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.
Hello and welcome to today’s episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty and Loyalty TV. Etihad Airways is the national airline of the And it operates more than a thousand flights a week to over 120 destinations worldwide, with a fleet of 85 Aerobus and Boeing aircraft. The airline is now celebrating more than 20 years of service from its base in the city of Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the United Arab Emirates, with an estimated population of two and a half million people.
Etihad Guest is the loyalty program of Etihad Airways. And it has just announced the arrival of its 10 millionth member. A milestone that coincides with a new era for the program itself, which was originally launched back in 2006. Joining me today to share how the 10 millionth member will be recognized and what the new era of loyalty brings for Etihad guest members is Mark Potter, the Managing Director of Etihad Guest.
I hope you enjoy our conversation.
Mark Potter, long overdue. Welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty and Loyalty TV.
Mark: Thank you for having me.
Paula: I think it’s long overdue to say congratulations on the promotion into the role as managing director. And you’ve certainly been keeping us excited in terms of all of the amazing work you’ve been doing in that short space of time. So I’m delighted we’re here today. We have had Etihad obviously on the podcast twice before, and it’s always like two years apart. So I feel like it’s absolutely perfect to have you here today.
Mark: Thank you so much. It’s great to be here.
Paula: Great, great, great. So listen, let’s get straight into it Mark. As you know, we have a standard opening question that we love to pick everyone’s brains, really get a sense from you as a loyalty professional about what it is that you admire as loyalty program or programs. I think you’ve got two for us. So kick us off and tell us what is your favorite loyalty program?
Mark: Sure. I think firstly, not being biased, but as an Australian, I think I have an association with Qantas Frequent Flyer. I know last yesterday there was a podcast with Chris who referenced the same program, but I think the high level on that is I think obviously it’s brand equity in Australia is very strong.
It’s proposition is incredible across different verticals. It’s consistency I think is important. And I think they’re trying to be innovative with solutions as well. So we benchmark lots of global programs. We caught us as part of those. And obviously I think, you know, again, as an association from an Australia perspective, I think it’s a great program.
But what I wanted to talk about is probably a little bit different. I was thinking in the car ride as part of the commute, as you referenced, but also last night, you know, what is important to me as a loyalty member of various programs? And I was thinking at Etihad, we have a little coffee shop downstairs in our, in our main lobby area. And they traditionally provided a very simple, you know, coffee card stamp. When you get a coffee, your seventh coffee is free. That happened for the first, you know, seven years of my existence there. And then ultimately one day the barista said to me, don’t worry about the coffee card. It’s fine. We’ve got you covered. It’s a free coffee today. And I was thinking, why is that the case? And the feedback was, we know you come here every Monday to Thursday, you come here once in the morning, potentially in the afternoon, we’re aware that you’re having six coffees a week. There’s no problem. You’re getting the free one on the Friday.
And so kind of the thinking was, it’s very simple. It’s very easy, very human orientated. They’re aware that I’m engaging on a frequent basis. I’m giving them my patronage every single day. I’m loyal to them, but they’re aware also, I always pay on my mobile phone. So a physical coffee card doesn’t help me. It’s annoying for me to have to have my wallet stamp, give it back. So they were saying, I’m aware that you do enough. I’m going to give you the free coffee. Anyway, I’m engaging with them on a frequent basis. They removed the friction in terms of loyalty and I felt quite almost like, not love, but I felt like they knew me and I was engaging on a one to one basis. Obviously baristas know your coffee type as well.
And so that experience meant that my loyalty to them was It was kind of almost received reciprocally because they were loyal to me by giving me a frictionless experience and knowing that I was always going to come back. And actually, to be honest, I, there’s coffee shops around the office that we can go to. Even if I have a bad coffee on the Monday, I’ll go back there on the Tuesday. Cause I just know the guy and I know that they’re going to kind of treat me well at the end of the week when I get the free one, I guess.
So not a loyalty program per se, but a loyalty experience that I think is very valuable in terms of making me feel rewarded for, for my loyalty to them.
Paula: Yeah. You know what I really like about that, Mark, actually, and nobody’s ever given me an example like that, but I think what it’s really showing is a lot of trust. You know, because obviously the purpose of the card, you know, clearly, I mean, it’s fundamentally flawed if it’s a piece of paper that could be stamped any number of times.
But the fact that they’re saying we don’t even need to check, like, as you said, we know your face, we know, you know, you work here with us, we know you come every single day. I mean, that’s just an incredible, as you said, a human experience where you’re just like, Oh, that’s brilliant. Now it’s almost like we can be friends, we can trust each other, you get your free coffee and they’re happy that they’ve made you happy. It’s a wonderful example.
Mark: Yeah. I mean, I think I was thinking as well. I don’t always buy six copies every week. I’ll buy four one week and eight the next, right.
Paula: Totally.
Mark: But in theory it averages out and I think, you know, it’s, it’s incredible that that trust elements there and you know, they made me feel special on the first Friday and now every Friday I feel special again, I guess.
Paula: Totally. Totally. Brilliant example. So we’re in Dubai today, but of course you live and work in Abu Dhabi. Give us the backstory. Where did you come from? How did you get into this incredible role?
Mark: So, Australian obviously spent five years at Virgin and Velocity down in Australia, which is also a fantastic program. So no discredit to them in Australia. I think they’re the member in Australia or the community in Australia is getting the best of two fantastic programs. So I spent five years with them.
And then just after getting married the opportunity to Etihad arose in 2015. And so my wife and I I took the jump and came up to the UAE and basically took a role looking after airline relationships for the loyalty program, Etihad guests and, and the, you know, the, at that time was on a pretty aggressive growth phase as well, which is nice. And so coming into the middle of the world meant that I had access to Europe and to the Middle East and to the subcontinent and so forth very quickly which was really quite exciting for us. And so we did that.
And then my role has evolved through the process. So looking after airline partners, then there was some retail travel you know, the financial services portfolio, which is obviously quite lucrative. And then that, that moved into looking after all the partnerships. And then, as you said, in April last year I was fortunate enough and to have the privilege now of running the Etihad Guest program.
Paula: Oh my God. So exciting, but actually it would be remiss if I didn’t congratulate you on getting married and relocating country. Oh my God. Yeah.
Mark: It was a, it was a, yeah, it was a fair bit going on actually, but it’s all exciting. We were, you know, we were young and I think at the time we thought, yeah, let’s just give it a crack. Two or three years in the Middle East. Why not? Right. Nine years later is a different story with a couple of kids, but I’m still loving it.
Paula: Lovely story. Yeah. And what is Abu Dhabi like just from a personal perspective, Mark, I hope you don’t mind me asking, but I’m thinking about our listeners in the US, the UK, and even in Australia, like many of them may not have been to Abu Dhabi and I love it. It’s incredible city, but you obviously love it living there so long.
Mark: Yeah. Again, I’m very biased. I love Abu Dhabi. Actually some of the people in my team who live in Dubai so aware of how biased I am that I’m constantly talking about Abu Dhabi. No, I think it’s, it’s it kind of has everything that I need, if that makes sense. So it’s fantastic to bring a family up in Abu Dhabi. We have all of the creature comforts there. And also as a city, as a place, it’s certainly maturing in terms of its assets as well. We have beautiful beaches. We have the culture element. You know, great malls and restaurants and nightlife as well, but also the ability to kind of relax on weekends. So I think we have the best of both worlds. I can go and have, you know, a rowdy Friday night if we choose to with the team and then have a very relaxed, calm Saturday with my family. So it’s, it’s kind of a, it’s a, they’re the best of both worlds, as I said.
Paula: Indeed. Absolutely. I think brand Abu Dhabi is doing amazing globally now. So, so good to hear again. So plenty of people like you who would choose it any day. So, so that’s great to hear.
So there’s so much going on with Etihad Guests. I think the first thing to celebrate is the announcement of the 10 millionth member. I was looking back to when we first talked with you guys and it was just at 7 million. So the growth has been absolutely extraordinary. So tell us what’s been going on in terms of how are you driving that growth? And of course, you’ve just relaunched as well. So I’m dying to hear about all of the changes that you’ve made.
Mark: Yeah. Thank you. I mean, 10 million is a great number. It sounds fantastic. We’ve, you know, we’ve added 30 to 40 percent more members. Active members into the, into the base as well. So we’re getting, you know, a lot of members into the funnel and our active group is also increasing a lot, which is really lovely.
But I think, you know, the growth we’ve grown by over a quarter in the last year and a bit. So, you know, the program is seeing a great growth and I think Etihad Airways, its growth trajectory is also supporting that. We’ve initiated a couple of things that meant that the program also had a stronger funnel of members coming in with free wifi on board for members that drove a lot of uplift in terms of engagement particularly within the flying community.
But I think, you know, the key thing is the proposition that we’ve put into market allowed us to service both the flying and a non flying customer or member in the program. And so that growth is a combination of both. The lovely, the lovely narrative around that is obviously we are a hub carrier with the UAE and Abu Dhabi being our home, but the growth is also not just in the UAE. The growth is in our key markets, be it, you know, the US, the UK, Australia, India and the rest of the GCC. So, you know, we’re, we’re kind of growing our footprint on the network side from an airline perspective, but also the program is, is supporting with, you know, members in those markets as well to provide a, you know, a potential database for us to, to support the airlines growth.
Paula: Yes. So what are you going to do with this 10 millionth member? It sounds like obviously something that has to be, to be marked in a very big way.
Mark: Yeah. So we I think we, we referenced in the, in the announcement earlier in the week that there’ll be some exciting surprises for them. We have identified who it is, which is great.
Paula: Okay, good.
Mark: And so the they will be upgraded into platinum, which is obviously a tier that’s really set aside for our most frequent of flyers. And it offers a really strong benefit suite that we’ll talk about shortly, I think. So they’ll, they’ll be given that, but we’ll also, there was a couple of little things that we’ll announce shortly. They will also enjoy as part of their experience. So, you know, not, not too much out of the bag, but you’ll notice you know, we will make sure that they, they’re recognized for being the 10 millionth, even though they didn’t know perhaps when they joined the program.
Paula: Oh, I’m super curious. You’re teasing us now. We’ll keep an eye out for the next press release. Once that’s been officially actioned. Yeah.
Mark: Yes, of course.
Paula: So the big news, of course, then is you did relaunch the program literally a week from where we are today. So the end of June 2024, tell us first and foremost, why did you feel you needed to do a relaunch given, as you said, you’ve had incredible growth and I want to talk of course specifically about a couple of things you’ve done over the past couple of years on the lifestyle side, but there was obviously other opportunities. So tell us exactly what the thinking was in terms of this relaunch.
Mark: Yeah. So I think even before I took over the role, we were doing it a bit of an evaluation of Etihad Guest and what it looks like in the future. The airline has been very vocal on its 2030 vision and what our growth trajectory looks like.
And we strongly believe as does our management that the loyalty program plays a pivotal role in that growth. So we took it, we took it, we took some time to evaluate you know, what does the program structure look like? Are we set up to succeed? Do we need to be more influential in certain parts of the program and then a business as well, and assess kind of performance on, you know, different metrics within the program.
That meant many, many, many conversations with many stakeholders in the business, as you can imagine, and debates and, you know, conflict and resolution and fantastic conversations as well.
That meant that. We essentially kind of reviewed almost every part of the program and announced in February that we were going to make some changes, as you said, last Thursday which will really, the core principles were about simplification, driving a rewarding experience and giving members something more personalized, something that they can kind of have a journey on their terms is what we coined as part of the narrative. So, there was, there was key pillars and then I guess the rest flowed on from there.
Paula: And the particular piece, and obviously I was looking at it, you know, in great detail ahead of today’s conversation. The piece that I really liked is the fact that the personalization, so much of the opportunity is with the member to choose what that means to them.
So how did that come through? I suppose was it something that you had been thinking about already before where members vocally saying, actually, I’d love the opportunity to choose. I just love to understand the psychology of how you’ve given this level of flexibility at this stage, because it’s not easy to do. So, do you think members were aware of that themselves or was it something you, you kind of identified and tested just to get a sense of how it all evolved?
Mark: Yeah. I mean, I think it’s, as a reference at the beginning, we do some benchmarkings around the world to understand what other programs are doing. And I think in this space there was a couple that have probably dip their toe in the ocean in terms of what personalization could look like from a tier perspective. We being, I think quite an innovative in terms of our program product we, we felt that there’s an opportunity for us to be differentiated in this market as well by doing something different. So there was an appetite to do something different.
Paula: Yes.
Mark: But also we’re aware that our, our members and our tiered members have different experiences and different requirements. And I think member feedback on that was, you know, maybe I just need some flexibility. I don’t worry about the bags or the lounge. I need to have a chauffeur. I just, I don’t mind having, I’m not too concerned about carbon offsets as an example, but I do want this.
So there was an opportunity for us to evaluate how do we, how do we tailor and service them in a way that feels bespoke and personal to them? Without kind of taking away probably their creature comforts from flying as well.
And so this solution meant that we onboarded basically three verticals of benefit. And the first one being everybody gets a similar or the same set of benefits in the tier and we called them Core. And those things include like immigration, priority immigration or baggage or check in those sorts of things that you know, a more physical in terms of your airport experience.
The other element is the Custom Suite, which I think is where we’re really differentiated. And in that area, we gave members the choice of two, four or five different benefits that I can select from a suite of benefits within the tier. And that’s where really we were probably strong arming in terms of allowing the member to say, I don’t want this, but I really love this. And so that’s where the personalizing came in. We tailor, we tested a few of it with, you know, various cohorts. We will continue to test.
I think the perfect part of that is because we can obviously always add to that suite of benefits. So if we find that members are not using a certain one, we can go and replace it with something else. And then the member can select in the next cycle or we can continue to add to it and potentially add third party elements into that suite as well. The moment a lot of it is very airline centric and owned by us. But the appetite is to say, you know, we have great relationships with third parties. Why don’t we integrate them there at some point?
The third piece is about Beyond Benefits. And some other carriers do this. And ultimately what we identified was there was a cohort of members that were sitting in gold or platinum or silver who reached that tier, but probably didn’t have the requirement to fly more or to spend more, but we wanted to make sure that we were still incentivizing them to engage. And so the point was, they’re not, they’re probably not going to reach the higher tier. It may be just too much of a stretch for them, but we can stretch them a little bit in terms of their engagement and therefore repay them for that stretch.
And so we introduced a beyond benefit suite that was in theory in between the two tiers of golden platinum and platinum and diamond which meant that we will give them additional benefits that they can enjoy themselves or gift to a family friend or family member to kind of reward them for their extended loyalty with us, I guess, going beyond the requirement of the maintain or attain.
Paula: Okay. Yes. And it’s only a weekend, but how’s it going?
Mark: Yeah, it’s going well, really well. I mean, we had some fantastic, we have a great suite of IT partners. Comarch was instrumental in the creation of the the Custom Suites and milestone beyond benefit suite. So it’s going very well. There’s a few little teething challenges and probably an ability for us to service a bit more content for members to understand, but generally really well received a few neutral feedbacks, but you always get that in, in change. But we’re overall very pleased.
Paula: Yes. Yeah. Well, shout out to Comarch, of course. Mutual friends.
Mark: Yes.
Paula: Yes. Yes.I’ve just been in Krakow with them. So a wonderful experience and no doubt a very comprehensive project. As you’ve said, if you’ve gone through every element of the program and actually you’ve reminded me, cause I did see on your LinkedIn, of course, it was stalking you in preparation for today.
Also your background in the revenue management side, I think very early in your career. Like to me, that’s probably the ultimate starting point for any loyalty management professional because you can then have the conversation which closes the loop for the member in terms of seat availability. And I know you announced some improvements on that as well recently on the pricing. So tell us about all of that cause that’s very impressive.
Mark: Yeah. I mean, I think revenue management is probably, I agree that it’s a fantastic place to begin your airline career because I guess the, in theory it’s the nucleus of an airline, you’re selling seats, you’re managing inventory. So very, very good place to start.
I’m really pleased to say that, I guess, as a program, we were able to also reduce some of the guest seat prices, our fixed inventory product. You think about globally, whether too many loyalty programs are announcing reductions in prices during this time you know, where we’re really fortunate to be able to have a revenue management division that supports the loyalty program in that sense and also ability for us to, to, I guess, surface the value of the members that are redeeming. And that’s a critical part of why we made the reduction. It’s and I guess also in the premium cabin because premium cabins is the aspirational burn that everybody wants.
Paula: Totally.
Mark: And so those reductions were very well received as you can imagine. And I guess it just showcases the ability for us as a program to be integrated into our airline growth because reward seats are an important part of our program, but also drive value back to the airline business long term as well.
Paula: Yeah. Yeah. And I’ve obviously been watching a lot of the kind of, Etihad again, press releases and just content talking to friends in the airline. And what I have loved is that I suppose, laser focus that loyalty, you’ve already used the word pivotal to the success of the airline. So I think there’s a real sense of simplification and just really being aligned in terms of airline first and foremost, absolutely growing at phenomenal rates. And but fully supported by loyalty program that’s got the, obviously the support of the senior management team. So it feels like everybody’s absolutely going the same direction.
Mark: Yeah, it feels good. I mean, I think it’s well documented that Etihad has been through an interesting journey. And I’ve, I’ve been through that with them in the nine years I’ve been there, but you know, the atmosphere in the business is great is incredible at the moment. We launched eight new markets in the last couple of months. There’s more to come as well. The program’s doing very well. So it just feels like we’re on the momentum is growing and it feels really great. So, yeah, I can’t speak more highly of what we’re doing at the moment.
Paula: Indeed. Well, Bali is my favorite destination.
Mark: Very good.
Paula: I know that’s just been launched.
Mark: Let’s do the next podcast there together. Let’s do that.
Paula: Totally. Totally. Brilliant stuff. The other pieces I wanted to talk through today, Mark, where I suppose something you’ve been doing extremely well, I believe and, and more visibly perhaps than other airlines even around the world. And that’s the card linking piece. And I wanted to hear, you know, maybe first of all, if you don’t mind just even explaining that value proposition for our global audience. Because I think I said to you off air, for me, it’s my absolute favorite benefit in terms of, as you’ve already talked about, simplification.
But I’m hearing in some markets, for example, I spoke to a loyalty manager in Australia yesterday, your home market, and she said it’s not really resonating yet with Australian consumers. So I’d love to hear, again, just first of all, a simple explanation, if you don’t mind, for anyone who’s not familiar with card linking, and then how it’s been going for you, I guess, based in Abu Dhabi.
Mark: Yeah. So we launched it in 2020. I’m really, really proud of the fact that we were probably the first in the region or one of the first in the region to do so. And we onboarded it with a great partner in Alda here in the UAE that, you know, has a plethora of more products and community centers and so forth.
The product itself is essentially, you just have to onboard a Visa card debit or credit into an, into a wallet or an app which therefore means that anytime you swipe that card or a transaction online or offline you will, it basically pings a trigger that says Marcus transacted at merchant X. And then it allows us to go and allow the member to either earn miles for that transaction at a, at a CVP that we design or allows the member to redeem their miles for that transaction. So instantly in real time, the member will, we have the opportunity to engage in the program and then either use their currency or add to their current balance. The proposition we went live with is we had a plethora of as I said, of malls added overnight. So we added over a thousand merchants overnight.
Paula: Amazing.
Mark: And we’ve have, you know, other retail F&B products theme parks, online retailers that have been on boarded and it was all through our Etihad Guest mobile app which allowed the push notification to be essentially the trigger point of engagement.
Paula: Okay.
Mark: About a year after that, we onboarded Talabat, which is, you know, has the lion’s share of the market here in the UAE on quick service delivery.
Paula: Yes.
Mark: Which meant that our level of engagement with the member increased exponentially because ultimately we all, we all spend on you know, quick service delivery Talabat during COVID as well, was a really instrumental part of the business. That meant that we’re engaging even more frequently with a member and surfacing the value and the reward of the program for those everyday transactions or twice a day transactions in some context. So I’m really, really powerful commercially, you know, there’s always challenges in terms of kind of selling into retailers, commission models and so forth.
We were, we were innovative in that space and how that could work. But the engagement piece for me is the critical point because you get the ability, as I said, to talk to the member with engaging message that correlates to a frictionless experience. They can use the miles or accrue them. And in theory that member is coming back on a, on a frequent basis. Obviously you’re building a cohort that ultimately will start to see the value in double dipping with a co-branded credit card or flying with your airline and so forth. So it’s a, it’s a, almost the, the peripheral benefits of that, of that product are also critically important to our business.
Paula: Totally. Yeah. And for me, it’s the The Holy Grail, first of all, of not needing to present another loyalty card, as you said, the payment card then becomes the identifier. So the simplicity, I mean, it just, I love it so much. I’ve had a few debates with people and again, we’ve had, you know, our mutual friend in Bright Insights Consulting supporting the evolution of that kind of program as well.
But for me, it is a no brainer. But for an airline, of course, the key piece of course, is that you get people when they’re not flying. So, as you said, initially triggered by COVID perhaps, you know, so out of every challenge comes an opportunity, but it sounds like it’s still something that you plan to grow in terms of keeping your lifestyle proposition, continuing to expand.
Mark: A hundred percent. Yeah. I think there’s some exciting stuff coming in the back half of the year in that space for us. We, you know, we’re consistently onboarding new partners. We’re evolving the digital experience as well. I mean, the app launched in 2020 and there’s always evolutions of how the digital experience needs to go for members.
And that’s a learning of how members are engaging in that ecosystem, but we’ve expanded to international cards. It’s not just the UAE. We’ve expanded to a website solution rather than just solely app. So, we allow members to use partial miles and partial cash in that solution as well. So kind of, you know, liberating the currency and allowing the member to get that redemption even sooner through a frictionless process is a critical pillar of our program growth.
So, without letting too much away back off of the year, there’ll be some more exciting announcements in terms of what that looks like for us.
Paula: Amazing, amazing. So you’re keeping us in suspense yet again.
Mark: Yes.
Paula: So I know we won’t get anything out of you in terms of what’s coming next, but again, we’ll be watching the press releases excitedly.
But just in general terms, I guess, in this market, we’ve seen again, a lot of, you know, healthy competition. It’s always very exciting. And all of the different concepts, as you said, you’re looking globally as well. So really exciting. For me, the one that we’re thinking about most actually as a content business is the idea of subscription.
And that’s been done of course in various different airlines around the world in different ways. I think to varying degrees of success, I still feel it’s very early days, but would love to just get a sense from you in terms of, you know, again, I know you can’t say whether it’s something you would ever do, but like, what’s your thoughts on subscription as an opportunity for, for airline loyalty programs?
Mark: Yeah. I mean, my view on that is I think it does have a place. What we’re, you know, we’re evolving it. We’re sorry, evaluating it at the moment. I mean, we do have our, our friends down the road or here in Dubai that has a product there, which you know, means that we do have to have a look to see what it looks like.
Our, our leadership team also has a view given that they’ve got experiences from airline programs that also offer subscription products. So, you know, I think there, there is something there probably in the future. It’s probably just, again, trying to find that innovative and differentiated proposition that we want so that we can have a, you know, a niche space ourselves.
There is, I think there’s benefits of doing that. Subscription doesn’t necessarily mean, you know, by a tier, as an example, there’s elements there that we can drive incentivized or boosting experiences, miles, two miles as an example. And we can also tailor some of our third party benefit structures into there as well. So I think it’s about bringing together whilst not negating the importance of flying and engaging on the program side to gain tier, but also giving some members the opportunity.
I think we’ll also find from our learnings of the customer benefits and the beyond benefits, what members like, and therefore you are able to identify whether if you’re going to have to pay for the subscription, maybe there is some learnings there to say, no one really cares about that, but they do care about this. And maybe they’re willing to pay a little bit more, pay more frequently to get access to things. So I think it’s probably, it’s you know, without giving a yes or no answer to whether we’re doing it. It’s certainly something that we’re evaluating pretty aggressively because that there’s an opportunity there.I think.
Paula: There definitely is. Yeah. Thank you for that. Yeah. No, again, a lot of the programs and again, even other sectors, I think once there is a subscription model in place, it gives you so much more freedom as, as the program owner to again, invest in different options and different rewards that you mightn’t have the budget for if it’s purely done on the traditional model.
So I do think it is a game changer. But as you said, it has to be done with a very clear value proposition so that people don’t spend a lot of time wondering if it’s worthwhile. It has to be absolutely clear. So, another watch this space. It’s what I’m hearing.
Mark: We’ve got a busy back half of the year.
Paula: We totally do. Oh my God. I’m exhausted just listening to it. That’s funny. The final piece then is you mentioned off here I suppose the opportunity in terms of data. I think it’s something every loyalty manager is, is, you know, aspiring to do bigger and better things with but I still feel we have a long way to go. So I just wanted to see, you know, how do you feel you’re doing from a you know, leveraging of data at this stage in your journey, given everything you’ve been focused on and and maybe any other focuses for the coming months and years.
Mark: So I mean, obviously data is a topic that we talk about probably every day. There is a lot of focus at the moment on how we as an airline group can have a single view of our customer and member. And so as we evolve some of our digital spaces, you’ll start to see how we’re flexing in that space from a data perspective using both airline and loyalty data.
I think on the lifestyle side, which we talked about before as well, is we currently get a transaction level information from a miles on the go or the card linking solution. You know, where do we go to in terms of having more at a skew level so we can identify and personalize mixed experiences as a consequence of that. We know that you’re spending at Talabat. We don’t know that you’re buying groceries or flowers or fast food. So how do we kind of become a little bit more mature in that space to allow us to kind of surface more offers that are tailored to you. So really kind of honing in a bit more on the personalization side within the confines of GDPR and compliance.
Paula: Totally.
Mark: But I think, you know, there is an opportunity for us to be a little bit more aggressive in that space with how we surface that to the member.
I think as we evolve as a program as I said, we didn’t really leave any stone unturned in terms of our review. So the app, as I touched on, we’ll be going through a refresh as well. Our digital assets across the board, we’ll be going through refreshes and we’re really kind of trying to evaluate how the member experience, both physically and digitally will be enhanced as part of these changes. There’s a lot of the, whilst some of the changes on the customer, the benefit side was structured around personalization.
We also made the flying experience a key part of our program as well moving forward. And so, we need to find a way that we also make sure that when they are flying with us, that we treat them the way that we think they deserve to be treated for their loyalty. And so there’s always going to be little pockets of opportunity for us to amplify.
The tiered member or just the new member and make sure they feel special as part of our, our family and our world.
Paula: Beautiful.
Mark: So, more what’s this space perhaps, but we have a fantastic terminal Abu Dhabi now. So there’s opportunity for us to really take advantage of that experience and then upgrade it for our membership base.
Paula: Indeed. Yes. It would be remiss if we didn’t mention the new airport terminal.
Mark: Yes.
Paula: Anything you can say on that? I haven’t been on it as yet, Mark. I was lucky enough to attend the movie premiere actually, though. And as many people may know, Tom Cruise did run around that before it opened. So yeah, a huge operational change of course, for the airline to move into a new terminal. What an opportunity for growth.
Mark: Yeah, it’s amazing. When we go to Bali for the next podcast, we’ll go out of that terminal. The yeah, the experience is, is first class. I mean, I think going through, it takes five minutes to get through immigration check in whatever else it’s some of it’s even without having to engage with a, with an agent there, it’s all, it’s all digital.
The Duty Free, the food and beverage offering there, the gate experience, it’s yeah, it’s really, really impressive. And it feels like, you know, we’ve definitely up, upgaged in terms of how the member experiences their transit or their departure and arrivals. The lounge is fantastic. So our members get a really lovely three leveled lounge experience now.
So, yeah, I mean, I often, I live very close to the airport, but I get to the airport probably an hour or two ahead of time still just to kind of have a bit of fun there with the family. So, I can’t speak highly enough of that.
Paula: That’s beautiful. Okay.
Mark: We’ll get you there. You’re going to come next time.
Paula: I was gonna say, I just can’t wait now for the invitation to Bali. I know the podcast studios are amazing there. So, so really cool. And actually just to go back for a minute to your previous point about the onboard, I do think that’s absolutely a brilliant intention. So again, I will be very keen to hear and see how that evolves in the months and years to come.
You’ve just reminded me for our audience in case anyone hasn’t heard, and I’m just going to set you a challenge. Just probably one of my favorite examples of that was actually with a train company in Spain called Renfe, introduced by our mutual friend Ravindra at his conference. But what they were doing actually kind of blew my mind. And I’m not sure operationally how they do it, but for loyalty members who are on the train on their birthday, there is a gift in some, I don’t know whether it’s a chocolate or a card, but there is something done on board for every person who’s a member, I mean, I was like, I have no idea how you would roll out something like that.
So I know you’re ambitious and you never know maybe in the future, if you’re platinum members or something, you can do something like that on board when it is people’s birthdays.
Mark: It proves how important that experiential loyalty element is, right? I think, that makes sense. It’s everything we’re doing at the moment is, is really based around how we can do that. I think whether or not it’s a birthday experience or just, it’s a very minor thing, right? In times, but you remember it, I think you’ve referenced it as well. So there’s definitely opportunity to kind of just make that member feel just a little bit more special when they travel with us, which is coming.
Paula: Brilliant. Brilliant. Well, listen, I’ve asked all the questions I want to at this stage. Mark, is there anything else that you wanted to mention before we wrap up?
Mark: No, I don’t think so. I mean, I think as I said, like, we’re really, really excited about the future of Etihad Guest and Etihad. You know, we will continue to evolve the program as we touched on. You know, data is going to play a really pivotal role in the changes that we may, may go forward with, but ultimately, ultimately at the moment the future is looking really bright. So, as I said, hopefully we get you on board soon. We’ll see you in the terminal. We’ll get you to Bali. And yeah, we chat maybe hopefully not in two years time, maybe a little bit sooner.
Paula: Indeed. Right. On that incredible note, Mark, and the best invitation ever, I would say Mark Potter, Managing Director for Etihad Guest. Thank you so much from Let’s Talk Loyalty and Loyalty TV.
Mark: Thank you.
Paula: This show is sponsored by Wise Marketer Group, publisher of the Wise Marketer, the premier digital customer loyalty marketing resource for industry relevant news, insights, and research. Wise Marketer Group also offers loyalty, education and training globally through its Loyalty Academy, which has certified nearly 900 marketers and executives in 49 countries as certified loyalty marketing professionals.
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