#90: Subscription Innovation Driving Restaurant Loyalty in South Africa

PAULA: Welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty, an industry podcast for loyalty marketing professionals.

PAULA: 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.

PAULA: Thank you.

PAULA: Hello, and welcome to episode 90 of Let’s Talk Loyalty.

PAULA: And today, I am chatting to Ros Netto, extremely well known for her fantastic 10 years work, consulting on loyalty programs in South Africa.

PAULA: Last year, Ros took on a fantastic client side role for the first time in her own career, and has had the opportunity to take a very well loved and mature loyalty program and enhance it even more.

PAULA: She has been working with the Real Foods Group and launching a subscription based loyalty program for a particular fast casual restaurant brand called Kauai.

PAULA: In today’s show, she talks us through firstly the importance of redemption as a key point in the loyalty journey, as well as some of the early learnings from the subscription program, which was launched just eight weeks ago.

PAULA: So enjoy this fascinating conversation all about subscription loyalty, particularly the fun of launching in a pandemic and some of the great lessons she’s learned.

PAULA: So Ross, I am delighted to have you with me here today.

PAULA: I know you are speaking to me from Cape Town, South Africa, which I think you’re from, but you might have to correct me on that one.

PAULA: But I think there are probably very few people who have been brave enough to move into the restaurant industry in the middle of a pandemic.

PAULA: So I’m extremely excited to hear about the move that you’ve made, the incredible work I’ve been following that you’ve been doing over the last number of months, because it is a very exciting time for you.

PAULA: But before we get into all of the loyalty work, please tell me first and foremost, what is your favorite loyalty statistic?

ROSS: Thank you, Paula, for having me today.

ROSS: I am indeed from Cape Town.

PAULA: Cool.

ROSS: So that is correct.

PAULA: Great.

ROSS: But absolutely, my favorite loyalty statistic, and there are so many to choose from, but this one has really resonated with me from my consulting days at Truce through to my role now, is really that power of redemption and why there is such a strong correlation between redemption and the success of a loyalty program.

ROSS: There are many measures out there naturally that yield the success of a loyalty program, but rarely one that has stuck with me statistic wise is one I came across during my consulting days at Truce.

ROSS: And it was by Bond Brand Loyalty who release a annual loyalty report.

ROSS: And they still do so today, but this one, albeit a few years old, okay, really stuck with me.

ROSS: And it goes like this.

ROSS: Loyalty program members who do not redeem are 2.3 times more likely to defect than those who redeem in the last 12 months.

ROSS: So that is a phenomenal step.

PAULA: Yeah.

ROSS: And why I really love it so much is it places that emphasis on that important role of measuring redemption and what impacts redemption.

ROSS: And of course, the role it plays to ensure your customers do not churn and actually see value in your program.

PAULA: That is an incredible statistic, Ross.

PAULA: And I think I said to you when we spoke last time, the real intention of even asking that question from my side is to give, I suppose, first of all, instant value.

PAULA: So really, so we can learn something from you as quickly as possible.

PAULA: But also I’ve often said on this show, Ross, I’ve often found myself in a position of maybe having to defend a loyalty program.

PAULA: And again, given your consulting background, I’m sure you’ve done plenty of that as well.

PAULA: But to me, that’s something extremely useful.

PAULA: I could literally sit in front of the CFO and say, well, look, if we don’t incentivize, encourage and ensure the appropriate redemption levels and claiming of rewards, we’re going to lose the customer for sure.

PAULA: 2.3 times as you said.

PAULA: So I think that’s incredibly powerful.

ROSS: And I think there is always that fine line between how much you give away versus what your breakage rate should be and the old old age loyalty measure of high breakage, low redemption.

ROSS: Or sorry, low breakage, high redemption.

ROSS: But ultimately that has shifted completely, the dynamic in measuring loyalty program success.

ROSS: And I think what I’ve experienced over the last few years is really that loyalty program owners or creators really do spend or emphasize that earned journey.

ROSS: And it’s not, and I think it’s somewhat disproportionately emphasized.

ROSS: And why I say that is naturally you want people to engage at the start of their journey in this loyalty program.

ROSS: You know, it’s that hook, it’s that piece that really gets them into the program.

ROSS: How do I earn?

ROSS: And there are multiple ways in which brands actually offer, you know, earning activities to the customer.

ROSS: You know, they’re non, they’re transactional.

ROSS: So, actual spend based, or is it non-transactional these days?

ROSS: So is it behavior based?

ROSS: You know, have I reached my fitness goals this week and you’re rewarding me?

ROSS: You know, or is it by channel?

ROSS: So, you know, brands trying to incentivize or the adoption of specific channels.

ROSS: So therefore, you know, I’m maybe accumulating a lot more points if we use a points based currency in that regard, where may, when often, the focus on the redemption process and the actual offer is maybe not as sophisticated or thought through, you know?

ROSS: And I really mean that because, you know, there are some brands, obviously that get the entire journey as seamless and convenient as possible, offering really relevant rewards, but what we do find is that, you know, it goes beyond just the value of the reward.

ROSS: So the reward itself could be absolutely, you know, invaluable, money can’t buy.

ROSS: But if the journey to get there is, you know, a complicated journey with hidden rules, with too many loopholes, you’ve lost the customer.

ROSS: You know, no matter how seamless the earned journey was, no matter how wonderful the reward is, if that journey, if that experience to get there was complicated, you’ve lost the customer, right?

ROSS: And also, you know, it rarely just speaks back to the fact that, you know, customers, again, who redeem and find value in the program are more likely to stay, which again is another very popular loyalty statistic around, you know, the cost of acquiring a new member as opposed to retaining your existing ones.

ROSS: Cost is far less to do that.

ROSS: So those tie in really well.

PAULA: And you know, you’ve reminded me, Ross, I’m scribbling a note here.

PAULA: I remember being brought in just to look at a program once and it’ll remain nameless for now, but it’s exactly the point that you mentioned about the process for redemption.

PAULA: And there was a really big flaw in the particular program in that the company operating it wanted a fixed price for the rewards they were giving because they were using an agency.

PAULA: So they didn’t want it to fluctuate, which I totally understand.

PAULA: So what the agency decided to do was make it as difficult as possible to redeem.

PAULA: So when you think about the conflicting priorities, I mean, I was absolutely appalled at the customer journey for the rewards.

PAULA: And I was like, I get the business reason, but honestly, could we not find a better solution?

PAULA: Which we did, of course.

PAULA: But again, I suppose sometimes an external perspective.

PAULA: But I love that you’re focusing so much on reward.

PAULA: And certainly today, when we get into the work you’re doing at the moment, that’s obviously a key part of the work you’re doing right now.

PAULA: So I’d love to get into exploring.

PAULA: I know you did 10 years with Truth.

PAULA: So phenomenal credentials there, obviously, with Amanda.

PAULA: So very well known in the South African loyalty industry.

PAULA: But you did decide to move client side, obviously, last April.

PAULA: So how did that decision come about?

ROSS: And being in that consultancy role for a good few years rarely exposed me to multiple industries.

ROSS: So, you know, I had the privilege of working across, whether it was retail or financial services, you name it.

ROSS: And under, again, like you’ve just mentioned, the guidance of Amanda and the Truth team, I really got to a point where I needed to explore the operational side of running a loyalty program.

ROSS: And operational meaning rarely just fohoning in on a brand, or in my case, it is actually a few brands.

ROSS: But within one industry sector, really learning the perspective from the brand side.

ROSS: And that experience is something I really admired with working with clients in the consulting side, but was never really exposed to as you do as a consultant.

ROSS: I really wanted to be able to roll up my sleeves and get fully entrenched in an activity from, you know, loyalty activities, initiatives, running a program from the brand side.

ROSS: So that is the brave and bold move I did make in April last year.

PAULA: So tell us, I know it’s the Real Foods Group, but the consumer brands.

PAULA: So tell us just all of the various different programs.

PAULA: I know there’s one lead program we’re going to talk about today, but just to give us a sense, I think literally it is a market leader, as I understand it.

ROSS: So the Real Foods Group is a multi-brand food group, so based in South Africa, and it’s comprised of seven brands who together really aim to be the leader in the natural food space.

ROSS: So really driving innovation in that field.

PAULA: Lovely.

ROSS: One of which is Kauai, which is a very well-known healthy, fast, casual restaurant group.

ROSS: And it is the largest in South Africa and the largest brand in the Real Foods Group portfolio.

ROSS: So Kauai has been around for now 25 years and is in the group and as part of the Real Foods Group, the brand with the most mature loyalty program and offering to the consumer in that space.

ROSS: Believe it or not, they’ve been doing loyalty for 25 years since they started.

ROSS: Wow, that’s brilliant.

ROSS: Absolutely.

ROSS: And having learned the journey they’ve walked, their loyalty journey has been a fascinating one from the original physical stamp cards to the digital version of that in 2014, I believe.

ROSS: And then with the resurgence or relaunch of the app in its current format today in 2019.

ROSS: So they’ve been on a great loyalty journey.

ROSS: The other brands are still in the infancy phases of loyalty and CRM.

ROSS: So a lot of work to be done to be done there.

ROSS: But Kauai being the most notable to discuss today, for sure.

PAULA: Wonderful.

PAULA: So I think we have to acknowledge that it’s a visionary company first and foremost.

PAULA: So yes, 25 years ago to have the stamp cards up and running.

PAULA: That’s extraordinary.

PAULA: And I know it’s very digitally oriented from what I’ve seen on the Kauai website as well.

PAULA: But the biggest change I’ve seen is obviously the subscription loyalty program that you guys launched literally eight weeks ago, Ros.

PAULA: So my first question really is, did you come and pitch this idea to the guys or was this on their horizon or where did the idea come from, I suppose, initially?

ROSS: I wish I could take the credit for initiating it.

ROSS: No, definitely.

ROSS: So in our industry in South Africa, Kauai have been the first to launch the subscription model per se in this industry.

ROSS: Subscriptions is nothing new to the South African market.

PAULA: Sure.

ROSS: But it was really pioneered by our CEO, Dean Kowalski, who is constantly driving innovation within our business, learning from global counterparts such as Panera Bread, who also launched their subscription offer, I think it was early last year, and really saying, well, how could we top and tail this to really offer value to the South African market that makes sense with the South African market?

ROSS: So absolutely, when I started in April last year, there were plenty discussions had and lots of groundwork done already.

ROSS: But with, like many brands, experiencing the pandemic and the hard lockdowns in different times of last year, whether or not that was something that either stalled the initial launch or fast-tracked it, it’s really something we’re proud to say that we could have delivered in January 2021, given the year that we’ve all had.

PAULA: Yeah.

ROSS: Yeah, so absolutely.

ROSS: We did work on it.

ROSS: We’ve had to really be, how can I say, very conscious of how we launch subscriptions, given the lessons learned throughout last year.

ROSS: Timing is extremely important as well, given, in pre-Covid life, you would focus a lot on driving footfall into stores multiple times a day.

ROSS: And this is where our subscription model is very different to your typical offer, in that it’s not a digital offering.

ROSS: It’s not something that you can, well, to a degree, you can enjoy it in the comfort of your own home through our delivery service.

ROSS: But ultimately, in a perfect world, we’d be driving multiple interactions with customers in the in-store environment.

ROSS: But that’s where the perfect balance has had to come into play.

ROSS: Offering is a value to customers that is exceptional, a very high value, especially during tough economic times, through a convenient contactless manner that doesn’t put any pressure on the customer or any risk of the customer of engaging with our in-store environment or you name it.

ROSS: So, it’s really been balancing those factors.

ROSS: And of course, Kauai’s one of our key pillars as a business is being able to provide easy, tasty, accessible, accessible being the key word, health to customers.

ROSS: So, accessibility is a very key driver of subscriptions and why we launched it too.

PAULA: Yeah, and I do love the Panera Bread case study.

PAULA: So, I’ll make sure that I put some links in the show notes as well, Ross, because I know you guys again are looking globally at these best practices.

PAULA: And I know we talked ourselves before in the UK, Pret A Manger has also done a subscription loyalty program, Espresso House in Scandinavia, and thrilled to hear that you’re first and that innovation coming through for you guys in South Africa, for Kauai.

PAULA: So well done on being first to market because, you know, as you said, I hadn’t even thought about the challenge of driving footfall.

PAULA: I mean, it’s actually obvious as you say it.

PAULA: But, you know, just to balance all of those various objectives in a sensitive way with the commercial objective, but at the same time, reassuring your customers that their health is your top priority, particularly as you provide healthy food.

PAULA: So, I mean, that’s a lot to balance, huh?

ROSS: Absolutely.

ROSS: And, you know, I know we’re talking about subscriptions here, but we, you know, during the pandemic, the hard lockdown months last year, you know, we learned so much like many brands did.

ROSS: And I think what we really, how can I say, enjoyed was the customer feedback that we got, that, you know, as much as we were trying to do this balancing act in getting, you know, our stores back up and running when they were allowed to trade again, it was what were the loyalty initiatives that we could top and tail to make sense for the customers.

ROSS: So, for example, part of the Kauai offering is a birthday reward.

ROSS: So if your birthday happened to be in those months of hard lockdown, or even, you know, as the restrictions eased, you know, customers were not as willing to, you know, leave their home that they’ve been nesting for a few months, you know.

ROSS: So it was up to us to really say, well, let’s not make these rewards expire anytime soon.

ROSS: Bearing in mind, many of our stores are based in the gym environment, so Virgin Active Gyms, and those only opened, you know, a good few weeks after normal trading stores opened.

ROSS: So we had to be very cognizant of the fact that your typical or your usual Kauai store was probably or most likely, you know, within a gym environment that only opened, you know, a good few weeks after everything else did.

ROSS: So it was really not penalizing, for lack of better word, those customers for only having access to one Kauai store in their area.

ROSS: So we extended rewards, we did a lot, and we still see that today with customers purchasing subscriptions and wanting to redeem their subscription in that, you know, they want to be able to get to our stores or get to the gyms, but there are certain caveats that we have to bear in mind the whole time about customers having access to our stores.

ROSS: So the driver there, Paula, is really to drive again, where the app has played a phenomenal role in our day-to-day operations of running the loyalty program and accessibility to customers.

ROSS: How do we then drive these additional contactless channels?

ROSS: And I think that’s where we’ve really been at the forefront in our industry to be able to offer that value to customers through phone delivery or click and collect married into this subscription model and loyalty offering.

PAULA: And given, I suppose, the inevitable debates and discussion that subscription programs always bring, Ros, there always is this obvious risk that you’ll end up literally diluting revenue rather than building additional revenue.

PAULA: So how did you guys manage all of that?

PAULA: I mean, I can only imagine the complexity of the modeling.

PAULA: And again, I know you work with them like lots of different products, such as coffee, which might have a higher margin, and then smoothies, which would have maybe, you know, I’m sure a very different margin.

PAULA: So how did you plan for the level of acceptable redemption and the risk of over redemption, I guess?

ROSS: You know, we, like you said, we’ve been live for about eight weeks now, and it’s been, we’re still learning very much.

ROSS: So on how our customers are adopting subscriptions.

ROSS: So they’re almost two really important initial measures that we’ve considered, and that’s the purchase, the upfront purchase originally of the subscription itself.

ROSS: You know, so how many subscription purchases are we driving versus that redemption piece, you know?

ROSS: So how many of the rewards available, subscriptions available within your subscription offer should be redeemed before we start to dilute the margin?

PAULA: And panic, yeah, I can imagine.

ROSS: Absolutely, absolutely.

ROSS: And you know, and that’s really where we’ve started to play with the almost mechanics around the subscription.

ROSS: So, you know, we launched with a big bang around unlimited coffee.

ROSS: Every two hours, you’ll get a coffee issue to your app for you to redeem for 30 days.

ROSS: And that was probably one of the ones I think we were most frightful for.

ROSS: And you know what?

ROSS: It has, without giving away any commercially sensitive information, we have seen that the adoption of whether it is that unlimited coffee or the one smoothie a day has yielded very different results for us, both positive results, saying that.

ROSS: What I mean by that is that, you know, naturally we’ve had to take margin and move that into consideration.

ROSS: But if we looked at the reason why we wanted to launch this in the first place and marry it back to the results we’re seeing, it’s a different ball game we’re playing in.

ROSS: So what I mean by that is ultimately the intent for subscriptions for our customers were really, I mentioned this before, to offer that exceptional value, that accessibility to health, the convenience, and really making sure that it drives a change of behavior.

ROSS: Or is it a behavior that was once, for lack of a better word again, normal prior to Covid?

ROSS: So I think we’re in a different position here where we need to measure what was a normal life cycle of a customer, possibly going into a Kauai every day, twice a day, once a week.

ROSS: Comparing that to what that might have looked like prior to Covid or during Covid.

ROSS: And then, of course, the intent for subscriptions for our business, the measures that we are tracking is that acquisition piece.

ROSS: Is it driving a new customer?

ROSS: That in itself usually has a cost associated to it.

ROSS: Do you want to acquire customers?

ROSS: So growing our base, offering new value to our existing customers, which again, there’s a cost to doing that.

ROSS: So naturally, if we could just start by ticking those two boxes, so acquiring new customers, but also retaining and keeping our existing ones happy, it’s possibly worth the commercial investment we’re making into the offers that customers could redeem for their subscription reward.

ROSS: Then of course, there’s that drive and frequency, which is a tougher measure today based on being sensitive to customers, wanting to access our stores more frequently.

ROSS: And that’s exactly why we’ve made it available through any means where you order through the app.

ROSS: So whether it’s delivery or click and collect, so making sure that there’s an absolute contactless engagement, there’s no risk to the customer.

ROSS: But of course, driving redemption, which goes back to my favorite loyalty statistic.

ROSS: It is finding that equilibrium between the absolute group of customers that will try and redeem every possible offer within the subscription, finding the balance of the sweet spot between those that use it well, so still redeem frequently, finding the value in the subscription.

ROSS: And of course, in seeing what else they may be buying, when they redeem their subscription.

ROSS: So it is a balancing act.

ROSS: We have seen phenomenal results, albeit it’s only been eight weeks, but we have seen a positive double-digit redemption rate.

ROSS: We’ve seen a positive incremental growth with customers purchasing or redeeming their offers.

ROSS: So again, we’re still learning, we’re still growing in this space, but those are the key kind of measures we put in place to say, this is something that we will have to track over time.

ROSS: Given the validity of the actual vouchers associated to the subscription, so we can’t just put a blanket redemption rate over subscriptions as a whole.

ROSS: It will have to be looked at or it has been looked at individually with some of them allowing a 30-day allowance for you to redeem certain vouchers within that subscription.

ROSS: So yes, it is still early days, Paula, but ultimately, what we will be measuring against is this acquisition of a new customer base.

ROSS: Have we grown a new customer?

ROSS: Have we managed to offer exceptional value to existing customers?

ROSS: And the key there will be to see how they performed or behaved prior to purchasing a subscription, to how they behave now that they’ve got one.

ROSS: Are we seeing an increase in the typical measures like frequency, basket growth, etc.?

PAULA: Goodness, there’s so much in that, Ros, because I think I said to you last time as well, I really believe that subscription loyalty is something every brand should be thinking about right now.

PAULA: And we’re all familiar with it, for example, it goes back, we’ve had Netflix and magazine subscriptions, as you said, for many, many years.

PAULA: So I will be actually keen to understand as well if customers needed a lot of education.

PAULA: But even before I ask you about that, I was just thinking about all of the commercial benefits.

PAULA: And what I’m loving hearing actually, just as you talk through it, Ros, is your focus is very clearly on the benefits to the customer.

PAULA: You’re instantly talking about the extraordinary value to consumers, which is just a lovely loyalty mindset.

PAULA: And just from the work I’ve been kind of looking at in terms of other subscription programs, there is all of the kind of share of wallet, obviously, to understand.

PAULA: And I think subscription brings that extraordinary opportunity.

PAULA: I can’t imagine subscribing to a coffee program and going anywhere else for a coffee.

PAULA: Do you know what I mean?

ROSS: Absolutely, Paula.

ROSS: And I think that’s also where we’re learning, which levers we can pull, which products do we want to include in the subscription.

ROSS: And we can probably say that we’ve chosen the ones that we know our customers love, whether it is a coffee or it is a smoothie or a newly introduced subscription that includes our wraps.

ROSS: So Kauai is really well known in space for their smoothies, for their wraps.

ROSS: And again, a conscious decision of ours not to force the agenda too much on a specific product category we’re trying to grow.

ROSS: It is really saying, well, we know our customers love these, so let’s start with these.

ROSS: And who knows?

ROSS: And as we learn more about how our customers will be adopting these in the future, we have that flexibility, luckily, to add new subscription offers as we learn more from our customers.

PAULA: For sure.

PAULA: And what I’m hearing as well is that you’re literally taking the time and the opportunity to build the trust.

PAULA: So because you’re the first in your industry, because subscriptions require just a bigger decision, I suppose, for a customer than one coffee.

PAULA: Well, now I’m paying, I think I looked at it as about a $20 price point for your subscription program.

PAULA: So that is a bigger decision for a customer.

PAULA: But I love the fact that you’re doing it on the products that you know they want, that they’re probably more likely to want on a daily basis.

PAULA: So then when you try and do it in more complex categories or you look to create cross-sell, then actually they’ll be just totally open to that, hopefully.

ROSS: Absolutely, Paula.

ROSS: We’ve, you know, you mentioned it earlier, this education process, especially being, you know, first to market with such a tailored subscription, if you want to call it that.

ROSS: It really, you either like smoothies or you like, perhaps you like coffee, you can purchase multiple subscriptions.

ROSS: But it’s at the end of the day, we as a brand need to be able to engage our customers so that they understand what, you know, we as the team at Kauai have been staring at for many few months, trying to figure out which comes as second nature.

ROSS: But explain this new functionality.

ROSS: And, you know, Kauai’s ethos again is all about the customer and that accessibility.

ROSS: And, you know, in what’s almost been a year of me being, working with the brand is any new functionality that we have launched from the app perspective or loyalty initiative, we learn to engage customers, to educate them, you know, on the process so that they can actually reap the most out of what we’re trying to launch.

ROSS: But also, of course, it makes our job a lot easier once the customer has adopted it.

ROSS: And that they then use it more frequently, etc.

ROSS: So again, you know, whether it was our own delivery last year or order ahead when we first launched the app in 2019, subscriptions, it’s the same, you know, it’s an education piece to our customer, but also our staff, you know, and that’s a really important factor to take into consideration.

ROSS: You know, it’s not just the customers who are experiencing this for the first time.

ROSS: It’s on an operational level, at store level.

ROSS: How are staff engaging in this offer?

ROSS: How do they communicate that to customers?

ROSS: And that again is something, you know, I think a lot of brands may fall short.

ROSS: You know, we see it with loyalty launches.

ROSS: You can have this perfect, amazing solution or offer, but if you don’t take the time to really execute it on, to those that really need to serve the customer at the end of the day, then you might as well pack up and go home.

PAULA: I totally agree.

PAULA: And I’d love to get just on that piece about the staff, Ros, because again, I think as practitioners and consultants, we know how important that moment of truth is.

PAULA: Dare I use Amanda’s lovely agency name again?

PAULA: But I’ve often said, here, certainly where I live, anytime I’m in an environment where there’s a loyalty program available and the member of staff is asking or inviting me to join, I really am quite judgmental in terms of how that’s being executed, because I know the pain and the cost of the people behind that person have invested to create something that might fall very short, literally, at that moment.

PAULA: So given that, I mean, obviously, there’s incredible legacy and lovely history with the brand, and I’m guessing your staff are very loyal, and I don’t know why I say that, but just the way you’re treating your customers, I can imagine that your employees are the same.

PAULA: So were they, I would say, either excited or concerned?

PAULA: Would you say they were worried about delays at the till, for example, when they had to explain it, or did they see it as something new?

PAULA: I would just love to get a sense of their concerns in executing this for you.

ROSS: So in our business, we really, and I’m sure I alluded to this, is that we do focus on how we execute this new functionality or messaging throughout the business.

ROSS: So it’s not just at a head office level, it’s how do our, from area managers to store managers, to store staff across the entire country, adopt this new functionality.

ROSS: So without, and again, it’s not unique to subscriptions at all, it’s anything that we launch in the business.

ROSS: And, you know, because loyalty has been so inherent in the brand for so long.

ROSS: We, there is all, there’s this ethos that triples down to, you know, all elements of the stores.

ROSS: Once you explain the benefit to the business, to the staff about the benefits back to the business, and how if they are more informed and almost embrace the change, they can serve the customer better.

ROSS: And ultimately, that is what we try to achieve.

ROSS: It is always a challenge when you have 150 stores plus.

ROSS: But it is something that is very well executed in our environment.

ROSS: And it’s not just buy-in again.

ROSS: I think this is something we learned in our consultants, CEOs, where it’s one thing to have buy-in from the boardroom table, but execution where it really matters in that moment of truth again, just like you said.

ROSS: When a customer asks the question, I don’t understand how this works.

ROSS: Can you please explain it to me?

ROSS: It’s empowering the staff to be able to do so.

ROSS: And we do.

ROSS: We have our means and ways to do that.

ROSS: Yes, naturally, you get your busier times during the day.

ROSS: And that is always an operational concern.

ROSS: We’ve got the operational team who will always make sure, possibly challenge, that will hinder the in-store experience, especially during peak times.

ROSS: And it really just goes back to our job, again, sitting in the marketing team, to say, well, how do we best learn how this new functionality works in the most simple explanation possible?

ROSS: And if the customer has any further queries or wants to read up on it further, do we allow for those channels?

ROSS: Do they exist?

ROSS: And they do.

ROSS: So to ensure that that buck doesn’t stop at any one individual, they have accessibility to whether it’s more information on the app, or the website, or our customer care team.

ROSS: So it is really looking beyond just that moment of truth in the store environment possibly.

PAULA: Yeah.

PAULA: But I also think you’ve taken a good approach just over the years.

PAULA: So the fact that the digital app has been around already.

PAULA: So I’m guessing the conversion to that digital format, I’m sure is very high.

PAULA: I know you can’t give me exact numbers, but now it’s just one extra feature within that.

PAULA: So I guess the adoption is purely around just to position the benefit.

PAULA: And for me, I’m very much of the mind that actually, yes, if I can either skip the line or literally scan to pay, which I know is the kind of function you have available, to me, that’s an added total win in terms of my mind.

PAULA: And $20 a month is definitely the kind of coffee minimum I would spend, again, in normal times.

PAULA: Everyone’s a bit different at the moment, but that just sounds like a really nice approach to it.

PAULA: Explain to the staff why it’s good for the business.

PAULA: Customer has the app already.

PAULA: And again, they’ve got multiple channels to find out more if they need to.

ROSS: And again, it’s also making sure that the staff have accessibility beyond that first launch phase.

ROSS: If you do have any turnover of staff, how available is the training material to your staff?

ROSS: And it sounds so obvious.

ROSS: But it is really, you know, those simple accessibility points to customers and really, or to our staff, sorry, to be able to access what they need.

ROSS: And to your point again, Paula, we have luckily had the app running in its current format for two years.

ROSS: And when we do roll up new functionality, loyalty is part of that ecosystem.

ROSS: So it never lives on its own.

ROSS: So whether you’re ordering ahead or ordering for delivery or now subscriptions, it lives within that ecosystem.

ROSS: So it doesn’t require an extreme overhaul training process necessarily.

PAULA: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

PAULA: And again, sometimes I think very complex companies like utilities sometimes do have to have different applications for different parts of their business, which always to me sounds just so confusing to be the customer.

PAULA: So the fact that you have that single minded digital solution with all the benefits of the contactless and obviously the whole loyalty even pre-subscription.

PAULA: And now, as you said, just layering that in on top.

PAULA: It just sounds like it just keeps getting better and better.

ROSS: We do hope so.

PAULA: I don’t have any more questions from my side.

PAULA: Is there anything else you wanted to mention before we wrap up?

ROSS: No, just a big thank you.

ROSS: You know, we are very excited about the prospects of where subscriptions could go.

ROSS: You know, and we know that the pros and the cons of being the first to market, so we don’t need a heart of a laugh.

ROSS: And we do hope that, you know, we could share some more insights with you in the upcoming weeks or months.

ROSS: And we do hope that actually, you know, this becomes a behavior that does change how customers engage with brands going forward, especially in our markets.

ROSS: So we’re very excited about the prospects of this.

PAULA: For sure.

PAULA: Well, I know I’m definitely not the only person who will be picking your brains, Ros, on a regular basis, so I’m sure there will be influx of inquiries.

PAULA: And actually, just on that, Ros, where is the best place for people to reach you?

PAULA: Is it maybe LinkedIn or what’s the best place for people to find you?

ROSS: LinkedIn is great.

ROSS: I’m fairly engaged on LinkedIn, so I’m happy for anyone to reach out to me there or get my details from you directly.

ROSS: Paula, that’s no problem.

PAULA: That’s awesome, Ros.

PAULA: Well, I’ll make sure to link to you directly in the show notes as well so people can find you easily.

PAULA: So with that, I will say Ros Netto, CRM and loyalty specialist from Real Foods Group in South Africa.

PAULA: Thank you so much from Let’s Talk Loyalty.

PAULA: This show is sponsored by The Wise Marketeer, the world’s most popular source of loyalty marketing news, insights and research.

PAULA: The Wise Marketeer also offers loyalty marketing training through its Loyalty Academy, which has already certified over 170 executives in 20 countries as certified loyalty marketing professionals.

PAULA: For more information, check out thewisemarketeer.com and loyaltyacademy.org.

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