Loyalty Stories 16: Please Do Your Homework – Zuzana Marounkova

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 all over the world. 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 and what’s next in loyalty programs. 

Today’s guest is Zuzanna Marunkova, CRM and Loyalty Strategic Planner.

So, hi Zuzka, how are you doing?

Zuzana

Hi Gabor, thanks for having me. I’m doing fine today.

Gabor

Thank you very much for accepting our invitation for this podcast recording today. I am really looking forward to our conversation and learn what’s there in loyalty programs, especially in Central Europe. But before we dive into that serious topic, briefly, would you mind introducing yourself to our audience?

Zuzana

Definitely. So I was changing different positions. So from data analytics through marketing to strategy. And I’m focusing the last three years approximately on loyalty programs and CRM communications. 

So we have plenty of different clients, different experiences, and I enjoy it. It’s a field that is evolving a lot. So I believe it’s a great field to work in and it’s also great to be here today.

Gabor

And out of curiosity, as you work in the marketing area for a long time, you are a loyalty enthusiast. What would you say? What is your favourite loyalty programme and why?

Zuzana

I would say it’s a local Czech one. It’s called Albert. It’s a grocery chain, but it’s quite successful here in Czech Republic. And they launched their loyalty program two, three years ago, I believe. And it’s completely fresh new digital program. So you have just a digital card. It is in the application. So there are no physical cards. And there are plenty of rewards that you can choose from. 

So what is great for me, I don’t need use all of them, but it’s easy to use them. So for example, they have credits and points. For the credits, you know that it’s one-one, so one credit is one Czech crown, so you can easily exchange it for the money. And for the points, it’s most like collecting the stickers. So you collect some stickers and then you can buy Lego, for example, or whatever is available at stock at that point.

So I like that it’s very diverse. There are plenty of ways how to collect the points. They also offer more points on the products that are sustainable or healthy, which I like as well. So for me, it’s very good program and I use it a lot because I enjoy using it.

Gabor

It really looks like a good loyalty program to me as well. I really enjoy being part in grocery store loyalty programs. So here in the UK I am a member of Lidl Plus. But what I kind of like miss is that they don’t have that sticker element that for example we do have it a lot in like let’s say like in Central/Eastern Europe like in Hungary or Slovakia as well.

When you purchase something you get a sticker, you put it in the booklet and then you can buy Legos or all sort of other items. I still use my suitcase for traveling that I was getting from Spar I don’t know like 10-15 years back so great. And based on your career Zuzka what would you say what is that piece of work that you are the most proud of?

Zuzana

We have two big Czech loyalty programs and one is in pharmacy and it’s a Czech pharmacy, somehow expanding to Europe a little bit as well. But here in Czech Republic, we have right now, I think around 4 million members, which is almost half of the Czech Republic. So it’s quite huge.

Gabor

Oh wow.

Zuzana

And we operated for a few years, so that’s definitely something we are proud of. Now we are focusing more on how to scale the technology for them and how to enhance it, so we are focusing more on creating specific clubs, so for example, for diabetes or pets or vets and so on, so that’s one. 

And the second is again local grocery chain and there we have built over time plenty of A-B testings. So we have really, I would say hyper-personalized offers for them because we learn from each of the send, from each of the offer that we are delivering to the clients and we are improving over time. So these are two things we are really proud of.

Gabor

Oh, really great. Thank you so much for sharing it with us, Zuzka. And if you look back a couple of years in time, what would you say, what are the biggest changes in the loyalty space?

Zuzana

I would say it’s the technology and the digital transformation, because it’s plenty of years that we speak about customer first and hyper personalization and so on, but it wasn’t really possible until the technology started to emerge and be in place. So I think this is really the game changer. 

We see that it’s not very easy for companies to adopt. Sometimes it would take, I don’t know, 10 years even to change the whole ecosystem and to use the technology that is in place, including for example, AI or augmented reality, virtual reality generally, or Metaverse now NFTs and so on. 

So the technology is here. I think we still need some time for the companies to adopt it, to think about how they can even find maybe budgets so that they can use it. But that’s definitely for me the game changer. And then maybe the second one that I see lately quite a lot and it’s the focus on sustainability because customers are really asking for it. So I think these two are the main trends I would say that are here and will be here for some time still.

Gabor

Great, and did anything surprise you? Were there any kind of loyalty program that just happened to be there or just developed from an existing loyalty program that was offering something outrageous or something very shocking or new to the market?

Zuzana

I think it’s last year when I saw, it wasn’t us helping with it, but I saw it. I think it was dm,  who the drug store, who started with the first NFTs and they really start selling it. It was ad hoc campaign, but I was thinking like, wow, the technology is here and somebody’s really using it. And it worked and people reacted on it very nicely.

I think it was then donated even for some charities, so it was the combination of the technology and then the sustainability. It was all-star.

Gabor

Great. And yes, I personally think that, for example, personalization will be there, sustainability will be still key in loyalty programs. But do you consider these two as like the main trends that are going on in for the future? Or will there be other trends that will really kind of like make loyalty programs special or appear in loyalty programs more and more.

Zuzana

I think there are some more fields. I would say generally the subscription is something in question for quite some time. It was stopped because people just didn’t have money. And now even with the crisis and the inflation and so on, I think it’s a little bit slowed down. But I think it will be coming to the table more often and it will be offered more often and customers will want to use it more as well.

Then what we see as emerging is the demand from the B2B space as well. So B2B loyalty I think will be one of the trends that will be coming more often. And then what we see is that also I would say less traditional industries are also looking into the ways how they can attach to their customers. 

So I don’t know insurance or travel agencies or companies that are selling goods that last, I don’t know, 10 years. We’ve had, for example, some discussions with a company who is selling elevators. So I think even these companies where you wouldn’t really expect it’s not a fast moving goods, so you wouldn’t expect that much that they will be looking into loyalty programs. They are thinking about it now as well.

Gabor

So, Zuzka, in your point of view, what do you think, how a loyalty program technology company should support these kind of new age programs, the trends that are coming up more and more often? What are those features that are kind of like must have, not even should have?

Zuzana

I think it’s really important to think about how to plug it into the existing ecosystem because what we see is that many companies already have some database or CRM system. Not all of them are willing to change the tech stack from one to another, just the whole. So it’s important to have functionalities that can be plugged into the existing systems. That’s definitely needed. 

And then I think at least what we see here in Czech Republic unfortunately is that companies don’t have millions of Czech crowns to invest in these technologies. So I think it would be good for especially the new features to have some light versions so that they can even afford it.

Gabor

Oh great, and I started to ask this question on these interviews because I think this is a very interesting topic, especially in the Czech Republic, because there are lots of IT resources there. I know that for example in Brno or Brünn, it’s a German name.

There are loads of IT companies and also those companies who are based in the Czech Republic or in that region has got massive IT resources so they tend to develop their own solutions in-house but what do you see, Zuzka, is it like a buy or build in-house approach which is more relevant in the region?

Zuzana

It’s hard to answer. We have developers who prefer to develop everything themselves. Because somehow when you develop something, you understand it, you know how to operate it. So it’s much easier than to adopt to existing solution. So I think the split is here somehow. 

But mostly I would say it makes sense and it will be happening more and more that even the clients and even Chechs, us as people will accept that there are subscriptions, there are cloud technologies, there are out of box solutions that can be leveraged. And yes, we are very careful in adopting these things. We don’t believe it too much. Like, you know, we don’t see what is in it. So it’s not easy to believe that it will be working fine. But I think this is slowly shifting as well.

Gabor

Yes, hopefully the best practices or the approaches that are used in like the States or in other parts of Europe will be adopted in Central Europe as well, soon hopefully. And because you have been doing a lot of different projects around loyalty.

Who are the main people that you are speaking with? Who are the main stakeholders?

Zuzana

And I would say it’s even the main challenge we have in general in building loyalty programs, because sometimes it would sit in the marketing department, sometimes in the even IT department, it would be more considered a technology. Very rarely it’s connected at sales, so what we are trying to do is when we start to speak with the client to see what are the options to connect all of these internal organizations so that we are building a system that is from the customer perspective, making sure that the customer is seeing that client as one company. 

And it’s really the customer first omniscient approach where the loyalty system is only one of the tactics or strategies that are within the whole marketing and sales environment. Not always it is so easy. And sometimes it’s for discussions firm many years, I would say, before the client alliance internally. But yeah, I would say mainly it would be either marketing or IT departments that are the ones that we work with.

Gabor

Great, great insight. And if, you know, for example, a company or a brand was looking to implement loyalty or even just, you know, start their exploration in this loyalty space, what would you tell them? What would your advice for them?

Zuzana

I think it’s important to take the time and do really research. First, is it something that will help you as a company? Is it something that the customers really want? What the competition is doing, what the industry is doing and make sure that you said, if you decide that it makes sense to have the program, then really spend also a lot of time thinking about it.

What are the KPIs? How to set it up? How will I measure the program? And then, of course, the technologies, what I want to use, how much I even want to invest in it, and based on this, move forward. But really, don’t skip this consideration and research part because it’s very important.

Gabor

Great, great, thank you Zuzka. Is there anything else in mind that you wanted to share with our audience today?

Zuzana

That’s the hardest question.

Gabor

And an open question as well.

Zuzana

I think it’s great and I’m really happy that the loyalty programs and maybe not only programs, that’s something that I could say. What we see often that sometimes the loyalty marketing as such makes sense as well. So I know that not every company has budgets or resources or even willing to have a proper loyalty program. 

It’s from my perspective also fine with starting with loyalty marketing, which means the activities that will be over the life cycle, and then slowly maybe building the proper program. But it doesn’t need to be that you start with the program right away, and then maybe you don’t know how to operate it, or maybe it’s too big from the beginning to start with. So there can be small steps that you would take eventually to get to the working program.

Gabor

Lovely. Thank you very much, Zuzana, for being here with us today and for your valuable insights. I really enjoyed especially on that part where you were talking about the trends, that there is a demand for more and more B2B programs. 

And I think kind of like in your case, maybe that pharmacy brand that you might be working with or other like bigger manufacturers or bigger retail brands like B&G, for example, who are developing more and more features around this. So it’s really, this is a really interesting insight and also it’s just making the point when you said that the less traditional industries are looking for loyalties. 

So I would say that those big retailers and manufacturing companies are less traditional industries in the loyalty space but also insurance companies and this is a really great one how you can, you know, just engage your customers to live like even like a healthier lifestyle. 

Let’s say if they check their blood pressures, if they exercise during the day and if they complete these sessions, then the insurance brand would know that, yes, they are healthy, they are less risk customers. So then maybe they can give them a discount on the next year’s policy or something like this. But this is really a great point. So I really, really enjoyed that, Zuzka. Thank you so much.

Zuzana

Thank you. And I think these all, I call it soft benefits, are really great that we already have the technology to have them. Because in past, it was always buy product get points. Now it’s so much variety of the mechanics and tactics that are available and can be technically implemented that it’s giving us a super huge ecosystem that we can work with. And I enjoy it very much.

Gabor

Thank you very much, Zuzka, very much. And for the viewers, wherever you listen us, be it on a podcast platform, YouTube or LinkedIn, please like this podcast, like this channel, subscribe to this channel as well, so you will get notified when the next episodes are out. And also tell us what you think of loyalty in the comment sections below. 

Visit antavo.com to discover your next loyalty software. Antavo is a next-generation loyalty program technology company used by global companies like KFC, Benefit Cosmetics, global automotive and fashion companies and airports all over the world. Visit Zuzana’s website or Zuzana’s LinkedIn page to find out more exciting details of her work. 

Thank you and see you on the next one. Bye for now.