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 for loyalty specialists around the world. Hello and welcome to today’s episode of let’s talk loyalty today’s interview is truly a super example of global voices of loyalty. It’s my very first shopping center to have on the show, and certainly the very first to have built in loyalty to their overall business strategy. Even before it opens Galleria Belgrade is the largest shopping center in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, and it opened its doors as a luxury shopping fine dining destination in late 2020.
58s
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Today. I’m delighted to be joined by Vanessa marketing manager for Galleria bell. Great. As well as Chaya Busey, the chief loyalty consultant for quick brown Fox consulting here in Dubai who designed this innovative loyalty strategy, which will undoubtedly be a unique selling point for this luxury destination for many years to come
1m 21s
1
. So
1m 32s
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Vanessa and Chaya, welcome to let’s talk loyalty.
1m 35s
3
Thank you very much for having us follow up.
1m 38s
2
Oh, wonderful. And how you’re with us as well here with me in Dubai. Yeah,
1m 41s
4
I am great. Very, very great opportunity. Thank you very much. Oh,
1m 46s
2
It’s super exciting. I’ve been hearing about this project actually for, I don’t know how long, maybe about a year with my, my previous guest Emma novels, so involved as well. So we’ll come to that part later, but as always, we always start the show and talking about our favorite loyalty statistics. So Vanessa, from your perspective, working there with Belgrade waterfront, please tell me, what is your favorite loyalty statistic?
2m 9s
3
Well, Paul, I have to say this would be the top 10 merchants by spend volume because being in the first operating here of the shopping center, which we are, we are still learning about the customer. What are their shopping habits? What is their average expenditure? What is the shopping frequency, the lens of visits? So this is all that we are, we are about to learn in the, these are all the data that we can extract from our beautiful custom-made design loyalty program.
2m 44s
2
Wow. Wow. Oh, I can imagine Fidessa, I’m sure you’re doing reports on a daily basis just because it’s all so exciting. Huh?
2m 52s
3
Wonderful.
2m 52s
2
Yes. I think at the beginning, particularly with geek out on the data. So, so that’s wonderful and I will be keen to hear what kind of merchants they are as your top 10. And what, before that child please do. Tell me, what is your favorite loyalty statistic?
3m 6s
4
So Vanessa, I have loads of them, but my absolute favorite is as you know, as a, as a loyalty consultant, we are often asked to do a lot of feasibility work and I love to draw comparisons between a member behavior versus non-member behavior. And I get an absolute kick when I’m able to show how a member behaves more profitably versus a non-member. And because that’s something that would be involved with trying to convince a and trying to get out of loyalty programs. So my favorite bit is that when I’m able to go back to the drawing board and go, yes, you know, your, your non-member actually, or your member behavior adds to your business versus a customer, who’s not a part of the program. So that has to be my absolute favorite loyalty status.
3m 48s
4
Wow.
3m 49s
2
And I’d say it makes you very popular about around the boardroom table then as well. Jaya
3m 53s
4
Absolutely. Kind of get a sense of satisfaction that I proved my point. Yes.
3m 58s
2
Yeah. I think so Jaya and again, I know you have a long history. I think we’ve, we’ve labeled you the queen of a mall loyalty now at this point, but I’ve often said on this show, you know, it really is about the measurability of them of loyalty is the reason I love it because you know, I couldn’t go and spend big money on, on marketing campaigns if I couldn’t see what I was getting in return. And so few marketing activities are as measurable as loyalty. So if you’re able to prove that then for the gallery of Belgrade a rewards program, that’s super exciting. So yeah, it’s super good. And I know it’s brand new, so we’ll get into the whole history and what I was thinking, actually, I had to do a bit of research myself, so Vanessa will have to forgive me.
4m 41s
2
I didn’t even know I had the population of Serbia. I had to look up Wikipedia and Google maps. So I’m going to just give a bit of that kind of context for listeners. And then I’d love you to explain the history of the overall shopping center and your involvement, how long you’ve been there and, and where the whole concept came from. So is that okay if I just talk
5m 3s
3
A bit of absolutely
5m 5s
2
Wonderful. So, so we all hear about the beautiful parts of south east Europe and put Belgrade, I’ve learned as a population about 1.7 million and Serbia has about 7 million people. Am I right?
5m 18s
3
Yes. Sarah, correct. Yes. Actually Belgrade with all the surroundings is going up to 2 million. Wow. So it’s a, it’s quite a big city in the population of Serbia of about 7 million.
5m 31s
2
Wonderful. And it makes me feel more connected to, again, Arland, as I’ve said to you before, I think is quite a small country. So I quite like to have this global perspective on loyalty that you’re bringing for us today. And, and the other thing I really learned as well, Vanessa was how incredibly important the history, the culture, and actually how incredibly beautiful I can see Serbia is down located between Greece and Croatia and hungry. It’s amazing.
5m 60s
3
Yeah. The Balkans is really amazing if you haven’t been having said that you you’re coming from Ireland. I think that you would love green Serbia. Totally. It’s a, it’s just an amazing country. It’s a small country, but being positioned in the Balkans makes it quite exciting. Given the history and the reason history, it’s quite quite exciting for Serbia because we are only heading up.
6m 27s
2
Of course, yes. I can feel that actually. Absolutely. And uncertainty between yourself and Chaya. You convinced me on our last call that I will Def I’ve already looked at the flights to Belgrade, so that’s definitely,
6m 38s
4
You have to visit the mall. You have to visit the Molly. Oh my
6m 41s
2
Goodness. The top of the list. So we’ll definitely talk, I loved all of the different concepts and I know it’s already been an award-winning model even before opened from a design perspective. That itself was extraordinary. So actually it’s probably a good way, Vanessa, if you would tell us maybe the history of Galleria bell grades just as a shopping concept.
6m 60s
3
Absolutely. Firstly Galatia is the largest shopping mall in the Serbia, but we are also positioning Galleria as the regional shopping center, not just the local Belgrade or Serbia shopping center. Yeah. Having the gross leaseable area or the night of 2000. And it makes it the largest shopping center in the area. And so the mall starts operating end of October last year. So 2010. So we are into our first operating year. The mall has over 200 shops in a restaurant with unique outdoor rebuilt seating, the most amazing modern multiplex cinema with its first IMAX hole in Serbia.
7m 49s
3
It makes it quite a competitive advantage. So the location is, is quite unique. We have gallery in the heart of the city and as a part of the mixed use, the number one mixed use development, which is Belgrade waterfront. So the gallery of Belgrade is that the person only shopping center in the first mixed use development such as Belgrade, waterfront, and has a really an amazing captain with area of millions within 20 to 45 minutes. So me, myself, I’m the marketing manager of Galleria bell grid heading marketing.
8m 32s
3
So also seven months with the company. So now not quite long, but the 30 years, 13 years in the, in the real estate industry, my personal background is political, silent science with a specialty in market research being 13 years in the real estate, I have, it’s really a privilege being in this stage with, with gallery of Belgrade having, I mean, it’s super exciting from, from all perspectives, but this unique custom made a loyalty program makes it makes the difference.
9m 16s
3
So it’s, it’s really, it’s, it’s something that I really, really deeply feel privileged about.
9m 22s
2
Wow. Super exciting and shy. I think you were involved then even before Vanessa from a loyalty perspective, am I right?
9m 29s
4
Yes. And I’m, and I’m very proud to say that it’s one of the few clients are, who was very, very clear in moving forward that loyalty is going to be heart of the entire value proposition that the mall has to offer. So the clarity that that Belgrade waterfront had with regards to a loyalty program was quite unique for me to experience and also quite encouraging because to, to put loyalty at the heart and say, you know, we’re opening brand new, we don’t want to lag on customer data. We’ll start with everything on day. One was very, very refreshing. So I joined, I was onboarded by Belgrade waterfront in 2019 to look at the, not just the more loyalty program, our aspiration is to go Belgrade waterfront wide, but because mobile is such an imminent part of the proposition and it’s also the first business to open in, in Belgrade waterfront area.
10m 23s
4
So we’ve gone with a mobile-first approach. And, you know, my, I have to say there’s the, the team. And I think Vanessa blesses undersold herself a little bit. She’s not just a marketing manager there. She does. She is a lady with shoulders up stale. You can, you know, whether it’s about looking at loyalty, whether it’s marketing, whether it’s customer experience, it is all, it’s all under her belt. So I really, really it’s been a real asset and to the, to the gallery of Belgrade, because when I was onboarded, we were working with the Belgrade waterfront team and of course, opening up a huge mall in time of COVID. I mean, and then, you know, being handed over a mall to run with, with the, the, you know, with the limited resources that Vanessa has, I think it’s commendable and where we are today is also commendable.
11m 15s
4
And I really liked because everybody in the team believes in the loyalty program. It’s not something that’s come as an after thought, it’s the heart of it. And you’ll understand that.
11m 24s
2
I was just about to say HR, that’s exactly what I hear coming through because, and even actually the interview that I did most recently, we talked about, you know, how many business plans are written and loyalty is not part of the business plan very often for new businesses. So it’s almost, as you said, often seen as an afterthought after you start maybe getting, you know, more competition, but to actually build it in from the outset. And I remember you said to me, China as well, that actually you even had a pre-launch for laundry program, even before there wasn’t a mall to go to. So I’d love you to, to tell us, there’s the story about, you know, what have you built together with Vanessa obviously for M for the whole of Galleria Belgrade?
12m 7s
4
So I think that the guidelines were really, you know, the briefing was quite simple. They wanted to create a value proposition. Belgrade does have a very good range of models already. So they wanted to build something that was going to be unique and give them the competitive edge. And not this obviously with gallery of Belgrade, having the positioning of a luxury lifestyle, largest model and Serbia, they needed a value proposition that would compliment it. So it’s, you know, on the team as well as very, very customer centric. So we wanted to put a proposition and it’s not just a model where you’re going to come to shop. We wanted to create something that’s going to be a full unexperienced. So it’s not just, it’s something, you know what I’m thinking of a day out, why will I pick this?
12m 47s
4
What are the, what are the various options available to us? So we really wanted that to be at the, at the forefront and also loyalty at the heart of it, because we want to get to know you from day one and really get to know how we can build our relationship, you know, with, with the customer. So that pretty much was the brief to say, I want to know my customers. I want to know my customer value and I want to build my relationship. We’re not just a mall. You know, we, we are in the business of experience. So how are we going to build that? And I think we’ve done some real unique work with Galleria Belgrade. I’m very proud to say the team is very open-minded. So, you know, that really helps a lot. Paul, as you can imagine, when you take an idea to the client, trust me, these guys just absorb it like great, and they’re ready to go live with it and then measure the success of it.
13m 34s
4
So it’s a full cycle that we get to experience, you know, so, yeah. And the interesting part was that we opened the mall end of October. And before we opened the mall, we already had a data of about 40 odd thousand members. So we went with a teaser campaign to market where we did a huge giveaway of points and sort of wanted to have the right footfall in the mall on day one, when we opened, we wanted to open the mall with loyal members. So we did a big acquisition campaign. And we said, we will announce the winner in the mall on day one of the mall. And we called it our millionaire campaign where we gave away, I think about 10 million points to 10 lucky winners.
14m 17s
4
And this one was very exciting.
14m 21s
2
Oh, I’m getting all excited. Now I want to go shopping. And Vanessa, I’d love to ask you what kind of response you had with the merchants, because you mentioned you’ve already got 200 stores and which is an extraordinary amount. So I’m sure they’re absolutely thrilled, particularly the way that you guys have built this program. And again, from our conversation before I know it’s coming from the management team and the owners investing in this program in order to support merchants and ultimately then obviously the end consumer and it gets to benefit as well. So, so what kind of response are you getting so far?
14m 56s
3
Exactly. Well, it’s, it’s quite a journey I must say with the merchants, but having in mind that the program is funded almost entirely by Galleria makes the merchants pretty much excited as well. So the whole education part is, is quite challenging because we, we need to educate the merchants. Also their staff, the market needs to be educated as well. So it’s, it’s a lot to work and having a child in the team 24 hours available for all kinds of wow, all kinds of banks, you can not to imagine.
15m 41s
3
It’s really something. I mean, having the teams so devoted to the objective of the, of the program, which is the first year is acquiring more, more members onboarding as much merchants as we can. And we have a, quite a lot of them in the program, as well as the redemption partners. So far, this is something to be really proud of. Yeah. So we have a success rate of boarding merchants that it’s almost 80%, which is quite quite high in the state. Yes. Seminar, I mean, nine months into the program. It’s, it’s a, it’s quite an achievement, but the, this, we, we could not do it alone.
16m 26s
3
This is something to, it’s a, it’s such a team, such an amazing team work with the, with the child, the team. So it’s, it’s really, we have all the, all the Barts in right places to have to say. Yeah. Yeah.
16m 42s
2
And that’s a great point for that. So I’ll just pick them up before you move on. And again, then I think it’d be really nice to understand the value proposition, maybe child, because I know there’s a, there’s a few pillars and all of which I love to of course. And, but I suppose the, the really key point, Vanessa you’ve already touched on us and this has been funded by the, the mall itself. Yes. So merchants can opt in essentially at no cost unless they want obviously to add additional value and additional benefits to your customers. Is that the way it’s working?
17m 11s
3
Exactly. Actually the, the, the key part of the program is the customer gets the most of it too, as we are giving a beta 2% back in points, all actually we are rewarding. So it’s 2% of their total bill, which is garlicky, Belgrade is giving back in points. Okay. So the
17m 33s
4
Point, I just want to add, sorry. This is by far one of the most generous loyalty program in the world. I mean, it’s even more than what retailers tend to give back. So again, when we designed the program, the generosity being the first key element in any loyalty was at the core and thought of, you know, from customer from the beginning. Yeah. Sorry, Vanessa just wanted to bring that bit in.
17m 57s
2
Yes, you’re right. Absolutely. The global perspective yet. Sorry, Vanessa, going ahead. Yeah.
18m 1s
3
No, no problem. So the points can be redeemed for rewards is for, for participating retailers as well as the FNB partners. So, which is we, we are uploading the FNB now as we speak. So, so the merchants are quite happy needs to basically we, we are facing all kinds of challenges, but in general, we have a really, really good response and, and really amazing results so far. Yeah.
18m 39s
2
Yeah. And I’m going to remind Shaya is something you said on our last call, which I really loved. And I think this is a really good insight. And Vanessa is obviously enjoying the, the result of it. But you said to me that you were very clear in the beginning when the brief came in, that there could not be any financial, operational or logistic dependencies or impediments for the merchants. Am I quoting you correctly?
19m 5s
4
Absolutely. I mean, it’s one of the core elements of a loyalty program. And having worked with Dubai mall, I will tell you from my experience, there’s nothing more tiring than relying on her much. And one fund your program allow you to pass into. Great. So again, this is the expertise that we bought. I think the direction was very clear. We want a complete digitized solution. We want our customers and our tenants to be at the heart of it. So of course, having the experience, we then came back with a proposition that was very rich and generous to our customers and also very lucrative to the tenants.
19m 47s
4
So the, the, all the funding is done by the mall, but the customers redeem those points across merchants. We now have over 19 merchants participating in the program and growing on daily basis. So merchants really enjoy key opportunities within the program. Of course, they come on board as a redemption partner. So while Galleria Belgrade is giving away all these yummy points, merchants are milking it by receiving these points. And we all know redemptions comes with an overspend. So, you know, there’s a, there’s a degree of overspent. So that is why merchants are loving it. Also, the technology we’ve used, Paula is a very noninvasive.
20m 27s
4
So we’ve done no integration with point of sale. It’s a really simple QR code that sits at the, at the merchants point of sale. The customer walks in scans the QR code much and gets a little tick to say, you know, the, the process has done the payments rent and you walk out. So we’ve really kept the journey very, very seamless, which is again, a big, big of a hassle for a merchant. They don’t want any hardware. They don’t want to, in my experience, they don’t want any operational impact. Then we’ve also provided a lot of tools for merchants to engage with our customers better. It’s via digital scratch and win. So every time you walk into the mall, you know, you get a digital scratching wind, which is a gamification element we’ve added into the program.
21m 10s
4
So this could be from, you know, buying an ice cream, buy one, get one free to promoting a member exclusive offer. So this, again, merchants find quite exciting and it’s a platform for them to also market themselves any new product. And then we also have something, what we’ve put as a tear benefit. And I absolutely love, and it’s something nobody’s doing it. It’s called a monthly rewards drop. I’m giving away all my secrets here, Paula.
21m 37s
2
I love it.
21m 39s
4
It’s what we call a monthly rewards drops. So every month as a silver and gold tier member, you will get a small reward in your, in your app, which, which starts from an experience to any kind of product that maybe of interest to you. So I know something we’ve done this week and Vanessa correct me for this month is a little mini ice cream experience that have fancy new ice cream or a cafe that’s opened up a wall and that’s gone to all us silver and gold members that this is the premium cafe. So we’ve again targeted just silver and gold members.
22m 13s
3
And the conversion is already a skyrocketing girl. So this is amazing.
22m 22s
4
And I hope at least when we pushed out the coupon on day one itself, about 13 people walked into the, to the restaurant to get their ice cream. So can you imagine for, for the cafe, it dropped foot fall in for us, it excited. It was a surprise and delight for our members. So we’re constantly looking at a value proposition, which is going to make everybody happy for sure.
22m 43s
2
And that’s the kind of expertise China. And the idea is exactly that this show is intended to bring out and, and really showcase and shine a light on, because I think micro rewards are probably undervalued and under utilized, but I’m super happy if you give me a free ice cream, like it doesn’t have to be a free flight every time, you know.
23m 2s
4
Exactly. Yeah. I think you have to, you know, we talk about instant gratification, but nowadays the things about constant gratification, I want it to be gratified and I want to be gratified every time. So, you know, and we have the, the power of the data and that’s the power of a loyalty program because Galleria Belgrade owns these customers, mandatory mall environment mall doesn’t really own the customer. It’s the tenants. So I think that’s the smart thing that Galleria Belgrade did from day one is I want to know my customers. I want to own them. Of course, that way I can feed into my merchants as well and show them value, add to sort of say, because you’re a part of our mall, we’ve been you access to X number of customers, and we have a very strong marketing platform, which gives you tools to engage with our customers on a daily basis.
23m 46s
4
Yeah.
23m 47s
2
And those tenants, they still run their own loyalty programs as well. Because again, I know you’ve got lots of global brands and stuff, so did they ever feel that that was a conflict? Or how did that land with the merchants? I don’t know whether, whether chai you’ve done the merchant stuff for Vanessa, but I’d love to just see, was there any risk of confusion because I know the education piece, Vanessa, you’re absolutely right. We all need to keep ourselves educated on our loyalty programs and particularly in a retail environment. And, but I just love the fact that the customer essentially wins on both fronts.
24m 18s
4
When you look at, from a merchant perspective. Yes, you’re absolutely right. They have their own loyalty program. And generally when you approach it as a model, when you approach a merchant, the first thought is, okay, so you want me to fund your points? And I think that’s where we have a winning formula here. Hopefully the more loyalty program is actually complementing the tenant loyalty program customers in a, in a place to have a double whammy. So I’ll give you an example. Let’s, you know, we look at Galleria Belgrade, the retailer has its own loyalty program. So I get X percentage from the retailer because I’m shopping at gallery of Belgrade. I get X percentage from Galleria Belgrade. And because I’m shopping on my credit card, my bank also gives me something.
24m 59s
4
So
25m 1s
2
Honestly, but yeah, totally my trip to Belgrade is already paying for itself. I think
25m 11s
4
Very, very clear because you know, merchants have the wrong and we don’t want to create a conflict. We want to compliment what they’re doing. We want to be the choice because we are incentivizing you to walk through our door. And, you know, we want to create that value proposition where you’ll choose us over anyone else.
25m 26s
2
And is it the first mall to do this child in your experience? Because I know you’ve done both global research and ahead of, you know, developing the gallery of Belgrade program. And I know you looked at all of the best shopping centers in the us and Southeast Asia. And again, as you said, you worked directly for Dubai mall. Is this the norm, or is this an a I suppose a completely new idea for the mall to fund their own program, to support their merchants?
25m 52s
4
So I think this is it’s, it’s, it’s becoming very, very evident because I think morals have tried in the past to rely on the much it’s to fund it. And I think exactly for the same reasons that the merchant has its own loyalty program and that will always take priority. I think you have multiple had to take a step back and sort of go hang on a minute. What is my objective? What is it that I want to get out of it? Because if you’re then relying on the merchant, then you know, again, the customer will still belong to the merchant to quite an extent. So you want to own the customer, then you need to, it’s a cost of acquisition. You need to be, you know, and having done the feasibility bilaterally, it’s, it’s a real eye-opener because when you go into a mall and you say, okay, you know, you have to give X percentage back.
26m 33s
4
They’re like, oh my God, I’ve got all these millions of people coming through the door. I’m going to have to give them something that’s, you know, that would be great to have all the millions on your database, but that’s not exactly how it works. And some of the unique thing we’ve done with Galleria Belgrade that I’m very proud of and that nobody I know of is doing it in this region or globally, unless you’re on a credit card malt give you points. So let’s take an example of Dubai mall. They give you Skyward smiles for shopping, but you can’t redeem sky with miles back in the mall. You can only redeem them in Emirates, right? With Galeria Belgrade, we have kept the points economy within the mall. So while the mall is rewarding, you, you want our tenants to benefit.
27m 15s
4
Of course, it takes a little bit of an effort to bring the merchants on board, but the tenants are going to benefit out of it. So this is something that’s quite unique. I have not seen this in any model. We look at whether we look at mall of Emirates share whether you look at Simon malls, I have not seen that feature back in malt. Yes, it does happen, but maybe through the gift card, but that’s not to say that, you know, so this is something that we’ve created, which is unique with Galleria Belgrade, where the points get redeemed back into the mall. The spend comes back into the mall. So we get the full benefit of a points.
27m 50s
2
Absolutely. And as you said, that there’s always then the overspend and then there’s the, you know, just another reason to visit. So, so I love your positioning as you know, creating a destination reasons to believe the monthly drop that you also mentioned as well, shy. I know, I think that’s very clever because again, sometimes we’re all sitting around at the weekend looking for something to do and, you know, a monthly drops suddenly gives me a reason to go back to the, the amazing Galleria. So, so I love that and then
28m 17s
3
Needs, I’m sorry, Paula, it’s talking about, about the cost and a constant gratification that the child mentioned. So we have really, really some cool features in the program, such as scratch in Maine, that we mentioned the ball and the birthday gift as well. So once a year, there is a super complimentary birthday gift for our silver and gold members. Okay. So the it’s a, this is something too that we deeply feel built an emotional loyalty, which is, which is the pillar of the program.
28m 57s
2
It’s one of my favorite topics. Vanessa. I’m always giving out, you know, my birthday comes around every year and I’m judging all the loyalty programs I’ve joined, who has made this worth my while. So well,
29m 9s
3
I’m sure that they’re all competing for your attention.
29m 13s
2
They just do see you. And also know if I will say, let’s give them a challenge. So what kind of gifts are you? Are you, are you giving for your birthday and it’s silver and gold members? Yeah, that’s
29m 23s
4
Correct. That’s correct. But we try and keep it as much around experience as possible. So again, Galleria Belgrade has an amazing range of restaurants on the waterfront promenade, really, really quality restaurants. So we are engaging with our FNB tenants to give us maybe a meal for two on your, that we push again through, through the app, into your, you know, everything that we do is digital. So everything sits inside your app and the customer experience. So we also want to start now because we’re nine months into the program, start looking at the member behavior before we reward them. So, you know, it’s your birthday. I want to know what Paul has been doing in the mall and try and give you something that’s relevant or will compliment the experience you’re having with us.
30m 6s
2
Absolutely. Yeah.
30m 8s
4
Movie tickets to a, to a dinner depending on, on your, on your behavior. Wonderful.
30m 13s
2
Yeah. Yeah. And again, I suppose I would have done a fair bit of gifting in the past, again, for different programs. And sometimes we liked the opportunity to actually give a choice. So what we would do is we would say, okay, there’s a range of benefits. For example, let’s say it is a lower tier member and it is cinema tickets versus maybe a coffee and a cake. And they might be equally a cost. For example, to the program, we would let the member choose. And I always thought that that was a nice element, but I never had the budgets to give them a meal for two syndromes,
30m 44s
4
No merchants to partner with us. And I have to say, I’ve met a couple of merchants when I was in Belgrade a couple of weeks ago. And you know, they’re also willing and very, very supportive.
30m 55s
2
Okay. Okay. And so just to summarize the tools then, because again, we’ve talked about a lot of them and I just wanted to be super clear for listeners. So, so the games, the scratch and win that’s every time you go to the mall, they get an opportunity to get them. I think that’s a partner funded offer. Is that right on arrival? Correct. Okay. And then there’s the points back, which Vanessa, you mentioned, so 2% back on everything you spend in addition to the loyalty program of that retailer, and then obviously your premium members. And I did look up your tiers as well. So I know your silver members for example, would spend over, I think it’s about $5,000 in a year. And so sorry, am I got my numbers wrong?
31m 37s
2
So what’s the average spend, sorry for your silver and gold ladies. I got that. Got that number, I think wrong. Or do you probably don’t know?
31m 47s
4
I know in euros, but I’m not sure if I’m allowed to get on
31m 49s
2
There. Give us a, if you have a, to just, even just even an estimate Chaya because yeah. I just wrote it down wrong here in my notes.
31m 56s
4
Let me just tell you this way. Average malls in, in Belgrade have so more than Belgrade have an average spend of 20 euros. Let me just tell you the calorie of Belgrade with loyalty program information that we have is five times more. Oh my goodness. My favorite statistic, well,
32m 10s
2
Okay. Spend is five times higher. So once the bronze, silver and gold criteria then in, in Serbia for, for Galleria.
32m 18s
4
So in Serbian RSD, and top of my mind, I think we need half a million from, from zero to half a million is bronze half a million, or I could be wrong. I’ll have to look these up. Sorry, Paul.
32m 31s
2
I’m totally putting you on
32m 32s
4
The spot. Vanessa may have them. No, no,
32m 34s
3
Absolutely. I do. So the amount is from the 25,000, the nurse, which is 200 euros. So around $200 up to a thousand dollars, nice then moving to the silver tier from $1,000 to $4,500. Gotcha. And gold tier from $4,500 to $10,000, which is the limit. Yes.
33m 7s
2
Wow. Wonderful. And I did see that there are just, there’s a couple of cash degrees and which I’m guessing is for legal reasons, but again, just so that we can learn from, from your expertise. So things like pharmacy and financial exchange, and I think supermarkets are not categories for, for earning or, and guest burning and, but everything else. So all the fashion, all the fine dining, you mentioned everything else within the model has this, this, this opportunity.
33m 33s
4
Yes, that’s correct. We wanted to keep the essentials out of it because these are something that people come in for anyways, which is your supermarket, your pharmacy spends. Yeah. So these categorizes, your essential spends, and we want to, in order to, to incentivize our customers to be, you know, sort of more focused on spending in other sort of areas of whether it’s apparel, electronics, FNB, so we’ve kept the spend, otherwise the budgets, as you can imagine, you know, can go a bit off. Totally.
34m 3s
2
Yeah. Yeah. Well, it’s hard to fund everything. So, so again, it’s good to see the business side coming through. And again, Shai, I know from your experience, you know, looking at all the different models and again, Dubai mall, just to understand, you know, what’s going to, you know, what’s going to work and long-term as well, because what we can never do, obviously as loyalty professionals is, you know, build a beautiful loyalty program. We can’t ever take it back. So I think, you know, you’re obviously committed to it for the longterm. So, so that makes perfect sense.
34m 30s
4
Yes, absolutely. I think, and, and again, you know, my favorite quote would be when I tell my clients that the launch of a loyalty program is the beginning of many changes. So, you know, people would be when we are implementing a program, when we are designing a program, we, we pretend like this is it. And then this is launched and then that’s that. But you know, in my experience, it’s been the beginning of many changes because sitting in a room, we can only assess so much, but the customer starts to tell us differently. So it’s something it’s like, anything else. It has to evolve with time as we learn and we have to progress. So, you know, we were in Belgrade two weeks ago, my team and I were in Belgrade two weeks ago. And we thought with the team and we’ve carved out a roadmap for what the next six months and at least the next year should look like from what we’re learning.
35m 19s
4
And that’s not to say that this is set in stone, but it gives us an idea and direction as to where we’re headed. Yes, exactly.
35m 25s
2
And Vanessa for you, I mean, again, you know, marketing manager for such an extraordinary property, you’ve got a lot of tools again and, and I’m sure challenges trying to manage all of the above the line below the line and everything else, but it sounds like the loyalty program is the single most powerful tool that you have available to you.
35m 44s
3
Absolutely. Paul it’s, it’s one of the competitive advantages that we have that it’s so precious. I mean, the, the whole pressure on the marketing in the first operating years of the mall is, is quite high. As you can imagine, what we are facing is how to drive footfall constantly on a, on a daily basis, on a weekly basis and monthly basis and how to drive span. So the loyalty actually is the right tool for all of this for all. Absolutely. So design like this and with the amazing support do that, we have such an international expertise that we are really privileged to have with the, with the China and the team is really making the difference because we can, we can actually feel it in, in, in a, in a short run, not just in a long round that we are about to experience.
36m 45s
3
Of
36m 46s
2
Course. Yeah. Yeah, no, I always felt as well, you know, like when it’s on TV and everybody’s super excited, you know, and I’m sure Chaya you’ve seen the same, then everybody’s thrilled about the loyalty program, but then they get distracted with something else. Or as you said, Vanessa, there’s, you know, shorter term priority and for something else in the marketing team. So, so to keep that long-term focus, I’m really happy to hear that you’ve got that long-term plan ahead. Yeah. And
37m 10s
4
I think one of the things we’ll now, cause we’re going to come up to be a year, which will soon, hopefully we’ll do another interview to tell you what we’re planning for that. Oh
37m 18s
2
My goodness. So I think it’s
37m 21s
4
One of the things that we are constantly looking at is what the data’s telling us now. So, and again, really, really create curate, personalized experiences for our members and the top members that I’m very proud to say, Paula, that I don’t know of another program, that’s all redemption of pointing at first week. Yes. I remember seeing the report and really having a dance in my room. Oh my God. We have three gold members in the first week and I’m like, wow. Oh my God. I had to literally go back and check if the transactions were legit because you know, some of the real good stuff we’ve seen come out of it.
37m 58s
2
Well, I mean, sh you know, literally the earning, you know, and that speeds to redemption piece. I think we talked about it before. There’s very few programs managed to get that, you know, moments of truth so quickly, so redemptions in your first week, you, I can understand why you’re absolutely thrilled with that.
38m 13s
4
Yes. And I was having a chat with a, with the next colleague yesterday and we were working on another program and then he mentioned redemption. So I said, no, no, no, let’s put breakage at 40% for next year. And he said, really? I said, I don’t think it’s going to be that high. You know, he, he was trying to say to me, that redemption takes time. So I explained to my experience of Galleria Belgrade, and I said, you know, what’s making a difference. We’ve got a very high redemption rate at Columbia Belgrade. And what’s making a difference is we have the tenants on board, the choice you give to the customers, you know, the breadth that they have available to, to go and use their points. It’s it excites them, unlike a, unlike a restaurant program where it’s in the earn and burn in the same location for today, customers want choice.
38m 59s
4
You want to create an always-on ecosystem, you know, so, and that’s what we’re, we’re looking to achieve with Galleria Belgrade. And by having a multitude of tenants on board who are accepting a points, gives our members the chance to go redeem much faster.
39m 12s
2
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I know you have some fantastic background information that you’ve shared with me. So there might be an opportunity hopefully to, to share, you know, maybe a, a version of that with, with listeners, if they’re interested Chaya. So that’s something that we might talk about off-air and see if people want to reach out to you, because I do think that between yourself and Vanessa, there’s some extraordinary learning. So the more that we can share, and I think it would be super useful, be a pleasure. Wonderful, wonderful. So I think that’s all of my questions now, just to get, you know, as you said, the first round to look at Galleria Belgrade and Vanessa, I didn’t know how to pronounce this because forgive me, I didn’t get as far as checking, but I was going to guess, is it my boy grad?
39m 55s
2
Or how do you pronounce the program name in, in Serbian?
39m 58s
3
The program is more okay. You say it so beautifully.
40m 5s
2
Wonderful. So listen, and was there anything else said that, that Julie’s, you’ve wanted to share before we wrap up? I think
40m 12s
4
From, from my side, Paul, I think it’s a great opportunity where, you know, what we’ve created with Galleria Belgrade is so unique. And I just want to thank you Vanessa, for the opportunity and yourself for the opportunity, because I’m very, very passionate about, about loyalty and truly believe in the success of the programs. So, you know, and I’m really pleased that we could have this opportunity to bring out all the good work that the mode team is doing along with Vanessa. And some of the stuff that we’ve done is quite unique to the mall. And I’m really excited to be able to share that with people. Wonderful.
40m 46s
2
Well, and if people want to reach you child, I love us to make sure we have links to a quick brown Fox consulting and obviously your LinkedIn profile. But if people want to connect with you, is LinkedIn the best place to find you? Sure. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. So that’s fantastic. And Vanessa, any parting thoughts or comments from your side,
41m 8s
3
These you just the little bit we’re about to host our very first a member event and we’re actually really looking forward in, in, you know, restaurants email-based, so this is something that it’s going to, it’s going live next week. And the, so we are also very, very passionate about the program because we, we understand the benefits of it. And yeah. So being privileged to work with Jaya, I think we are, we are about to put Galleria, where did the launch in the market as a market leader?
41m 51s
2
Absolutely. And with its global profile. And I know you guys have a branding agency, I think in London, you have China obviously based here in Dubai, your technology out of India and Vanessa you’re pulling it all together, then based out at Belgrade. It’s extraordinary. Yes.
42m 5s
3
It’s really insane. It’s really is. It’s super interesting.
42m 10s
2
Wow. It’s a truly global loyalty success story. So I’m really, really excited for both of you as I set up in hearing little bits along the way. So it’s been a long, long held dream of mine to be able to get the inside story. So I’m really inspired, really excited. So on that note, I want to say, Vanesa Jovanovic, Marketing Manager of Galleria Belgrade,
42m 31s
0
And Chayya Bassi, Co-founder of Quick Brown Fox Consulting and Chief Loyalty Consultant. Thank you so much for Let’s Talk Loyalty.
Thank you. And to Paula.
This show is sponsored by “The Wise Marketer”, the world’s most popular source of loyalty marketing news, insights and research. The Wise Marketer also offers loyalty marketing training, both online and in workshops around the world through its Loyalty Academy, which has already certified over 150 executives in 18 countries as Certified Loyalty Marketing Professionals.
53m 50s
2
Thanks so much for listening to this episode of “Let’s Talk Loyalty”. If you’d like me to send you the latest show each week, simply sign up for the show newsletter on Let’s Talk Loyalty.com and I’ll send you the latest episode to your inbox every Thursday, or just head to your favorite podcast platform, find “Let’s Talk Loyalty” and subscribe. Now, of course I’d love your feedback and reviews and thanks again for supporting the show.
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