What makes a great loyalty marketing professional?
Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article By Mike Capizzi, Director of Education and a Member of the Board of Regents at The Loyalty Academy, from The Wise Marketer, a website and newsletter serving the global loyalty industry.
As part of our work at The Loyalty Academy, we are often asked by clients on the verge of launching a new or enhanced loyalty initiative to assist them in identifying marketing talent to run the program.
Many clients simply try to heap more work onto a current marketing associate who already has departmental responsibilities. But the individual assigned loyalty program management responsibility can’t be just anyone.
We have seen many marcom people who were excellent in their communications and promotional capacities fail miserably in managing a loyalty initiative. We have also seen a host of technically inclined project management types struggle with the strategy, dynamics and consumer behavior attributes associated with these programs. We have seen product managers try, PR managers give-it-a-go and brand managers attempt to make the transition from a single customer franchise to enterprise marketing. Most don’t make it.
Among the attributes ideally required:
- Past experience: Some prior experience running a loyalty program. Hard to find and come by, these people may not be on the inside, but they may have vendor side experience in running a program. Multiple programs across a variety of clients and industries is ideal, both strategic and tactical.
- Marketing aptitude: Has demonstrated an understanding of category and brand dynamics with the unique ability to glean insight from measured customer behaviors. The understanding of customer behavior change — whether intuitive or data-driven — is probably the most important characteristic for loyalty program management success.
- Analytical skills: The perfect candidate is analytical. Examining large volumes of customer data, setting relevant measurement plans and standards, extrapolating findings, reading/writing or interpreting data-rich reports are the lifeblood of loyalty program evolution.
- Technical disciplines: Being able to interpret, understand, sympathize with and help direct complicated technical processes associated with data capture, transaction processing, databases, rules engines, POS systems, web technologies, mobile platforms and customer care or redemption management systems.
- Financial disciplines: Understanding of business drivers. While such skills can be learned, some people just don’t get it or shake whenever a financial report hits their desk.
Discussion Questions
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: How would you find the ideal candidate to run a retailer’s loyalty program? What skillsets do you think are most important? Which ones are most often lacking among those running retail loyalty programs?
Poll
BrainTrust
Dick Seesel
Principal, Retailing In Focus LLC
Nir Manor
Retail-Tech Specialist Advisor
Customer experience professionals with appreciation for Voice of the the Customer data are top candidates. They are analytics-driven and typically (in not having line budget responsibilities) they have had to influence internal stakeholders. Loyalty marketing draws on so many operating elements that the ability to knit these together while inspiring new approaches, attitudes and behaviours can evoke a more fundamental change in corporate and staff behaviours to make the customer the central focus, rather than just adding another marketing program.
Agreed whole-heartedly on Lyle’s point that they must be a dynamic personality and hold a valued voice in the organization. Otherwise, roadblocks will mount and something that should take 6 weeks to execute will take 6 months, which is demoralizing to all parties involved.
It goes without saying that managers of loyalty programs need to be aligned strategically with the rest of their company’s marketing and customer service platform. But the explosion of data science has changed the nature of CRM and loyalty programs — and along with it, the skill sets needed to manage them effectively. Today’s loyalty manager needs to use all that data (without getting lost in it) to personalize preferences as much as the technology permits. “One size fits all” loyalty programs just don’t cut it anymore.
If you are large enough, the best programs are done internally through social campaigns or by a creative director employing something guerrilla marketing-esque. These kinds of campaigns are not only reliant on the customer being incentivized to come back to the store, but build on the social construct to make them “feel good” checking in to the gym, or share how they “feel special” getting upgraded to first class on a trip.
Loyalty programs are complex to manage because by nature, they are cross organizational. To manage LPs well, one needs to understand consumer and shopper behavior, marketing communication (email marketing, mobile apps…) product and category aspects, financial and key business drivers. All that, combined with big-data approach and analytical skills.
This full skill set would seldom be found inside the organization, so the options are either recruit from vendors or other industry players, or grow the right leader within the organization and add to the skill set what’s missing. I would argue that analytical approach with business drivers understanding is more of a challenge to teach, so I would start with those skills, and develop the rest.
A good approach would be to get training assistance from a vendor while working on the LP. Another good practice is to get internal “advisors” from different disciplines at the organization, such as consumer insights, cat man and marcom.
Hands on Knowledge in the specific area is usually what is lacking. I’m going to look for someone who constantly “USES” customer loyalty programs! It probably isn’t someone in house.
Communication is key. First, ask all your employees if they use programs like this in their real life? If not, ask them if they know anyone in their network/life that is the go-to for this area of expertise. It maybe their mom or sister etc. I’m sure people who use loyalty programs know that area inside and out, and can teach you what is missing in every way. They are the experts! They may not have a degree etc. but who cares? Pay them to consult for you. They will teach you more than a few things from the customer’s POV.
In business we must keep an open mind and communicate our needs. Years ago while designing my first merchandise, I mentioned it to our employees. Turns out our marketing ad words guy is an expert in merch design, etc. He is currently my director of merchandise on top of his marketing stuff.
Remember, “Team Players.”
Loyalty is a conundrum, a comprehensive riddle understood only by understanding the underlying psychology of the intended advocates and loyalists. Not all customers will become loyalists. But for those who do, those leading the charge are of a new breed of professional, now required in the digital world, who understand the psychology and dynamics of the human decision to purchase [loyalty to purchase]. As with all things digital, new skills are required to humanize the digital world.
Among the most critical capabilities of a loyalty marketer must be, “The understanding of customer behavior change,” as mentioned in the article. The challenge is, no one can do this alone. There are some great tools available today to help the team capture and ingest the data required for this understanding. I am not certain that data scientists are always required in large numbers. The newest AI technologies really do a great job of analytics to help reduce the need for human intervention.
However, the chief loyalty marketer does need a team of people to find the best approach to a program an sell it to the internal organization. To achieve this position of credibility is easier said than done. Communication and persuasion skills are also required.
For me it boils down to 3 core components:
TIME – To reiterate Mike’s first point in the article, this is a full time position. Adding loyalty program ownership to someone’s already full plate (especially if not explicitly asked for) is a good way to ensure it does not get the attention needed for success.
CROSS-ORG APTITUDE – There are so many inputs to consider: marketing, technology, data collection, ROI modeling – the list goes on and on. The leader of a loyalty program must be wired to understand ALL areas and how they weave together.
CX KNOWLEDGE – At the end of the day, the purpose of this role is to strengthen the bond between brand and consumer. Whether a candidate is from the inside or outside, a thorough understanding of the brand’s specific CX is vital. (A baseline in behavioral science to help answer “why are they currently acting this way and how can we implement change” doesn’t hurt either.)
I agree with the attributes, but there were also two big misses on this list: Business Acumen and Strategic Thinking. A strong loyalty program is deeply rooted in the underlying brand and business it supports (vs. only being a brand unto itself). Understanding the business intimately is important so the program is tied into the overall company business model and direction. Strategic Thinking is required to “see around corners” and understand the implications of today’s decision on tomorrow.
Loyalty is a complicated topic that should be treated as a customer-centered ecosystem over a singular rewards program. Too often I see brands replicate Starbucks and Sephora’s programs by design to later realize that their customer is craving something more.
Psychological carrots that incentivize consumption is a short-term competitive strategy, NOT a loyalty strategy. To avoid this, brands should hire a mix of customer-obsessed engineers and marketers to build tools that deeply enhance the customer journey.
First of all, loyalty needs innovation BADLY … so the first characteristic of a great loyalty professional is someone who is willing to think beyond the card, the coupon and the carrot. What else is there you ask? Prioritizing partnership, relationship, cooperation … with your customer, higher than with your vendors. Your loyal customers would spend more with you, if they had more to spend. This is a great foundation for partnership.
Instead of just giving them coupons, make your loyalty program video friendly. This not only makes what you previously spent on TV and digital media targetable and measurable in traditional loyalty terms, every marketing dollar you divert to this new channel will come back to you 4x with sales in the store.