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: I’m delighted to announce Capillary Technologies as the new title sponsor for Loyalty TV.
Paula: Capillary’s mission is to bring the loyalty market out of the 1980s and into the present, ditching the slow, chunky manual services of the past.
Paula: Capillary is all about making loyalty management easy, with scalable AI-powered tech that turns loyalty managers into superheroes.
Paula: Say goodbye to outdated methods and check out the exciting new way to achieve loyalty excellence in 2024.
Paula: Hello and welcome to today’s episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty and Loyalty TV.
Paula: Today, I’m delighted to be chatting with the leading regional loyalty and lifestyle program called Blue Rewards, which is the rewards and lifestyle app for the Al-Futtaim Group.
Paula: Founded in the region in the 1930s, the Al-Futtaim Group is a family-owned business that has evolved into a leading conglomerate across automotive, retail, real estate and finance sectors in more than 20 markets.
Paula: My guest is Geeta Raghuvanshi, who is the Chief Technology and Data Officer for Blue Rewards, which itself operates in nine markets, including the GCC, Egypt, Singapore and Malaysia.
Paula: In this insightful conversation, Geeta shares with us the overall Blue Rewards program and proposition, as well as some major evolutions and enhancements that the Al-Futtaim Group has achieved in partnership with our friends in Capillary Technologies.
Paula: Growing the program from a simple cashback concept through to a major lifestyle brand, which is now operating as an independent business within the group.
Paula: I hope you enjoy my conversation with Geeta Raghuvanshi from the Al-Futtaim Group.
Paula: Geeta, welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty and Loyalty TV.
Geeta: Hi Paula, happy new year.
Geeta: Thank you so much.
Geeta: It’s great to be here.
Paula: Have you been on a podcast before, Geeta?
Geeta: This is my first podcast, actually, and I’m very glad to be here with you today.
Paula: Oh my goodness, I’m so excited.
Paula: Yeah, I know you’ve watched some of our shows and you’re doing incredible work.
Paula: We have a global audience who probably don’t know anything about you, so I’m delighted to share the story today.
Paula: We have a lot to get through.
Paula: You’re definitely at the leading edge in terms of what I see happening in loyalty between AI, and there’s some news hot off the press I know that you were working on literally yesterday.
Paula: So before we get into all of the story, I do want to start with our usual opening question, which the audience will still find quite new actually, because we’ve just started with this.
Paula: But I’m trying to get it inside your brain, I guess a little bit.
Paula: So we all know loyalty programs, there’s so many that we love.
Paula: But sometimes there are books that really change how we think and how we do business.
Paula: So I’m trying to get everybody a bit more inspired and hopefully get some more books for myself to read in 2025.
Paula: So I’m going to kick off with that as an opening question, Geeta.
Paula: What would you say is a book that you really find useful as an industry professional?
Geeta: So this is really, really fresh at the moment.
Geeta: We just had Terence Mowry at our AI Summit yesterday, who inspired us with his latest book.
Geeta: So that’s the book I’ve just started reading yesterday, but I’m really, really inspired by it already.
Geeta: I’m halfway through it.
Geeta: It’s the story of Disruption, How to Uncover Disruption by Terence Mowry.
Geeta: That’s the name of the book.
Geeta: And it’s about how you can use disruption to your advantage rather than thinking of it as a negative way.
Geeta: So, it’s in the era that we are where technology is evolving so fast.
Geeta: I think we need to start as leaders, start getting inspired by the fact that we need to start looking at things differently.
Geeta: We can’t wait and watch.
Geeta: We need to take some bold steps sometimes, experimentation, fail fast.
Geeta: So it’s about all of that.
Geeta: And I’m really enjoying reading it.
Geeta: So I hope the rest of your audience picks up the book and enjoys it too.
Paula: Indeed.
Paula: Well, thank you for that.
Paula: So definitely hot off the presses.
Paula: So you told me you had an AI internal event yesterday, which proves that Al-Futtaim Group obviously is really committed to AI as a business concept.
Paula: So I definitely want to ask you a little bit about that and to bring in an amazing author like that, I think is also amazing.
Paula: So we will find that book.
Paula: We’ll put it in the show notes for anyone who does want some inspiration.
Paula: So you’ve inspired me as well, Geeta.
Paula: So amazing.
Paula: Great start to 2025.
Paula: So let’s get into, I suppose, a little bit about you.
Paula: Just to get a sense, I know you have an extraordinary team and an extraordinary business within the Al-Futtaim Group.
Paula: But maybe just introduce your career, first of all, and then I’ll ask you to introduce the company because again, our global audience might be as familiar as we are in this region.
Geeta: Yeah.
Geeta: So I’ve been in, I’m the Chief Technology Officer for Blue, which is an Al-Futtaim Group’s digital business arm.
Geeta: And I’ve been in the region for the past 10 years.
Geeta: I’ve worked with companies like EMAR in the region and DIFC, which was a government entity, then joined Al-Futtaim for the last three and a half years I’ve been here.
Geeta: I actually lead their technology function for Blue, which is basically a group of engineers, data scientists, data teams, and a few design team as well.
Geeta: So in order to drive the disruption and new ways of working in the loyalty space.
Geeta: So Blue started off as a loyalty program or retail cashback program within the group.
Geeta: And two years ago, we took a leap to basically branch it out of retail and set it up as a separate business unit itself.
Geeta: So at that point, we basically had a product team, a design team, a development or a technology team and a marketing team set up specifically to drive Blue as a separate business unit, which works of course with all the internal brands of the group, but then also with external brands where the group does not operate in order to bring this entire lifestyle aspect in front of the customers.
Geeta: So Blue is an app, by the way, so it’s an app available in nine markets at the moment.
Geeta: Most of the markets where we operate as a group, Al-Futtaim is a large conglomerate operating in multiple areas, so it’s basically available in nine markets where we operate as a group.
Paula: Okay, okay.
Paula: Thank you.
Paula: A very comprehensive answer.
Paula: So again, living here in this region, we all know and love Al-Futtaim Group.
Paula: Some of the brands that come to my mind that you guys, I suppose, represent, I hope that’s the correct term, but the likes of IKEA, the likes of Ted Baker, Marks & Spencer.
Geeta: Yeah.
Geeta: So Al-Futtaim Group is basically a conglomerate that operates in various industries.
Geeta: So we have retail, a big footprint in retail.
Geeta: You named some of the brands, Marks & Spencer, IKEA, Ted Baker, Sandro, Marsh.
Geeta: Yeah.
Geeta: We have a very big automotive presence in the UAE.
Geeta: So we have eight, I think ten brands now that we operate in, or we are basically responsible for in the UAE with the likes of Toyota, Honda, Jeep, Lexus, BYD being our latest addition in the EV space.
Geeta: And we have a health care business, an insurance business, Orient Insurance, which is the largest insurance in the region.
Geeta: It’s part of the Al Futtaim Group as well.
Geeta: And an education business as well.
Geeta: So we have two of the schools, Dera International School and American School.
Paula: Yeah.
Paula: And I’m definitely a customer across lots of those different divisions.
Geeta: I’m sure.
Paula: And again, had no idea sometimes that Al Futtaim Group is behind those kind of amazing brands.
Geeta: And the objective of Blue at one stage is also then to be this umbrella that cuts across the group.
Geeta: So customers then know this whole gamut of Al Futtaim as part of Blue Rewards per se.
Paula: Yes.
Geeta: But then also, as I mentioned, we do operate in most of the verticals where we touch the lives of our customers.
Paula: Yeah.
Geeta: There are definitely some where we don’t operate.
Geeta: And that’s where Blue then partners with external brands to then create that gamut of lifestyle for the customer.
Paula: Absolutely.
Paula: Yeah.
Paula: No, very comprehensive.
Paula: And I think again, for our global audience, it’s great to get a sense of, I suppose there’s almost a unique need in this part of the world where we do need a loyalty brand, which of course is not the easiest or cheapest thing to create.
Paula: You know, we all know as marketeers that if you’re going to create a brand that’s going to be in the everyday lives of consumers, that’s very much a long term strategy.
Paula: But because of the conglomerate nature and the diverse types of businesses you guys operate in, so again, quite unique in this part of the world.
Paula: But to have a master brand that loyalty can tie together is really clever and obviously working extremely well.
Paula: And I know Blue is the corporate brand color, so that’s why he called it Blue Rewards.
Geeta: It is the corporate brand color of Al-Futtaim.
Paula: Amazing, amazing.
Paula: So thanks for the introduction then to the business.
Paula: The program, you’ve touched on a couple of details, but would you just mind recapping, I suppose, the history?
Paula: How old is the program?
Paula: And you touched on it as a cashback, but quite dramatic evolution over the, I think you said it’s five years in existence, which actually is still quite young.
Paula: So I’d love to just get the full history from you, if you don’t mind.
Geeta: So Blue actually started with the intention of driving loyalty only in the retail space and driving understanding of the customers.
Geeta: So when somebody visits our retail stores, and at five years ago, it was not so much digital, but very physical store visits only.
Geeta: Customers were visiting us, but we didn’t know who our customers were.
Geeta: So at that stage, retail initiated this program.
Geeta: The retail group of the group initiated this program to create a cash back program by which customers would then share their information.
Geeta: We know who’s shopping with us so that we can serve them better.
Geeta: And of course, we were giving them back the cash back.
Geeta: So it was a small little loyalty program that was running.
Geeta: As we expanded across the group, we realized that a customer that’s obviously shopping with us in retail is also potentially buying our cars or also visiting our healthcare.
Geeta: So how do we expand this then to the rest of the group and then understand that single customer across the full journey of his lifestyle of where and how he touches Al-Futtaim so that we can personalize their experiences as we go along and we can give them something that’s super relevant across our gamut of portfolio.
Geeta: So we took a step about to our Vice Chairman took the initiative about two, two and a half years ago to actually branch out Blue from retail and create a separate business unit within the group.
Geeta: That would then look at how we can expand this to the rest of the group.
Geeta: So how can we make the same program relevant?
Geeta: Now a cash back program may not be as relevant in automotive, right?
Geeta: Of course, so we have to then, yeah, absolutely.
Geeta: So we have to then obviously look at other ways in which maybe some form of behavioral loyalty or emotional loyalty is something that may be more relevant for other types of businesses.
Geeta: So how do we then make this like a comprehensive program, not just a very transactional program, and that’s where Blue branched out.
Geeta: Our first step was obviously then to take this to the rest of the group, which we did.
Geeta: So it was then introduced in health care, a bit of it in automotive, etc.
Geeta: But then as we saw that the program is touching so many aspects of a customer’s life, we also said that why don’t we expand this to become a lifestyle platform or a customer engagement platform where our customers can then get to most of the things that they want to do on Blue, right?
Geeta: So we do have a very strong payments team and we have a digital wallet on our app.
Geeta: We have a co-branded credit card with a leading bank in the UAE.
Geeta: And some of these aspects all brought together the lifestyle element of how we could expand Blue just beyond rewards and offers, right?
Geeta: We’ve recently, as of yesterday, introduced an AI advisor, a lifestyle advisor on the Blue app as well, which is basically allowing customers to talk to the app or talk to the Al-Futtaim world basically, and ask for things in a very natural language way.
Geeta: So you can basically say, it’s Mother’s Day.
Geeta: What should I shop for my mom?
Geeta: What’s a gift that I can buy for my mom?
Geeta: It will look up into the world of Al-Futtaim’s product portfolios.
Geeta: The app knows you as a customer, and then brings out the right and the relevant products in front of you, that you can now just not see, because so far you couldn’t shop on Blue.
Geeta: But as of yesterday, now you can even go ahead and purchase that product on Blue, get rewarded for your purchase, and close the entire lifestyle gamut right there.
Geeta: You don’t need to then go visit the shop to then pick the item.
Paula: Okay.
Geeta: So that’s how we are intending to expand it, and I hope our customers love this new update.
Paula: Oh my goodness, I almost don’t know where to start with all of that.
Paula: I mean, first of all, I think the really brave decision is this idea, as you said, your vice chairman identifying that there was so much more potential beyond the retail space, as you said.
Paula: So people do buy cars, and they do buy all of these other incredible things, and there are partnership opportunities.
Paula: So I know you’ve told me before that, for example, you don’t operate a fuel brand, and there’s other key sectors.
Paula: So you’ve built that in.
Paula: But the piece to make it a separate company and a separate business unit, that I think is still quite an unusual step, but one I fully endorse.
Paula: I’m sure that gives you a lot of control, power, and probably speed to market that you wouldn’t have within a bigger organization.
Geeta: Yeah, so I think this step has enabled us to drive things in a lot more agile way.
Geeta: So we’ve been fast at innovation, fast at being able to make some certain decisions and drive things forward.
Geeta: So it has definitely helped us.
Geeta: Of course, we are still a company within a larger corporate.
Geeta: So we obey all the governance around it that comes along with it.
Geeta: But yeah, it has definitely given us a speed to market with most of the things.
Geeta: And that’s why we’ve grown so fast how we have since we’ve branched out.
Paula: Indeed.
Paula: Yes.
Paula: Yeah.
Paula: And I know it’s only yesterday, of course, that the new advisor, the AI advisor has been launched.
Paula: So I can’t wait to play with that.
Paula: You kept it under wraps even when we were chatting before.
Paula: You said you couldn’t tell us, of course, until the public launch.
Paula: So that’s something we’ll have to talk about again, I think, on another occasion.
Paula: But you did share that you’ve had some extraordinary success even in the last couple of years since you took the proposition broadly.
Paula: What can you share on that?
Geeta: So our last year, 2024, which we just closed per se, was exceptional in the way we’ve grown in terms of our member acquisition.
Geeta: We’ve more than doubled our number of members in the last year itself.
Geeta: And we measure the customer engagement on our app with a metric called as monthly active users, which we set a target for ourself to be at 10% MAU, which is industry benchmarks of what we look around.
Geeta: We’ve closed the year with a 14% MAU.
Geeta: So I think that’s kudos to the entire team of putting together a big effort in 2024 to make that happen.
Paula: Congratulations.
Paula: You must be thrilled.
Geeta: Absolutely.
Geeta: I think it was one of the most remarkable achievements for 2024 for the whole team.
Paula: I’m sure.
Paula: Yes.
Paula: And I think it’s actually this show sometimes gives people as well as, of course, all your internal acknowledgements, you know, sometimes just a step back to go, OK, actually, we have just done something pretty extraordinary and celebrate your team.
Geeta: So absolutely.
Paula: Yeah.
Paula: So kudos to them.
Paula: How big is your team, Geeta?
Geeta: So I lead the technology function, so it’s about 50 odd members, internal as well as working with partners that we work with across the gamut of data and technology initiatives.
Geeta: And it’s a mix of engineers, digital engineers, it’s a mix of data scientists, data engineers, etc.
Geeta: that work together to make this happen.
Paula: OK, so you’re leading a team of 50 odd people.
Paula: It’s unbelievable.
Paula: Wow.
Paula: So again, keeping you extremely busy.
Paula: Tell me about the more commercial side, Geeta, because I always feel that that is something that is extremely important in terms of, you know, bringing the business on the journey.
Paula: So as you said, there was the retail initially.
Paula: So they obviously felt the opportunity was going to be significant and probably adopted it.
Paula: I’m not going to say easily, but I’m sure with the right guidance, I’m sure they embraced it.
Paula: It’s probably not so straightforward when you then decide, OK, it’s going to go to automotive or all of the other key verticals that you operate.
Paula: So I’d love to understand what’s that journey been like for you?
Geeta: So I wouldn’t say it has been extremely smooth, but it’s been a good learning experience for us as well as for the brands as we’ve gone along.
Geeta: At Blue, we work very intensely with data and we believe that we should be using data for all our experimentation and decision making.
Geeta: Our journey to basically convince some of our brands, I would say, or to make them believe in the program as we were scaling, led us to actually build really scientific ways in which we were measuring incrementality of the program.
Geeta: So we had very strict control groups that we were using to measure our campaigns and the campaign successes.
Geeta: The investments that our brands are then bringing in for the rewards and how much is the payback by the customers or what’s the incremental ATV or the incremental, you know, the average frequency that the customers are visiting, etc.
Geeta: And we actually put together a very scientific way to measure it.
Geeta: And once it was aligned between the brands and us, we’ve been measuring it along almost on a monthly basis with a very, very clear alignment.
Geeta: So I think at this stage, I can say there’s a very good transparency between us and the brands.
Geeta: And then, you know, with that comes the level of trust on how the program is being managed.
Geeta: So incrementality is a big part of what has led us to actually be on the same page for both the brands and us in terms of how we run the program.
Paula: Well done.
Paula: Honestly, I think that’s probably the single biggest achievement.
Paula: I know you’ve talked about all the other cool stuff.
Paula: And again, there’s plenty more to talk about.
Paula: But, you know, just having the belief in place.
Paula: And I think particularly it’s important in retail because that moment of truth when we sit and, you know, make a purchase or somebody’s sitting there in front of you or standing there in front of you, taking that payment, it’s extremely important.
Paula: They can articulate what Blue Rewards is for the customer and the member.
Paula: And that only comes if the brand has adopted it.
Geeta: So absolutely.
Geeta: And I would like to give kudos to all our brands and they are extremely supportive and very collaborative in the way they work with us.
Geeta: So I think it’s been a journey where we both work together super collaboratively.
Paula: OK, well, well done, you.
Paula: So OK, so you’re super proud of so many things you’ve talked about already.
Paula: But I have a favorite one that I’m going to ask you about.
Paula: And this is probably one of the more controversial ones with the industry.
Paula: I know a lot of people talk about birthday rewards and it always amuses me because I have very strong views on it and I’m dying to hear yours.
Paula: But I had an exceptional experience with Blue Rewards that I often refer to.
Paula: And I’ve sometimes said on this show as well, Geeta, that when my birthday comes around each year, I’m like I’m really watching for what every program I’m a member of is going to do, you know, and I’m judging them, of course, and comparing.
Paula: So Blue Rewards definitely had the best execution.
Paula: So again, for the sake of our global audience, I know you have an extraordinary proposition.
Paula: So tell us how you think about birthday rewards, I guess, why you see that they are important and how you execute on them.
Geeta: So like I said, our customers and personalization for our customers is at the key of and at the heart of everything we do.
Geeta: So, of course, birthday is a very, very important event in the life of our customers.
Paula: Totally.
Geeta: And we would love for them to be delighted to see with a beautiful reward from us on the birthday.
Geeta: Yeah, we used to have an M&S cake and coffee only.
Paula: Okay.
Geeta: Now the rewards have been expanded as well.
Geeta: So it’s not just M&S cake and coffee from our side.
Paula: Yes.
Geeta: It’s basically also a Watson voucher that the customers get from our side.
Geeta: Of course, in the markets where Watson operates.
Geeta: Yes.
Geeta: And our customers love it.
Geeta: We’ve seen a great redemption rate on these rewards, which indeed shows us that our customers are waiting or looking forward to getting this reward from us.
Paula: Totally.
Paula: Yeah.
Paula: And for me, I suppose the key thing, and I’ll just have for again, our global audience, M&S is a premium grocery and fashion retailer, British brand, actually.
Paula: So Marks and Spencer’s is the full title.
Paula: We all know it as M&S, but maybe in the US it mightn’t be as familiar.
Paula: So Marks and Spencer’s are renowned for having, you know, incredible coffee and beautiful cake.
Paula: It’s a real luxury experience and again, something we would go out for an enjoyable afternoon.
Paula: And then Watson’s, of course, is a pharmacy brand.
Paula: So what’s the birthday reward there?
Geeta: Watson is a beauty and wellness brand for us.
Geeta: So it’s a discount voucher from Watson’s to the customers and the customers can shop in their entire birthday week whenever they want at Watson’s.
Paula: Okay.
Paula: So this sounds like a core pillar for you then, as you said, hyper personalization.
Geeta: Absolutely.
Paula: Yeah.
Paula: I’ve always instinctively believed this.
Paula: And again, I guess I’m particularly keen on the ones where it can be fully funded.
Paula: And I think that’s what you’ve done with Marks and Spencer’s.
Paula: A discount in Watson’s and you’re correct, of course, that it is a beauty and wellness brand.
Paula: So thank you for correcting that.
Paula: So to me, a discount is a treat.
Paula: But sometimes I feel like, okay, so that’s a bit more commercial.
Paula: So I might be less excited when you give me something for free.
Paula: I just think it’s amazing.
Geeta: Absolutely.
Paula: And does every member get that?
Geeta: Every member gets that.
Paula: Yeah.
Paula: Okay.
Geeta: Because birthday is a very, very personal event for everyone.
Geeta: So every member gets it.
Geeta: By the way, we don’t have tiering on our program at the moment.
Geeta: So it is a flat program at the moment.
Geeta: But we are looking forward to introducing something in the near future.
Paula: Indeed.
Paula: Yes.
Paula: I was going to ask you that.
Paula: Absolutely.
Paula: I’d never seen anything on the on the tiering side.
Paula: So that’s cool.
Paula: And I again, fully agree to me, like it’s the one day a year that the program is, I suppose, just to me, it’s essential that we demonstrate our loyalty back to the member.
Paula: So all year we’re asking them to come and shop and spend and cross sell and all of that kind of stuff.
Paula: So why would you not give something back and choose that one occasion once a year when somebody wants to feel, oh, my goodness, I got something for nothing.
Geeta: Absolutely.
Geeta: Absolutely.
Geeta: I think we do have other aspects on the app as well, which some of our customers really like.
Geeta: So in 2024, we saw a really, really good engagement on our games on Blue.
Paula: OK.
Geeta: So we had Blue Games.
Geeta: Our marketing team is doing an amazing job in branding those games to the right occasions, etc.
Geeta: We had a customer favorite, Wurdle, which was a guess the word kind of a game.
Geeta: OK.
Geeta: And we give away points to customers for these games when they do game plays or on their wins, of course.
Paula: OK.
Geeta: And these points can then be converted into a wallet amount, which they can then spend in any of our brands.
Geeta: These are fully Blue sponsored.
Geeta: So it’s also not a brand funded thing.
Geeta: So it’s a Blue funded thing.
Geeta: And our customers loved the games we had.
Geeta: So I think it was a very, very good pillar of engagement on our app as well, from the customers.
Paula: Another brilliant learning, Geeta, because we’ve been talking about gamification for such a long time, and it’s been executed, I think, to varying degrees.
Paula: But obviously, you’ve got the in-house resources again, as an independent business unit, to say that this is really important.
Geeta: Yes, yes, I think it did really well.
Geeta: We did.
Geeta: We started it as an experiment to see if our customers would like it.
Geeta: Yeah.
Geeta: And our customers actually really loved it.
Geeta: We got really good feedback and then we started scaling it.
Geeta: So we had games which were co-branded with some of our brands.
Geeta: There were games which were linked to seasons and occasions.
Geeta: So I think it made it super relevant for the customers and at some points, and then they loved it.
Geeta: So once who are hooked on to it, come on to it almost every day and play.
Paula: Isn’t that a great word, hooked on to it, huh?
Paula: I used to say, actually, I remember when I first, very first fell in love with Loyalty and I got a co-brand card actually with with Emirates and Skywards and I was like, I feel like a junkie, you know?
Paula: It’s like, you know, this card is the only way I’m going to pay.
Paula: Like it literally was compelling in a very positive way.
Paula: I know that’s not a great word, but it’s genuinely how I felt it.
Paula: So sounds like you’re achieving that with your gamification strategy.
Geeta: Yeah, I think our games are doing really, really well.
Geeta: We also have a co-branded card also doing very well.
Geeta: We have it only in the UAE.
Geeta: It’s doing very well as well.
Geeta: It gives you up to 8% cash back in any of our brands.
Geeta: It’s different brands getting different levels of cash back.
Geeta: But yeah, and it includes our entire brand portfolio of the group.
Geeta: So it includes automotive, health care, education, etc.
Geeta: as well.
Geeta: So it’s a very successful program as well.
Paula: Indeed.
Paula: Absolutely.
Paula: Well, up to 8%.
Paula: That’s certainly a generous one.
Paula: Again, can’t be done across all categories, but as and when you can, it’s a great headline number to have.
Paula: Yeah, it is amazing.
Paula: So let’s talk about some of the, I suppose, things you’re proud of.
Paula: I think that’s one important thing I always love to ask.
Paula: But also on the other side, we’re keen to, I suppose, understand some of the challenges that people in a position like yours face delivering at such scale and at such pace.
Paula: So let’s start off with what are you most proud of, Geeta, in terms of the work you’ve done?
Geeta: So, I think the way we have, I’m a technology geek, right?
Geeta: So from my perspective, I think the way we have embraced the use of data within Blue for our customers and delighting our customers and for driving a seamless customer experience for them is something that I’m really proud of.
Geeta: We’ve been able to stitch together a single customer record across the group, then to be able to drive personalized experiences for our customers.
Geeta: So I think that that’s extremely, extremely proud of and that’s one of the potentially one of the biggest reasons why customers then come back to us because they and come back to the app over and over again because it’s relevant for them.
Geeta: Challenges, again, on the technology side, it’s evolving so fast.
Geeta: Every time we think of something, there’s something new already on the cards.
Geeta: So I think keeping pace up with that, finding something that’s really relevant for us as a business, as well as for our customers and choosing the right technology elements we want to deploy.
Geeta: I think that’s where we are.
Geeta: Obviously, in the data space as well, it’s also, manpower is also a challenge.
Geeta: So finding the right talent.
Geeta: Okay.
Geeta: Is also a challenge.
Geeta: So getting all of this together to make sure things roll at the speed at which we want to roll is what I would say is something that is the most difficult thing for us to keep up with.
Paula: Yeah.
Paula: And I think again, I mean, it is a global phenomenon, certainly things like shortage of talent, you know, urgency, but I always feel Dubai, everybody wants things kind of yesterday and, you know, the expectations, it still has to be the best in the world.
Geeta: Absolutely, absolutely.
Geeta: And I think with AI and others as well, right, the technology is evolving so fast, the moment we sit down to do something, there’s something else that’s already been introduced.
Geeta: So it’s also then being able to figure out what we should invest in and what we should not.
Geeta: So I think, you know, striking the right balance is very important.
Paula: Indeed, and it would be remiss if I didn’t mention our friends in Capillary Technologies.
Geeta: Yeah, so Capillary has been with us on a journey since we started.
Geeta: So they’ve been with us since the beginning, an inception of Blue, even when it was just the retail program.
Paula: Amazing.
Geeta: So it was Capillary that was the chosen partner at that point.
Geeta: We’ve grown along this journey as well.
Geeta: So I think it’s, we’ve been here together for so long.
Geeta: So I think it’s working well.
Paula: Yeah, amazing.
Paula: Yeah, and shout out to Capillary.
Paula: So for bringing you in, because obviously we had the rewards at our radar for so long and I just didn’t know you.
Paula: So so that’s super cool.
Geeta: It’s great.
Paula: Yeah.
Paula: So listen, we’ve touched on a lot.
Paula: I know yesterday was your biggest single launch.
Paula: So this Lifestyle Advisor, it’s called the Blue AI Advisor.
Geeta: Is that the name?
Geeta: Blue AI Advisor.
Paula: Okay.
Paula: I think it’s the first in the industry, Geeta.
Paula: Am I right?
Geeta: It is the first in the region.
Geeta: Okay.
Geeta: Amazon has launched something in US and UK called Amazon Rufus, if I’m not wrong.
Geeta: And yeah, but in the region, we are the first to have launched something like this.
Paula: Incredible.
Paula: Well, I’m going to go home and play with that for sure.
Paula: And so listen, I don’t have any other questions today, Geeta.
Paula: Was there anything else that you wanted to mention for our global audience before we wrap up?
Geeta: I would just like to say for the global audience, if you are in any of the nine markets where we operate, please indeed try Blue.
Geeta: And AI Advisor will come to your market soon as well.
Geeta: We’re in UAE at the moment.
Geeta: Yeah.
Geeta: For other markets, I think let’s learn together from each other and see how we can grow and expand Blue and other programs as well.
Paula: Absolutely.
Paula: And we’d love to include your LinkedIn profile, Geeta, in the show notes, if that’s OK.
Paula: So everybody can reach out.
Paula: I think that’s always what I feel most proud of actually from our side, is that the feedback and the opportunities that you might get from chatting with other professionals in Loyalty around the world.
Geeta: Yeah, I think it’s a good learning experience.
Paula: It’s a great learning experience.
Paula: Wonderful stuff.
Paula: Well, listen, with that said, I want to say Geeta Raghuvanshi, Chief Technology and Data Officer at Blue Rewards with Al Futtaim Group.
Paula: Thank you so much from Let’s Talk Loyalty and Loyalty TV.
Geeta: Thank you, Paula.
Geeta: It was lovely.
Paula: Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty.
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