Paula: Welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty, an industry podcast for Loyalty Marketing Professionals.
Paula: I’m your host, Paula Thomas, and if you work in Loyalty Marketing, join me every week to learn the latest ideas from Loyalty Specialists around the world.
Paula: And today I am speaking to two delightful ladies in the very luxurious and beautiful island of Mauritius.
Paula: Now, those of you who follow the loyalty industry and perhaps the loyalty magazine awards will probably already be familiar with the extraordinary loyalty programme called Wiiv, which was released and launched in Mauritius about a year ago.
Paula: So today with me on the show, I have Delphine Lagesse, who is the Group Strategic Innovation and Excellence Executive at the founding company for this loyalty programme.
Paula: And the company is called IBL.
Paula: And we will talk a bit about IBL when we speak to Delphine.
Paula: She is also accompanied by Cécile Henry, who is the Loyalty Manager of Wiiv at IBL.
Paula: So first and foremost, can I welcome Delphine and Cécile to Let’s Talk Loyalty?
Delphine: Hello, Paula, very happy to be there.
Cécile: Hello, Paula, happy to share with you on Loyalty today.
Paula: Wonderful, and I think my first delight in speaking to you ladies is practising my French.
Paula: I did mention that I’m learning French at the moment, so that’s super exciting for me.
Paula: So hopefully all the pronunciations remain nice as we go through talking about your loyalty programme.
Paula: So I think I’ve described the roles that both of you do, and certainly for me, I didn’t know a lot about Mauritius, and I know your loyalty programme, I think, is the very first on the island, certainly the first on the coalition side.
Paula: So we’ll get into the full details of Wiiv, but first and foremost, of course we’re going to ask you about your favourite loyalty statistic.
Paula: So I think, Delphine, are you going to tell us what is your favourite loyalty statistic?
Delphine: Yeah, sure.
Delphine: As you might guess, it’s quite difficult to pick one.
Delphine: We have several, but I would say that due to the size of the country, which is quite tiny, even if it’s luxurious, as you said, we only have 1.3 million people living on the island.
Delphine: And in this context, I think it’s the number of members we have acquired on the programme already, because it represents 15% of the households’ ownership.
Delphine: So this is big.
Paula: Wow, congratulations, Delphine.
Paula: That’s an extraordinary number.
Delphine: Thank you.
Paula: So what is the absolute number?
Paula: Can you share that?
Paula: Is that something that you’re happy to discuss?
Delphine: Yeah, sure.
Delphine: We have around 160,000 members on the programme.
Delphine: So more than 10% of the population.
Paula: So congratulations, an extraordinary number, 160,000 people, Delphine.
Paula: How does that compare with, I suppose, the targets that you had at the beginning before you started?
Delphine: Well, we wanted to reach 120,000 people within the first year.
Paula: Okay.
Delphine: And we’ve acquired this number of members after only three months, not even.
Delphine: So yeah, the acquiring was extremely fast and we could see the numbers growing exponentially every day.
Delphine: It was quite amazing at the launch in June last year.
Paula: So June 2019, you launched the programme, yeah?
Delphine: Yes, exactly, yes.
Delphine: We had a soft launch for only our employees beginning of the month, beginning of June 19, and then we opened it to all the Mauritian population by the end of the month.
Paula: Wonderful.
Paula: And I know you’ve explained to me all about IBL.
Paula: You’ve already given us a sense of the scale of Mauritius.
Paula: I had to look up the population myself, because again, I think most of the audience listening, we associate it with the beautiful tourist destination that Mauritius normally is, obviously, different times right now.
Paula: But IBL, the company that we’re talking about today, give us some background in terms of the scale of what you guys do.
Delphine: Yeah, so we are a typical group of an island.
Delphine: I would say our development is extremely typical of an island economy.
Delphine: So it’s a very diversified group.
Delphine: We started at the time with the maritime transport, you know, transports of goods and trade, and then sugar and everything, and we diversified.
Delphine: And today we are present in nearly all the sectors of the economy going from hospitality, for the hotels, retail, wholesale, engineering, shipyard, financial services with insurance, private banking, what else, logistics, stockbroking.
Delphine: Let’s say it’s sometimes easier to say and to mention the sectors we are not in.
Delphine: So we are not in the textile, we are not in the car sellers.
Delphine: And we do, as you said rightly, we do represent 9% of the GDP, which is huge.
Paula: Yes.
Delphine: And we employ 26,000 people out of an active population of nearly half a million.
Paula: Oh my goodness.
Paula: Wow.
Paula: So again, it always blows me away, Delphine.
Paula: So most of people have no idea that the IBL Group, even I know you mentioned before, is in 22 countries and clearly servicing the needs of the entire population.
Paula: So what I’m guessing is that you had an instinctive understanding that you needed a loyalty programme to reward your customers across all of these diversified sectors.
Paula: Is that true?
Paula: Were customers asking for it?
Paula: Or were you just keen to give something back?
Paula: Or where did the idea for the Wiiv programme come from?
Delphine: We already had a fidelity, what we call, card, which was not a loyalty programme, it was just a fidelity card, that was exclusive for our shareholders, pensioners and employees.
Delphine: So there were about 20,000 people on the card.
Delphine: But we didn’t exploited the information we had, we just, we didn’t offer our members very targeted and interesting offers.
Delphine: And so this is what we wanted to do, what was to create, really create an IBL community, regrouping our brands active on the consumer markets, also B2C segment.
Delphine: And of course reward them for their loyalty to our brands and companies.
Delphine: So we thought that having a coalition or multi-partners programme would do, would bring really a good value to our members.
Paula: Wonderful.
Delphine: It’s a good experience as well.
Paula: For sure, absolutely.
Paula: And I’d love to get a sense of the value proposition and Cécile, as I mentioned at the beginning, you are the actual loyalty manager for Wiiv.
Paula: So I’d love to get a sense of, does the name mean anything actually, which is one, I suppose, quite specific question.
Paula: Maybe it doesn’t, it doesn’t always have to mean something.
Paula: But can I ask you that first?
Paula: Is Wiiv a particular brand name that you developed for a reason or where did the name come from?
Cécile: Yes, it’s a good question actually.
Cécile: I don’t know if you see the design of our card, which is with different colors, a weave, weaved together.
Paula: Yes, of course, okay, I understand.
Cécile: So the idea was also, you know, to put together, this is one of, it’s a position of IBL.
Cécile: IBL is IBL Together, means that we got, yes, a multi-partners programme from the same group.
Cécile: It’s the IBL Family Together, bringing to the market and to the nation a way to reward them for their loyalty towards our companies.
Cécile: So the weave means together.
Cécile: It’s a strange way to weave.
Cécile: The way we write it is, of course, funky and fun and easy to remember, only four letters.
Cécile: But weave is also weave, W-I-T-H for us.
Cécile: And weave also the fabrics and the colours.
Cécile: The colours are the nine for us, nine colours we give to our nine activity sectors where we are in our colour code at IBL.
Cécile: And it’s also the way the weave is done.
Cécile: We’ve got shopping bags, typical Mauritian bags are done like this with a lot of colours and everything.
Cécile: So it means also that this is a shopping, a traditional bag for Mauritians.
Cécile: So all this came and become weave, W-I-V.
Paula: Wonderful, wonderful.
Paula: That’s a great story, Cécile, I love it.
Paula: And I know I’ve mentioned already, everybody knows that I’m from Ireland as an island nation, but weaving is certainly part of our culture as well.
Paula: So I always find it lovely when there’s, you know, people on different sides of the world and we still share that common humanity.
Paula: So lovely to know that it’s part of the Mauritian culture.
Paula: And even the vision for the company, as you said, you’re in nine different sectors and weaving them together, even with the different spelling.
Paula: So forgive me for not guessing it straight away, but we have the story now and all of the listeners understand, that’s amazing.
Paula: Great, great.
Paula: So tell us the value proposition.
Paula: I think, Cécile, you manage the partnerships across the programme as the Loyalty Manager.
Paula: So maybe just tell us a bit about how does the programme work?
Paula: Like what kind of sectors are you earning and what kind of reward structure have you got for your members?
Cécile: Okay, so for the public, for the consumer, we got 11 partners.
Cécile: The main ones are winners, which is our supermarket retail chain.
Cécile: So it’s a big part of the programme.
Cécile: And we got also pharmacy, we got hospitality, we got insurance, we got leisure, we got cafe, shop, we got so it’s I think we did this card bring together a lot of different companies which are in our day to day life and also for leisure and pleasure.
Cécile: And what is really interesting and I think really innovate the loyalty background here in Mauritius that you can earn points at some partners and you can burn them at others also.
Cécile: You are not in obligation to burn your points at the same place where you earn them.
Cécile: So this is really this flexibility.
Cécile: And you can have here in Mauritius a commercial center where you got four of our different partners in the same commercial center.
Cécile: So in the same day, I can use my card many, many times.
Cécile: So this is the idea of one card for a lot in your daily life, you know?
Cécile: And rewarding each time when you use it.
Cécile: This is, I think, the power of this program.
Cécile: And also the earning, even it can be different at the different partners because, of course, the margins are different when you are a retailer or you are in insurance.
Cécile: So of course, your generosity is different.
Cécile: But one point is equal to one rupee, rupee is our money, currency, exactly, I’m sorry for my English, my currency, for the currency.
Cécile: So one point is equal to one rupee, this is really simple to understand for all Mauritians.
Paula: Yes, yes.
Paula: And I mean, would there be a good understanding of loyalty programmes and points before the Wiiv programme, would you say, or did you have to do some education along the way?
Cécile: Yes, there’s a bit of education, because some of our programming in Mauritius was giving a lot of points for not a lot of money spent, but to redeem were really difficult, really difficult.
Cécile: So this took time to people understand that at the end, it was the value proposition of Wiiv, it can be better than the other programme.
Cécile: But the earning was quite there, not so much, but the Mauritius is more about discount, instant discount than earning.
Cécile: But I think Mauritian understand well, actually, the weavers understand that they can accumulate points and they can redeem it, the redemption rate is really high.
Cécile: So this means that they understand that they can use it for paying their invoice.
Paula: Absolutely.
Delphine: Can I add something, Colette?
Paula: Of course, Delphine.
Delphine: So before launching, we tested the concept within focus groups.
Delphine: So we organized focus groups to talk to the Mauritian people and they didn’t really understand the earn thing and all the program on the island was so difficult to understand, not straightforward.
Delphine: They didn’t even know what benefits they had or how many points they had to earn before being able to redeem and so on.
Delphine: They were more used to, as Cécile said, discount and they had no idea how many points they had.
Delphine: So we did have education to do.
Delphine: We had a very strong communication campaign at the lounge to explain how the program worked.
Paula: Well, I’ll definitely want to know a bit more about that, Delphine.
Paula: But before I even ask you that, you work obviously in the CEO’s office.
Paula: I think I mentioned your title’s Head of Innovation.
Paula: So what’s, I suppose, the underlying intention of the program?
Paula: Is it to drive cross-sell, for example?
Paula: Do you see an opportunity to promote the various sectors to people?
Paula: Or is it purely, do you see it as, okay, people maybe shop with our winner supermarket, for example?
Paula: We want to drive that behavior.
Paula: So I’d love to get a sense from a strategic perspective from the group, what the background is, because I know it goes back a few years now.
Paula: You’ve been working on this idea.
Delphine: Yes, for three years now, I’ve been working on the concept.
Delphine: The very first time I started working on it was three years ago, in 1917.
Paula: Yes.
Delphine: So the idea was to, there were several, several motivations, let’s say, from our group perspective.
Delphine: It was bring newness to the market, something new, something innovative that nobody were used to.
Delphine: And of course, to push our brands and companies and most of all, better understand our customers to be able to really better reward them and doing business with them.
Delphine: So collection, understanding their behaviors, coming up with very relevant and targeted offers.
Delphine: It’s interesting to know that until now in Rogers, we only have mass marketing, mass communication campaign and mass marketing.
Delphine: So we do receive on a day-to-day basis a lot of emails, a lot of messages, but it’s not targeted at all.
Delphine: So we didn’t want to bother our members with that, our clients with this kind of communication and really come up with the information we’ve gathered, what is relevant for them and what is relevant for our partners on the program, of course, how to improve their marketing as well.
Paula: Yes.
Delphine: So the tour is a very powerful tour and group level, and bringing value not only to our withers, our members on the program, but also our partners on the program.
Paula: Yes, absolutely.
Paula: And I noticed on your website as well that you are issuing a plastic card.
Paula: Was that something that you…
Paula: Tell me about that.
Paula: Was that a difficult decision or was there a very strong need for it?
Delphine: The Mauritian population is not very digital literate.
Paula: Okay.
Delphine: So we don’t all have…
Delphine: We do…
Delphine: A lot of people have smartphones, but they don’t have the data coming with it all the time.
Delphine: And they still like the traditional way, the plastic card.
Delphine: And also for us, it was quite a good marketing tool as well.
Delphine: When you open your wallet, the card itself is a beautiful card.
Delphine: It’s very joyful, very, it’s very got the strong feeling of happiness, joyfulness, easiness.
Paula: Lovely.
Delphine: So it comes out of the wallet.
Delphine: And every time people use the card at the tail, the gesture they do, they promote the brand.
Paula: Okay.
Paula: So that physical activity of scanning and identifying yourself as part of the community is something that really matters for you, for your country.
Delphine: Yes, exactly.
Delphine: We also have a digital, we have our app.
Delphine: So if you are not, if you want to only be on digital, there’s no problem.
Delphine: You can have the app.
Delphine: And then you’ve got all the, your account, your transactions, information and your card on your phone.
Delphine: But many people in Mauritius, they prefer to have the physical card.
Delphine: So we had to go with both.
Paula: Yes.
Paula: And I’m sure there’s a road map of when I’m sure at some point that will flip over and people will, you know, start to complain about having their wallet stuffed with cards as happens in so many other countries.
Paula: You know, there’s always something people want different.
Paula: So hard to keep them happy, but that’s really good to know.
Paula: I’d love to ask you, Cécile, about the merchant side.
Paula: So how are the partners feeling?
Paula: You’re, I think, what, one and a half years or maybe slightly less than that now with the programme running, how are the partners feeling?
Cécile: It’s a great question.
Cécile: I can say that I, we noticed a good, they were willing to be in the programme, of course, excited.
Cécile: It was a big work for all together, being ready to launch etc, etc.
Cécile: But now we start to see the positive effect of this loyalty programme.
Cécile: And this is really interesting because I was talking about that to Delphine today.
Cécile: The partners are more and more excited by the programme and really, really want to use it now.
Cécile: Okay.
Cécile: So, it’s not, it’s not, we don’t need to convince them anymore.
Cécile: And we really want to work together.
Cécile: So after one year, after one year, we’ve also the data, but we can now start to show them and see, and they discover things that they didn’t know about their customers.
Paula: Yeah.
Cécile: They really understand that we, the power of this office programme, let’s say, and how far we can go with targeted promotions and everything, so for the big ones like Winners or MedActive, we really, over also the objective of, let’s say, the part of Wiiv Revenues on the total revenue, so they realise that now it’s really important for them.
Cécile: And so this is really interesting also to see that perhaps we can review the marketing expenses, even next, not this year, but next year, because we’ll have enough data to understand.
Cécile: We don’t need to do so much mass marketing, we can do other way and be effective and also answering the customer needs, which is really interesting.
Cécile: So yes, it’s really, we are in a nice moment with them, because we’re starting the journey of data, of the data and everything.
Cécile: And this is really a new phase of the programme for us.
Cécile: And yeah, really interesting to see.
Cécile: And the reaction also about that.
Cécile: Wonderful.
Paula: I mean, I’ve often said it before on the show, Cécile, that one of the things I love about working in Loyalty is that we’re getting to love our customers and give them something back and it just feels like a lovely marketing exercise.
Paula: But actually, isn’t it delightful that your partners and your merchants are also having that lovely upside and seeing commercially that it’s driving their business.
Paula: That’s a really good result.
Paula: I’ve often described it as like a win, win, win, and all three partners have to be enjoying it.
Paula: So, well done, you, because I know it’s complex to manage a multi-partner programme, so.
Cécile: Yeah, the complexity is to understand the benchmark for each of them, because when we need to give advice and everything, we need to understand what is the pattern.
Cécile: Of course, the pattern at the supermarket is not the same in insurance, you know.
Cécile: So, this is for us at Wiiv level, really interesting, because we learn every day, we learn about the business and the industry of our partners, but we learn also about our customers.
Cécile: And this is really exciting for me, it’s really exciting.
Paula: Absolutely.
Paula: And how are you managing that learning?
Paula: I mean, is it through international exploration or evaluation?
Paula: Are you talking outside of Mauritius, or is it mainly by working directly with those partners that you’re learning how far you can go?
Cécile: Let’s say that for knowing how the industry works, it’s of course with the partners.
Cécile: How much they can share with us, this is the way it’s working, there’s regulations, there’s a lot of things here in Mauritius that they also can.
Cécile: And for the rest, I try to read, I try to participate to press conference, I try to do webinars, I participate in listening to your podcast, Cécile.
Paula: Thank you, Cécile.
Cécile: So I’m learning from there also.
Cécile: And we are lucky because we work with consultants in Cape Town.
Cécile: And we can share with her when we need some advice.
Cécile: And we also, our service provider, we’ve got a success manager who follows us and we work also together.
Cécile: So, yeah, we try to learn like this.
Delphine: It’s not easy.
Cécile: It’s a big challenge because when you are in operation and with 11 different partners, with 11 different areas, so a lot to do.
Cécile: It’s not easy to take the time to see what’s happening outside and what are the trends, but it’s really important.
Cécile: Yes, it is.
Paula: But I think you’re taking exactly the right approach, Cécile.
Cécile: We know that newness in the Loyalty Programme is really important.
Cécile: So we need to see other countries do beautiful things so it can bring ideas for us and can work in more issues.
Paula: Absolutely.
Paula: But it’s great advice, actually, I think.
Paula: Yes, absolutely, to partner with your technology company and the fact that they have a customer success manager that you can call for support or discuss any ideas you have.
Paula: I think that’s a very, very good approach, very important.
Paula: But also to have an independent professional who’s not necessarily connected with any other objectives, except to make sure that you have access to global learnings.
Paula: I really believe in that.
Paula: So clearly, that’s what I’ve done for most of my loyalty career.
Paula: And so the fact that you’ve invested in getting some expertise is a really good idea.
Paula: So learning as we go, I think, is the way for all of us, huh?
Cécile: Yes, yes, sure.
Paula: Can I ask about one sector, actually, just because I’m not sure if it’s in the group or if you plan, and just most multi-partner programmes would have, I suppose, travel and transport.
Paula: So, for example, a fuel, like a retail fuel partner and also an airline partner, do you have those type of partners?
Paula: Maybe, Delphine, you could answer or help me with that?
Delphine: Not yet.
Paula: We don’t.
Delphine: We have focus and we have decided we really made the decision to focus on our group companies.
Paula: Perfect, okay.
Delphine: So, remember, our main objective was to create the ideal community, which was to push our brands and companies.
Delphine: So, this is our main focus.
Delphine: But going down the line, of course, in our roadmap, we have been approached and we have ideas how to complement, but we have to be non-direct competitors from our brands and companies.
Delphine: And also, first of all, if we have to really complete the value proposition and hence the value proposition for our viewers, but not for now.
Delphine: We don’t even have one year and a half.
Delphine: We’re still child, we’re still learning to walk.
Paula: Totally, totally Delphine.
Paula: Well, you’re walking extremely well.
Paula: Tell me about the community.
Paula: Can you elaborate on that piece a bit more?
Paula: What ideas do you have around community?
Paula: Is it, as we’ve talked about already, that sense of ownership that your weavers enjoy swiping?
Paula: Do you plan to maybe connect them to each other in any way?
Paula: And the reason I’m asking that, and maybe the answer is no, but I did a show on community there, I think it was about two months ago, and I really believe it’s a big opportunity.
Paula: Most people, and the example given in that interview was, you might be standing, for example, I think it was in a grocery store or a fuel station, the person beside you could be a member of the same community and you might never know.
Paula: So is there an idea there?
Paula: It feels like you are keen to build that family feeling because the group has that kind of value proposition.
Delphine: Well, we don’t have a clear decision yet, or a clear idea on this particular topic, but what we do is that we talk a lot with them, we connect a lot with them for our Facebook page and so on.
Delphine: And we don’t just transact with them.
Delphine: If I take what happened during the confinement, because we were, as many people listening to the past podcast now, we’ve been locked down as well.
Delphine: It was for more than two months, it was quite long.
Delphine: And during those months, of course, there was no question for us to push for any commercial or transaction.
Delphine: What we did for our community is to really, we repositioned with and we call it with care, cares, and we gave a lot of very practical advice, how to stay safe, how to keep the kids busy at home because it was not easy and so on.
Delphine: So we really developed another kind of communication with our community, giving them recipe for good things to strengthen the community system and all kinds of exercises, games with the kids, competition of drawings with the kids, how the kids were feeling about the lockdown and so on.
Delphine: And they really appreciated the fact that we were not there to push and to encourage them to buy.
Delphine: That was not it.
Delphine: They were there just to take care of them and make sure that they were okay.
Delphine: So this is the kind of relationship we want to have with our community, really.
Cécile: If I can add something on that, we still have, I think on Friday someone testimonied that to…
Cécile: We’ve got also a call centre.
Cécile: I think it’s perhaps not the case in all loyalty programme.
Cécile: And we have three persons dedicated, really taking care of our clients and the members.
Cécile: For example, we call our members when it’s their birthday.
Paula: Oh, lovely.
Cécile: I mean, at least 1,000 per month.
Cécile: And we take this opportunity then also to make sure that they understand that the programme is multi-partner and they can download the app and everything would make sure that they understand how to use the card, et cetera.
Cécile: And these people love it, you know, take this time.
Paula: Wow.
Cécile: And also what we see here on our Facebook page and in our emailing that we did during the COVID, the engagement rate increase of 458%.
Cécile: So it works.
Cécile: And our members told us, we felt that you were not only there for having money from us.
Cécile: You give us, you were there for us, you know.
Cécile: It was really great.
Cécile: So yes, it was actually for us an opportunity to get closer to our members.
Delphine: Wow.
Delphine: So we even helped raising money.
Delphine: You remember?
Cécile: Yeah.
Delphine: During the confinement, we helped raising money for people in, for the COVID fund and so on.
Delphine: So it was a Yeah.
Delphine: way to contribute and encourage our weavers to do something as well.
Paula: But I think it’s extraordinary because everybody has, you know, probably a content strategy, for example.
Paula: You might’ve already had that before COVID came along.
Paula: But what I’m hearing is that real integrity around how can we take care of our members?
Paula: And that’s something again, that brands always say they want to do, but they don’t always execute in a way that it’s felt.
Paula: But I can really hear that your members have felt it coming through.
Paula: I think the 1,000 phone calls a month, Cécile, that you mentioned in terms of the birthdays, I think that is absolutely beautiful.
Paula: I mentioned to somebody last week that on my birthday every year now, particularly because I suppose I’m commenting and noticing so many programmes around the world, now my birthday is an opportunity to test every loyalty programme that I’m a member of.
Paula: And I can tell you it’s quite disappointing, to be honest, because again, we talk about the data, we talk about how easy it is to use it.
Paula: And I think sometimes the behavioural data is quite complicated to capture an action, but the birthday is not complicated.
Paula: And so you’re taking action.
Paula: So well done.
Paula: I think that’s beautiful.
Cécile: Yeah, and people love it.
Cécile: So then the call centres, the ladies are working with us on this.
Cécile: They love to do that.
Paula: Of course they do.
Cécile: Because the return is so beautiful.
Cécile: Yeah, yeah.
Cécile: So it’s really nice.
Cécile: But they love to do that.
Paula: Of course, but I think you’re also, I hear you’re getting that double benefit where you’re educating them for their own benefit.
Paula: So they’re suddenly going, oh, I didn’t realize I could do that.
Paula: So there’s a double return, even though I know you’re not doing it from a transactional or whatever.
Paula: There is a lot of taking care of your members there.
Paula: So I think there’s an idea there for lots of people.
Delphine: And can I add something, Paula?
Paula: Yes, Delphine.
Delphine: We have two partners on the programme that are not commercial or trading partners at all.
Delphine: They are the first, the foundation of the group.
Delphine: And other CSR companies.
Delphine: So what…
Paula: Okay, lovely.
Delphine: Charity partners.
Paula: Yes.
Delphine: We have two charity partners.
Delphine: So the Fondation Joseph Lagesse, which is the foundation of the group.
Paula: Lovely.
Delphine: So what you, what our weavers can do and what we’ve been encouraging them to do as well, Cécile.
Delphine: They can donate their points to those foundation and social people, you know, social foundation.
Delphine: So it’s really nice as well, because at the end of the year, when it’s a tough time or during the COVID, what people did, what encouraged to do was to make a gesture and think about the other people in a difficult situation and donate your points.
Delphine: So that’s very nice as well.
Paula: Absolutely.
Paula: Building the emotional loyalty as well along the way, huh?
Paula: Wonderful.
Paula: The other piece I wanted to ask, I suppose just coming towards the end of our chat is really about the roadmap.
Paula: I know you have a real focus on innovation and excellence.
Paula: So again, I love that that’s in certainly your title and Delphine.
Paula: It’s lovely.
Paula: Again, you know, that’s at the intention for excellence and then the excellence will follow.
Paula: So tell me about the roadmap for Wiiv in the future.
Delphine: Well, it’s a very ambitious, very big roadmap.
Delphine: Actually, we have a roadmap on the next five years.
Delphine: So the next step will to everything that we do is we will has been very carefully thought of.
Delphine: We will bring new features for our partners on the programme for the companies, but also for our members.
Paula: Okay, yeah, yeah.
Delphine: Of course, technology is a very huge part of the enhancement we can bring, so always enhancing the platforms.
Delphine: This is coming in the next month.
Delphine: Next month and should be, we should launch the new technology platform by June, that’s it, maximum.
Delphine: And we’re working on things very usual, maybe somewhere else, but we like the family card.
Delphine: Well, this is something we can share.
Delphine: And of course, a lot of ideas we won’t be disclosing today.
Delphine: Let’s see what we can say is that if we, and when we will execute our roadmap, it would ease the life of our weavers a lot.
Paula: I’m intrigued now, Delphine.
Paula: So I want to be on the mailing list when you announce it, huh?
Cécile: Yes, sure.
Cécile: But I will say that I will resume, I will do summarize for us, Wiiv has to be useful.
Cécile: So we have a promotion that makes sense to people.
Cécile: Easy to use and everything.
Cécile: It has to be caring, which is our Wiivcares positioning.
Cécile: So even it’s not COVID, we’ve got in our communication plan moment where we are in the Wiivcares attitude and position.
Cécile: And it has to be joyful.
Cécile: So we have possibility of games or things like that.
Cécile: So I think the three words, which took at least one year to put together and say we want to do that.
Cécile: If it is not useful, or if it is not joyful, it is not caring, it’s not the three of them, we don’t do it.
Cécile: So it has to be at least one of them.
Cécile: And the best will be at least two or three, but it has to be at least one of them.
Cécile: So this is our guidance now.
Cécile: It is really clear.
Cécile: So even when we have to choose between the new partners in the programme, it has to answer to these three dimensions.
Paula: Absolutely.
Paula: And I think you’re absolutely right, Cécile.
Paula: Very often, you know, I’d be having conversations with people going, where do we start?
Paula: And actually, that’s exactly what I would say.
Paula: Start with your vision.
Paula: Even if it takes a year to get those three words, if they’re the right three words, they will guarantee that you have a roadmap for success all the way along.
Paula: So you absolutely need to have an idea what success looks like.
Paula: And I think joyful is one that’s probably not included often enough.
Paula: So it sounds like Mauritius is a very joyful place and I really wish I could get there.
Delphine: Well, we are very happy to think that we can bring joy to the people.
Delphine: So be it our partners or our weavers or the group itself, that’s the objective.
Paula: Yeah, and just to give a plug to the island, I know you mentioned at the beginning, Delphine, to me that 25% of the GDP of Mauritius would be…
Paula: Sorry, I mean the tourism side.
Delphine: Ah, yes, yes.
Paula: Yes, yes.
Paula: So sorry, I know 9% is the IBL contribution to the GDP, but tourism is another 25%.
Paula: I’m sure there’s some overlap between those.
Paula: But I think the point, I’m mentioning it actually, and also I’m not sure if you’ve even seen it, but for listeners, it’s also interesting to see that.
Paula: I think for the first time in this month, I’ve seen the Maldives as a country, another island destination, has launched a countrywide loyalty programme promoting tourism into the Maldives.
Paula: Perhaps something that Mauritius could think about as well.
Paula: I just think there’s some really interesting ideas going on out there.
Paula: Wonderful.
Delphine: Thank you for the information.
Paula: There you go.
Paula: I think all of us would love to get to Mauritius at some point, so it’s just…
Delphine: You can come, you just have one current time to do.
Paula: 14 days sitting in the hotel waiting, huh?
Paula: In a room.
Paula: My goodness, my goodness.
Paula: Ladies, listen, I’m going to wrap up now.
Paula: Is there anything else that you wanted to add to our conversation before we finish?
Delphine: No, thank you for the opportunity to share and to place Mauritius on the map, to place IBL on the map, to place Wiiv on the map of the Loyalty Programme, even if we did a good job at the Loyalty Awards to please ourselves.
Paula: Absolutely.
Paula: Thank you.
Cécile: I just want to add something.
Cécile: This nomination and this, how do I say?
Paula: Award that you won.
Cécile: Brings so much joy here.
Cécile: All our colleagues were so happy.
Cécile: People were really proud.
Cécile: I felt the Wiiv community also when we got this winning.
Cécile: It was really beautiful.
Cécile: It was really fun to see people like, wow, we were like ourselves.
Cécile: Yeah, absolutely.
Paula: So well done on that.
Paula: And if I’m right in remembering, Cécile, it was the second award you got was the second best loyalty launch for the whole world.
Paula: So that’s extraordinary to come second in that one.
Paula: And then regionally, you won the best loyalty programme for the Middle East and Africa.
Paula: So an extraordinary success story.
Paula: As I said, from my side, I know the complexity of multi-partner programmes.
Paula: I know how long it takes, particularly for those of us who come into this industry, maybe without a loyalty background.
Paula: And I remember you also mentioned that it was an all-female project team at the beginning.
Delphine: Nearly, I think it was one or two.
Cécile: One man, only one man.
Paula: Bless, okay.
Paula: Wonderful.
Paula: There you go, I can feel it.
Paula: Okay, so listen, I want to say thank you so much.
Paula: First of all, Delphine Lagesse and also Cécile Henry.
Paula: Thank you so much from Let’s Talk Loyalty.
Delphine: Thank you Paula.
Paula: Thank you.
Paula: This show is sponsored by The Wise Marketeer, the world’s most popular source of loyalty marketing news, insights and research.
Paula: The Wise Marketeer also offers loyalty marketing training through its Loyalty Academy, which has already certified over 170 executives in 20 countries as certified loyalty marketing professionals.
Paula: For more information, check out thewisemarketeer.com and loyaltyacademy.org.
Paula: Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty.
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