Let's Talk Loyalty

Today's episode is a summary of my interview with Sarah Richardson, Founder of the Australian Loyalty Association.

In our original interview, Sarah had showcased the impressive loyalty marketing industry in Australia, so this short summary highlights some of the amazing things I learned from her expertise in that market.

Sarah now runs a boutique loyalty consultancy firm called SCIENSA, advising on loyalty strategy and helping programme owners measure and improve the value of their loyalty programmes.

Listen and learn for a masterclass in the Australian loyalty market.

Show Notes:

1) Sarah Richardson

2) Let's Talk Loyalty - Episode 21

Film, music and games are all assets that loyalty programme owners can leverage to drive emotional engagement with members.

In this episode, I summarise my previous interview with film partnerships expert Tom Sugg, who explains how to leverage the power of the world's most popular entertainment brands as partners to engage your customers around their passion points.

Show Notes:

1) Brand Culture

2) Tom Sugg

3) Let's Talk Loyalty #20 - Leveraging Customer Passions to Drive Loyalty

Dr Anil Pillai is a human engagement expert, with experience advising some of the world's top firms across Europe, India and the Middle East. He is passionate about applying a deep understanding of human psychology to consumer's behaviour - whether it's to communicate effectively or change a desired behaviour.

In today's show, we discuss concepts such as the 'Effort Assessment Score" as a framework that evaluates the effort needed for a customer to complete a task, our concerns about "loss of control" and the need to design our customer's loyalty journey with speed and simplicity in mind.

We also discuss insights around the perception of various communications channels for audiences and how these may be perceived by users.

For anyone interested in the neuroscience of either business or loyalty, Dr Pillai offers some superb insights to include in your approach.

Show Notes:

1) Dr. Anil V. Pillai

2) BuyerBrain.com

3) Terragni Consulting

4) EAS - Effort Assessment Score Framework

5) Don Peppers

6) Customer Fest Virtual Conference

7) https://hbr.org/2012/05/to-keep-your-customers-keep-it-simple

8) https://faculty.washington.edu/jdb/345/345%20Articles/Iyengar%20%26%20Lepper%20(2000).pdf

Running a loyalty programme can be challenging in many ways so who can you turn to for advice, a second opinion and access to global loyalty brain power when you need it?

One place is the "Customer Strategy Network" or CSN, of which I'm delighted to be a member.

CSN is a global organisation of loyalty practitioners and in this short episode I summarise my conversation with Nick Chambers who leads the CSN and share the types of loyalty projects the CSN typically supports.

Show Notes:

1) Customer Strategy Network

2) Nick Chambers

3) Let's Talk Loyalty Episode #19 with Customer Strategy Network

As the world's first ever airline alliance, the Star Alliance is an extra-ordinary example of how global partnerships can be created to ensure a compelling, consistent and seamless experience for airline customers and earn their loyalty.

With the alliance about to celebrate its 25th anniversary, I was delighted to learn some fascinating insights from their group Director of Loyalty, Renato Ramos who shares some superb ideas from his years of global airline loyalty experience. We discuss the evolution of loyalty for airlines in a pandemic and post-pandemic world, including the importance of non-airline partnerships, the challenge and opportunity to extend airline loyalty programmes to leisure travellers, as well as innovative possibilities such as cash back and pre-paying for loyalty points.

Show Notes:

1) Renato Ramos

2) Star Alliance

3) Star Alliance Innovation Hub Announcement

4) Starbucks as a Banking proposition

This is a summary of an already short show where I spoke about my predictions for the loyalty industry for 2020!

It was recorded and released pre-Covid and featured my three big trends ideas, including the increasing role of CX for loyalty marketing, the importance of building an emotional connection with customers as well as my personal passion for using the human voice

as a way to access key services, like my loyalty programme updates.

Show Notes:

1) Episode 18 of Let's Talk Loyalty

What are some innovative new ideas you could use to build consumer loyalty if you were brave enough to try them as one of the first?

In this episode of Let's Talk Loyalty, I'm discussing MY absolute favourites - Whatsapp for Business/loyalty, the power of a voice marketing strategy and my all-time favourite, payment-led loyalty. These I believe are three of the most powerful tools available to loyalty marketers in 2021!

To help me understand these innovative ideas, I chatted to Lisa Brightwell, the founder of one of the UAE's top loyalty agencies Bright Insights Consulting who has studied how these powerful tools can be used to differentiate your brand in this era of dramatic changes in consumer behaviour.

Listen for a masterclass in innovative loyalty marketing and the powerful tools that you can use to connect with your customers.

Show Notes:

1) Lisa Brightwell - Managing Director

2) Bright Insights Consulting

3) World Health Organisation Uses WhatsApp for Covid for Health Information

4) KLM - First Airline Leveraging Whatsapp for Business

5) Whatsapp for Business

6) Esteé Lauder Voice-Activated Sampling Campaign

7) Forbes Article on Loyalty

In this short episode, I summarise my discussion with Deon Olivier, a well-known loyalty expert in South Africa

He shares some of the extraordinary powerful concepts that this sophisticated loyalty market has launched, including Discovery's famous Vitality program, some unique concepts within retail banking as well recent developments in fuel retail and convenience stores in the South African market.

Show Notes:

1) Deon Olivier - Certified Loyalty Marketing Professional

As the currency originally created and famously known as "Air Miles", Avios is now the loyalty currency of the five airlines of the IAG airline alliance, operated by IAG Loyalty Limited, which now boasts over 35 million members across airlines including British Airways, Aer Lingus and Iberia - airlines that together typically carry over 118 million passengers a year.

Adam Daniels, CEO of IAG Loyalty Ltd, shares both the expected and unexpected changes that have emerged through the global pandemic, with major behaviour changes including how consumers and retail partners have discovered the extraordinary power of awarding Avios points for online shopping.

We also discuss some new ideas for banking partnerships and also the power of the currency as a tool to drive employee loyalty, with concepts such as "Get Fit With Avios" proving hugely successful!

This episode is sponsored by Valuedynamx (Part of the Collinson Group)

Show Notes:

1) Adam Daniels Chief Executive Officer

2) IAG Loyalty

3) Collinson Group

This episode of "Let's Talk Loyalty" summarises my top insights from British Gas Rewards - an award-winning UK loyalty programme that's loved by millions.

With a goal to make customers feel recognised and rewarded in an intensely competitive sector, British Gas Rewards developed an innovative concept without using points.

With customers asking for simplicity and exclusivity, British Gas in partnership with their agency Mando Connect developed a concept that combined core rewards from British Gas in the form of "loyalty days" with exclusive partners offers across key categories that customers love.

Listen to hear the highlights of my learnings from the British Gas Rewards loyalty programme or listen back to the full interview in December 2019. It's episode #16 of "Let's Talk Loyalty".

Show Notes:

1) British Gas Rewards: https://www.britishgas.co.uk/rewards.html

2) British Gas Rewards Partnership Agency: www.Mando-Connect.co.uk

3) British Gas Rewards on Let's Talk Loyalty - Episode #16