s success.

Meeting Customer Expectations in the Age of COVID-19
Due to COVID-19, customer expectations for service quality are rising. Amid the pandemic, customers have been highly stressed and emotional. They desire more empathy and have a greater need to feel “heard” by customer service representatives more than ever. But contact center managers anticipate that customers will continue to expect the same level of empathy and emotion from customer service agents even after the pandemic subsides. To support this, many are turning to technology.

For example, contact centers are deploying analytics-based insights to facilitate a more human-centric customer service offering. With these insights, contact centers can understand customer emotion through speech or text analysis and identify customer needs through trend mapping. These insights are effective tools that help agents create a richer, more personal customer service experience. They can also provide managers with an abundance of strategic information to help make more informed CX decisions and develop a culture of customer-centric agents.

Moreover, the study showed that greater than half of the contact centers surveyed are seeing marketing teams utilize real-time automated analytics insights and dashboards to gain greater visibility into customer opinions and behaviors. Managers are equally using advanced quality-measurement tools and analytics to monitor customer interactions, ensure ongoing standards, and identify areas for improvements. This is especially helpful for newer agents who need coaching, or when agents are working remotely and have less of an opportunity to learn from other agents simply by participating in or overhearing conversations.

Adapting with Cloud-Based Systems
In the age of COVID-19, cloud-based systems should be a contact center manager’s best friend. Most contact centers report this to be true, with 9 out of 10 contact center managers reporting that they are either already using some sort of cloud-based software or looking to move. There is only a small percentage of contact centers – a startling 4% – that report not planning to increase their use of cloud-based systems.

Cloud-based systems make the integration between vital contact center technologies such as the automatic call distributor (ACD), workforce management solutions, quality management tools, CRM, and financial systems much easier. With all these features connected, contact center managers can tap into aggregated data collected from a variety of systems both inside and outside the contact center. By bringing together this data, operations and agents gain a better picture of the customer profile, experience and interaction history. This helps agents identify the customer’s most pressing issues to provide high-quality and efficient customer service. It also translates to better customer satisfaction and loyalty when customers have a positive connection with an agent, feel understood and receive prompt support.

Cloud-powered systems also encourage workplace agility, which is needed in the constantly evolving landscape that contact centers deal with every day. They are naturally scalable and allow contact centers to adjust in real-time to changes in staffing, contact volume, channel preferences, active work hours, holidays, inbound versus outbound needs and more.

One example of contact center managers adapting to meet customer needs is through the adoption of multichannel communication platforms such as video capabilities, which helps ensure better customer service and stronger brand loyalty. The cloud makes such adoption easier and faster.

Connecting and Collaborating with Workforce Management Software
Keeping agents connected and dialed-in is another imperative to cultivating strong customer loyalty. However, working from home complicates that in a variety of ways. Employees may find it difficult to engage with coworkers and learn on-the-job from a remote setting. Maintaining quality assurance processes based on interaction recordings can bolster agent training and help agents receive ongoing feedback from managers even from a remote office. The key is to drive quality monitoring with more automation and analytics-infused predictions and insights.

One other complicating factor is the complexity of agent scheduling. With the pandemic forcing agents to work from home they (like employees across most industries) may face the additional responsibility of childcare or other family needs, school support, greater health concerns and the general balancing of life and work in a pandemic. Most employers are leaning into a more flexible approach to work in order to keep employees on board and productive, but scheduling and staffing have become a challenge.

With on-the-day scheduling automation, contact center managers and agents can view real-time staffing needs and agent availability, allowing them to easily match customers with available and skillful agents, regardless of agent location. AI-powered self-scheduling options give agents the ability to schedule flex hours, overtime and trade shifts, so they gain the flexibility they need to work when they can and stay dialed-in to customer service. Since COVID-19 began, 65% of contact center managers have increased their investment in these types of workforce management solutions to create a more connected remote-work environment.

Fostering a Customer-Centric World
In our evolved world, changing customer demands have been instrumental in shining a light on the value and importance of agents and customer service. Contact center managers saw this first-hand, with 84% saying that the pandemic elevated the importance and value of their business.

With the right technologies, contact centers can continue to provide human interaction, empathy, availability and connection during a time of uncertainty. By adapting to changes fast–and embracing digital transformation–contact centers foster a better sense of customer empathy and centricity, all important elements in creating loyalty.

With over 20 years in the industry, Brad Snedeker has extensive knowledge of the contact center space. As Calabrio’s director of product marketing and customer advocacy, he ensures that customers have access to the best information and resources available for Calabrio products. He works directly with users to develop new and innovative techniques to implement workforce optimization best practices. Workforce Management and Analytics have been Brad’s primary areas of focus for over 10 years.

What Modern Customers Really Want from Loyalty Programs

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 13:06:33 GMT

Customer loyalty isn’t what it used to be—and that’s not a bad thing.

In a recent feature from Loyalty360 our team at Baesman shared perspectives on how loyalty is evolving, and what brands must do to keep up. The takeaway is clear: traditional loyalty tactics are no longer enough to drive meaningful, long-term engagement.

So what’s changing, and how should marketers respond?

Loyalty Has Shifted from Transactional to Emotional

For years, loyalty programs were built around points, discounts, and rewards. While those elements still matter, they’re no longer the primary driver of loyalty.

Today’s customers expect more:

Personalized experiences
Relevant, timely communication
A sense of connection to the brand

Loyalty is no longer earned through incentives alone—it’s built through consistent, meaningful interactions across the entire customer journey.

The Customer Journey Is the Loyalty Strategy

One of the biggest shifts highlighted in the article is this: loyalty isn’t a standalone program anymore—it’s embedded in the full customer experience.

That means marketers need to think beyond campaigns and consider:

How easy it is to engage with your brand
Whether messaging feels cohesive across channels
If each touchpoint adds value or creates friction

Brands that win in loyalty are the ones that remove barriers and create seamless, connected experiences.

Data Is Only Valuable If You Use It Well

Most brands aren’t lacking data—they’re lacking the ability to activate it effectively.
Modern loyalty strategies rely on:

Turning customer data into actionable insights
Delivering personalization at scale
Testing and optimizing continuously

The gap isn’t in collection—it’s in execution. Marketers who can bridge that gap will see the biggest gains in retention and lifetime value.

Flexibility Is the New Competitive Advantage

Customer expectations are constantly evolving, which means loyalty strategies can’t be static.
The most effective programs today are:

Adaptable to changing behaviors
Built for ongoing testing and learning
Designed to evolve over time

This requires the right mix of strategy, technology, and operational agility.

What This Means for Marketers

If you’re still thinking about loyalty as a program, it’s time to rethink your approach.
Instead, focus on:

Building relationships, not just transactions
Connecting data, channels, and experiences
Creating value at every stage of the customer lifecycle

Because in today’s landscape, loyalty isn’t something customers join—it’s something they feel.

Why Marketers are Victims of Inflated App Reviews

Thu, 12 Nov 2020 07:53:00 GMT

For brands, it’s a good time to have a mobile app. In Q3 this year alone, consumers spent $28 billion on apps and clocked more than 180 billion hours using apps each month in July, August, and September.

A significant driver of the pandemic app surge is Apple’s App Store, which houses almost two million apps. Browse through the App Store and you’ll find apps with thousands and even millions of ratings. For example, The Home Depot has over 700,000 ratings on its app, which carries a 4.7 star overall score. Domino’s Pizza has 4.9 million ratings of its app, with a rating of 4.8 stars.

A near 5-star App Store score based on thousands or millions of user ratings is impressive. But what many don’t know is that these scores are the result of a system that enables false app ratings and inflated scores — which should concern marketers everywhere.

A Good Mood Goes A Long Way
It’s crucial for app developers to generate a large volume of high ratings. Higher rankings equal greater visibility and a stronger correlation to user trial. Apple also positions apps with better ratings higher on their lists than those with lower scores.

Apple introduced in-app review prompts in 2017, allowing developers to solicit greater amounts of ratings and reviews without a user visiting the App Store. The ratings and reviews guidelines tell developers to, “Ask for a rating only after the user has demonstrated engagement with your app. For example, prompt the user upon the completion of a game level or productivity task.” Users can also turn off the in-app review prompts on their Apple device settings.

If you own an iPhone or iPad, you’ve probably received multiple rating prompts. For instance, a grocery delivery app may ask for a review after you spent big on groceries. Or a retailer may ask for a rating after you make a purchase during a holiday sale.

Review invitations appear to be randomly generated requests. However, Apple’s guidelines give developers the ability to manipulate users into giving a positive review or rating when they’re likely to be in a better mood while simultaneously identifying users with poor experiences and avoiding asking them to leave a review. The result of this manipulation of ratings is egregiously inflated scores across many apps — and most consumers don’t even know it’s happening.

Through my own research, I found that within six months of Apple’s new in-app review prompt guidelines, the average score for 30 randomly selected apps that featured the prompt grew from 3 stars to 4.7 stars. User rating frequency also exploded by a factor of 62. Many brands gained considerable boosts in their scores as well. Hulu saw their average star rating go from 2.4 to 4.7. Subway’s average score also significantly increased from 1.7 to 4.6. Moreover, Subway specifically wrote in their app release notes that making it easier to post ratings and reviews was the only significant update the sandwich chain made before their ratings jumped, making the in-app review prompt the only reason for the score increase.

In addition to generating inflated positive ratings, app developers can reset their ratings if they receive too many bad ratings or reviews, effectively giving the app an unlimited number of chances to get a better rating.

Marketers Need To Know The Truth About Their Brand
Developers will continue to engage in ratings manipulation as long as Apple’s policy remains the same. However, the continued creation of inflated scores ultimately hurts marketers and consumers.

Skewed scores create a false sense of customer experience.

Access to customer behavior and activity on an app can be valuable for marketers in creating engaging content and specialized offers. But with inflated App Store ratings, you’ll have the wrong impression of the experience your brand’s app provides. This disconnect on user feelings can create distrust and hurt your brand’s image.

Overrated successes lead to problematic marketing efforts.

Skewed customer satisfaction can also lead you to waste marketing dollars propping up a poorly performing app. This misguided investment can prevent your brand from delivering an app that customers truly want. In the end, concentrating on the wrong areas of customer engagement can lead to unsatisfied customers and hurt your bottom line performance over the long term.

Innovation becomes non-existent.

With thousands or millions of high ratings, your brand has little to no incentive to actually improve its app. As we’ve seen since 2017, it’s simple for developers to create a 4+ star app and reap the rewards while the broader company is unaware of the real customer experience. Conversely, realistic user feedback will push brands to innovate their apps for improvement and deliver real customer engagement, not grossly inflated ratings. High ratings may stimulate a trial period, but they don’t mean customers will keep using the app, limiting its ability to ultimately drive the strongest possible impact on your business.

Inflated ratings encourage anti-competition

The technical execution of app mood manipulation is relatively simple to accomplish, but it requires significant financial investment. The time spent gaming app store promotion algorithms and the use of behavioral analytics to identify optimal customers for rating prompts requires hours of dedication from developers. These tactical efforts give an advantage to brands with heavy cash flow and make App Store rankings anti-competitive. As a result, brands with less money to invest in app manipulation experience fewer downloads and are excluded from top app lists, even if they offer a better mobile app than larger competitors.

Apple’s ratings and reviews guidelines only benefit one group — developers at large companies with deep pockets. But marketers on both sides suffer in the end. Marketers at companies where mood manipulation occurs don’t truly improve their customer experience and small brand marketers don’t get a true shot to compete. But nothing will change unless marketers hold Apple accountable by demanding a fair ratings and reviews system.

Brian Levine serves as Mobiquity's VP of Strategy & Analytics, in addition to running Mobiquity's insurance vertical in the United States. At Mobiquity, he has developed digital strategies for multiple insurers, including Amica, Arbella, Mercury, and Travelers. In addition to his work in this vertical, Brian has pioneered research products at Mobiquity that look at clients through new lenses, including developing the Mobiquity Friction Report (tm) which uses large sets of consumer sentiment data to prioritize digital development based on consumer interest. Prior to his role at Mobiquity, Brian founded a consumer research company acquired by Nielsen in 2015 and led the development of Audible on Alexa for Amazon.

Mastering the 2026 Incentive Strategy Roadmap

Wed, 03 Jun 2026 16:48:08 GMT

Key Takeaways from Paul Flemr on IMA’s Motivation Insiders Podcast

As incentive programs continue to evolve, organizations are being challenged to rethink how they motivate, engage, and protect participants in an increasingly digital world. In Episode 19 of the Incentive Marketing Association Motivation Insiders podcast, Paul Flemr, Senior Vice President of Incentive Marketing Solutions at Group O, joins the conversation to discuss what’s shaping incentive strategy in 2026, and what brands should be planning for now.

Group O has launched its “2026 Incentive Strategy Roadmap Series,” featuring a new article each month on GroupO.com that explores the key shifts shaping the marketplace, helping brands stay better prepared to plan and execute effective incentive programs. The series will continue throughout 2026 and served as a catalyst for this conversation.

In the episode, Paul and the host Vince Chiofolo explore the intersection of digital transformation, program experience, security, and future-ready incentive strategies, offering practical insights for organizations looking to stay competitive in this year of major change in the incentive marketing world. Below we break down the topics discussed in the episode.

The Evolving Incentive Landscape in 2026

Incentive programs are no longer “set it and forget it.” As Paul explains, today’s incentive strategies must account for changing participant expectations, more complex fulfillment options, and increased demand for real-time engagement. Programs that succeed in 2026 will be those built with flexibility in mind capable of adapting to new technologies, participant behaviors, and market conditions.

Rather than focusing solely on rewards, modern incentive programs must deliver value through the entire experience, from enrollment and communication to fulfillment and support.

Digital Transformation and the Role of AI

A major theme of the discussion centers on digital transformation and how emerging technologies - including AI - are influencing incentive program design. Automation and data-driven insights are enabling organizations to personalize experiences, streamline operations, and make faster, more informed decisions.

Paul highlights that while technology can significantly enhance incentive programs, it must be applied thoughtfully. The goal isn’t complexity for its own sake, but smarter systems that remove friction for both administrators and participants.

Elevating the Participant Experience

Program experience remains a critical differentiator. Participants expect incentive platforms to be as intuitive and seamless as the consumer apps they use every day. In the podcast, Paul discusses how even small points of friction - confusing interfaces, delayed rewards, unclear communication - can undermine program performance.

Organizations that prioritize ease of use, clear communication, and reliable fulfillment are better positioned to drive sustained engagement and measurable results.

Security and Fraud Prevention Are No Longer Optional

As incentive programs become more digital, security and fraud prevention have moved to the forefront. Paul emphasizes that protecting participant data, reward value, and program integrity is essential, not only to avoid losses, but to maintain trust.

Strong security frameworks, proactive monitoring, and experienced program partners play a critical role in ensuring incentives remain both effective and secure in today’s environment.

Preparing for What’s Next

Looking ahead, the podcast underscores the importance of building incentive programs that are future-ready. That means investing in scalable platforms, aligning incentives with broader business objectives, and staying informed on emerging trends in engagement and technology.

Paul’s perspective reinforces a key takeaway: incentive strategy is no longer just a marketing or sales tool, it’s a core component of the overall customer and employee experience.

Watch the Full Episode

To hear the full conversation and deeper insights from Paul Flemr and Vince Chiofolo, watch Episode 19 of the Motivation Insiders podcast, embedded below. Stay tuned for additional articles in the 2026 Incentive Strategy Roadmap, coming soon!

Maintaining Compliance with International ‘Do Not Contact’ Regulations Remains an Issue for Companies

Thu, 12 Nov 2020 08:07:40 GMT

There are several compliance laws and regulations at the state and federal level that many businesses could be violating without knowing it. Issues surrounding Do Not Call, Do Not Email, Do Not Text and Do Not Mail are important topics of discussion among marketers as Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) lawsuit cases are on the rise.

In fact, vacation time-share giant Wyndham Destinations was recently fined over $159,000 by the Australian Communications and Media Authority after an investigation into breaches of Australian telemarketing rules. An even bigger fine was issued against TIM SpA by the Italian DPA for telecommunications infringements, totaling over $27.8 million euros. However, with TCPA regulations top of mind for many marketers, a new related topic is emerging in the wake of international consumer privacy policies around the globe.

While many companies have focused their telemarketing efforts on United States based outreach, telemarketers are seeing great opportunity for international business outreach. According to Small Biz Trends Magazine, 97% of all U.S. companies that export their products or services internationally are small businesses. The data also reveals that U.S. companies that do business internationally grow faster and are nearly 8.5% less likely to go out of business. This makes a strong case for international telemarketing opportunities.

In a recent survey, businesses across the U.S. were asked about their telemarketing campaigns and their international reach. Approximately half reported they are already conducting outbound phone, mobile and text campaigns in other countries. However, a whopping 81% of those same companies said they’re either not knowledgeable or only somewhat knowledgeable on international regulations related to telemarketing calls. While the opportunity for revenue growth is significant for companies doing international business, so is the risk.

Big Concern When It Comes To International Do Not Call Regulations, Legislation
In the same survey, 65% noted that financial penalties are a big concern when it comes to international Do Not Call regulations and legislation. The Federal Trade Commission recently cracked down on billions of illegal robocalls in the U.S., and many marketers familiar with the TCPA expect other countries to follow suit.

Furthermore, four separate operations responsible for calling consumers nationwide with billions of unwanted and illegal robocalls pitching auto warranties, debt-relief services, home security systems, fake charities, and Google search results services agreed to settle FTC charges that they violated as a result. Imagine what fines companies could incur when infringing upon international laws related to telemarketing.

Another concern among these businesses with external telemarketing efforts is not having the ability to demonstrate compliance. Forty-nine percent reported in the same survey that compliance demonstration to be one of their biggest concerns. However, an additional 17% of these individuals also noted they were unaware if registration with a Do Not Call list is required in the country’s they do outreach to like it is in the United States.

This only further complicates matters for businesses with an international reach. Additionally, the European Union (EU) has stringent regulations on privacy and electronic communications. Through the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) under the “do not contact” tag, if a customer requests to not be contacted, call center agents must honor the request immediately.

It’s complicated to say the least. The only way for companies that use international telemarketing to truly protect themselves is to implement a proactive approach to compliance. Consumer regulations are getting more stringent and complex, not less. One way to remain in compliance is to maintain a database that scrubs all calling lists prior to outreach campaigns, as well as updates on known plaintiffs and attorneys who have filed class action lawsuits against telemarketers. This same database should ensure Do Not Contact marketing compliance requirements are met with relevant legislation across all channels and in all countries.

Eric Tejeda is the Head of Marketing for PossibleNOW, a marketing technology company that provides SaaS-based preference management, regulatory compliance and consumer privacy solutions that enable consumer driven personalized communications. Visit https://www.possiblenow.com/do-not-call-compliance

Customer Engagement Management: What It Is & How Brands Use It to Build Loyalty

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 18:27:29 GMT

Customer engagement management is how brands turn everyday interactions into lasting relationships. By combining data, personalization, and consistent experiences, brands can boost engagement, build trust, and drive long-term brand loyalty.

What Is Customer Engagement Management?

Customer engagement management (CEM) is the process of designing, measuring, and optimizing customer interactions with your brand. It’s not just a single campaign or tool; instead, it’s a process that aligns strategy, people, and tech to drive loyalty.

CEM connects day-to-day marketing and product interactions to longer-term goals, such as customer loyalty and engagement. It answers practical questions such as who we should contact, when, and with what channel. How do we make each contact helpful rather than annoying? And how do we measure whether those contacts create loyalty?

Why Does Customer Engagement Matter? The Benefits of Customer Engagement

The strategic upside of investing in customer engagement is straightforward: it delivers measurable business gains that add up quickly. However, many brands struggle to realize this value because their data, messaging, and execution are disconnected, which can quickly limit the impact of otherwise strong strategies.

Engaged customers tend to have a higher lifetime value because they buy more often and spend more per purchase. At the same time, strong engagement reduces churn by meeting customer needs before they become problems. Actively engaged customers also become powerful advocates by referring friends, posting positive reviews, and amplifying your brand.

Engagement metrics also highlight potential areas for improvement, but those insights only drive results when they are connected back into execution. When data, strategy, and activation are unified, brands can more effectively improve retention and lower acquisition costs, multiplying ROI.

Put simply: investment in engagement, when executed as a connected system, turns one-time buyers into long-term customers.

Core Components of Effective Customer Engagement Management

To build a repeatable model for customer engagement and loyalty, brands rely on a unified system centered around customer data.

Learning to unify these components into a single view can yield the best results:

Customer data and identity: A reliable customer profile (CDP/CRM) that unifies behavior, transactions, and preferences.
Journey orchestration: Mapping lifecycle moments (onboarding, first purchase, renewal) and the experiences you’ll deliver.
Segmentation & personalization: Micro-segmentation and dynamic content to keep messages relevant.
Omnichannel orchestration: Coordinated email, in-app, SMS, web, social, and in-store experiences.
Measurement & experimentation: KPIs, A/B tests, and closed-loop reporting to prove impact.
Feedback loops & service: Real-time customer feedback (surveys, NPS) and responsive support.
Loyalty mechanics: Tiering, rewards, recognition, and community to reward repeat engagement.

These building blocks are the practical expression of customer engagement strategies that scale with maturity. However, to build a repeatable model for successful customer engagement and loyalty, brands need more than a checklist of tactics.

That’s where they need a connected system.

One of the biggest reasons engagement efforts fall short is that customer data, messaging, and execution live in separate silos. When these elements aren’t aligned, experiences feel fragmented, inconsistent, and ultimately ineffective. True engagement only works when data, strategy, and activation are unified into a single, coordinated approach.

How Brands Use Customer Engagement Management to Build Loyalty

Brands use CEM to convert routine interactions into moments that matter. Here are practical ways this shows up in real-world practices.

Retail/E-commerce: Personal Experiences at Scale

Retail and e-commerce brands can use engagement history to deliver timely, personalized recommendations and restock reminders that feel helpful rather than intrusive.

Linking receipts and order confirmations to loyalty points and exclusive offers makes them more than proof of purchase. They also help nudge customers toward repeat purchases and strengthen loyalty.

Teams can then use repeat-purchase rate and average order value to check if efforts boost engagement. They can also see if those efforts deliver ROI.

SaaS: Onboarding + Ongoing Value

For SaaS companies, the user journey begins with onboarding and continues through ongoing product value. Mapping an onboarding flow in which in-app prompts, contextual tooltips, and targeted email tutorials guide new users to moments lays the foundation for retention.

From there, usage-based triggers deliver tailored help, feature suggestions, or upgrade offers just when a user needs them, thereby improving product adoption and reducing churn.

To evaluate these efforts, product and marketing teams track metrics such as product-qualified leads (PQLs), time-to-first-value, and churn to refine their user engagement strategy and apply the user engagement strategies that reliably move the needle.

Travel & Hospitality: Anticipating Needs

In travel and hospitality, anticipating needs is the currency of loyalty. Brands use past stays, stated preferences, and behavioral signals to pre-fill service requests, recommend experiences, and send timely offers in the lead-up to travel windows, turning convenience into a competitive advantage.

Loyalty tiers and perk structures deepen emotional attachment by rewarding repeat business with recognition and experiences that encourage direct bookings; these customer loyalty and engagement mechanics convert short-term transactions into long-term relationships and enhance customer engagement across the entire guest journey.

Across all examples, the point is the same: link short-term actions to longer-term relationships so that customer loyalty and engagement grow together.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Designing a User Engagement Strategy

A successful and practical user engagement strategy is built in phases. Below is a simple, repeatable roadmap that you can use time and time again to build customer engagement strategies that build long-lasting customer loyalty.

Define your objectives: what do you want to accomplish? e.g., increase retention by X%, lift LTV by Y%, improve NPS.
Map the customer journey: identify moments that can help predict long-term value (onboarding, first purchase, renewal).
Segment customers: by behavior, value, intent, and lifecycle stage.
Create content & experiences: with tailored flows, helpful education, and offers for each segment.
Choose channels & cadence: where does the customer prefer to be contacted and how often.
Orchestrate across channels: a single view to avoid friction or duplication.
Measure & optimize: test hypotheses, monitor KPIs, and iterate.

This approach lets you test user engagement strategies quickly and repeatedly, scaling only what works and leaving the rest behind.

How Can I Improve Customer Engagement and Loyalty?

Successful brands stand out from the crowd by using these proven customer engagement strategies to improve customer engagement and loyalty while ensuring those efforts are connected across both physical and digital channels.

Personalized onboarding: Trigger education or product tours tied to first actions.
Behavioral emails & push messages: Send messages based on what users actually do, not broad blasts.
Micro-rewards & milestones: Celebrate usage milestones or loyalty points to keep people engaged.
Community & content: Host forums, user groups, or content hubs to deepen emotional connection.
Proactive customer service: Use intent signals to offer help before problems escalate.
Gamification: Introduce friendly competition, badges, or tiers to boost repeat use.
Feedback loops: Ask for feedback at key moments and show how you act on it.
Testing & personalization engines: Use machine learning to tailor offers and timing.
Direct mail & physical touchpoints: Engagement isn’t limited to digital channels. Well-timed direct mail, packaging, or in-person experiences can reinforce messaging and strengthen customer loyalty.

Each tactic supports the larger goal of enhancing customer engagement in a way that’s useful, measurable, and consistently delivered across both digital and physical channels.

Meet the Technology That Powers Customer Engagement Management

Technology plays a critical role in turning customer engagement strategies into repeatable outcomes, but its true value comes from how it supports a unified customer view.

Rather than focusing on individual tools, leading brands prioritize systems that connect and activate customer data across the entire experience. The goal is to unify identity, deliver timely and personalized interactions, and measure what actually drives business results.

Common tech stack elements that enable modern CEM include:

Customer Data Platform (CDP)

A Customer Data Platform unifies customer data from multiple sources into a single profile, enabling better segmentation, personalization, and consistent experiences across channels. That unified view enables precise segmentation, real-time personalization, and consistent identity resolution across channels.

CRM

A CRM tracks customer interactions, purchases, and service history, giving teams the context they need to deliver more informed and personalized experiences.

Marketing Automation

Marketing automation tools manage and trigger multichannel campaigns based on behavior and lifecycle stage, helping teams scale personalized engagement without manual effort.

In-App Messaging & Mobile Engagement

These tools deliver real-time prompts, tutorials, and notifications within digital experiences, guiding users, reducing friction, and improving adoption.

Live Chat & AI Service Bots

Live chat and customer experience bots provide immediate support and capture customer intent, helping resolve issues quickly while creating opportunities for deeper engagement.

Analytics & Experimentation Tools

Analytics and testing platforms measure performance and uncover what drives results, allowing teams to optimize strategies that improve retention, LTV, and overall engagement.

Select tools that reduce data silos, enforce a single customer view, and make it easy to run customer engagement strategies end-to-end while respecting consent and privacy governance.

KEY TAKEAWAY: The most effective approach isn’t about adding more tools in a haphazard, scattered way. It requires a technical strategy that creates a connected ecosystem where customer data flows seamlessly, enabling consistent, personalized experiences at scale.

How to Measure Success with These Customer Engagement Metrics

To measure improved engagement, focus on KPIs that connect to business outcomes:

Retention rate/churn: Core indicator of loyalty.
Repeat purchase rate & purchase frequency: Retail success metrics.
CLV / LTV: Monetary value of a customer relationship.
NPS & CSAT: Satisfaction and referral likelihood.
Engagement rates: Open/click-through for communications; DAU/MAU for products; time-on-site.
Conversion & funnel rates: Micro-conversions that lead to renewals or upgrades.

Run experiments (A/B tests, holdouts) that isolate the impact of a new personalization, message cadence, or loyalty mechanic. If an initiative moves both engagement metrics and LTV, it’s worth scaling.

Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

Even the most well-intentioned customer engagement strategies can fall short if they aren’t thoughtfully executed. Avoiding these common missteps can make the difference between meaningful engagement and customer fatigue.

- Over-personalization: While personalization is key to enhancing customer engagement, going too far can feel invasive. Brands should focus on relevance while respecting privacy, consent, and frequency.
- Channel overload: Reaching customers across multiple channels is important, but too many messages can quickly lead to disengagement. Without coordinated timing and clear preferences, communication becomes noise instead of value.
- Data silos: When customer data lives in disconnected systems, experiences become inconsistent and fragmented. A unified customer view is essential to deliver seamless and effective customer engagement strategies.
- Focusing only on acquisition: Growth strategies that prioritize acquisition without investing in retention often result in wasted spend. Long-term success depends on balancing new customer growth with efforts to improve customer engagement and loyalty.
- Ignoring frontline employees: Customer-facing teams play a critical role in shaping experiences. Without access to data and proper training, they can’t deliver the personalized, helpful interactions that strengthen relationships.

Disconnected strategy and execution: Often caused by siloed teams or systems, these gaps prevent customer data and insights from turning into meaningful, coordinated action.

Avoiding these pitfalls starts with alignment. When customer data, strategy, and execution are connected, brands can deliver consistent, relevant experiences that build trust and long-term loyalty.

How Companies Can Take Full Advantage of Checkout-Free and Remote Order Entry Systems Taking Over the Retail Sector

Mon, 05 Oct 2020 12:01:20 GMT

Many retailers have increased their adoption of contactless checkout in an effort to follow social distancing guidelines, especially in sports stadiums across the United States.

Joe Scioscia, vice president of sales at VAI, discusses why checkout-free and remote order entry systems are taking over the retail sector and how companies can take full advantage.

Why has the pandemic increased the usage of contactless payment in retail?
For businesses, reducing risk for in-store customers has been a top priority during the ongoing pandemic. In turn, to help fight the spread of COVID-19, retailers are encouraging consumers to use low-touch or no-touch forms of payment whenever possible - resulting in a surge of contactless and mobile payments as well as remote order entry systems. Dunkin’, who has supported contactless payment for years for example, began testing a new checkout-free payment system from Mastercard earlier this month, as did Circle K and White Castle.

When Amazon Go launched a few years ago, the thought of walking into a convenient store or coffee shop without checking out seemed absurd. Now, to survive in this new normal, convenient stores and retail chains are taking checkout-free payment systems more seriously and piloting the technology across the country. This even goes beyond consumer brands to the supply chain, as many buyers are looking to pay remotely and avoid face-to-face interaction. As the pandemic continues to force companies to implement protective measures, more retailers will gravitate toward contactless payments and discover ways to integrate the technology into their day-to-day operations in order to address cleanliness concerns moving forward.

What technology should retailers put in place to enable a checkout-free payment system?
In order to enable a check-out free payment system, retailers must combine an intuitive, user-friendly retail application with powerful enterprise functionality. For quick transactions, retailers are in need of a solution that provides a simple touch screen interface, quick barcode and RFID scanning, and integrated payment options to accelerate the checkout process. One way that retailers are accomplishing this contactless payment option is through PayPal and Venmo QR code technology, in addition to contactless chip cards and mobile devices. Customers simply scan the QR code on the terminal and instantly pay with a debit or credit card or with their PayPal or Venmo account - eliminating all physical touchpoints. Customers can also utilize a retailer’s mobile app to complete transactions. Today, credit card issuers offer contactless credit cards, such as CashApp, Google Pay, or Apple Pay, through their smartphones, which enables customers to hold the card near the reader and complete transactions.

No matter what form of technology retailers decide to put in place to launch a contactless cards program, they must consider both cardholder and employee education as well as effectively relay the message around the switch to contactless. When the industry moved from magnetic strip to EMV cards, cardholder education played a major role in mass adoption. Similar to this, in today’s growing digital marketplace, cardholders need to understand how to successfully complete a contactless transaction, types of merchants where contactless transactions are supported and continued emphasis on security and safety. It is important for retailers to keep this education top of mind when moving forward.

How will retailers benefit from contactless payment systems?
The most obvious benefit is the reduction in transaction time because of the lack of having to handle payments, and not having to sign for transactions. Contactless payment systems will eliminate the main touch point or moment of contact between customer and merchant. In the age of COVID-19 that’s a huge win. Alternatively, retailers will also benefit from reduced checkout lines and not having to hire additional employees during shopping surges like the holidays to keep up with checkout congestion. Contactless payment systems enable employees to focus their time and attention on ensuring shoppers are having a positive in-store experience, and keeping stores sanitized and organized, instead of helping check out customers to keep lines low.
Additionally, check-out free payment systems eliminate the need for large amounts of money in cash registers to make change and employees going to the bank to deposit checks and cash at the end of the day.
Beyond the high fees associated with the touchless payments, retailers are also concerned about cybersecurity and data privacy risks. What tools should retailers and IT teams put in place to secure operations?
Keeping data safe and secure is an ongoing challenge with all payments, but partnering with banks that work with third-parties, like Plaid and Akoya, can help prevent breaches particularly with touchless payments. Those third-parties work as a middle man between banks and apps like Venmo. Essentially, consumers enter data like their account number and password and connect apps (like Venmo) to their bank account, and then the third-party verifies the connection but then does not store data past that point, making it a safe bet for allowing data to be shared and accessed.

Another measure is hiring IT employees or an IT company to work closely with day-to-day operations ensuring proper software is up-to-date and employees are trained correctly in handling processes and platforms. There are a few considerations organizations need to have built into their architecture to protect their businesses as well as customer information. It’s important to have a security-first environment by installing additional layers of security infrastructure between the payment system and hardware platform. This includes having continuous security testing and automating scans of hardware and software systems to seek out vulnerabilities and patch potential issues as they arise.

How can an efficient supply chain help streamline orders connected with contactless payments?
An effective supply chain will be the key to creating positive experiences associated with contactless payments. If a customer purchases a product on their device and then goes to the physical store to pick it up, only to be told by an employee that the product they just purchased is out of stock, they then become a potentially lost customer. If a customer is told an item is out of stock after completing an entire check-out process, there again they become a potentially a lost customer.

Using intelligent automation and eventually blockchain across the entire supply chain — from the manufacturer, warehouse, transportation status, backroom storage, and the retail floor, to the app or website a customer is ordering from — will keep product data consistent and updated. Retailers will know important information like how much of a certain product they have on the floor and in the back. Keeping this process seamless and efficient will eliminate inaccuracies and improve efficiencies that result in satisfied customers, especially when implementing something new like contactless payment.

Visit https://www.vai.net/

Why Rewards Programs Struggle to Drive Engagement (Even When the Rewards Are Strong)

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 23:09:07 GMT

Organizations invest heavily in employee rewards programs with incentives that, on paper, should keep employees engaged. Cash bonuses, gift cards, even high-value travel experiences: everything looks right, and yet, engagement doesn’t always follow.

Participation levels off. Redemption rates don’t quite match expectations. Employees see the value, but the program itself doesn’t consistently generate the kind of energy or repeat interaction leaders are aiming for.
In a lot of cases, the foundation isn’t the problem. What’s missing is how that value actually shows up in the experience.

Why Do Rewards Programs Fail to Drive Engagement?

Rewards programs often struggle to drive engagement, not because the incentives lack value, but because the experience surrounding them is too complex, generic, or disconnected from employee preferences. Friction in redemption, limited personalization, and lack of program evolution are among the most common reasons engagement stalls.

The Experience Around the Reward Matters More Than the Reward Itself

There’s a natural instinct to solve engagement challenges by increasing reward value, or adding reward options. If participation dips, the assumption is usually: make the incentive more compelling, or give them more to choose from.
But that only goes so far. Choice paralysis is a real thing, after all.
In reality, employees aren’t just reacting to the reward. They’re reacting to how easy it is to find, understand, and use it. The full journey matters: discovering what’s available, earning toward it, and actually redeeming it.
If any part of that feels disjointed or overly complicated, momentum drops off quickly.
This is why even programs with genuinely appealing rewards, such as travel, don’t always perform the way teams expect. The reward is attractive. The experience getting there? Not always.

Common Reasons Rewards Programs Struggle to Drive Engagement

Even well-designed rewards programs can fall short when key elements of the experience are overlooked. In practice, engagement tends to stall for a handful of reasons:

Programs are built for distribution, not engagement
Personalization is limited or too generic
Redemption processes create friction
Over-reliance on a single reward type
Recognition lacks emotional impact
Programs fail to evolve over time

1. Programs Built for Distribution, Not Engagement

A lot of programs are designed around operational efficiency; what’s easiest to deliver, track, and manage?
That often shows up as:

Static catalogs that rarely add options
Limited flexibility in how rewards can be used
The same options are presented to everyone

From a systems perspective, it works. From an employee perspective, it can feel flat.
The programs that perform better tend to think less about distribution mechanics and more about how the experience actually feels.
How are rewards surfaced? Do they feel relevant? Is there a sense of discovery, or is it just a list?
That shift, from distribution to design, makes a noticeable difference.

2. Personalization That Doesn’t Go Far Enough

Employees are used to personalized experiences everywhere else. What they watch, what they buy, even how they travel—it’s all tailored in some way.
Rewards programs don’t always keep up.
When everyone sees the same set of options, regardless of what they value or where they are in life, the experience starts to feel generic. Even high-value rewards lose some of their impact in that context.
Programs that open up more choice while letting employees decide between cash, experiences, or a mix, tend to land better. Not because the rewards are different, but because they feel more relevant.

3. Friction in the Redemption Journey

Friction is one of the biggest (and most fixable) issues.
Even strong programs can lose people if redemption feels like work.
It usually shows up in small ways:

Too many steps to complete a redemption
Limited availability or confusing restrictions
Interfaces that make it hard to compare or explore options

Individually, these might seem minor. Together, they add enough friction that people delay, or don’t come back at all.
Over time, you end up with a gap between what’s been earned and what’s actually used.
The programs that convert better remove as much of that friction as possible. The path from “I earned this” to “I’m using this” should feel obvious.

4. Over-Reliance on a Single Reward Type

Not everyone is motivated by the same thing, and that can change depending on what’s going on in their life.
Some employees want immediate financial flexibility. Others are more interested in something they can look forward to, like a trip or experience. Most fall somewhere in between.
Programs that lean too heavily in one direction tend to miss part of their audience.
Blended approaches—where employees can choose how they want to use their rewards—generally perform better. It’s less about offering more, and more about offering the right mix.

5. Recognition That Doesn’t Fully Land

A lot of programs follow a straightforward flow:

Complete an action
Earn a reward
Redeem it

That works functionally, but it can feel transactional.
Engagement tends to be stronger when recognition feels visible and meaningful—not just processed. Experiential rewards help here, especially things like travel, because they naturally create moments people remember.
But even then, the context matters.
If the reward is delivered quietly, without much acknowledgment or storytelling, some of that impact is lost. When programs highlight achievements and share those moments more broadly, the effect is much stronger.

6. Programs That Don’t Evolve

What feels compelling today won’t necessarily feel the same a year from now.
Employee expectations shift quickly, but many rewards programs stay relatively unchanged after launch.
Over time, that gap starts to show.
Without regular updates—whether that’s refreshing reward options, improving the user experience, or incorporating feedback—programs can start to feel dated. Engagement doesn’t disappear overnight, but it does get harder to maintain.
The strongest programs are treated as something that evolves, not something that gets set once and left alone.

What High-Performing Programs Do Differently

When rewards programs consistently drive engagement, it’s usually because the experience has been thought through end-to-end.
They tend to share a few common traits:

Personalized enough to feel relevant
Flexible in how rewards can be used
Simple to navigate and redeem
Dynamic, with updates based on real usage
Experience-driven, not just transactional

In these cases, rewards aren’t just something employees receive; they’re something employees actively engage with.

The Role of Experiences in Strengthening Engagement

Experiential rewards help bridge the gap between value and engagement because they give people something to anticipate and remember.
Travel stands out in particular. It offers flexibility, a wide range of options, and a level of personal relevance that’s hard to match. People can shape the experience around what matters to them, which changes how the reward is perceived.
That said, the experience still needs to be easy to access. If it’s difficult to browse, book, or understand what’s available, even the most appealing reward loses some of its impact.

The Path Forward

For most organizations, improving a rewards and recognition program's performance means tightening the connection between what’s being offered and how employees actually experience it.
This usually involves:

simplifying the journey
introducing more flexibility
and making the program feel more aligned with real preferences

As expectations continue to shift, programs that treat rewards as part of a broader experience, not just a transaction, will be the ones to succeed in driving employee engagement and retention.

4 Steps to Setting Up Customer Service Programs for Long Term Success

Mon, 05 Oct 2020 07:08:25 GMT

The last several months have taught businesses that the current environment of remote work isn’t going away any time soon. While the initial move was swift and left a lot of companies to fix environmental and technology issues post-transition, many are now faced with the challenge of setting up employees remotely for the long term—and the customer service industry is no different.

At Majorel, we have a global workforce of more than 50,000 in 29 countries, so the challenge was unique. During the transitional phase, it quickly became apparent that it’s crucial to ensure policies and technology usage are not temporary using four key steps: technology set-up, managing and motivating people virtually, ongoing training, and recruiting the right talent in the first place.

Each step in the process also has implications for the future, as customer service will rely on the flexibility to work from anywhere. More than 40% of millennials, who now make up the largest generation in the workforce, say flexibility to work from anywhere is a priority when evaluating job opportunities.

Step 1: Set up the necessary technical and legal conditions to enable representatives to execute their roles efficiently and effectively

There are several challenges associated with transitioning customer service teams to a home setting. Together with legal safeguards and data protection issues, businesses need to assess the technological requirements that the employee has access to at home. Do they have a strong internet connection that’s secure? Is there a private area of the home that the representative can work from to ensure customer privacy? Is personal hardware sufficient or do new devices need to be purchased?

Depending on the answers to these questions, private devices can be set up for professional use by IT through remote desktop solutions such as a VPN. Or, if private devices aren’t suitable, new PCs, laptops, and mobile phones will need to be purchased. Legal conditions must also be considered, particularly for highly regulated businesses like banking and insurance. Arrangements need to be made to ensure all data is properly protected and compliance precautions are in place.

Step 2: To help manage remote teams, transition processes to the virtual world to ensure consistent communication with customer service staff

After technical and legal factors have been sorted out and implemented, the next step is to set up processes for managing a remote customer service team with the goal of maintaining and promoting communication by managers and between representatives. Remote work eliminates a lot of informal communication—such as saying hello to co-workers in the morning—but this type of communication is essential for teams to feel motivated every day.

Managers and team leaders should schedule regular one-on-one check-ins with staff to maintain a regular connection. Businesses should also use communication tools to help support regular team conversations that go beyond chat—think video and calling capabilities. Collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams also help staff to share important documents and reports while making the process easy and seamless. With these measures, businesses can maintain and improve team cohesion, staff morale, and productivity in a remote setting.

Step 3: Ensure new employees are well-trained and must-know information is current

When training can’t be done on-site, it must take place digitally. Training materials will have to be revised and adapted for virtual training along with the use of online tools to ensure training modules can be viewed by staff at home. One factor to keep in mind is that since representatives will be participating in trainings remotely, it can be tedious without direct face-to-face interaction, so make sure that modules aren’t too long and are easily digestible.

To truly make virtual training a success, businesses also need to decide the requirements for training software, which should factor in security, user-friendliness, and reporting capabilities. Software that isn’t time-consuming to install tends to have the most success. That way, representatives can participate in the training they need, such as new brand updates, and focus the majority of their time on servicing customer inquiries.

Step 4: Find long-term ways to recruit new employees via online channels and to map the application process entirely online

Setting up customer service for long term success doesn’t just mean catering to the current workforce, it also applies to recruitment. Over the last several months, several sectors have seen exponential increases in customer inquiry volumes—the airline industry alone has seen a 199% increase in customer service calls. To help fill hundreds and thousands of jobs within the growing customer service industry, video communication tools are a key technology asset—applicants can speak directly with recruiters when in-person interviews are no longer an option. Other aspects of the application process that should become digital include testing customer service applicants on their phone and digital skills. For example, technology can simulate a chat window interaction to help businesses assess this important skill for representatives.

A glimpse into the future of customer service

Following these four key steps to support remote work preparation, management, training, and recruitment will allow companies to realize business continuity and continue to provide a high level of service to customers. As the industry moves forward with the “new normal” of work, it will be that much more possible for representatives to work from home, especially with the right policies, processes and technology in place. The flexibility that remote work provides will also open the door to attract new talent who are looking to work in customer service without having to commute into an office. Overall, the transition of customer service teams to remote settings has several benefits, and by following the aforementioned four steps, businesses can set themselves up for long-term success and remain competitive.

About the Author
Fara Haron is the CEO North America, Ireland and Southeast Asia & EVP Global Clients at Majorel. She leads a rapidly growing team of customer service professionals helping companies with their global customer service strategy, providing top-notch customer engagement to some of the world’s largest and most respected brands.