#214: ENOC's Successful Loyalty Program in the UAE (Short Summary Show)

In today’s short summary show, “Let’s Talk Loyalty” looks back on an interview with Suri Singh, Head of Loyalty for Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC) about their digital-only loyalty program that works across their convenience stores, car washes, food and beverage brands, and even their car registration business.

We talked about how ENOC has managed to connect with it’s customers given the unique consumer culture in the UAE, and how their loyalty programme has created compelling opportunities for cross-selling across brands, with the power of the customer data they collect.

If you work in loyalty marketing, particularly in retail, and particularly if your brand is thinking of starting a loyalty program, then this episode is definitely a must listen.

Show Notes:

1) Episode #78: Yes Rewards from ENOC – Fuel, Food & Convenience Loyalty in UAE

2) Sury Singh, Head of Loyalty from Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC) 

Audio Transcript

#214: ENOC's Successful Loyalty Program in the UAE (Short Summary Show) (7m)
Welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty, an industry podcast for loyalty marketing professionals. 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. This show is sponsored by Comarch, a global provider of innovative software products and business services. Comarch’s platform is used by leading brands across all industries to drive their customer loyalty powered by AI and machine learning. Comarch technologies allow you to build, run, and manage personalized loyalty programs and product offers with ease.

Paula Thomas

00:00:48
For more information, please visit Comarch.com. Hello, and welcome to this week’s short episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty. Today, I’m looking back to early 2021 when I spoke with Suri Singh the Head of Loyalty from Emirates National Oil Company, or ENOC for short. When I spoke with Suri last year, he had just launched ENOC’s loyalty program three months earlier. So he told me what it was like to build and launch his loyalty program. From the very beginning, we talked firstly about the format of designing a whole new loyalty program and how that has to begin with actually the corporate-specific structure in mind, for example, ENOC is primarily a fuel retailer, but they also have many different brands, including their convenience stores, car washes, food and beverage brands, and even their car registration business.

Paula Thomas

00:01:53
That is quite unique. I believe to the UAE. Now, as you can imagine, Suri’s objective was to make sure the loyalty program had points and perks interwoven throughout each of those businesses. We also talked about the importance of understanding local culture. For example, here in the UAE, raffles and drawers are incredibly popular. So Enoch decided to be incredibly generous and they started the loyalty program by raffling off a car. Now, I realized something that generous can be possible in other parts of the world, but it did remind me of the importance of designing a loyalty program by keeping in mind, the key people who are going to be using it.

Paula Thomas

00:02:41
It was another reason why Enoch made the decision early on to be a digital-only platform and to use a mobile phone instead of any plastic identity card with us and how that played a huge part and how much more capabilities they were able to build into the program. Now, as you can imagine with a company as diverse as Enoch, we did talk about how their objective is maximizing the lifetime customer value of customers by focusing on cross-sell one great example is getting fuel customers to perhaps try enjoying a meal in the restaurant while they’re in the station.

Paula Thomas

00:03:24
Suri took it even a step further in a way that I really loved by rewarding. Even those restaurant customers who try a different dish instead of the same one, they always have. Every time they visit, we then talked about all of the data that they’re able to collect, particularly going back to being a digital app-based program. So we had some great ideas how to use that data to make things easier on the customer. And of course like any convenience and fuel retailer, it’s all about reducing friction in the transaction, as well as that commercial opportunity we talked about of cross-selling to make sure you’re serving both the customer and also the commercial interests of the program.

Paula Thomas

00:04:13
Now, if you work in marketing, I really believe, especially in retail and your brand is thinking of starting a loyalty program. This is definitely one you should listen to. It’s quite simple. Just head over to letstalkloyalty.com/78. That’s it for this short summary. As you know, we now have three shows a week and they are always an interview every Wednesday and every Thursday. So I really hope you’ll make as part of your week by tuning in again tomorrow and of course again on Thursday. Tomorrow’s episode is with a leading loyalty consultant based in Singapore and his insights.

Paula Thomas

00:04:55
I always love when he posts on LinkedIn, Henry Christian also shared a super interesting insight on his favorite loyalty platform. A totally unexpected one that gave me a lot of food for thought. Then on Thursday this week, we’re being joined by our friends in Collinson with a wonderful discussion, all about innovative ways to connect programs, consumers, and merchants, and that’s in order to help ensure that our loyalty programs remain ever more relevant in our everyday lives. Thanks so much everyone for listening to today’s short episode, Let’s Talk Loyalty.

Paula Thomas

00:05:37
This show is sponsored by The Wise Marketer. The world’s most popular source of loyalty marketing use insights and research. The Wise Marketer also offers loyalty marketing training through its Loyalty Academy, which has already certified over 245 executives in 27 countries, a certified loyalty marketing professionals for more information, check out thewisemarketer.com and loyaltyacademy.org.

Paula Thomas

00:06:18
Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty. If you’d like us to send you the latest shows each week, simply sign up for the let’s talk loyalty newsletter on letstalkloyalty.com. We’ll send our best episodes straight to your inbox. And don’t forget that you can follow let’s talk loyalty on any of your favorite podcast platforms. And of course we’d love for you to share your feedback and reviews. Thanks again for supporting the show.

Publisher’s Note:

This transcript was generated with the help of AI and podcast publishing tools such as Apple Podcast’s transcription service.

In the interests of efficiency and minimising our costs as a small business, it has not been checked by a human.

If you have any comments or concerns about the accuracy of this content, please do contact us for changes or corrections.

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