Amanda Cromhout 7 min

Blind Loyalty Challenge with Nick Chambers


Hear Nick’s best payment and loyalty integration example, his worst personal loyalty experience and what he considers the absolute #1 priority when choosing technology partners.



0:00

Hi there, I'm Amanda Cromhoe from Truth. Welcome to the Blind Laugherty

0:11

Challenge.

0:12

We interview world experts in loyalty blindly. We're hoping to create insight,

0:18

spontaneity

0:19

and a lot of fun through the challenge. The challenge is about promoting the

0:24

Blind Laugherty

0:24

Trust and my book called Blind Laugherty, a hundred and one loyalty concept

0:29

radically

0:30

simplified. All profits from the book go towards the trust. We hope you enjoy

0:35

the Blind

0:36

Laugherty Challenge.

0:45

So we have another Blind Laugherty Challenge brought to you. I'm in Cape Town

0:49

and Nick

0:49

Chambers is in the UK and Nick and I have the pleasure of working together. We

0:54

're

0:54

co-partners at the Customer Strategy Network. So welcome Nick.

0:58

Hi Amanda, I'm really looking forward to this. Hopefully it's going to be a lot

1:02

of

1:02

fun so I'll give it my best shot.

1:06

It's always fun. Okay, first question. What do you think is the best example of

1:14

integration

1:15

between payments and loyalty? Obviously typically I think mobile comes in there

1:19

but I'll leave

1:20

that to you. The best example of integration between payments and loyalty?

1:24

Well payment and loyalty is a good question. Let me give you an example. It's

1:30

kind of

1:30

a little bit left field but I was in London yesterday and I went for the first

1:35

time and

1:36

I probably your listeners have done this several times. It was the first time

1:40

for being

1:41

Amazon Fresh where you go into Amazon, you go through, you pick up what you

1:46

want, you

1:46

tap your credit card and you leave and you get the itemized receipt with any

1:51

promotions.

1:52

I mean what a fantastic customer experience that was. So I know it was more

1:57

retail but

1:58

they did append a promotional offer so it does sit within the loyalty space but

2:03

in terms

2:03

of a seamless experience it's unsurpassed. I mean I think the challenge

2:08

actually is I

2:09

think they're going to close it down because of the technology is just so

2:12

expensive in

2:13

terms of the cameras to see what you're picking up but I think it will come

2:17

again when that

2:18

cost of that technology comes down, absolutely transformational.

2:25

So did you not swipe your merchandise against a scute? No you pick it off the

2:30

shelf. I

2:31

mean say a bit about myself I went for the meal deal so I picked up the

2:36

sandwich and

2:37

the crisps and the drink and I wanted the meal deal but I also wanted to test

2:42

out if I'd

2:42

get the promotion. You tap your card when you leave and then because I have an

2:48

Amazon

2:48

account I get the receipt emailed to me, itemized with the promotion appended.

2:54

Fantastic customer

2:55

experience. Yeah that's cool. Can't wait to try that out. Great. Lovely example

3:01

. Well

3:01

interesting that leads to my second exam, second question which I didn't know

3:05

you were

3:06

going to talk about something that was so sort of positive from a customer

3:08

experience point

3:09

of view because my second question is what has been your worst personal loyalty

3:15

customer

3:15

experience? Worst personal customer loyalty experience.

3:22

Okay now this is probably going to tell a little bit more about me than about

3:28

the company

3:29

because as an insider, as a practitioner I completely understand the challenges

3:36

of joining

3:37

it all up. But I suppose when I'm in the grocery check out and the person is

3:42

trying

3:42

to get out the loyalty app in front of me and they're fiddling around to open

3:47

the app

3:47

and they're fiddling around to get the promotions up then they're looking to

3:51

pay then they're

3:51

looking to tap tap the loyalty promotion and all the time what they were que

3:56

uing and then

3:57

you just know the next one is going to do the same. I think you know my

4:01

expectation in

4:02

grocery shopping is to get in and get out and that says a bit about me. So when

4:07

there's

4:08

kind of friction and it's time to take in the checkout process that causes me a

4:14

little

4:15

bit of frustration but I completely understand the challenges of linking the

4:19

payment to the

4:20

loyalty and in that instance it's separate and it has to be separate because of

4:25

the costs

4:25

around the technology but it does cause frustration for me in the queue.

4:32

Well maybe not ironically it's the polar opposite of your Amazon experience so

4:38

yeah exactly.

4:39

Amazing. Good example. Love it. And my last one we've worked together on quite

4:44

a few

4:45

projects around technology, RFP, selection and so forth. If you could only name

4:53

one absolute

4:54

critical priority for choosing a technical partner what would that be?

5:00

Oh okay it's an intimate understanding of your own operating model. You know

5:08

the technology

5:09

is just an enabler. Your operating model is the most important thing so the

5:15

technology

5:15

needs to fit in your operations and I've seen a lot of people they're kind of

5:21

shoehorning

5:21

they see nice shiny tech and they think I like it what great features and

5:25

benefits

5:26

but it doesn't fit with their operating model and it doesn't fit broader than

5:30

that. It doesn't

5:31

fit with their culture, their people and how they want to kind of interface

5:36

into the tech.

5:37

So I would suggest that if you intimately understand your operating model, your

5:41

tech

5:42

stack and your performance measures then the tech is part of the selection in

5:47

terms of

5:48

how it fits again against those criteria. I just see so many times it's done

5:52

the other

5:53

way round. Oh look at all these shiny technology and you just can't use or

5:57

implement half of

5:58

it because it doesn't fit with the way the operation of your business.

6:04

Yeah brilliant advice. I couldn't agree more with you. Brilliant advice. So

6:08

anyone listening

6:09

to this you take nothing else apart from a great Amazon experience take that as

6:13

well.

6:14

I have top advice from the blind loyalty challenge. The fact that Nick likes a

6:18

meal deal. Did

6:19

you forget that piece? Especially the Chris. Okie doke we're not going to dice

6:28

your dietary

6:30

preferences. Nick I want you to tag someone please for me to take on the

6:34

challenge next.

6:35

No it's got to be Sean Tan. He's an absolute superstar based out in Cott Koala

6:39

Lumper so

6:40

yeah fantastic to get Sean on the show. Brilliant yes Sean and I know so they

6:46

obviously

6:46

we're all the three of us are all partners in the customer strategy network so

6:50

Sean looking

6:51

forward to that discussion. Nick thank you so much you're a superstar. It was

6:54

really insightful.

6:55

Thank you. Thanks Amanda. Real privilege to be on your show.

6:58

[Music]