#154: Dell's Advantage Loyalty Program (Short Summary Show)

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: Hello and welcome to episode 154 of Let’s Talk Loyalty, where I’ve gone back through my interview with Mitch Kennedy, the loyalty strategy lead for Dell computers worldwide.

PAULA: Now, as you can imagine, computer sales have a long purchase cycle.

PAULA: So Dell Rewards is a program that is designed to drive transactions, increase the speed of purchase, as well as customer engagement between purchases.

PAULA: And it operates in Dell’s major markets, including the US.

PAULA: Canada, Brazil, and the UK.

PAULA: Now, Mitch admitted that the format was very much a transactional style program at the time.

PAULA: But with the benefit of some incredible resources around the business, the firm had committed to adding in the element of gamification in order to drive even more successful outcomes.

PAULA: With a really entrepreneurial background, Mitch admitted how surprised he was to discover that Dell truly is a company willing to listen to new ideas.

PAULA: And despite its size, it is allowing him the freedom and flexibility to test and try and innovate with the ideas he believes the loyalty program needs.

PAULA: He combines this background in entrepreneurship and analytics with the deep love of human psychology, as well as a willingness to try new ideas to accomplish his goals.

PAULA: He shared the background story of how he discovered the power of gamification, when he was tasked with developing a solution for a client that needed a way to lower the cost of the rewards they had issued, but without upsetting the members of that loyalty program.

PAULA: He has since run hundreds of campaigns and tests across many programs, and he loves constantly testing and learning, particularly how games work with consumers.

PAULA: Some of the highlights Mitch shared were firstly that games really need to have at least one big ticket grand prize to capture people’s imagination.

PAULA: While we all believe we are rational and only play games with a high probability of winning, in reality, this is not how consumers behave.

PAULA: He also emphasized that when people lose the game is not actually a bad thing.

PAULA: There is still a value exchange as long as the members enjoy the experience.

PAULA: And he shared examples of using games to convince members to engage with otherwise unappealing content, like learning something new or understanding terms and conditions.

PAULA: One important key is to ensure instant gratification, as well as to ensure that gamification is only used as one powerful tool in a program.

PAULA: In his view, gamification should not be the only strategy.

PAULA: It is particularly useful in industries with super tight margins when it’s difficult to reward transactions, for example, with anything of real value.

PAULA: But of course, it doesn’t appeal to all demographics.

PAULA: In fact, in his tests, in particular, the gamers are the least responsive audience for gamification, because they have much higher expectations on the graphics as well as on the prizes.

PAULA: But given how broad the appeal is in general, he confirmed it’s also an incredibly powerful tool to capture huge amounts of customer data if you need it.

PAULA: But as a caution, he warned against asking for more data than you can act on, as once you’ve asked for it, it does set an expectation with customers, and if it’s not used, then it can disappoint them.

PAULA: Our final topic was the power of bringing in interns and graduate programs as an amazing source of innovation that Dell certainly uses to foster talent internally.

PAULA: Mitch himself totally restructured his team based on an intern’s recommendation.

PAULA: With his own team of just five direct resources dedicated to loyalty, Mitch shares how their work is capturing an increasing level of respect internally, supported by their partners in Epsilon, who have helped attribute loyalty investments to profitable outcomes.

PAULA: With such a dynamic leadership team in this highly competitive sector, the loyalty team in Dell have managed to educate the business on what’s possible, but also on the importance of taking a long-term customer view.

PAULA: In closing, Mitch shared a favorite book he recommends called Drive by Daniel Pink, as he believes that any innovation in business that is based on foundational truths such as human behavior have the best chance of being successful.

PAULA: He says that despite our best efforts, we are all irrational human beings.

PAULA: So the best marketing professionals understand the driving forces in our psychology to understand how we will behave rather than how we say we will behave.

PAULA: This interview really was a fascinating insight into the mindset and mechanics being adopted by Dell as a laser-focused firm.

PAULA: So the next time you have an hour to spare, I’ll highly recommend listening to Mitch Kennedy as an expert in gamification for optimum business outcomes.

PAULA: It’s episode number 46 of Let’s Talk Loyalty.

PAULA: Otherwise, please join me again this Thursday when I’m chatting again with Dr.

PAULA: Najeeb Benkeder, the Vice President of Skywards from Emirates Airline, who shares some great progress and innovations they’ve launched over the last 18 months despite the global pandemic.

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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