When you’re selling hammers, every prospect looks like a nail. You’ve heard the expression before. The loyalty version of this is that many suppliers think every solution has to be currency based because that’s what they are selling.
I can hear the groans now, but don’t worry. I’m an advocate of data-driven marketing strategies that are [...]

The past few years we’ve seen somewhat of Cambrian explosion of products and services designed to help consumers burn their loyalty rewards.  Colloquy has studied the issue and found that around 1/3rd of all earned loyalty awards go unredeemed.  Clearly there is a market for helping consumers get the most from their loyalty earnings.
Continuing our [...]

At Hanifin Loyalty we like to talk about what it takes to build customer loyalty, but we also pride ourselves in being good listeners. We listen to clients and we listen to customers. Like the old saw said “God gave us one mouth and two ears for a reason”. Maybe they should be used in [...]

There has been a LinkedIn discussion ongoing for several weeks that, if you care about customer marketing, causes you to stretch your mind a bit.
The question? “Can you use ONE WORD to describe the biggest challenge for Loyalty professionals?”
I read the litany of responses and found it worth documenting what keeps loyalty and database marketing [...]

In the final part of our Three Part interview series with Rob Markey, Bain & Company, we share insights from Mr. Markey on how to better execute surveys, whether to introduce incentives to improve survey responses, and get his opinions on whether NPS or other metrics will eventually influence share prices on public exchanges.
Oh yes, [...]

My interview with Rob Markey about the new book, The Ultimate Question 2.0 “How Net Promoter Companies Thrive in a Customer-Driven World”, continues today with a closer look at how the “score” has evolved into a “system”.
The book includes a number of case studies ranging from Charles Schwab to Apple Retail to The Progressive Group [...]

In a previous post I mentioned that I was the beneficiary of a serendipitous moment in which I was given the opportunity to interview Rob Markey, a partner in Bain & Company’s New York Office and head of the firm’s global Customer Strategy and Marketing practice.
The topic was a new book, The Ultimate Question 2.0 [...]

Speak the word Loyalty and you get a range of predictable reactions. If you’re at any number of marketing conferences, the word association game leads to responses of “points”, “miles”, or “discounts”. If you mention loyalty to your friends on the golf course, the reactions range from conversation about one’s dog to “those crummy punch [...]

Carrabba’s Italian Grill stands apart from many of its chain restaurant competitors. Sure, the food is freshly prepared, the wood-burning grill adds ambiance to the setting, and the service is excellent, but I was thinking about their approach to building customer loyalty.
Looking at several national competitors in quick-serve (QSR) and white-table restaurant chains, I found [...]

What do Citi, Sony, Michael’s, Epsilon, and 4 leading Australian banks have in common?
The answer is globalization – of consumer data intrusion – that is.
Most everyone is aware of the steady stream of data breaches perpetrated this year against high profile brands, and some sources have counted over 150 major breaches in the U.S. [...]