Inside BofA Rewards: Bank of America’s New Vision for Customer Loyalty (#775)

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: Today’s episode is part of the Wiser Loyalty Podcast Series and is hosted by Bill Hanifin, Chief Executive Officer of Wise Marketer Group.

PAULA: Wise Marketer Group is an education, advisory and research and media service company, providing resources for loyalty marketers through three business offerings.

PAULA: A global leader in loyalty education through the Loyalty Academy platform, which offers the certified loyalty marketing professional or CLMP designation.

PAULA: A trusted advisor through its advisory and research services supporting loyalty brands.

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PAULA: I hope you enjoyed this episode brought to you by Let’s Talk Loyalty and Loyalty TV in partnership with Wise Marketer Group.

BILL HANIFIN: Welcome everyone.

BILL HANIFIN: I’m Bill Hanifin, the managing editor of The Wise Marketer and I’m here for Wiser Loyalty podcast which is a series produced in partnership with Paula Thomas and her team at Let’s Talk Loyalty with The Wise Marketer.

BILL HANIFIN: And we bring you interviews of C-level executives who are transforming strategy into plans that generate true business results.

BILL HANIFIN: So today I’m delighted to be with Shikha Narula, who’s Managing Director, Head of Consumer Deposit Products, Transformation, or Rewards at Bank of America.

BILL HANIFIN: Shikha, how are you today?

SHIKHA NARULA: I’m good.

SHIKHA NARULA: How are you, Bill?

BILL HANIFIN: Really good.

BILL HANIFIN: Really good.

BILL HANIFIN: I’m excited about this.

BILL HANIFIN: I know that you’re a repeat guest on Let’s Talk Loyalty, but there’s a lot of news in between the last time you were here and now, so we’re going to have a good conversation.

SHIKHA NARULA: Yes.

SHIKHA NARULA: I’m so happy and so excited to be back and happy to be having this conversation today.

SHIKHA NARULA: Like you said, a lot has happened in between that time frame, so it’s good to share some of that with you.

BILL HANIFIN: Absolutely.

BILL HANIFIN: I’ll tease it out a little bit.

BILL HANIFIN: The big news that we are going to talk about is this announcement that came out from Bank of America about the relaunch or reinvigoration of BofA Rewards.

BILL HANIFIN: It’s coming in May 2026.

BILL HANIFIN: It’s just barely a month away.

BILL HANIFIN: For those that haven’t seen the announcement so far, it’s a no-fee program designed to reward clients throughout their financial journey.

BILL HANIFIN: It represents an evolution of Preferred Rewards, a program that you had before.

BILL HANIFIN: I found it really interesting that it was built on four characteristics that were accessibility, experiential, personalized, it is, and the tangible aspect of it.

BILL HANIFIN: Those are all things that we’ll dig into and talk about a little bit.

BILL HANIFIN: But to me, it’s exciting, having been close to financial services my whole life, that this comprehensive approach to customer loyalty is a concept that seems like it’s having a renewal, and it seems like this is the right moment in time for it.

BILL HANIFIN: We’re going to dig into why the approach is well-suited to build strong lasting relationships with banking customers and a lot more.

BILL HANIFIN: Let me quick intro of Shikha, if it’s possible to do a quick intro, because you’re quite an accomplished person.

BILL HANIFIN: But as I mentioned, she’s head of consumer deposit products transformation rewards.

BILL HANIFIN: Her team is responsible for developing and delivering client-centric strategies and innovative solutions to meet Bank of America’s clients current and emerging financial needs.

BILL HANIFIN: And goes without saying, she’s oversees the new loyalty program, which is BofA Rewards, which is what we’re going to talk about.

BILL HANIFIN: So I found it really interesting that you have really been with the who’s who’s throughout the industry.

BILL HANIFIN: So prior to joining Bank of America in March 2022, Shikha was head of US Consumer Lending Products at American Express.

BILL HANIFIN: Quite interesting.

BILL HANIFIN: And prior to that, she was a Citigroup for 16 years, where she held management positions in cards, customer marketing and product management.

BILL HANIFIN: So, yeah, I’m very impressed.

BILL HANIFIN: And it’s just nice to have a few minutes to talk to you.

BILL HANIFIN: Thanks again.

SHIKHA NARULA: Thank you.

BILL HANIFIN: Yeah.

BILL HANIFIN: So, Paula Thomas has a favorite question.

BILL HANIFIN: I guess she’s a big reader and she loves to know what other people are reading.

BILL HANIFIN: So she’s always asking folks the question and has one for the guest, which is what your favorite or most recently read nonfiction book might be.

BILL HANIFIN: Do you have anything top of mind that you can share?

SHIKHA NARULA: I think it’s one that I had shared with Paula last time I was there, when Smart Brevity is a book I truly enjoyed.

SHIKHA NARULA: So I think I’m going to stay with that as one of my favorite books.

SHIKHA NARULA: But outside of that, very heavily into reading all kinds of things that are happening in the various news outlets on a daily basis.

SHIKHA NARULA: So an avid Wall Street Journal reader, first thing in the morning, that’s how I like to start my day.

BILL HANIFIN: It’s good.

BILL HANIFIN: It’s good.

BILL HANIFIN: All right.

BILL HANIFIN: It’s excellent.

BILL HANIFIN: So I shared your bio and there’s a lot there.

BILL HANIFIN: I’d love it if you could just fill in the blanks a little bit, because everybody that love to know like who we’re talking with, I want to know a little bit about you.

BILL HANIFIN: So can you fill in some of the interesting aspects of this career that you’ve had and what your current responsibilities are at Bank of America?

SHIKHA NARULA: Yeah.

SHIKHA NARULA: So I’ll start with my current responsibilities.

SHIKHA NARULA: So I lead consumer deposit products, transformation and rewards at Bank of America.

SHIKHA NARULA: My responsibility here is solely focused on thinking about how do we continue to innovate for our clients, how do we continue to build better solutions, better products, better services for our clients, specifically in the consumer deposit space, deposit product space as well as in the loyalty and rewards space.

SHIKHA NARULA: Like you said, we’re going to talk about BofA Rewards today, much of which is a work product of the work that me and my team has been doing over the last couple of years.

SHIKHA NARULA: Prior to coming to Bank of America, I have had two decades of experience in the financial services industry, predominantly with roles at American Express and at Citigroup, within product management as well as in the loyalty and rewards space.

SHIKHA NARULA: That’s where my focus has been in my career.

BILL HANIFIN: Yeah.

BILL HANIFIN: It’s really great brands and you’ve had a lot of perspective, I would say, over the years that you’ve gathered.

BILL HANIFIN: Tell me a little bit about what’s coming with BofA Rewards.

BILL HANIFIN: We know it’s a comprehensive rewards program, it’s going to span multiple products.

BILL HANIFIN: It’s what, at least in my parlance, we used to call a total relationship banking program or a whole bank program.

BILL HANIFIN: You may have a completely different term, so I’d love to hear what that is and how you’re referring to it internally or to the outside world.

BILL HANIFIN: But just talk to us about the program, what’s coming and what the top line essentials are that really define the program.

SHIKHA NARULA: Yeah, so we are in the process of launching BofA Rewards.

SHIKHA NARULA: It’s going to launch on May 27th.

SHIKHA NARULA: Very excited about it.

SHIKHA NARULA: What the program is, so as you said, we’ve had preferred rewards till date.

SHIKHA NARULA: So this is a total transformation, total revamp of the program.

SHIKHA NARULA: The key things that I’ll call out, it is going to be a no fee or it is a no fee loyalty program, which is now going to be accessible to millions more clients.

SHIKHA NARULA: So in the past with preferred rewards, we had a minimum balance requirement of $20,000 across deposits and investments.

SHIKHA NARULA: We have removed that minimum balance requirement, and all you need to have is a personal checking account with Bank of America to become eligible, and you can become a member.

SHIKHA NARULA: So that’s number one.

SHIKHA NARULA: The other thing I’ll call out that’s special about the program is we have a breadth of benefits that we offer.

SHIKHA NARULA: So it’s not just anchored to credit card rewards, we have a breadth of benefits that we offer ranging from credit card rewards to auto home lending discounts.

SHIKHA NARULA: But now we’re expanding that breadth and suite of rewards, and we’re going to bring in many new benefits.

SHIKHA NARULA: We’re expanding the level of deals, personalized deals that are going to be available to members.

SHIKHA NARULA: We’re bringing in fraud and identity monitoring solutions.

SHIKHA NARULA: We’re expanding our lifestyle benefits.

SHIKHA NARULA: So we’re introducing many new benefits and a number of benefits that we’re expanding for our clients.

SHIKHA NARULA: We’re just truly excited to see the changes and how they’re going to be received by our clients.

BILL HANIFIN: Yeah.

BILL HANIFIN: So it almost sounds like it’s much more than what I would call an evolution of preferred rewards.

BILL HANIFIN: It’s really a brand new program, isn’t it?

SHIKHA NARULA: In many sense, yes.

SHIKHA NARULA: We’re calling it a complete transformation of our rewards program.

BILL HANIFIN: Yeah.

BILL HANIFIN: It’s great.

BILL HANIFIN: It’s compelling and it has an aspect of acquisition, it seems like.

BILL HANIFIN: Since you’ve lowered that threshold and made it available to anyone with a checking account, then it’s got to be a big acquisition tool, I would think, for new customers.

BILL HANIFIN: At the same time, it’s one that will help grow the relationships and help with retention of existing.

BILL HANIFIN: So it seems like you’ve designed something that’s able to accomplish multiple goals.

SHIKHA NARULA: Absolutely.

SHIKHA NARULA: I think it’s designed keeping in mind that we want benefits and rewards that are going to grow with our clients.

SHIKHA NARULA: As their relationships grow with us, the rewards and benefits that they get from us are going to grow as well.

SHIKHA NARULA: It’s just our way of rewarding them and acknowledging them and appreciating them for their loyalty, the Bank of America.

BILL HANIFIN: Right.

BILL HANIFIN: I really was intrigued by the four, I would say, characteristics or pillars, depending on your preference for terminology.

BILL HANIFIN: But the fact that it’s accessible, it’s experiential, it’s personalized and tangible.

BILL HANIFIN: I think it’s worthwhile just walking through each one of those.

BILL HANIFIN: I’m guessing the accessibility is based on what you’ve been talking about, but just share a little bit more there and then we can walk through the other elements.

SHIKHA NARULA: Yeah.

SHIKHA NARULA: I think accessibility, like we just talked about, we are removing that $20,000 balance requirement.

SHIKHA NARULA: All you need to have is just an active personal checking account with Bank of America and you can become a member to us.

SHIKHA NARULA: That’s going to open the doors for millions more clients.

SHIKHA NARULA: So today, we have 11.2 million clients that are part of the Preferred Rewards Program.

SHIKHA NARULA: With this change, we are expecting that over time, that number is going to more than double.

SHIKHA NARULA: So it’s just very exciting to see how accessible the program is going to become, and how many more clients, millions more clients will be able to take advantage of it.

SHIKHA NARULA: Part of the reason for expanding is we want to be able to make sure it’s such an amazing benefit that we offer to our clients, and we know clients value that because we have a 99 percent retention rate.

SHIKHA NARULA: So once clients see it and once clients experience it, we know they value it and they stay with us longer.

SHIKHA NARULA: By making it accessible to everyone, we will be able to talk about it in a big way so that we can spread that awareness much more broadly than what we’ve been able to do in the past.

BILL HANIFIN: Yeah, that’s brilliant.

BILL HANIFIN: When you mentioned something, these go together and you’re talking about accessibility and dropping the threshold to allow, really it’s available to everybody, so you’re allowing anybody to join.

BILL HANIFIN: But the experiential aspect is you’ve built in a series of tiers, so people can grow as you mentioned.

BILL HANIFIN: But can you talk about how you created this tier structure and how that’s meant to add more value plus the experiences as people become stronger customers with you?

SHIKHA NARULA: Yes, the program is going to have four tiers.

SHIKHA NARULA: It starts with the member tier, which will be clients that have combined balances across deposits and investments below $30,000.

SHIKHA NARULA: At that tier, we believe, clients value the everyday benefits.

SHIKHA NARULA: They want those benefits to be much more tangible.

SHIKHA NARULA: So they’re going to see some of that, whether it’s to a 10 percent credit card rewards bonus, whether it’s through fraud and ID monitoring tools, whether it’s through personalized cash back deals.

SHIKHA NARULA: A lot of what they’re going to see at that tier are those everyday tangible benefits.

SHIKHA NARULA: But then from there on, as their assets and their relationship with Bank of America grows, and as they grow in their own financial life, they’re going to see those benefits materially improve and increase.

SHIKHA NARULA: So the next tier we have is the preferred plus tier, which goes from 30,000 to under $100,000.

SHIKHA NARULA: Then from there, it goes preferred honors, which is 100,000 to under a million.

SHIKHA NARULA: Then the premier tier goes 1 million plus.

SHIKHA NARULA: But at every tier, they’re going to see much more personalized and experiential benefits.

SHIKHA NARULA: And one other thing I’ll call out is lifestyle benefits.

SHIKHA NARULA: In the past, we had lifestyle benefits that were available to clients.

SHIKHA NARULA: Over a million dollars in assets.

SHIKHA NARULA: One of the changes we’ve now made is now those will be available at the preferred honors tier level.

SHIKHA NARULA: So anybody with 100,000 or more in assets will have access to lifestyle benefits, which are…

SHIKHA NARULA: So it’s all about experiential rewards there.

SHIKHA NARULA: So we’re giving you curated, personalized offerings across arts, across travel, across entertainment, dining, wellness.

SHIKHA NARULA: So clients can just feel a lot of the rich value across these various categories.

BILL HANIFIN: Interesting.

BILL HANIFIN: So nice segue into the personalization element.

BILL HANIFIN: That’s every marketer’s favorite term, I think these days.

BILL HANIFIN: But speaking about personalization is a lot different than executing on it.

BILL HANIFIN: So, yeah, how did you go about putting together a plan to truly personalize the program?

BILL HANIFIN: And can you give us some examples, maybe, of what we might see as we move along?

SHIKHA NARULA: Yes.

SHIKHA NARULA: Some of what I talked about, starting with, like I said, the members here, we wanted to care for and make sure they were getting tangible value that’s relevant in their everyday lives.

SHIKHA NARULA: But then from that point on, that every tier we add and expand those benefits.

SHIKHA NARULA: Every tier above that will get the tier benefits that they had, but their value will increase.

SHIKHA NARULA: But then beyond that, as we introduce new benefits, as an example, subscription credit benefit comes in at the preferred honors level to more personalize it to the client.

SHIKHA NARULA: But more importantly, think of cash back deals as an example.

SHIKHA NARULA: Cash back deals, we are able to look at your behavior, your transaction history, how you’ve interacted with Bank of America in the past.

SHIKHA NARULA: Based on that, we are able to offer a curated personalized deals to you, which will grow at every tier.

SHIKHA NARULA: Same thing applies to lifestyle benefits as well.

SHIKHA NARULA: So based on your past behavior, as well as where you are, as an example, geolocation, we’re able to see where you are, where you might be and they’re providing you with local dining offers as an example.

SHIKHA NARULA: Those are just some nuggets of how we’re able to personalize.

SHIKHA NARULA: But then the more important thing is the benefits grow at every tier which corresponds to where a client might be in their financial life and in their personal life, and it goes with them.

BILL HANIFIN: Very interesting.

BILL HANIFIN: So is there an element of what we might call card-linked offers in the program?

BILL HANIFIN: You have digital offers from brands that would appear, say, in someone’s online banking or in the mobile app?

SHIKHA NARULA: Yes, absolutely.

SHIKHA NARULA: A lot of the deals that will be available will be through card-linked offers.

SHIKHA NARULA: They can seamlessly go into the platform, activate them, and it’s going to be available to them to take advantage of.

BILL HANIFIN: Yeah.

BILL HANIFIN: Okay.

BILL HANIFIN: Then you mentioned wellness.

BILL HANIFIN: I was intrigued by that.

BILL HANIFIN: So that’s important for a lot of people.

BILL HANIFIN: What are you doing in that area that you might want to talk about?

SHIKHA NARULA: Yeah.

SHIKHA NARULA: So there will be curated offers available.

SHIKHA NARULA: I can share some examples, offers as an example with SoulCycle, with Tonal, with ordering, giving clients mechanisms for them to be able to track their health, their fitness, as well as making sure they’re keeping up with it.

SHIKHA NARULA: So that’s some of what clients might see.

BILL HANIFIN: Yeah.

BILL HANIFIN: Very good.

BILL HANIFIN: Very good.

BILL HANIFIN: So you’ve been talking about a lot of the tangible benefits as well as the experiential, but I noticed the bonuses become significant as you move up into the tiers.

BILL HANIFIN: There were some bonus areas.

BILL HANIFIN: But so can just talk about the richness of the offer and how you’ve structured some of those incremental offers as you go up in tier.

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SHIKHA NARULA: Yeah, so with the tiers, clients will see anywhere between $150 to $4,000 in annual value across the data benefits that they have, based on their tier, based on their level of engagement, based on what they take advantage of.

SHIKHA NARULA: So that’s the level of value we believe we’re offering as part of the program.

SHIKHA NARULA: I think some of the tangible value I did touch by the way of some of the curated offers that are going to become available.

SHIKHA NARULA: There will be offers across Automotive, as an example, with brands such as BMW, Lexus.

SHIKHA NARULA: There’ll be offers across travel, ranging from whether it’s Virgin Hotels or Region 70 Cruises.

SHIKHA NARULA: So those are some of the brands that will be available.

SHIKHA NARULA: Outside of that, I mentioned their subscription credits.

SHIKHA NARULA: That will become available on news and streaming services.

SHIKHA NARULA: There will be subscription credits for preferred honors, about $96 a year.

SHIKHA NARULA: Annual value for premier tier is $180 a year.

SHIKHA NARULA: Annual value.

SHIKHA NARULA: So those are some more tangible, meaningful benefits that clients will be able to touch and feel.

SHIKHA NARULA: Of course, they get anywhere between 10-75 percent credit card rewards bonus, which can be significant based on the level of card spending that they have at Bank of America.

BILL HANIFIN: Very, very interesting.

BILL HANIFIN: So I know we always talk about mapping current and desired behaviors in these loyalty programs.

BILL HANIFIN: So we think about all your analytics and your research tells you about the current behaviors and you’re creating these tiers to hopefully motivate some desired behaviors.

BILL HANIFIN: But are there specific behaviors that you’re encouraging moving people from tier to tier?

BILL HANIFIN: Is it about deepening relationships, acquiring more products?

BILL HANIFIN: Is it maybe something else I haven’t thought of?

SHIKHA NARULA: It is very much about deepening relationships that’s always been a priority for us.

SHIKHA NARULA: What we’ve seen with preferred rewards is clients or members, once they become a member, within 30 days, about 30 percent of them get a new product with Bank of America.

SHIKHA NARULA: Deepening is absolutely a key objective.

SHIKHA NARULA: We’re also looking at retention rates.

SHIKHA NARULA: We want to make sure that with deepening comes stickiness.

SHIKHA NARULA: The fact that they love the program, they are going to stay loyal to us and we see 99 percent retention rates, and we would love for that to continue with the new program.

SHIKHA NARULA: Outside of that, of course, we’re looking for the ability to attract new clients to Bank of America, so acquisitions is absolutely an objective.

SHIKHA NARULA: Now that we’re able to talk about the program more broadly, we believe this will attract new clients to Bank of America, so that’s very much part of the strategy.

BILL HANIFIN: Yeah.

BILL HANIFIN: Interesting.

BILL HANIFIN: Very interesting.

BILL HANIFIN: I see that you’ve got a multi-channel approach or omni-channel depending on your terminology, but it’s available through the online banking, of course, and through a mobile banking app.

BILL HANIFIN: I assume you have an app for the rewards program itself, but those two key access points being what they are, would you term the program as truly a mobile first program, or is it omni-channel, not necessarily mobile first?

SHIKHA NARULA: It is omni-channel.

SHIKHA NARULA: It is also very immersively designed for mobile, and you’ll all get to see this.

SHIKHA NARULA: So we have a BofA Rewards Hub that’s going to be available across our digital channels, our mobile app, and clients go in, they’ll be able to see it.

SHIKHA NARULA: It’s a very streamlined, immersive experience.

SHIKHA NARULA: They’ll have access to all of their benefits.

SHIKHA NARULA: In one place, they will be able to engage, explore, as well as activate any of the benefits that require activation.

SHIKHA NARULA: They’ll be able to go in and do that seamlessly, and it will be completely personalized to the client where they can see exactly what they have and take advantage of it.

SHIKHA NARULA: The intent very much is we want clients to be able to maximize the benefits, so we want to make sure they’re able to see it clearly and interact with it.

BILL HANIFIN: Yeah.

BILL HANIFIN: Very good.

BILL HANIFIN: Let’s maybe broaden the discussion a little bit, and then we can come back to the rewards program in a moment.

BILL HANIFIN: But you have so much experience, you’re exposed to a lot, you have a lot of resources available, and you’re a real student and a leader at the same time.

BILL HANIFIN: When you sit back in your chair and you’re thinking about what trends are in the loyalty and rewards space, especially in financial services, what comes to mind and what would you want to share that others should know about?

SHIKHA NARULA: Yeah, I think a few trends are called out.

SHIKHA NARULA: I think it starts with loyalty is no longer being viewed as transactional points-based loyalty.

SHIKHA NARULA: It’s much more about integrated ecosystems of rewards.

SHIKHA NARULA: Where institutions are bundling various credits together, whether it’s across streaming, wellness, dining, all of it is coming together.

SHIKHA NARULA: So it’s very much about creating this integrated ecosystem of rewards and benefits, which is very much the direction we’ve taken with BofA Rewards.

SHIKHA NARULA: I think the other thing I’ll call out is just personalization.

SHIKHA NARULA: It’s very much about clients expect you to know them, and they expect you to provide benefits and rewards that are tailored exactly for them.

SHIKHA NARULA: Some of what we talked about in terms of being able to look at our clients’ behavior, their transaction history, their geolocation, being able to serve up offers that are absolutely relevant to them, I think is another highlight.

SHIKHA NARULA: The third thing I’d call out is just partnership-led value.

SHIKHA NARULA: So a lot of institutions are leaning on, whether it’s co-brand partners or just broader merchant partners, to be able to bring more value for consumers.

SHIKHA NARULA: So it’s something which works well for the financial institution, it works well for consumers as well, given the brand affinity that they have, and there is brands and merchants.

SHIKHA NARULA: So to me, those would be the big ones that I’d call out, and I’d say that the BofA Rewards, we have leaned on each one of those trends, and the effect, sure, of our caring for them in the newly designed program.

BILL HANIFIN: Yeah, very good.

BILL HANIFIN: Yeah, excellent.

BILL HANIFIN: And that’s all the conversation.

BILL HANIFIN: It always comes up in articles and things that we’ve covered over the last six to nine months is, how do we move loyalty forward?

BILL HANIFIN: You know, recognize that it’s not just about the transactional side and about the points and the currency, but so much more.

BILL HANIFIN: So it looks like you’re addressing all those things.

BILL HANIFIN: You’re right on trend, if not ahead.

BILL HANIFIN: So, hey, you know, the banking business, retail banking is so competitive.

BILL HANIFIN: And I’m wondering how have you through Bank of America, how have you strategically positioned BofA Rewards to break through and to get the attention of the customer in the loyalty landscape today?

SHIKHA NARULA: Yeah, so I would say I think Preferred Rewards, the way we had it on its own, was strategically differentiated in the marketplace.

SHIKHA NARULA: Because if you think about other financial institutions, a lot of them anchor their rewards to credit card rewards.

SHIKHA NARULA: That has preferred rewards is already differentiated by being a relationship-based loyalty program rewarding clients for their entire relationship, the breadth of their relationship, right?

SHIKHA NARULA: But now with the launch of upcoming launch of BofA Rewards, we’ve only made it better, right?

SHIKHA NARULA: We’ve made it much more accessible.

SHIKHA NARULA: There are millions more clients that will have access to it.

SHIKHA NARULA: We’ve modernized the program, where now we’re adding many more benefits, which we believe will resonate more with signs of tomorrow.

SHIKHA NARULA: And we continue to anchor to our strength, which is we’re continuing to provide a breadth of benefits.

SHIKHA NARULA: So for me, all of this, I think positions are even stronger versus our competitors when it comes to how we play and how we show up in the loyalty space.

BILL HANIFIN: And I’m intrigued.

BILL HANIFIN: So if you look at BofA’s overall growth strategy, I’m intrigued about how BofA Rewards fits into that.

BILL HANIFIN: And it’s kind of begs a bigger question, is the recognition of the importance of customer loyalty taking on kind of C-suite importance?

BILL HANIFIN: Is it recognized at the highest levels of the bank driving growth and retail banking?

SHIKHA NARULA: Yes, it absolutely is.

SHIKHA NARULA: You would have heard our head of consumer paying, Colleen O’Neill, talk about it at Investor Day of how critical this is to our success.

SHIKHA NARULA: We know the measures of success here.

SHIKHA NARULA: We’ve seen clients engaged with the program.

SHIKHA NARULA: We have 94% privacy rate, 99% retention rate.

SHIKHA NARULA: We know when clients engage with the loyalty program and they become members, we see that 30% of them deepen and open another product with us in the first 90 days.

SHIKHA NARULA: We know members have 3X the car spend and 3X the investment spend.

SHIKHA NARULA: So all of it to indicate that it’s a key driver of loyalty and of engagement.

SHIKHA NARULA: We have 11.3 million members today for preferred awards that carry about 2 trillion in assets.

SHIKHA NARULA: Like I said, we expect this is going to more than double.

SHIKHA NARULA: So it’s going to be core to our strategy to drive growth in the future.

BILL HANIFIN: Yeah.

BILL HANIFIN: It’s pretty exciting.

BILL HANIFIN: Very exciting.

BILL HANIFIN: So what haven’t I asked about that you wanted to talk about?

BILL HANIFIN: Did you have any ideas or thoughts on the tip of your tongue that you top of mind that you wanted to share?

SHIKHA NARULA: Yeah.

SHIKHA NARULA: I would say we’re this close.

SHIKHA NARULA: It’s happening.

SHIKHA NARULA: It’s going to be here on 27th of May.

SHIKHA NARULA: So if you’re not a BofA Bank of America client, open a checking account today and you will be eligible.

SHIKHA NARULA: You can become a member if you’re already a BofA client and if you’re a preferred reward member today, we will automatically transition you to the new program.

SHIKHA NARULA: If you’re not a member, it’s going to be very easy.

SHIKHA NARULA: You can go into the mobile app.

SHIKHA NARULA: You’ll see the ways to activate, engage, enroll right there.

SHIKHA NARULA: I would say take advantage of it.

SHIKHA NARULA: It’s a wonderful program and I think clients are going to enjoy it.

BILL HANIFIN: It sounds like an amazing opportunity.

BILL HANIFIN: I was jokingly going to tell you that I was going to pause the interview so I could write my goodbye note to my banker.

SHIKHA NARULA: We will say welcome, Bill.

BILL HANIFIN: That’s right.

BILL HANIFIN: Absolutely.

BILL HANIFIN: That’s fantastic.

BILL HANIFIN: Let me ask you one last question.

BILL HANIFIN: Because we journey through, we run programs, we do a lot of things and we’re always focused on the immediacy and the financial impact.

BILL HANIFIN: We have goals to meet and everything.

BILL HANIFIN: But have you ever just throughout your career and all your interactions with customers and customer loyalty, have you ever had an epiphany moment, something you’d call an epiphany moment in loyalty where you observe that I think this really works?

BILL HANIFIN: I think this really works.

SHIKHA NARULA: I would say it has happened a number of times in my tenure here at Bank of America.

SHIKHA NARULA: I’ve visited a financial center and in conversations with the Financial Center Associates, they’ve shared a story of how they were talking to a certain client and they talked about, oh, you’re only so many dollars away from becoming the next tier or getting to the next tier.

SHIKHA NARULA: How many number of times the clients have responded by saying, oh yes, I have this other account at this other company and I’d be happy to consolidate it.

SHIKHA NARULA: For me, the epiphany there is, it’s not as much about because the associate was telling them about, here are the three things you’re going to get.

SHIKHA NARULA: But it is about that recognition, that loyalty, the recognition of seeing that progress, seeing themselves progress as well as being acknowledged for it.

SHIKHA NARULA: To me, that’s what loyalty is all about and we’ve seen so many proof points of that in some of these conversations that we’ve had financial center associates will tell us these stories of clients time and again.

BILL HANIFIN: That’s great.

BILL HANIFIN: I’ve often thought that people that are critics of loyalty programs, they say, you know what, you just haven’t observed the ones that are really well planned and executed.

BILL HANIFIN: Because they do create the desired results when well done.

BILL HANIFIN: So yeah, congratulations on everything you’re doing.

BILL HANIFIN: And if you missed the intro, we’ve been doing a Wiser Loyalty podcast with Shikha Narula, who’s Managing Director, Head of Consumer Deposit Products and Transformation and Rewards at Bank of America.

BILL HANIFIN: Shikha, thank you very, very much for your time.

BILL HANIFIN: I really appreciate it.

BILL HANIFIN: And just best of luck on the launch.

BILL HANIFIN: May 27th, right?

SHIKHA NARULA: That right.

BILL HANIFIN: Okay.

BILL HANIFIN: And then in the meantime, maybe we’ll put in the show notes here some links where people can learn more about the program in between, but prior to launch and hopefully they’re all ready to make that switch over as soon as the program is available.

SHIKHA NARULA: Absolutely.

SHIKHA NARULA: Thank you, Bill.

SHIKHA NARULA: A pleasure being here.

SHIKHA NARULA: Thank you for the conversation.

BILL HANIFIN: That’s great.

BILL HANIFIN: Yeah.

BILL HANIFIN: Thanks again.

BILL HANIFIN: Thanks to you and thanks to Paul Thomas and her team.

BILL HANIFIN: And thanks everyone for joining us.

BILL HANIFIN: See you next time.

PAULA: This show is sponsored by Wise Marketeer Group, operating The Wise Marketeer and Loyalty Academy.

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