Paula: Welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty, an industry podcast for Loyalty Marketing Professionals.
I’m your host, Paula Thomas, and if you work in Loyalty Marketing, join me every week to learn the latest ideas from loyalty specialists around the world.
This episode is brought to you by Epsilon and their award-winning PeopleCloud Loyalty Solution.
Epsilon has actually just released a guide on the topic of contactless loyalty, which explores how marketeers can create human-like connections with their customers in an increasingly contactless world.
I would highly recommend you have a look, so to download the guide, visit emia.epsilon.com forward slash letstalkloyalty and you’ll find the guide in the resources section.
Welcome to Let’s Talk a Little Loyalty, my new shorter show for loyalty marketing professionals.
In this episode, I’m summarizing my interview with Jesper Østergaard, who is the Managing Director of the 7-Eleven chain of convenience stores in Denmark.
With 175 stores throughout Denmark, in 2019, 7-Eleven won the prestigious title of the International Convenience Retailer of the Year from industry association body NACS.
And Jesper also proudly told me that 77% of the Danish population shops with 7-Eleven.
Jesper is incredibly clear on the importance of delighting customers, no matter what business you are in.
When he first started working with 7-Eleven, in Denmark, they were mainly operating small kiosks, selling tobacco and lottery cards.
And Jesper realized that business was rapidly declining.
Instead, consumers were starting to look for healthier places to buy their food and drinks on the go.
But at that time, the 7-Eleven product range was not a store that even his own management team would choose to buy lunch on their days off.
So, before building any structured loyalty program, he first began by fixing the basics and revolutionizing his business into more of a food service operation instead of simply operating kiosks.
He created delicious food products that 7-Eleven was proud to put its brand name on.
And since then, they have become increasingly respected by their customers.
He also focused on building the 7-Eleven brand in Denmark, combining that long-term strategy with the short-term focus on tactical marketing to start building his digital connections with customers.
Jesper admitted that because they have so far been focused on fixing the basics, he had not yet designed, developed, or launched the comprehensive loyalty program that he actually needs.
But, he has spent many months visiting successful convenience stores around the world to learn from their experiences.
And he is totally a huge fan of the idea to copy with pride any ideas that have worked well for other convenience retailers, including his colleagues in other markets.
Jesper also emphasized several times the importance of leading loyalty from the top, ensuring your team has the right resources and investment to succeed, and that your loyalty program is not just seen as a tactical project added to the long list of tasks for someone in the marketing team.
In closing, Jesper shared one of his favorite insights, which is the idea of winning 100% of your customer’s wallet, and not being happy that someone buys their coffee from you every other day, they should buy it from you every day.
Because of that, he believes there is significant room for further growth in the popularity of their business going forward.
To learn more about how this world-class convenience retail brand is building loyalty in a sector that prides itself on speed and simplicity, you can listen to the full episode.
It’s episode number 10 on letstalkloyalty.com.
This show is sponsored by The Wise Marketer, the world’s most popular source of loyalty marketing news, insights and research.
The Wise Marketer also offers loyalty marketing training through its Loyalty Academy, which has already certified over 170 executives in 20 countries as certified loyalty marketing professionals.
For more information, check out thewisemarketer.com and loyaltyacademy.org.
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