Loyalty Stories 29: How AI Empowers Emotional Loyalty – Nicole Wilhelm

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 PartnershipMmanagers 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 all around the world to pick their brains to learn what’s new, what’s next for loyalty programs. 

Today’s guest is a returning contributor to the report, a loyalty consultant who is celebrating 20 years in the loyalty space this year. She specialised in conceptual program design and optimisation to operational implementation of B2B, B2C customer loyalty projects in retail, customer goods, finance, travel and hospitality and aviation industries.

Please welcome Nicole Wilhelm from get-focused. Hi Nicole, Guten Morgen. How are you?

Nicole

Hi Gabor. Good, I’m good. Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Gabor

Thank you very much for accepting our invitation. We are very happy to have you here today. Before we start, can you just please briefly introduce yourself to our audience?

Nicole

Yes, so my name is Nicole Wilhelm and originated from Germany. I’ve been, as Gabor just mentioned, in the loyalty space for about 20 years now worked in the DACH area but also I’ve spent a couple of years abroad in the US working for loyalty programs and well I’m now an independent self-employed loyalty consultant and as Gabor said working in various industries supporting companies with their loyalty ventures.

Gabor

Oh great, so happy Jubilee on this really nice round number at your career. And because you’ve been there, I would say since the born of modern loyalty programmes, what is your favourite programme so far and why are you naming it as your favourite?

Nicole

Yes, whenever I get asked these questions, I still have to pick not a German program, but a program from the US. So it’s from Sephora, the Beauty Insider. And the reason is pretty simple. Basically I love when I live there, the way they are using the program in store. 

They are really, it was, put it like this, it was a real change for me coming from Germany where loyalty programs are not as much used in store as in the US. It was a real positive impact on me. And also what I like is I’ve seen that Sephora is integrating sustainability into their program in Australia, for example. So you get points for returning your cosmetics. And so what I also really like any loyalty program that starts integrating sustainability elements into their program.

Gabor

Oh, this is really great. And I think when we spoke last year, sustainability or ESG, environmental, social and governance, was one of the points you also mentioned. So now I understand why you picked this one as your favorite. 

And based on your career, what would you name the most successful loyalty program that you worked on or implemented or what is the one that you are the most proud of?

Nicole

Well, the one I worked on, I think at that time was really with Miles and More, because the aviation industry is just such a good industry, such a great industry for a loyalty program, or to have a loyalty program. And they were basically the ones also being part of customer loyalty implementing programs from the beginning. 

And working there in the partnership management, I could see the benefits of the program and I could also see the value that partnerships have for a loyalty program. So that’s why I’m also a big fan of loyalty programs that not only use their own environment to implement or to execute the program, but to enhance their program with a partner network that they offer.

Gabor

Oh great. And if you look back, what would you consider a big change in the loyalty industry in the recent years?

Nicole

So for one big change for me is definitely the move, which has been going on for quite a while in, let’s say in the US for example, but it’s coming now to Europe as well, is the move from the transactional focused loyalty program towards, let’s say, non-transactional focused or you could say including emotional loyalty elements into your program in order to improve or to enhance brand loyalty, emotional brand loyalty from your customers. That is one big change that I see.

Gabor

And do you think that this will continue or evolve further? Or do you think there’s gonna be other trends that will really contribute more to the loyalty programs or just add more to the loyalty programs in the future?

Nicole

Of course, you’d always have various trends, but I really believe that talking about those non-transactional components, emotional loyalty, that it’s not just going to be, it’s not a thing for one or two years, it’s going to be a process that will be going on for the next couple of years. Because you can’t change your program from one day to the other from purely transactional to have all these emotional elements integrated. 

But a second big trend which I see and this is basically the enabler for emotional elements are those new technologies that we are having, such as artificial intelligence, which just gives so much opportunities on customer analysis, customer segmentation, and also in the execution of a loyalty program, just thinking about gamification, which can be included as well.

Gabor

Oh great, yes. We definitely see AI coming up and in the previous podcasts that I’ve done with, when I’ve done the interviews, a lot of loyalty experts and specialists mentioned that AI is definitely coming up and it’s going to help loyalty programs, so that’s great.

I think last year’s big trend that I heard was around like NFT and metaverse or Web3. What is your opinion about that? Do you see it still coming up in your daily conversations or it started to kind of like fade away?

Nicole

So and so. And I’m reading a lot about it. And again, here, I think it depends on the company structure, the company size. It depends on the industry. Blockchain, for example, does it make sense if I need to be in an environment where I can benefit from having of being part of this larger network, right? 

Or is it something, if I think about a partner network, am I more in an industry where I can sort of be a standalone program properly, and I can choose my partners myself? And being able to bring someone or bring a partnership on board either on the accrual or the redemption side or even the benefit side.

Gabor

I see, thank you, Nicole. And if you circle back to the trends and also AI, what do you think what sort of main features a technology vendor should have or maybe have to have to support these new age innovative modern loyalty programs?

Nicole

I think as a loyalty platform provider it’s really important that first of all he allows as much flexibility as possible within his platform for the brands and have, of course, as much standardization as necessary, but as much flexibility as possible. 

Second, yes, I do believe it’s crucial for the loyalty provider to have those new technologies available. But I believe that there will be different sorts of needs from the brands. So again, here, I don’t think it’s going to be like a one size fits all. There will be brands who will dive completely into those new those new technologies, the bigger brands. And again, here I can just bring in Sephora. 

I was reading all Starbucks and all these companies, of course, they are using already AI to operate their program, to optimize the personalized customer journey. But then, as I also have a lot of clients in the middle segment or the midsize company segment, not all of them will have the need or the capabilities to use all these high-end technologies. 

And third, I think it’s going to be again, same thing as with emotional loyalty, it will just be a process and it will just follow us the next couple of years. And there will be of course new trends, new technologies coming along, which then of course need to be integrated as well.

As sorry, I just have one more point. And in the end, for the loyalty provider, it’s just important that what they offer with those new technologies is understandable for the brands and for the organization. So for the people actually working with it. That’s why I put, you know, that’s why I’m always in favor of keeping it simple as well.

Gabor

Yes, indeed. And why do you think it’s very important to have a platform that is easy to use and that was for example designed for the marketeers?

Nicole

You must think of that so the marketing teams, they concentrate or they focus on their knowledge, which is basically marketing, right? And they don’t, most of them might not come from a technical background. And what I often see is that you have a technology that’s being implemented, it’s complex, it’s not easy to understand, and that often results in the fact that the team who actually works with the platform doesn’t use it as good as they could use it on what features it provides simply because it’s maybe too complicated to really dive into the platform and to understand it.

Gabor

Thank you, Nicole. And when it comes to loyalty projects, who do you see, what kind of departments do you see within an organization that are leading the loyalty project? Who are your main stakeholders? Is it for example marketing or IT or sometimes you speak directly with the CEO or CFO?

Nicole

Here again, it depends if it’s a smaller company, it can be the general manager who decides on what he wants to be included in the project. But mostly my counterparts would be either from, let’s say, the sales department or marketing, or if they have a sort of CRM department, to talk to.

But of course it’s important that the respective departments such as IT are involved as well, right from the beginning.

Gabor

Great, thank you, Nicole. Thank you very much. Is there anything else in mind that you would like to share with the audience?

Nicole 

Yes. Well, maybe to wrap it up, if you are a company who is having a loyalty program and thinking about, okay, how can I improve my program? Because I’m checking on the KPIs and I see that I have a low engagement rate for example, or I might have problems with member acquisition. 

So if I see that my numbers are going down and I’m not happy with the performance, I always have the advice first of all to really bring in an expert who understands loyalty from scratch and really has the overview of other markets as well. 

Because you can really adapt from other markets and see okay some markets and industries so you can see in some industries what works and what doesn’t. You might be able to adapt and as an expert you see the pain points of a program pretty quickly. 

And then really to think about not only focusing on I need a points-based program, but I also need to have other things around of that program to help people being engaged with it. And that’s what I call, or what I say, are those elements for creating emotional loyalty.

Gabor

And there is one dilemma always on the market. It was just coming to my mind when you were talking about implementation. Buy a technology or build it in-house? What’s your preference?

Nicole 

Oh, I have seen both. I’ve been in a project where we built actually the technology completely. Nowadays, I definitely would say, buy. Because there is so much expertise and knowledge already in place that for a company, in my opinion, it makes more sense to focus on the execution of the program and on the monitoring and the evolving the program. 

Like really building it up with new features instead of thinking about what new technology do I have to integrate. It just binds so many resources in the end.

Gabor

Lovely. Thank you very much, Nicole, for sharing your thoughts and being here with us today. I really enjoyed our conversation.

Nicole

Me too.

Gabor

I think we discussed a lot. So it’s, you know, I always speak a couple of favorite topics from conversations, but there was a lot today and I really enjoyed as we’re talking about going from transaction heavy programs to non-transaction or more towards emotional loyalty programs the rise of AI and also that nowadays trend is more of like buying program as it helps on the execution side for companies, so Yeah, really thoughtful Really enjoyed. 

Thank you very much Nicole for being here with us today!

Nicole

Thank you, Gabor. Thank you very much.

Gabor

And for the viewers, whenever you listen to us, be it on a podcast platform, YouTube or LinkedIn, please like this podcast and subscribe to our channel, so this way you can get notified about our next episodes coming up. But also tell us your point of view about loyalty in the comment section below. Visit antavo.com to discover your next loyalty software.

Antavo is a next-generation loyalty program technology company working with global brands just like KFC, Benefit Cosmetics, global automotive, fashion companies and airports all over the world. 

But also don’t forget to visit Nicole’s website at get-focused.de or Nicole’s LinkedIn page to find out more exciting details of her work. Thank you very much and see you on the next one. Bye for now!