These Are Our People: Five Key Takeaways From Loyalty Expo

We spent 3-days in Orlando, Florida and did not come home with mouse ears, a lightsaber, or a wand those chose us. We did come home with, however, a renewed sense of excitement for the work we are doing at Response Labs. Here are five key takeaways from our experience at the 2024 Loyalty Expo.

#1 Celebrating with clients and colleagues is good for the soul

Since the pandemic became a fixture of the rearview mirror, we have been back on the road visiting clients. However, most visits involve a couple of meetings, maybe a short meal, and then it is on the plane home. Rarely have we had the opportunity to spend extended time with our Clients without presenting the latest strategy or report.

Fortunately, at the Loyalty Expo, we did have that opportunity, and it was genuinely rewarding. It reiterated the need for the in-person, human-to-human experience, which is the building block of positive relationships. We were also fortunate to celebrate with our Clients as they led sessions, presented case studies, and were acknowledged for the amazing work they do.

We were especially proud to be nominated for an award with our Blaze Pizza Client. Our campaign last summer was up for the Customer Analytics, Insights, and Metrics award. (Spoiler alert: we took home the bronze, facing stiff competition from The GIANT Company [also a Client]; Loblaw, a grocer out of Canada; and the eventual Platinum winner, Wawa.)

#2 Winning at the moment of enrollment

Speaking of celebrating people, Hilton Honors spoke about its loyalty program. One component that hit home was the reminder that the very first interactions with a customer are so important. Let me say that again with emphasis: the very first interactions with a customer are so important.

We often debate the prioritization of where to focus time and effort. I admit that I am a proponent of the post-purchase experience being the most valuable to drive incremental improvement, but I will absolutely concede that welcome and onboarding are crucial for long-term value. New enrollees and new customers must feel that appreciation from your brand from day one.

#3 Scale before efficiency

Our former Client, John Giaquinto, spoke at the conference about his past year as head of the Rite Aid CRM and loyalty efforts. John was in a similar role with Hannaford where worked with him (and many others) to support the launch of MyHannaford Rewards.

His presentation was about how Rite Aid was able to identify tangible value in a program that many thought was not driving positive results. One of the points that resonated most was “scale before efficiency.” In their moments of assessing program value, that meant targeting those customers of perceived “low-value” with rewards where you may otherwise suppress them from a campaign. What they learned was there were customers of value in those groups and they were active in the program. Had the focus been on optimizing the reward offer strategy to net the best results from the best customers, a whole population of members would have been left out, as would the value they brought to the bottom line.

We tend to over-optimize or over-engineer strategies. This was a good reminder to step back, start wide, and work your way in to efficient execution.

#4 People, personalization, profits—in the order

There’s a parallel between managing an internal team and managing loyal customers. Both require a strong foundational relationship, trust, transparency, and mutual benefits. During a conversation with our Client GIANT Company, we learned from their head of loyalty strategy how she successfully re-organized her internal team structure. (I jokingly asked, “Wow, do you have some kind of degree in organization or something?” To which she replied, “Yes. I have a Masters in Organizational Leadership.” Touche.)

She emphasized “People, Personalization, Profit” as the 3-P’s she instills with her team. Yes, this is mainly about how GIANT Company approach their relationship building with their customer. However, it is clearly evident that they practice what they preach. She put team members in roles that played to their strengths, not just their experience; she brought together people of different backgrounds whose skills were complimentary; and she advocated for her people in ways that exuded trust, support, and commitment to their ultimate reward.

This was inspiring to me as a leader at Response Labs and as a professional in loyalty marketing. I love when we can connect two seemingly different things in order to strengthen comprehension of the other.

#5 Use “micro-training” to educate employees

What is micro-training, you might ask? It is a technique Accor Hotels used to educate employees organization-wide about the Loyalty program. In the hospitality industry, especially hotels, so much of the experience has little to do with the interaction between loyalty marketing and customers. The employees at the front desk, room service, concierge, and management wield so much responsibility to foster a memorable experience that will make someone want to come back again. Therefore, these people need to understand the benefits of loyalty the most to ensure customers are getting their full worth from the program.

Accor introduced a series of 5-minute podcasts that briefly touch on various features, benefits, and updates about their loyalty program. The content is distributed through management teams to employees to listen to at their leisure. They have seen wider-spread success with this tactic than previous training methods. It’s unique and something we may try here at Response Labs someday.