As Loyalty Professionals we spend our careers talking about: The Customer, The Collector and The Member. We let code put them into segments. We track what they do when they do it and where. Lastly, we present it to our colleagues, clients and partners in a way that feels like we personally are not a part of it. We present the data as third person.
So here is the question I have started to think about: Where does our loyalty lie?
I have seen many professionals in the field, including myself, be conflicted about where we shop or which airline we fly. If you work for two airlines, which one do you book? Do you even fly one of the ones you work for? What about hotels? Same question if you have two hotel brands as clients. This query is not limited to travel. If the grocer with the loyalty program I work for is a 20-minute drive, but their competitor is a 5-minute walk, where do I shop. For many, like me, the answer is clear.
What about our personal versus professional lives?
- Do we change our loyalty behavior if the task at hand is personal versus professional?
- Is there really a difference because at the end of the day, we are customers, collectors and members?
Most of us end up being members of every program whether they are clients or not for the purpose of competitive analysis. We cannot advise what a client should do without real hands-on knowledge of their program and their competitors.
But being a member of every program is the opposite of loyalty and every program manager's worst nightmare as segment. What if you are a part of that last segment that all programs have and cannot personally engage. The ones that never use the loyalty platform.
As professionals in the field no matter what role we have, we know what the data captures and how it is used. How do we manage if our personal self falls in the unengaged consumer segment.
Whether we want to be a loyalty-free shopper or a loyalty optimizer dedicated to only one program per category, what do we say when a client asks if we are a member? What do we like or dislike about their program?
We all know exactly what to say whether we signed up or not. We know the ins and outs of their program better than most of their members do. We could tell them why we love it, what we redeemed for or how great their app is. I do not think any of us would say, “I am not a member myself.”
To be fair, this debate (even if only my own) is not unique to loyalty programs.
- What if someone in your family works for a soda company, but the whole family only drinks the competition? How far does loyalty go?
- What if that same person is travelling on an airline that only serves their competitors’ soda products? Does the person not order a soft drink?
In putting my thoughts together for this article, it occurred to me I have never seen someone in a restaurant ask what the brand of coffee they serve before ordering, even if they work for a coffee company. I will add I have witnessed this exact scenario.
So why do we as loyalty professionals feel like we must be card-carrying members of every program we touch? What happens when we change jobs and move to another brand? What do we do with all those years of collecting to get us to the premium tier? Does our program loyalty just get handed back in with the laptop?
Do the best practices and initiatives to engage and increase spend that we preach apply to everyone else and exclude ourselves? I would think the answer is, certainly not. We too are the customer, the collector, and the member.
So, to all my colleagues and loyalty professionals, where does our loyalty lie?
