Loyalty Stories 25: Capture The Data, Centralize It, Act On It – Andreanne Rondeau

Gabor

Hi and welcome to Loyalty Stories, that is Antavo’s podcast on customer loyalty and loyalty programs. I am Gabor Vigh, one of the Partnership Managers at Antavo, and Antavo is a technology vendor that empowers loyalty programs all over the world. We help various great businesses such as KFC, Benefit Cosmetics, and very well known global automotive and fashion brands, airports and so on. 

In this Loyalty Stories podcast, we dive into the trends around loyalty programs and customer loyalty. We talk with industry experts around the world to pick their brains to learn what’s new and what’s next for loyalty programs.

Today’s guest is Andreanne Rondeau, the founder of an independent consultancy called stratLX. Her consultancy has strategic and operational expertise in customer loyalty and relationship marketing. They help brands build their loyalty strategy to create lasting and measurable relationships with their customers. 

I have to admit that Andreanne has a very special place in my heart, as we have been talking about loyalty with her very often and sometimes in French, but the viewers don’t need to worry on this podcast, we will keep it in English today. 

So, hi, Andreanne, Bonjour, how are you doing?

Andreanne

Thank you very much for having me.

Gabor

Thank you very much for accepting our invitation for today’s podcast. Before we jump into the loyalty topic that we really like to discuss with you in general, would you mind giving a brief introduction of yourself to the audience?

Andreanne

Yeah, sure. I think you did a pretty good job at introducing me. So, Andreanne Rondeau from stratLX. I’ve been in the loyalty space for over 20 years now. I’ve been on the client side, on the technology side, and now on the consulting side. So, we’ve seen it from all the different sides. And yeah, we’ve founded stratLX about five years ago. We’re celebrating our fifth anniversary this year.

Gabor

Oh great, so because you’ve been around loyalty for a long time, the next question is, or the first question is kind of like self-explanatory. What is your favorite loyalty program and why?

Andreanne

Although I’ve been in the loyalty space for such a long time, I think it’s a tough question because you know there are some really great loyalty programs out there. I think I’m going to pick one that is local and available here in Canada, especially in Quebec where I’m based. 

It’s called the Inspire program. It’s run by the SAQ, which is the wine and liquor store in our province. The program, when you first look at it, it works like a classic earn and burn way. So you earn points for your purchases and then you redeem points upon your purchases, both when you’re shopping online and in store. 

But what makes this program stands out is, I think, how well it does personalization, through the offers they send, through recommendation, the content that really matches your taste and the customer’s taste. But even better, I think, is when they build the program, they’ve added some really handy tools to make customer life much easier in their shopping journey. So they’ve built an app. 

And when you use this app, you can actually see all of your past purchases, but you can rate the wine, the liquor, the product that you’re purchasing or that you’ve tried even if you haven’t purchased there and you can make a list of your favorites and then you can simply, for example, like scan a product, so the barcode and a wine bottle, for example, you can scan it within the app, add it to your favorite, you can rate it and then you can buy it from there as well. 

So I think this comes really handy and super helpful especially if you think when you’re dining out for example and so you’re in a restaurant or with some friends and you try new wine and you want to remember that wine then you actually can grab your app, scan it and then it adds to your favorites. That’s really easy to remember that. 

So what’s fun is that this whole experience is also available in the store through a self-search kiosk. So you can actually see your favorites, search product easily and all that. So what I like about this program is through their loyalty program, they kind of, I would say empower the customer, with the tools to make their tasting and their shopping experience way more convenient. 

I think it’s pretty awesome because like I said, it does personalization very well, it’s convenient, makes your life easier, which is a key in loyalty, and it helps you save money as well.

Gabor 

Sounds really good, I definitely could have a good use on the wine side of the story. And if you look back on your career, what would you name as the piece of work that you are the most proud of?

Andreanne

Yeah, I’ve had the opportunity to be involved in the design and the implementation of many loyalty programs across various industries. Like I said, I’ve been in the loyalty space for a while now. There are some of these programs that are, I’ll say, special to me, either because they’re very successful on the market, because the way they were executed in the market, for example,

So I don’t think I can name out just one, but I’d say that in general, to me a project that stands out and that makes me proud is when we work with clients and we guide them from the initial assessment of all of their loyalty needs. And we have them through the design of a tailored loyalty strategy, develop the business case with them, when we provide support throughout every phase of the implementation, whether from selecting and implementing the technology, defining the customer journey, the brand positioning, the go-to-market strategy, and then we also help them to track performance. 

These projects, I love when we can support our clients in every phase. So these projects to me are like the ones that I’m the most proud of, I would say. But I’d say I think that if without naming one, if I can add to this is what really makes like a special sense of pride when I’m thinking about loyalty is when I meet people either for business or in my personal life and then they start telling me about their favorite program, and I happen to work on that program. 

So I would say this is really nice and knowing that a loyalty program that had a design and that I’ve implemented have positive impact on an individual like this, that’s really rewarding to me and that’s probably what I’m the most proud of.

Gabor

That’s definitely a sign of success there, I would say. And there have been lots of changes in the loyalty space in the past years. There’s been lots of like economical changes. Also, we had COVID back in a day. And what do you think, what were the biggest changes in the recent two or three years?

Andreanne

Yeah, definitely lots of changes, a bit of a roller coaster ride, I’d say. You’re right with COVID, that changed a lot. We do business, forced a lot of companies to go digital, find new ways to stand out. And I think we’ve seen also a lot of major changes on how we collect and how we use customer data.

In Europe, you guys have been affected by or affected impacted by GDPR. We have our own adage just coming in Canada about this. And now you said it, we’re facing tough economic times. So definitely not an easy ride. But all of this, strangely, I would say have a great impact on loyalty, because I think that one of the biggest change that we see in the loyalty industry is how loyalty is becoming like a major topic in discussion and in top priority for businesses. 

For many, when you look back, loyalty used to mainly be about offering a points-based rewards program. But in the past couple of years, all these changes, we’ve seen a shift in how brands are talking about loyalty. It’s not becoming at the very core of their business strategy, and the shift is key, obviously, because customer loyalty has a kind of a ripple effect across all aspects of business. 

So when a company start making customer loyalty a central part of their strategy, we can see an impact and it brings a whole new way, I would say, of doing things, of working internally because it affects the customer experience team, support, fulfillment of product as well, product development, brand positioning is also affected. 

And in many cases, we even see that these type, they are changing the way they measure employee performance. So when, I’d say, we’re giving loyalty, customer loyalty, like a central role in business strategy, which is what we’re seeing happening at the moment.

It gains more visibility at the C-level, so it provides more resources. And it becomes like really like an integral part of the customer experience. So I think that’s an important shift or an important change that we’re seeing right now, because it doesn’t just, when, when you get loyalty at the core of the business like this, you don’t just build transactional loyalty, you really nurture like also emotional loyalty. And this also is something that is becoming more important, for customers and for companies as well.

Gabor

Did anything surprise you in the past two, three years? I mean, any programs coming up with a twist that was very new to the market or any trend back in the day that was kind of like groundbreaking?

Andreanne

I would not point at something very specific in innovation, I’d say, but it’s the pace at which brands are revamping. We see that in the Global Customer Loyalty Report, the stats about how many companies are wished to revamp in the future. 

And it’s actually interesting to see the numbers that we see in the report, and the reality, what’s really happening on the market. And we see that happening. So there are companies that we’ve had, there’s a lot of, especially in the retail industry, I would say, programs used to be very transactional. 

In other areas like airlines, for example, the emotional component’s been there for a while, but we see more of these innovative way of rewarding customer through gamification, through rewarding good behavior, for example, outside of the buying cycle, things like this, like being more ethical in the way we reward customers as well, and definitely more transparent about the way we manage their data as well. 

So all of this kind of shifts the way we do loyalty to be more meaningful and more customer centric. That’s kind of an innovation, well, change to me, definitely.

Gabor

Great. And if we look into the future in the loyalty space, what would you say what the two main fresh trends will be there in the loyalty market? Not necessarily next year, but maybe towards the end of this year or maybe 2025.

Andreanne

Yeah, we weren’t just before starting this call, we were talking about like the web 3., the blockchain. So there’s a lot of NFT, there’s a lot going on about this. It’s a little bit unknown as of where it will grow. I tend to look at trans more things that we see that are evolving right now and that are shifting right now. 

So I think I’m going to name the tailoring experience, product and services, and also meaningfully going beyond transaction, engagement and rewards. Those would be the two, let’s say. So related to the micro-targeting we were talking, and the VIP events as well. Those are linked to those two trends.

Gabor

Great, and do you think these trends will evolve somehow or grow?

Andreanne

Yeah, definitely grow and evolve, be more refined, I would say, because trends usually would see them more widespread in the future. But I think refined would probably be the right word in this case. And let’s, for example, look at tailoring. 

Like I mentioned, tailoring experiences or tailoring products and services, in a nutshell, it’s personalization. It’s all about personalization. And it’s been a topic for brand. And I think that brands have been focusing on for quite a while now. 

But companies and marketers are working hard to give customer experiences and customer offers that are tailored to them. And that’s been an awful lot, but what we’re seeing now, what we’re noticing is that they’re taking a more, once again, refined personalization approach to loyalty. They’re taking it to the next level. And I’m thinking about offering products and services that are truly customized, customer actually, brands actually allowing customer to fully have control on how they customize their product,

Build their own product for example in terms of in terms of material in terms of colors for products and things like this it’s the same for the events we see we used to have like VIP event that were not so tailored, I think, but now it’s really becoming about the customer. 

So I think we can expect brands to be more skilled as well at tailoring these interactions because we have access now to more data, advanced segmentation, better targeting strategy, better technology to do so. So with all of this, we build better knowledge and we’re able to be more refined in the way we tailor. We tailor our offers, our messages, our events, and even like I said, our products and services.

Gabor

Great. And what do you think how a loyalty technology company or a platform should support all of these new kind of loyalty strategies around like, especially like data collection, as you said, what are the crucial features that are not just nice to have, but more like a must have?

Andreanne

Related to data that definitely like integration, but not just only the capacity or the ability to capture the data, but to act on it. That’s key because we need to put data to good use because there’s a lot of companies that are building a lot of, you know, building or capturing a lot of data, but not put it into good use. 

So whether we’re talking about like omnichannel aspect, which is becoming like very important across most industry, whatever it’s talking about, gamification for engaging customer, all of this, we need to be able to capture the data, but act on it, not just capture it and put it away.

So that’s one of the one thing I think is key is the ability to integrate system and use that and put that to use in the overall user experience. And that’s even true because there is a lot of brands that are managing like many legacy systems and that can actually hold them back. 

So if a loyalty technology can come in and capture the data, centralize it, act on it, being user-friendly, we see for marketers, and then bring innovation in the way we deliver the loyalty experience and the personalization. I think it really can stand out, because it will bring both stability in the operation and daily processes, but it will also bring innovation to the company and the experience on the customer side.

Gabor

When it comes to technology, there are often debates on certain situations or certain requirements of a brand. In general, what do you think, Andreanne? Is it better to buy a technology or build in-house?

Andreanne

Oh, for most companies, I would say buying technology makes more sense. But there are some exceptions, definitely. It depends on the experience they have internally in terms of technology development, maintaining it as well. 

But I say that for most companies it’s better to actually buy, get a license from a third party technology just because you make sure that the solution keeps evolving. It brings new features and new benefits from all of this because it’s one thing to build a technology. It’s another one to maintain it and keep it up to date as well. So that’s why I think that for most companies, buying or licensing would be the best approach.

Gabor

And when you talk about loyalty strategy with brands, what do you see these days? Who are your main stakeholders? Who is leading the project? What department in an organization?

Andreanne

It goes from the digital team, especially in the retail industry, we see that it’s a lot of the digital team that hold that, which sometimes comes with some challenge for the retail part when it’s managed by the digital team. 

We sometimes see that it’s a project that is led by CX team as well, which makes a lot of sense to me being managed by the CX team because loyalty is part of CX is at the core of CX. But obviously there’s people involved in all or most departments from brands, marketing, the data scientist, IT. 

So everything is not all departments are involved in the project, but obviously like CX and digital marketing is usually the two departments that we see that are leading the project.

Gabor

Great, thank you, Adrian. And as like a final question, is there anything else that you have in mind that you wanted to share with our audience today?

Andreanne

To actually go and download the Global Customer Loyalty Report and look at it. No, nothing to add.

Gabor

Do you have any additional advice to brands who are looking into loyalty these days and looking into implementing.

Andreanne

Yeah, advice definitely. I think in terms of advice is to, I’m going to preach on my side, I guess, saying that, but to actually get a strong strategy before moving forward with technology. There’s a lot of technology options on the market, and when you select your technology, it’s for the long run. So we’ve talked about implementation a little bit earlier. 

So it is a major project to actually start implementing loyalty technology and launching loyalty program. And you need to get the strategy right. So I think you really need to make sure that you have the right strategy, the right program structure, the right personalization approach, revisiting your customer journey, like the whole loyalty customer experience first. 

And once you have that, you have a solid business case, which unfortunately is sometimes something that brands or companies are skipping or doing a little bit too quickly.

Once you have all that, then you’re in good shape to actually go and seek out for technology. I think we’re, and I’m sure you’re seeing it on your side as well, we’re seeing too many companies like jumping these steps and going straight to technology and then they may feel not as well served as they would have wanted just because there’s a gap between what they wanted to achieve and what the technology is being executed. So get ready with a good strategy plan, good business case, good requirements, and then jump into technology.

Gabor

Great advice, Andrián, and I 100% agree on that. And this is something really in line with Antavo philosophy as well. So we encourage prospects to reach out to us to have a solid strategy before they go for the technology, because they need to know all the KPIs, what they want to achieve in the program before they jump onto it and they engage you know two, three or multiple years with someone.

Andreanne

And it can seem sometimes like a big investment to start with, but I think it can cut price or cost down, actually, because if you’re well prepared, the implementation will go smoother, smoothly, and you’re going to go to market faster and have less rework as well. So yeah, that’s a good point.

Gabor

Yeah, lovely. Thank you very much, Andreanne, for being here with us today and sharing all of your thoughts. I really enjoyed our conversation. 

Andreanne

Yeah, I did. Thank you very much for having me.

Gabor

I think my favorite part was when we were talking about micro-targeting and VIP as a trend and how these will be refined in the future as part of the trend. And also I really love this data capture, use the data, be data-driven and run data-driven loyalty programs to improve, personalisation, tailoring your services and offers to your customers. 

I think this is definitely something more and more customers are eagering to see in loyalty programs. And also other loyalty consultants on these interviews have shared the same view. So it’s really great to hear it as a trend.

Andreanne

Great.

Gabor

Okay, so thank you very much, Andreanne. And for the viewers, wherever you listen to us, be it on a podcast platform, YouTube or LinkedIn, please like us, like this podcast, subscribe to the channel. So this way you will get a notification when the next episode is out. And also tell us about what you think about loyalty in the comment section below. 

Also visit antavo.com to discover your next loyalty software. Antavo is a next-gegeration loyalty program technology vendor used by global brands like KFC, Benefit Cosmetics, Global automotive, fashion brands and airports all over the world. 

Also don’t forget to visit stratLX’s website at stratlx.com or Andreanne’s LinkedIn page to find out more exciting details of her work. Thank you and see you on the next one!

Bye for now.