Bank of America's Preferred Rewards Program

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Paula: Hello and welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty and Loyalty TV, a show for loyalty marketing professionals.

Paula: I’m Paula Thomas, the founder and CEO of Let’s Talk Loyalty and Loyalty TV, where we feature insightful conversations with loyalty professionals from the world’s leading brands.

Paula: If you work in loyalty marketing, join us every week to hear the latest ideas and insights for loyalty marketing specialists around the world.

Paula: Hello and welcome to today’s episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty and Loyalty TV.

Paula: It’s Paula Thomas here, and I’m delighted to be today meeting with another Fortune 500 brand, as we meet with Bank of America, one of the world’s largest banks.

Paula: According to its latest annual report, Bank of America now serves approximately 69 million consumer and small business clients.

Paula: They surpassed $100 billion of revenue in 2024 with net income in excess of $27 billion.

Paula: As part of the bank’s celebrations for their 10-year anniversary of its Preferred Rewards program, I’m joined today by Shikha Narula, Managing Director, Head of Consumer and Small Business Product Strategy, Transformation and Rewards at Bank of America.

Paula: Shikha shares some of their key achievements, including a membership base of over $11 million, a 99% retention rate and some of their flagship partnerships, including their Coffee Cashback program with Starbucks in the US market.

Paula: Shikha also shares how their award-winning Preferred Rewards program really differs from other programs in the financial services industry.

Paula: I really hope you enjoy our conversation.

Paula: So, Shikha Narula from Bank of America, thrilled to have you on the show.

Paula: Welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty and to Loyalty TV.

Shikha: Thank you for having me.

Shikha: I’m so delighted to be here, Paula.

Paula: You really have an incredibly impressive career, Shikha, and we’re going to talk through some of the amazing work that you’ve been doing over the years, most particularly with the Preferred Rewards program.

Paula: But before we talk anything about loyalty, I think you know that we have a very special question that we love to ask our guests right up front.

Paula: Just because it gives us a sense of who you are as a business professional, as a human being, and what catches your interest, either in terms of life or leadership or loyalty.

Paula: So let’s kick off with a question about if somebody asked you your favorite book, Shikha, what would you say to them?

Shikha: I would say Smart Brevity.

Shikha: I think it’s such a powerful book.

Shikha: It gives you such important messages and being able to communicate in a very concise and crisp manner, being able to get to the point relatively quickly, bringing out the high points, communicating what the person actually needs to know what’s important to them.

Shikha: And then you need to get into the details and going there.

Paula: I love that.

Paula: Actually, that’s really cool.

Paula: And I’ll tell you a couple of reasons why.

Paula: First of all, it reminds me way back when Twitter was launched.

Paula: Obviously, it’s had a world of change now, but I do remember the very first thing that I thought was amazing about that was it was exactly the definition of what you’ve just talked about.

Paula: People were forced to be succinct, and it really brought some brilliant thought leaders, I think, into the world of social media.

Paula: I think it’s changed a lot now, but sounds like that whole book has the same premise.

Shikha: Absolutely, absolutely.

Shikha: And when you think about it in today’s day and age, when there’s so much information overload, I think it becomes even more important to be able to synthesize things.

Paula: Totally.

Paula: Amazing.

Paula: And I did quickly look at your annual report, of course.

Paula: It’s a big document, but at the same time in the introduction, specifically the value of simplicity came through as something that the whole bank is working on, and also that resonated.

Paula: So again, similar kind of minds thinking along the idea.

Paula: It’s a very busy world.

Paula: And so yes, if we can understand to communicate with each other in a smart but brief way, then absolutely, that’s hugely beneficial.

Paula: So thank you for that.

Paula: We’ll of course make sure to link to it in the show notes for our audience.

Paula: So we’re going to talk today, of course, predominantly about preferred rewards.

Paula: And I suppose right off the bat, congratulations on your 10 year anniversary.

Shikha: Thank you for that.

Shikha: Thank you.

Shikha: It is so exciting to see this program hit its 10 year anniversary and how we continue to make it better for our clients.

Shikha: Absolutely.

Paula: Indeed.

Paula: And I know you weren’t there in the very beginning.

Paula: Of course, you’re taking it to new heights.

Paula: But let’s go back and just get a sense of your previous career, Shikha, before you joined Bank of America.

Shikha: Yeah, so I have been in financial services industry for about 23 years, started my career at Citigroup, part of their Cards organization.

Shikha: And there I spent a lot of time working through how to drive loyalty and engagement with existing clients, Cards clients, through marketing efforts.

Shikha: I did spend four years at American Express.

Shikha: So that’s where I got to observe their membership rewards program very closely.

Shikha: And now I’ve been at the Bank of America three years this March.

Shikha: Very happy, very proud.

Shikha: And here my focus is very much in on, you know, how do we drive innovative solutions for our clients so we continue to meet their emerging needs.

Shikha: So that’s where I’m focused now.

Shikha: And for further words, it was just a big part of that.

Paula: I can imagine, absolutely.

Paula: And I know we talked off here as well about, obviously, the focus on different demographics like Gen Z.

Paula: So I was even refreshing my own memory in terms of what that generation is specifically looking for.

Paula: So we might come to that a little bit later.

Paula: But just while we’re talking about preferred rewards, I love the word innovation, actually.

Paula: That is one that is very close to my heart.

Paula: And I think a lot of our audience know that we were the very first podcast in our industry.

Paula: And that was one of the things that really felt like we were being a bit innovative.

Paula: So totally aligned there.

Paula: Will you take us back to, I suppose, the original intention of preferred rewards, Shikha?

Paula: Because for a bank, I feel like that there are so many different propositions out there.

Paula: Lots of the focus often goes, of course, on the core products.

Paula: But you have a very comprehensive loyalty strategy.

Paula: So take us back to the original insights.

Shikha: Yeah, so, you know, here at the bank, we focused our efforts very much on client-centric insights.

Shikha: And way back when we were building this program, there was a lot of research we did.

Shikha: And what our clients told us at the time was they wanted a loyalty program but that had no gimmicks associated with it, no hidden fees, no fine print.

Shikha: They wanted to be rewarded for their entire relationship, whether it was banking, investing.

Shikha: And what they also told us at the time was, they wanted rewards that they could actually value, that they could actually use.

Shikha: So that’s how we took all of that information and packaged it.

Shikha: And that’s how Preferred Rewards was born.

Shikha: It’s a no fee program where we reward card members, we reward our clients for their entire relationship, whether it’s across investing, banking.

Shikha: And they earn a whole suite of rewards across deposits, investments, mortgages, auto, as well as exclusive discounts and access.

Shikha: So it just is a very rich program that meets the needs of the customers across the entire spectrum, whether it’s someone starting off of their financial journey or somebody who’s a lot more involved.

Paula: Indeed.

Paula: Yeah.

Paula: And the website is amazing, of course, and I will make sure again that that’s in the show notes.

Paula: And just briefly for people, again, we have a global audience, Shikha, as I think you know.

Paula: Give us a sense of the proposition.

Paula: I know you’ve got a tiered structure.

Paula: How are the tiers and how do people engage with the program?

Paula: I’ve seen some of those amazing benefits.

Paula: I will touch on some of them that I liked in a minute, but just give us a sense of the, I suppose, the proposition to market.

Shikha: Yeah, so the proposition, so what really differentiates us is that we have a very low entry point into the Preferred Rewards Program.

Shikha: Somebody with 20,000 or more in average daily balances over three months timeframe qualifies for the program.

Shikha: And these could be balances across their deposits and investing relationships.

Shikha: And the way the tiers are constructed, you have your gold, platinum, platinum honors, diamond, and so on and so forth.

Shikha: And depending on the assets that you have with us, you’re placed in a tier.

Shikha: And the benefits, as you go up the tiers, the benefits, of course, you get more benefits out of the program.

Shikha: I’ll give you an example, at the high end of the tiers with our diamond members, diamond, diamond honors members for clients with, you know, net worth of assets of one million or more with Bank of America, we have lifestyle benefit programs, lifestyle benefits that we provide them, where they’re getting exclusive access to some luxury brands across, whether it’s food and wine, travel, automobile relationships that we have and partnerships that we have.

Shikha: So it just becomes richer as, you know, you go up here and you do more business with them.

Paula: Yeah, yeah.

Paula: And that’s very much what came through as well, Shikha, from my perspective.

Paula: So as I said, things like no fees on everyday banking services, bonus on credit card rewards, priority service, which is always a favorite of mine, exchange rate discounts, auto loan discounts, mortgage fees reduced.

Paula: Like it really has that breadth of the relationship that you talked about, whereas so many banks seem to focus purely on the credit card.

Paula: And I totally understand that that can be probably the most profitable product in the industry.

Paula: I don’t know that for a fact, but that’s what I’m guessing.

Paula: But you guys really seem to have that focus on the stickiness of the relationship.

Paula: So when somebody has a savings account or a cash account, a checking account is I think the correct American term for it, and that seems to be a core focus for you in terms of a prerequisite.

Paula: And then everything else is layered on top.

Shikha: Absolutely.

Shikha: And that’s core to our strategy.

Shikha: We want clients to start with having the core operating account or the checking account with Bank of America.

Shikha: And then as they do more business with us or they bring in more relationships, more of their banking relationships, whether they expand with auto or they get a mortgage with us, we want to be able to reward them more.

Shikha: And that comes out so clearly in the Preferred Rewards Program.

Shikha: Like you said, it’s very much about, it’s a relationship-based program.

Shikha: We want to drive that longer-term engagement loyalty with our clients and that longer-term relationship with our clients.

Shikha: We do not want it to be transactional.

Shikha: And so much of that comes together in this program.

Paula: Incredibly powerful.

Paula: Yeah.

Paula: No.

Paula: And it’s clearly working.

Paula: I think that the part that’s most exciting from my side is looking at what you did just last year, actually one of your newest parts of the proposition, and that’s your partnership with Starbucks.

Paula: So I’d love you to talk about, first of all, like what it is.

Paula: I know it’s still running a year later, so that definitely means it’s working for both sides.

Paula: But just give us a sense of, I suppose, the needs that you identified as a program owner, that fitted so well with Starbucks, because it actually, would you believe, comes through every single time when we ask people on our show, as industry professionals, their favorite loyalty program, it’s actually always Starbucks.

Paula: So we have a real vested interest in understanding it.

Paula: So what Bank of America and Starbucks have done together is incredibly powerful.

Paula: So what can you share with us about that?

Shikha: Yeah, so this goes back to some of the trends you’re seeing in the marketplace.

Shikha: Clients want more and the power of two strong brands and two strong loyalty programs coming together.

Shikha: So we are able to offer more to our clients.

Shikha: So Starbucks, like you said, is a very well-recognized brand.

Shikha: It’s very integrated into clients’ everyday lives.

Shikha: So this gives us a way to be there with our clients in their everyday lives as they’re engaging with both the brands.

Shikha: And it brings the power of the two loyalty programs where when a Bank of America client links their debit or credit card program into the Starbucks rewards program, and as they make those purchases within the app, they’re able to earn more rewards both on the Starbucks side.

Shikha: So they’re getting bonus Starbucks stars and they’re earning more rewards on the Bank of America side, but they’re getting bonus cash back on their debit credit purchases.

Shikha: So it just rewards them on both sides.

Shikha: It’s a very good way of having them get more out of that relationship as part of their everyday engagement with both the brands.

Paula: Amazing.

Paula: And again, I suppose, just making assumptions from what I know about the industry, what I think seems to be the most powerful piece, so what I’m guessing is going to be really cool for you, is the amount of people, of course, then putting their Bank of America card within the Starbucks app.

Paula: And that, of course, is super sticky behavior.

Paula: I don’t think any of us ever changed those cards, unless we have to, if they expire or something.

Paula: But I’m guessing that really makes a lot of commercial sense, because first of all, so many people have a Bank of America card.

Paula: Then once they add it into the Starbucks app, then you get that frequency of behavior, again, the stickiness of behavior on those coffee spends, which I guess for most of us is probably nearly every day.

Shikha: Yes, absolutely.

Shikha: I think you got it right.

Shikha: It is about driving that.

Shikha: Once you have imbedded it, the imbedded card stays.

Shikha: And we absolutely want to see that behavior with our clients.

Shikha: And like I said, when it’s everyday purchases, they’re front and center on their minds, trying to meet an everyday need and rewarding them as part of, as they’re going about their daily lives, which is just so important to us.

Paula: Indeed.

Paula: And I won’t ask you to speak for Starbucks, but again, my assumption is that for them, obviously having the card on file, driving the app behavior, as distinct from obviously paying at the point of sale, so whether people can prepay, I guess there’s behaviors as well that they’re looking to train people to make sure that they can have maybe a more efficient operation.

Paula: And I suppose, of course, access the Bank of America base, so sounds like a match made in heaven.

Shikha: Absolutely, absolutely.

Paula: Fantastic, Shikha.

Paula: So given what we’ve talked about so far, incredibly impressive.

Paula: I’d love to just get a sense.

Paula: What are you, I suppose, most proud of?

Paula: Like, what is Preferred Rewards Delivering?

Paula: Some of the headline numbers you shared with us when we met before, there’s some really beautiful numbers.

Paula: So I’d love for you to share them with our audience.

Shikha: Yeah.

Shikha: So, you know, I think the value of the program is when clients do more, they get more back from us.

Shikha: And, you know, what we’ve seen since the program’s launched, we’ve had card members, we have now about 11 million card members who are part of the Preferred Rewards Program.

Shikha: Just over the past year, we have clients get $4 billion in value back from the program.

Shikha: At an average, a client is able to make about $500 in value back from the program annually, which is just so strong and so powerful.

Shikha: We also see, you know, because it’s so much about, they can maximize their rewards as they do more with Bank of America.

Shikha: What we see is this behavior of one in four client adds another product within 30 days of becoming a Preferred Rewards member because again, that’s what we are in sending them for and they’re taking advantage of the program and that’s how they’re able to get much more.

Shikha: And since the life of the program, we’ve had clients get about 14.4.

Shikha: They’ve opened 14.4 new banking products once they become members.

Shikha: So again, these are 14.4 million banking products since they’ve become members.

Paula: Amazing.

Paula: I was going to clarify that absolutely.

Paula: I didn’t know whether we were talking individuals, but it is the cumulative.

Paula: So 14.4 million new banking products from Preferred Rewards members.

Paula: That’s absolutely extraordinary.

Paula: Congratulations.

Paula: You must be delighted.

Shikha: Very, very.

Shikha: It’s just been amazing to see the success of the program over the years.

Paula: And is that your key KPI?

Paula: I’m saying it back to front now.

Paula: So I’m guessing you have, I’m sure, massive dashboards and I suppose objectives, of course, of the program, like everybody listening to the show.

Paula: What would you say are those key KPI, Shikha?

Paula: Would you say it is that, you know, taking out new products, you’re nodding.

Paula: So for anyone watching us on Loyalty TV, that sounds like the big one.

Paula: Yeah?

Shikha: Yes.

Shikha: The key core KPI is that we track on the client side, how much value are we providing to our clients.

Shikha: We track that because that’s the essence of the program.

Shikha: We want to be able to offer more value to our clients.

Shikha: And then the second side of it is the deepening, which we measure by the number of new banking products that they’re opening with us, how their assets are growing with us.

Shikha: So all of that is what we track as part of our dashboards.

Shikha: And that’s how we see success with the program.

Paula: Amazing.

Paula: And you did emphasize as well previously this fee free basis for the program.

Paula: So that sounds like an ongoing part of your proposition that you expect to continue for that to be in place and then just to keep adding value for your members, as you said.

Shikha: Yes, we want this to continue to be a fee fee program for our clients.

Shikha: And we want to be able to continue to provide more value.

Shikha: We’re always assessing what our clients are telling us, how their needs are evolving.

Shikha: And we want to leverage that to continue to make the program better and make sure it continues to resonate.

Paula: Indeed.

Paula: And again, from looking through your annual report, I saw a 99% retention rate of preferred rewards.

Paula: So that’s another extraordinary number, given your 11 million members.

Paula: So it’s obviously working.

Paula: But I suppose we can’t sit still.

Paula: That is a very good point.

Paula: Maybe we should talk about that now in terms of, you know, what are you thinking about with them, you know, different demographics such as Gen Z?

Paula: We often get asked, you know, what is different about this generation?

Paula: And I think with banking particularly, you guys are being disrupted quite a lot, I would say.

Paula: So I think what you’re probably doing is having to almost self-disrupt sometimes just to make sure that you’re ahead of that curve.

Paula: So tell us about what you’ve learned, maybe about Gen Z in terms of their financial lives and needs.

Shikha: Yeah.

Shikha: So with Gen Z, we’re seeing that client base grow within Bank of America clients.

Shikha: Just within the Preferred Awards program, we’ve seen that client segment double over the last four years.

Shikha: So needless to say, it’s a very big area of focus for us.

Shikha: And what we’ve learned through a lot of the research that we’ve done is that these clients, they care about their financial health.

Shikha: They want to set financial goals and they want to find ways for them to be able to meet those financial goals.

Shikha: What they also care about is they just interact and consume information in a very different way.

Shikha: They are digitally native.

Shikha: They are heavily influenced by their peers that they’re constantly listening to, you know, what their peers are saying is important.

Shikha: They are listening to, they are heavily engaged in social media, looking at influencers and engaging with products that the influencers are recommending.

Shikha: So as we think about our program and how do we continue to evolve the program so we can meet the needs of our Gen Z clients better, we’re factoring all of that in, where we want to make sure we’re offering ways for them within the program to be able to meet their needs.

Shikha: Then very recently, we’ve engaged influencers to come tell their story, share their stories of how preferred rewards is helping them meet their needs and very recently, we had three influencers actually share stories on ranging from how might they use the program to get more rewards back for their travel, so how can they use the program to be able to save for their first home or get to their first home purchase.

Shikha: So it’s just different ways of communicating with them on things that are super important to them, which is financial health, being able to make their financial goals and being able to leverage the program for that.

Paula: I love that, yeah.

Paula: The influencer strategy is a really big one.

Paula: And again, the very fact that you’re in banking, I mean, my experience is there’s obviously so much more, you know, risk perception, I guess in terms of just as a business, you guys have to be like super careful, everything that you do, obviously choosing the right partners.

Paula: I mean, it applies to every business, but we just see so much more coming through the banking sector.

Paula: Of course, you’re keeping our money safe.

Paula: And so I love the fact that the influencers are getting to speak, because that just, I think, brings the authenticity that people are craving, you know, it’s not just about what the company says.

Paula: We all need to hear from other angles, and we know influencers.

Paula: And of course, they have to be seen in a different way.

Paula: But I’m delighted to hear that you’re bringing them through, because I think they can educate all of us in a very different way.

Shikha: Absolutely.

Paula: Fantastic.

Paula: Okay.

Paula: So I just actually wanted to recap as well, Shikha.

Paula: I looked up the age.

Paula: I can never remember the exact ages of all these demographics when we talk about them.

Paula: So if anybody’s listing going, what’s the Gen Z age range again?

Paula: I did look it up.

Paula: So at the moment, it’s approximately age 13 to 28, the cohort born between 1997 and 2012.

Paula: It seems to vary a little bit wherever you read it from.

Paula: But the other piece, and you’re smiling, so I think you’ll find this one quite interesting.

Paula: The economist described Gen Z as the most educated, well-behaved, but stressed and depressed generation.

Shikha: Oh my God.

Shikha: Oh my God.

Shikha: My son is 18 year old.

Shikha: He’s a Gen Z.

Shikha: So much of what we’ve seen to our survey has come true though.

Shikha: Stressed, yes.

Shikha: Depressed, I hope not.

Paula: I know, I know.

Paula: Bless them.

Paula: They really do.

Paula: I mean, honestly, I think it comes, unfortunately, as part of the digital native piece, I think we’re all learning as we go, of course, in terms of the value of digital, but of course it has to be managed in a particular way.

Paula: And again, as a parent, you can definitely see that coming through.

Paula: So sounds like your own son, Ben, is part of your informal research, let’s say, in terms of making sure Bank of America is future focused.

Shikha: Yes, a lot of times when we have these ideas at work, I am running them by him at home to kind of get his reaction.

Shikha: So it’s just fascinating.

Paula: It totally is.

Paula: It totally is.

Paula: In fact, one of my favorite podcasts used to do interviews with CMOs and their children.

Paula: So age appropriate, of course, but just to get two generations of perspective on one podcast.

Paula: So that’s absolutely incredible.

Paula: So as we think about some of the big trends in Loyalty, Shikha, we’ve talked a little bit, of course, about your partnership with Starbucks.

Paula: I wanted to get your sense of what trends should loyalty professionals be thinking about in, I suppose, this age of everything from AI to personalization to, I mean, gamification.

Paula: And there’s just a million different ideas out there.

Paula: So where do you think we should be focusing on and what are the trends you think are most powerful for our programs?

Shikha: Yeah, so I think we talked about the loyalty programs coming together, but that aside, I think some of the other ones, the trend of hyper personalization, just making sure that the rewards that are being offered are tailored to the client segment is just so important.

Shikha: And that’s why, when you look at the Preferred Rewards Program, we have rewards, or we are insending or rewarding clients throughout the entire spectrum, starting from someone who has 20,000 in assets with us to all the way to 1 million and up, right?

Shikha: And making sure with every tier, we are tailoring the rewards to meet that tier’s needs.

Shikha: I think the other piece I’ll call out as far as trends are concerned is just being able to provide those exclusive rewards, exclusive access, and especially for the ultra high network, high network clients, that’s just so important.

Shikha: And you see that as part of the benefits that we have, the lifestyle benefits for our high network and high network tier at 1 million and up.

Shikha: Just the Q-rated experiences and they want to have access to that.

Shikha: So to me, those are some of the bigger trends.

Shikha: And we talked about Gen Z of course and being front and center with Gen Z is equally important.

Paula: Amazing, absolutely.

Paula: Yes, and actually that was another of my re-research on Gen Z.

Paula: They do value access over ownership.

Paula: I think we’ve all seen that coming through as well.

Paula: So whether it’s the proliferation of ride hailing apps or any of these things, there’s definitely a different value set.

Paula: And if Bank of America can provide access to those kind of experiences, and particularly, as you said, hyper-personalized.

Paula: And what I will say, you know, from what we hear on this show, the vast majority of us as an industry would tend to say that we are still only maybe touching the tip of the iceberg in terms of how well we’re doing the personalization.

Paula: I think everybody’s very clear that that’s the way to go, and that’s where the value lies.

Paula: How would you, how do you feel you guys are in terms of your journey?

Paula: Because I know the journey’s never done, but it just in terms of how it’s going, do you feel like it’s still early days or are you quite far advanced along the journey?

Shikha: I think we have come a far way, far enough way in being able to tailor the rewards that we offer to our clients based on where they are, their needs.

Shikha: The other piece that we do is we have the breadth of rewards that we are offering across the spectrum of financial services and banking products.

Shikha: I think we covered our grounds in both those ways.

Shikha: One is just being able to be personalized, but also in the breadth that we offer.

Paula: Still work in progress, but feeling proud, yeah?

Shikha: For sure.

Paula: Indeed.

Paula: Ten years old, anything you can share about the future, Shikha, in terms of what can we expect in the coming years, anything you’re particularly excited that we should be looking at for?

Shikha: I think you’ll continue to see a lot more exciting partnerships from us.

Shikha: One of the other recent ones that I’ll highlight is FIFA, where we recently launched, you know, exclusive discounts for our preferred awards members on the FIFA Club World Cup tickets.

Shikha: So you’re going to continue to see a lot of these exclusive partnerships where we will be able to provide more value and more rewards to our clients.

Shikha: Of course, we want to continue innovating to meet the needs of some of our Gen Z clients.

Shikha: So you’ll see potential enhancements to the program that will cater specifically to that audience and more benefits added that will resonate with that client segment.

Shikha: And of course, you’re going to continue to see more in the lifestyle benefit space as well, where more at the high end, we will continue to provide those exclusive experiences.

Paula: Yeah.

Paula: Oh my goodness.

Paula: Honestly, whenever sports get involved, I get extra excited because we all know the real passion comes through when you start to talk about something like FIFA.

Paula: So I did see that actually press release.

Paula: So again, we’ll make sure to include that in the show notes, because once you can start to again combine the scale of your membership and with, you know, access like that, exclusive access and discounts for something that is truly world class.

Paula: And I think that’s really where people’s eyes light up, but they start behaving almost irrationally in a way that we love as program owners.

Shikha: Yeah, totally, totally.

Shikha: I think, yeah, sports brings out the passion and we want to make sure we’re there for our clients, providing that for them.

Paula: That’s absolutely incredible.

Paula: So I guess the the final thought from my perspective on loyalty and then I have one other lovely thing I picked up on your annual report, which is not loyalty, but I just want the audience to be aware of.

Paula: But from my perspective, you know, I’d love to have you back on the show, I guess every year, every two years as you go forward.

Paula: And it’s, you know, such a scale and such a comprehensive program in a sector again, that we just haven’t done a lot of content on.

Paula: So I know this episode is going to be very popular.

Paula: So are you comfortable with us inviting you back on the show on a regular basis so people can can listen to you in the future?

Shikha: Absolutely.

Shikha: I’d love to come back and have more conversations and hopefully I’ll have more new enhancements to share with everyone at the time.

Shikha: Absolutely.

Paula: That’s great.

Paula: That’s great.

Paula: So the only other piece, and again, as I said, it’s non-loyalty related and we didn’t discuss it before, but it’s just a personal passion of mine.

Paula: There’s a famous marketer I love, Professor Scott Galloway, who always talks about the cost of living in the US.

Paula: And I see Bank of America doing extraordinary work on this.

Paula: And I just wanted to acknowledge it because it’s something that has become for me as a business owner, something I’m much more aware of.

Paula: I believe that the kind of minimum wage in the US typically, from a legal perspective, is $7.25.

Paula: Scott Galloway says it needs to be $25 an hour.

Paula: And Bank of America is nearly there and really sharing a minimum wage of $24.

Paula: So you must be so proud to work there.

Shikha: Absolutely, very proud in the commitment we’ve made to make sure we get that minimum wage to $25 for our teammates.

Shikha: So super proud to be a part of the company.

Paula: Amazing.

Paula: I hope you don’t mind me mentioning that.

Paula: So listen, that’s all the questions from my side, Shikha.

Paula: Is there anything else that you want to mention for our audience before we wrap up?

Shikha: I think it’s an amazing loyalty program that we have for our clients.

Shikha: So if you’re not a Bank of America client, open a checking account with us and enroll in the program and see how rich the benefits and the rich the values that they’re providing to our clients.

Shikha: And frankly, when I joined Bank of America and I became a client myself and I started taking advantage of the benefits, the power of it is just so immense.

Shikha: So I hope more people take advantage of that.

Paula: Absolutely.

Paula: And you have your influencers, of course, to teach people how to maximize those rewards.

Paula: So, so plenty happening, plenty more to come.

Paula: So with that, I want to say a huge thank you, Shikha Narula, Head of Preferred Rewards for Bank of America.

Paula: Thank you so much from Let’s Talk Loyalty and Loyalty TV.

Shikha: Thank you for having me, Paula.

Paula: This show is sponsored by Wise Marketeer Group, publisher of The Wise Marketeer, the premier digital customer loyalty marketing resource for industry relevant news, insights and research.

Paula: Wise Marketeer Group also offers loyalty education and training globally through its Loyalty Academy, which has certified nearly 900 marketeers and executives in 49 countries as certified loyalty marketing professionals.

Paula: For global coverage of customer engagement and loyalty, check out the wisemarketeer.com and become a wiser marketeer or subscriber.

Paula: Learn more about global loyalty education for individuals or corporate training programs at loyaltyacademy.org.

Paula: Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty.

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