Travel Loyalty Program Insights

What if your biggest growth opportunity isn’t in your sales pipeline, but in your post-sale experience? While most revenue teams obsess over lead volume and top-of-funnel performance, high-performing organizations are reallocating resources toward the one area most overlooked (and most profitable): customer retention. You’re not losing revenue because you can’t acquire customers; it’s because you can’t keep them. Customer experience, loyalty, and client services are no longer “support” functions. They’re strategic growth levers. And the cost of ignoring them is compounding: - Customer acquisition costs (CAC) are rising 60–75% - Churn is erasing pipeline gains before they hit the forecast - Siloed orgs are failing to act on critical post-sale insights Here’s how growth leaders are operationalizing customer-centricity to outpace competitors: ✅ Shift GTM strategy from funnel-filling to journey stewardship. Map the full customer lifecycle, then build cross-functional ownership for every phase beyond the sale. ✅ Hardwire retention into revenue models. Redefine revenue metrics: CLV, NRR, and CSAT become as critical as quota attainment. ✅ Turn customer success into a revenue function. Enable CS teams to identify expansion triggers, churn signals, and feedback loops that inform both product and GTM. ✅ Engineer feedback into daily operations. Surface real-time insights from support, community, and product usage–not quarterly surveys or lagging indicators. The companies doing this right see up to a 25% lift in renewals, 35% higher LTV, and customer referrals that shorten sales cycles by 30–50%. Want to build a revenue engine that scales and sustains? Start by asking: How are we designing for the customer after the contract is signed? Read the full post: https://lnkd.in/dY3Rxsc9 __________ For more on growth and building trust, check out my previous posts. Christine Alemany Join me on my journey, and let's build a more trustworthy world together. #Fintech #Strategy #Growth

Accessibility Strategy for Organizations Just Starting: ➤ Begin with 3 simple accessibility actions each week. ➤ Ensure 1 of them involves feedback from people with disabilities—whether it's testing a product, evaluating a service, or reviewing communications. ➤ Engage with people from the disability community every day—whether online or within your team—listen, learn, and ask for honest feedback. Once you start building momentum: ➤ Scale up to 5-7 actions weekly. ➤ Make 3 or more of them proactive accessibility improvements—like adding captions, improving site navigation, or hosting accessible events. ➤ Keep community engagement and accessibility-related discussions ongoing, just like you’d maintain customer relations or team communication. That’s really all you need to start building an inclusive culture. Remember: Don’t overcomplicate it. Accessibility is a commitment. It’s about making sure everyone can engage fully—your customers, your employees, and your stakeholders. Keep it simple, keep it human, keep it accessible.

Food inflation has fallen rapidly, down from 19.3% in March 2023, to 3.3% today (January 2025 – the latest data). This is a relief for many households, but the reality is that there’s been a significant change in the price level of our weekly trip to the supermarket, and it’s hit the least affluent households the hardest. As we all know, falling inflation does not mean falling prices. We now all pay around 30% more for food and non-alcoholic drinks than we did 3 years ago, leading to many consumers having to tighten their belts. In fact, 29% of shoppers say that they are extremely cautious with their spending on food, on strict and tight budgets to manage their finances. A further 39% say that they are careful spenders. Together, that’s over two-thirds of households watching their budgets when it comes to grocery shopping! Our latest research with Vypr identifies four distinct loyalty cohorts, each presenting unique challenges (and opportunities when it comes to loyalty schemes): 🔹 Strict Budgeters (29%) Very careful spenders who meticulously track every penny, typically found in households earning £25k per year or less, but notably, almost a quarter (24%) of households earning £67k or more also fall into this category. Equally spread across age groups, slightly less represented among those aged 65+. Loyalty schemes must offer clear, immediate savings as this group prioritises price above everything and are highly responsive to membership benefits. 🔹 Careful Spenders (39%) Largest group; generally careful about their spending but not overly strict. More likely older (44% of over-65s, compared to 29% of 18-24s), typically in households earning £25k to £67k. Value price and quality equally, seeking extra savings specifically on their frequent purchases. Ideal candidates for personalised pricing and targeted promotional strategies. 🔹 Relaxed Consumers (26%) Take a laissez-faire approach to spending on essentials, yet cautious with luxuries. Evenly spread across age groups, peaking between ages 25-44, with representation rising with household income (27% earning over £67k, compared to just 13% earning under £18k). Prioritise quality, closely followed by convenience and price. Loyalty schemes appealing to this group must balance these three factors. 🔹 Free Spenders (6%) The smallest yet most affluent group, typically older, with the likelihood of membership increasing with age and income. Spend freely without significant concern for costs, prioritising premium quality and exclusive experiences. Loyalty programmes must focus on exclusivity, premium quality, and highly personalised benefits. Retailers must strategically adjust loyalty schemes to resonate strongly with evolving shopper priorities, leveraging targeted insights to maintain competitiveness, loyalty, and consumer satisfaction during these challenging economic times. Explore these critical insights by downloading the full report: https://lnkd.in/eSrRR3R4

I analyzed 100+ loyalty programs in the last 30 days. Most brands still run loyalty like it’s 2009: Earn points, get a discount, repeat. The top 10%? They’re using loyalty to change behavior- not just reward it. If I were Head of Loyalty at a $10B+ brand today, here’s exactly what I’d do to build a program that drives LTV, repeat purchases, and real retention: 1. Stop Giving Away Loyalty - Make Them Pay for It Costco, RH, Barnes & Noble. When customers pay upfront, they buy in - literally and psychologically. Forget free points. Paid memberships = commitment, retention, higher LTV and emotional sunk cost. 2. Make Loyalty Required, Not Optional - Integrate Directly into Payments Starbucks preloads!!! When rewards are embedded in how people pay, behavior shifts faster, and for longer. This is probably the biggest opportunity in loyalty right now. 3. Forget Delayed Points - Instant Gratification is More Important Immediate dopamine beats theoretical future savings. Slow accumulation = slow engagement. Instant offers = repeat behavior. The 2nd purchase matters more than the 10th. 4. Make Loyalty Emotional, Not Transactional REI, North Face, Sephora. Customers want to belong, not just save. Identity, community, and shared values are outperforming cashbacks and discounts in driving long-term loyalty. Loyalty isn’t just a discount strategy, it’s a brand strategy. 5. Invest in Status + Experiences, not Generic Perks This isn't just theory – with companies like Rapha and Lululemon offering loyalty members exclusive product drops, community events and behind-the-scenes experiences. Lean into waitlists and exclusive product drops. Less financial. More status + psychological “being in the club.” 6. Reward Engagement, Not Just Transactions MoxieLash, Pacifica, Lucy & Yak. UGC. Reviews. Referrals. Loyalty now means participation. The modern flywheel starts before checkout - and lasts far beyond it. ~~ Bottom line? If your loyalty program is still playing a game from 15 years ago, your customers are going to find better options. Today, the best brands in 2025 aren’t just rewarding loyalty- they're engineering it. PS: We analyzed 100+ programs across QSR, retail, travel, and fintech. Next week I’ll share the Top 30 loyalty programs leading the way. Stay tuned🙏

🎭 Accessibility isn’t just a checkbox. It’s a catalyst for innovation. Last year, I created the first accessible HTML Playbill. This year, I coordinated the Playbill for Oliver! The Musical. And the curb cut effect showed up in full force. On opening night, the printer broke. The next day, the network went down. No printed programs. No network. But because I had already built an accessible HTML version for this show, we had a fast-loading, mobile-friendly program ready to go. I added a QR code, step-by-step instructions, and URLs for folks unfamiliar with QR tech. It loaded quickly on a finicky network and people could view it in low light during the show when it's too dark to see the printed program. The organization later added a QR code to a PDF version. If I could do it again, I’d direct people to the accessible version. At the top of that version, I'd link to the PDF version. This lets people choose between the faster loading page on mobile devices in a building with a poor connection or the full image program. This is the curb cut effect: a solution designed for accessibility that benefits everyone. And it’s also a reminder ... Hire us. Involve us. Disabled people bring lived experience that leads to creative, practical, and inclusive solutions. We don’t just advocate for accessibility. We design and build it. Accessibility isn’t charity. It’s a strategy. Want resilient systems? Involve disabled problem-solvers. If you're a person with a disability or have worked with disabled collaborators, what unexpected value do disabled people bring to the table? Accessibility isn’t just about compliance. It’s about creativity, resilience, and insight. If you’re ready to build smarter, more inclusive systems, drop a comment or DM. 🔔 Tap profile bell (You may need to do it again. LinkedIn reset it.) 👉 Follow #MerylMots for past posts #UserExperience #Accessibility The image shows what the signs looked like: "Oliver! Playbill" with four steps. A box where the QR code appeared and the URL beneath it.

You don’t build loyalty through rewards—you reward customers for already being loyal. Big difference. Loyalty programs are primarily designed for customers who have already demonstrated consistent engagement and loyalty to your brand. The goal isn’t to create loyalty through rewards, but to recognize and strengthen it. By offering rewards, perks, and recognition, you can maximize their lifetime value, whether by increasing purchase frequency, boosting basket size, or encouraging referrals. Tactics like tiered rewards, exclusive access, and personalized incentives help reinforce their commitment and make them feel valued. 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀:  For customers with the potential to become loyal, the strategy shifts. These customers have shown higher engagement but haven't fully crossed into the loyal customer category. To convert them, 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 is key. Tailor rewards based on their behaviors and preferences to create a sense of exclusivity and recognition. It’s also crucial to stay top of mind through strategic touchpoints—whether via targeted email campaigns, loyalty app notifications, or personalized offers that speak directly to their interests. Offering a path to higher-tier rewards as they engage more frequently can further motivate them to commit to your brand long-term. 𝗖𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀:  Casual customers require a different approach. They won’t become loyal overnight, and the objective here is gradual nurturing. For this segment, it's all about increasing touchpoints and staying relevant. Broader offers, such as discounts, time-sensitive promotions, or entry-level rewards, help keep them engaged without overwhelming them. The goal is to activate them periodically, ensuring they interact with your brand from time to time. By keeping consistent offers flowing, you maintain visibility, and over time, some of these casual customers may transition into the potential loyal customer segment. ----- Ultimately, loyalty is about retention, not conversion. The focus is on maintaining a strong relationship with those who already support your brand and steadily nurturing others to deepen their commitment over time.

Think you have an accessibility program when you start running accessibility audits? Think again. An accessibility function is not mature just because someone is filing defects. There are several prerequisites that need to exist before the first bug is logged. 1) Governance must be reachable Decisions and priorities cannot live only in long meetings or dense decks. Staff with disabilities cannot follow decisions they cannot reach. Governance needs short forms, asynchronous access, and more than one way to find the signal. Following the "Amazon rule" of six page write ups is guaranteed to leave disabled staff in the dust 2) Workflow must be explicit If ownership and quality control live in private chats or tribal knowledge, staff with memory, processing, or fatigue disabilities are already being left behind. Documented roles, handoffs, and acceptance criteria make participation possible for everyone. 3) Remote participation must be treated as normal Programs that assume co-location or live attendance exclude people who rely on flexible schedules or alternate equipment. Remote participation for accessibility staff needs to be a first-order requirement, not a barrier. 4) Accessibility bugs need a defined place next to functional bugs When accessibility issues are always behind functional issues in triage, they never ship. When teams say “release it and fix it later,” later rarely arrives. A program is only real when accessibility defects move on the same clock as everything else and can block release when harm is predictably introduced. If the operations of the accessibility team are not accessible, the program will recreate the same exclusion it is meant to fix. Audits do not create maturity. Accessible governance, accessible workflow, equitable participation, and accountable prioritization do. #Accessibility #Equity #TechMaturity

I got tired of document-processing tools claiming 99%+ accuracy with 0% proof, so I built a benchmarking tool We have leaderboards like LMArena and Hugging Face comparing foundational models, but nothing that evaluates all the "wrappers" that people build on top of them In my competitive research, I felt like everybody and their uncle is now whipping up an interface with an LLM behind it and calling it a "bank statement conversion tool". As a user, how do you know if it’s actually any good, besides manually checking every line? 🤷🏻 From day 1, I thought it was unfair to show results in Bankstatemently WITHOUT verifying them. So I built an evaluation engine that double checks every extraction. Then I realized, I can also use this engine on competitor output to check their accuracy 😈 My benchmark focuses on two simple questions: • 𝗘𝘅𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘆→ Does the output match exactly what's in the document? • 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 → Even if not perfect, is the result still usable? Like, does it still work in accounting software? I tested 7 competitors (including LLM/VLM chatbots) on the same 5-page statement. I tried to be fair on mild normalization, but ultimately: input should equal output Bankstatemently isn’t the only one with a perfect score. But many tools scored far lower than expected. Some even flipped transaction polarity (debit → credit) I believe that in a future of probabilistic workflows, checking the work through evaluations (evals) is going to be the only way to prove reliability Are you currently processing bank statements in high volume, but struggling with accuracy? Not selling - just would love to chat and learn more 🙏

📊 First PhonePe and now GPay with Axis - Solving for UPI monetization through CC on UPI launches, and bank strength on the issuer side A few months ago Fareed Ahmad Sheik & I wrote about how the 0 MDR reality is pushing UPI apps into RuPay Credit Cards (CC) on UPI for monetization. And we’ve been discussing this for months: what’s stopping apps like PhonePe and Gpay from launching their own co-branded cards? Turns out, nothing. 📌 PhonePe launched co-branded RuPay (& Visa) CC with both HDFC Bank & SBI (Card), India’s two biggest issuers in June /July '25. What’s interesting isn’t just the partners, it’s what this move signals. 📌 And now in December ‘25, Google Pay enters this space with with its Rupay CC on UPI cards linked to UPI, in partnership with Axis Bank If this was a new to credit / bank (NTC / NTB ) play, PhonePe would have picked one partner. Bigger banks usually push for exclusivity. But tying up with both HDFC & SBI and Axis in the case of GPay (large issuing base) feels like an existing to bank (ETB) play. There is also an additional point of KYC required for NTC / NTB (video KYC or VCIP) - maybe if this can happen through AI agents, this streamlines the process, but nothing yet on the regulations around this (that I’m aware of) I looked at the ETB base across banks (some estimates, some proxies): 1️⃣ SBI: 480M users, 21M CC issued, ~4.4% CC of total base 2️⃣ HDFC: 120M users, 24M CC issued, ~20% 3️⃣ ICICI: 56M users, 18M CC issued, ~32% This leaves a huge segment of the ETB base who don’t have CC, which PhonePe, and now Gpay also wants to tap into. This feels like a three-pronged strategy: ✅ Hook premium users (top 20%) who already have CC but want credit on UPI with better rewards ✅ Tap the 60–70% of ETB customers without a CC, especially those transacting heavily on PhonePe ✅ Tap into a sustainable rewards on UPI + monetization through CC MDR And for banks this solves three problems: 1️⃣ Extend credit without cannibalizing premium cards 2️⃣ Acquire new credit customers where UPI usage is exploding, and leverage PhonePe's data on users & txns to underwrite 3️⃣ Lower CAC + friction: ETB customers = faster KYC + underwriting (instant credit?) 💡In the case of Axis (also partnered with Supermoney, Kiwi for CC on UPI), it may not just be an ETB strategy, it could also be NTB since it also helps Axis get stronger on the issuer leg of UPI txns Some time ago I had written on how Yes and Axis are powering the UPI flywheel (link in comments) through ownership of all 4 legs. While Axis is in the top 3 on the Payer, Payee, and Beneficiary legs, it is number 8 on the Remitter side ( the bank that customer has an account in). The CC on UPI issuances could be the hook through which it will strengthen its issuing base. Banks + UPI apps are now targeting ETB customers, possibly leaving riskier segments to BNPL / consumer lending. (PL / larger loan sizes are different mkts in my opinion) 🧠 Deep dive in comments

Inflation often forces businesses into a dilemma—raise prices and risk losing customers, or keep prices stable and shrink margins. But what if data could help strike the perfect balance? 🚀 Challenge: Flipkart, one of India’s largest e-commerce platforms, noticed fluctuating customer retention rates and declining repeat purchases, especially during inflationary periods. Traditional deep-discount campaigns led to short-term sales spikes but failed to build long-term customer loyalty. 🔎 Solution: Data-Driven Discounting Strategy Flipkart’s analytics team uncovered a key insight: Small, frequent discounts (e.g., 5-10% on repeat purchases) led to higher engagement. Personalized offers based on purchase history encouraged repeat buys. A/B testing revealed that customers preferred consistency over occasional deep discounts. 💡 Implementation: Using AI-driven dynamic pricing, Flipkart rolled out: ✅ Tiered discounts for loyal customers. ✅ AI-powered coupon recommendations. ✅ Targeted email campaigns promoting small, time-sensitive discounts. 📈 Results: After three months of testing, Flipkart saw: ✔️ 17% increase in repeat purchases ✔️ 12% uplift in customer retention ✔️ Higher profit margins vs. deep discounting 🎯 Key Takeaway: In an inflationary environment, data-driven pricing isn't just about maximizing revenue—it’s about customer psychology. Businesses that personalize their offers and optimize discounts intelligently can boost retention while protecting margins. 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒃𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔? #datadrivendecisionmaking #DataAnalytics #DiscountStrategy #BusinessStrategies