If there is a theme to today’s loyalty newswire it’s this: Plato was right - necessity actually is the mother of invention. Traditional points economy models are being expanded, twisted and morphed into entirely new reward ecosystems. Customer experience and user experience are (finally) taking center stage. And Amazon teaches us another lesson in illustrating the benefits of membership. Here’s what we’re talking about:
World’s Fifth Largest Airline Firm Explores Blockchain to Cut Costs for Customers.
European airline holding company Air France-KLM has partnered with blockchain travel ecosystem Winding Tree. The goal of the partnership is to reduce costs for the company’s customers by cutting out intermediaries. After all of the hype about the potential that blockchain can bring into the loyalty space, it’s significant that Air France-KLM is taking steps toward that reality.
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Southwest Matches Your Elite Status From Other Airlines.
You might call this “strategic poaching” or it might just be a creative way to expand your rewarding. Either way, Southwest’s continually dynamic approach to loyalty is something to pay attention to. Especially if you’re one of their competitors.
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BMW's ReachNow Rewards Members with Alaska Airlines Frequent Flier Miles.
Speaking of breaking out of your vertical, BMW and Alaska Airlines are now closer friends. The ReachNow ride-sharing program now layers in benefits that let frequent users add to their Alaska Air frequent flyer accounts.
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Hyatt, Exhale Reward World of Hyatt Members for Well-Being.
Hyatt’s acquisition of Exhale this past August is taking shape in the form of healthy rewards. The press release illustrates Hyatt’s clear understanding of the power of the wellness movement and how to leverage that to build brand loyalty.
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Opinion: Poor user experience is the enemy of customer loyalty.
This is hardly “news” in the traditional sense but the idea is so foundational and important that it bears repeating. Constantly. Plus, it’s refreshing to see this message coming from someone other than marketers.
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Restoration Hardware is continually reinventing their customer experience.
We’ve had some healthy discussions about the meaning and effect of customer experience and how its anything but a linear concept. Gary Friedman clearly thinks so as well. It’s a good, quick read and it can help inform your own CX conversations.
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How psychology explains why we make money mistakes and our attitude to financial risk.
We’re going to be layering in more content on the topic of behavioral psychology and its applications within customer loyalty. Here’s a very simple primer to seed the topic.
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Amazon wants to show you in person how valuable Prime is.
When you control the entire transactional environment you get to do things like this. Amazon’s 4 Star Stores put member pricing and benefits right in front of customers’ eyes.
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3 out of 4 Americans share Netflix, Amazon and Uber accounts.
We’re not saying we know anything about this statistic on a personal basis but it is very interesting. How much should marketers factor account sharing into program adoption? Does this same phenomenon apply to loyalty accounts on some level? Discuss.
Mike Giambattista is Editor in Chief at The Wise Marketer and is a Certified Loyalty Marketing Professional (CLMP).
