#462: Loyalty in the Philippines - Telecom Giant Shares its Globe Rewards Successes

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Hello and welcome to today’s episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty and Loyalty TV. Our conversation today is back in the telecommunications sector. The same vertical I first worked in loyalty when I managed the O2 Priority Programme back home in Ireland. Our guest, Jerome Patalud, is joining us from the Philippines, where he is the Director and Product Owner for Globe Rewards.

The loyalty proposition from Globe Telecom Incorporated, a major provider of telecommunication services in the country, where it operates the largest mobile network with almost 55 million subscribers. The Globe Group closed the first nine months of 2023 with an all time high in consolidated revenues, fuelled by strong contributions from its mobile, corporate data, And non telecommunication services as Globe transitions from a telco to a techco. I hope you enjoy listening to our conversation all about Globe Rewards.

So Jerome, welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty and to Loyalty TV. 

Jerome: Hello. Thank you very much for having me. 

Paula: Great. You’re joining me from a very long way. I think it’s a long overdue conversation with you there based in the Philippines. So very exciting to hear what’s going on with Globe Telecom and Globe Rewards. It seems to be an absolutely incredible business you guys are running there. So congratulations on that. And yes, I will say also thanks for our friends in Comarch for introducing us. I know you guys have been working together for a long time and it’s a real shining case study that you’re very proud of. So we’re excited to share it with our audience.

So let’s kick off then, Jerome, with our usual opening question. As you know, we have this very familiar question. Because we like our loyalty professionals to share what they admire in their own countries and in their own lives. And I suppose the loyalty professional perspective comes through as well as the consumer perspective. So kick us off Jerome and tell us based in the Philippines, what is your favorite loyalty program? 

Jerome: Yeah, thanks Paula. For me personally, given I’m a really a coffee addict, I mean a coffee person, I really can’t function in a day without the coffee. So I would say for me, the best loyalty aside from our own is really Starbucks.

The simplicity and I guess the effort that they did to really design. A very seamless and operational platform and process of as basic of a star program, stars program to be able to really rack up those stars, to be able to get your free coffee, your journal, your planner. And then and a lot a whole lot of other freebies here in the Philippines. Really makes a difference with my cup of coffee every morning.

Paula: Wonderful. Wonderful. And as I said to you all fair, actually, it is the single most answered brand. So well done to Starbucks. And we’re very excited. We’re going to have the Middle East loyalty lead joining us in the studio now in a couple of weeks. So anybody who is listening, please do listen out  for our interview with Starbucks directly. And I guess what is also, to me fascinating about a brand like Starbucks is I suppose the different degrees of sophistication around the world. 

Jerome: I agree. 

Paula: So in the US I think as we all know, Starbucks is the most advanced, I think. Although I could be totally wrong with that, of course. I know they’re doing lots of things, but tell me, for example, do they have a wallet functionality there in the Philippines? Do you know? 

Jerome: They do. They do. So it’s, they have a part day. So regardless of which channel online or offline channel you’re used to, there’s something that Starbucks actually provides for you, so it’s very easy and seamless for your experience. 

Paula: Okay. Super. Yeah. There’s an incredible article, actually, Jerome, I don’t know if you’ve read it and it’s called the Bank of Starbucks. And it’s about this whole idea of the wallet and the fact that they do, of course, have so many people prepaying for coffee. So I’ll make sure that we link to that in the show notes. So you can read it and anybody else who’s interested in that, I suppose, extra operational and cashflow benefit in such a lovely category as coffee.

So we’re off to a great start, Jerome. And I think I have an awful lot of fondness for this conversation as well, because I think, you know, I started my loyalty career also in telecommunications. I was totally confused and pretending I knew what I was doing and I totally was not. So first of all, I think the key thing is if you wouldn’t mind just introducing a Globe Telecom for us, Jerome, just to give us a sense of the business before we get into your your whole proposition.

Jerome: Sure. Thank you. Paula. So first off, Globe Telecom, so we’re a telecommunication company here in the Philippines. So we’re currently a market leader when it comes to our revenue growth and subscriber base here in the country. And then, as same as other telcos, we cut across all of your major spectrums, so from mobile, broadband, corporate, prepaid, postpaid. So these are the different brands and industries that we actually cater to. So the beauty of it is us in the loyalty space, as loyalty practitioners, we get to have a front row seat when it comes to designing how to create loyalty programs, retention programs for all of these brands, for prepaid postpaid and broadband.

So even it does have a lot of SKUs and offers when it comes to the telecommunications space, but it also makes it much more fun to be able to create new matrixes, to be able to create new bundles and offers just for just the right personalized tailor fit offers for your customers. 

Paula: Indeed. Yeah. I think fun is a great word, Jerome, and you must be having fun because I know you’ve been working with the Globe Rewards proposition for your entire career, as far as I can tell. So, so tell us about you. Tell us about Globe Rewards. And I suppose really what I’m trying to understand for our audience is the role of Globe Rewards. As it relates to Globe Telecom, because I do think there are so many different ways, of course, to acquire and retain customers. And sometimes the focus can be on the acquisition side.

I think all businesses can be guilty of that from time to time, but it sounds like Globe has really focused on the retention piece. So please do tell us the history and basically what you guys do on the reward side. 

Jerome: For sure. For sure. Maybe I can start with me. So I think coming off from me. So as you’ve mentioned same with you, I also started my career in loyalty here in Globe. I thought that was my first job as well. Never left. So I’ve been having fun since day one as well here. So I think in relation to the question of how Globe Rewards is to Globe Telecom, I think we should also first take a step back of how the Philippine landscape or ecosystem looks like first.

So the Philippines as compared to the US is really a third world country. So a lot of the Filipinos here are also not that affluent, or some of them are majority are marginalized. So what we do from the global perspective, so look, telecom gives them the communications. So all those data, text wifi internet and all, but at the same time, us from the Globe Rewards  part we tried to really inject ourselves into this lives of these customers. Regardless if you’re affluent or marginalized, which I do help as much as we can because entirely the vision of Globe Telecom is really uplifting the Filipino’s liVes. And really flourishing into really flourishing the business, the telco business to be able to provide the best digital and the best day to day lives for our customers.

So what we do from Globe Rewards space is we try as much as what we can. Cause we do know that a lot of our customers already spend for the telco needs for. And then not all of them could really afford the post paid market. So I’m not sure in the US or in other countries, I’m sure predominantly it’s really a rain by postpaid market, but compared to the Philippines, it’s the complete opposite.

So a lot of the population here in the Philippines is really prepaid, very prepaid centric, prepaid, prepaid base. So they pay for their telco usage on a daily basis, every three days, depending on how much money they could actually spend for their telco. So what we do, is rather than just incentivizing them once a month, once they pay their bill, if you’re postpaid, we try to inject the lightest campaigns, events, whatever we can on their daily lives, literally daily lives, literally daily lives.

So that’s something that we try to curate for our customers. We run hundreds of campaigns to them, targeted to the different target markets and communities on a daily basis. So as long as you’re topping up or as long as you’re with Globe Telecom, and then really earning those hard earned rewards points coming from your purchase of your load. So that’s why we tried as much to incentivize and really create a differentiated experience just for you. So from the Globe Rewards loyalty space, that’s one thing, one of the many things that we tried to inject and do to be able to uplift the lives of the Filipinos and really make it a more delightful and worthwhile experience for them while they stay with our company.

Paula: Incredible. So many things I want to pick up on, Jerome. Thank you for that. And yes, we have to make sure to acknowledge your loyalty, of course, to Globe Rewards. I think you joined on a management trainee program more than 10 years ago, started at the bottom, worked your way all the way up through the partnership proposition and of course, into the director role. So wonderful to hear as well, the integrity that’s coming through. 

I hadn’t really appreciated the complexity. And I suppose the scale of the Philippines, I was of course doing some research as well, Jerome, today. So it is the 12th most populous country in the world with 109 million people and 19 languages and 7,641 islands. So very large, very complex country by all accounts. And I suppose when you overlay then the economic challenges that you’ve just mentioned to make sure that you as a utility are providing that service to people is a huge task. And the fact that you’re building in the piece around bringing joy, bringing fulfillment into their everyday life, that’s certainly keeping you very busy. I can tell. 

Jerome: Yeah, I think that’s what we do. We wake up and we find creative things to be able to delight and bring joy. Us as loyalty practitioners, I think that’s what we wake up for. 

Paula: Exactly. It’s the perfect balance about having fun and driving the business. I think that’s what I love about loyalty. 

Jerome: Exactly.

Paula: Brilliant. So tell us then Jerome, about the conventions that I have seen on your website, because what really blew my mind is of course, loyalty is not just a program. There’s so many different things that a business can do to create connection with its customers. And the conventions that I saw across so many different aspects of life really impressed me. So I’d love to get an understanding. I know it’s not your responsibility, but tell us about the kind of work that Globe Telecom does to connect with your consumers.

Jerome:  But yes, Paula, that’s correct. So thank you for browsing through our website and through the ads as well. So I think you mentioned the keyword that we really aspire for nowadays is really communities and conventions. So we do know that everyone has a mobile phone here in the Philippines. So, it’s really a saturated market here in our country as well. 

And, but to your point, a lot of them also doesn’t really maximize or really know what the extent of what their mobile phone can do. So majority of these people, they go to these conventions, to these community events to be able to gather around, get together with the same people with the same passion points to be able to explore and expand what they really like. And us here in Globe Telecom, that’s something also that we acknowledged. Even though these communities are very niche in market, so gaming, AI Korean. Korean is very strong here in the Philippines. So these are niche community markets we actually inject ourselves into as early as now. Because we do know that this is where our customers are. And we do like to be where our customers are to be able to engage with them. 

Well, Globe Rewards specifically, our role to play in this community is really getting them access to this community. So this community events they’re really held in big stadiums, big event centers, where are these artists and celebrities really come in. So it doesn’t come cheap. The ticket prices for these events are really at a premium. So us at Globe Rewards, we actually create packages and campaigns to be able to allow them to get access.

For example, for as low as 1 point, you can actually gain access already to community events, which actually just costs you around 3,000 pesos if you pay it up front. So just imagine that one rewards point that you earn based from your spend and loyalty with the Globe Telecom actually can get you access to the most famous conventions to the most sought after community events here in the country.

Paula: Incredible. Incredible. And before I had my podcast, Jerome, I don’t think I really appreciated how much fun it is to create. But again, I saw that at the kind of conventions you’re running, and I think back to my telecoms piece again, I wasn’t involved on the sponsorship side, but it’s a really wonderful way to connect with passion points. You know, whether it is, as you said it’s gaming, it’s community, it’s music, it’s creativity. So wonderful that Global Rewards has that specific role to play, to give access to something that is quite exclusive and make it available to them, even above and beyond the existing program that I know we’re going to talk about now, Jerome. So, so thank you for talking us through the conventions of the business runs.

Even before actually we get onto that, you also reminded me that I know you also recognize tenure, which I think is an important word. And just for people listening, of course, you know, so many businesses and brands, whether it’s airline loyalty programs or hotels, sometimes they just focus on spend.

But I love the fact that global rewards is thinking about how long has this person been loyal to us? How long have they been a customer? So I’d love to get a sense. Has that always been the strategy or have you had different changes in terms of how you recognize the loyalty of people for the network?

Jerome: That’s correct. That’s correct. I think from the beginning of the program even though, as you mentioned, even though a lot of the programs from the different companies, like airlines, telco, and so on and so forth it’s called loyalty program, but loyalty actually is equal to spend not really your tenure.

So, in Globe Telecom, so spend is also important. I mean, like any company spend and revenue will always be important, but I think what the differentiator that we did in our company is really, we fought after aside from spend, cause spend will come. I mean, like money will come from these customers, but what’s irreplaceable or what’s something that you cannot buy is their tenure.

So just imagine a prepaid customer who just spends, for example, the minimum with your company, but they stayed with you for around 20 years. So they’ve been with you through all the ups and downs. So no company is perfect. So even us at Globe Telecom, so you also have our share of ups and downs, but they wavered through it. And really stayed with you, still loved you and still purchased all of our products. So I think from us at the Globe Rewards team as one of the loyalty experts or practitioners in the company, we’re really at that forefront or we really had that opportunity to be able to drive tenure into the business.

That tenure doesn’t just really mean how many years you’ve been with us, but it’s actually how many hearts we have changed throughout the years that we have actually done the program. So, yeah, so it’s a balance of tenure and spend that we try to really give justice to for all of our customers. So, both are, both of our, of equal importance and both are something that we really strive and achieve for. 

Paula: Okay. Lovely. Lovely. And you do have a points currency. Am I right, Jerome? I know you have partnerships and we’ll talk about that. So you do have a points currency and of course you recognize then different types of behavior. 

The big one I know for you every year is the September campaign. So I’d love you to explain, first of all, the origins of that idea and give us a sense of what you’ve been doing, because I know you’ve had that crazy period of celebration now just recently. We’re recording here now just shortly after that. So tell us about the origins of your September activity and what you do and why. 

Jerome: Yes. So for us, this September is really one of our tenfold campaigns. We call it, it’s called the 917 G Day campaign, G Day Everyday campaign. So it’s actually on its eighth year. So together with Comarch, you mentioned earlier, Comarch is one of our most loyalty partners as well. So we actually nominated this program to have a one of the long outstanding loyalty awards. So you actually shortlisted and nominated for that program because it’s already, it’s an eight year this year as well. 

But eight years ago, Globe Rewards was your typical loyalty program, but eight years ago, we actually started to really double down on tenure. It’s a good question that we asked before. So all of this really stemmed out from tenure actually. So the main insight is we’re just recognizing customers based on spend. That’s it. We do have a loyalty program. We give them points based on their spend, but we don’t do anything else on top of it. So that was actually a good opening insight and opening idea for us to be able to craft this 917 GDA campaign.

So it’s called 917 because 917 is actually the first prefix that Globe Telecom had here in the Philippines. So it’s 917 and then we just played around it to make it September 17.

Paula: Brilliant. 

Jerome: 9.17. So before we just played around one day, one week of 917, but we took it another step further by actually celebrating a whole month of September just for our customers. It’s not really actually the anniversary of Globe, but some of our customers actually think it is. So what we, because it’s the month where we celebrate the customers, no frills, all genuine delighters, all genuine love for all of the customers. So it’s that one month in a year. Within as much as we can the loyalty, the freebies are much more higher as compared to the sales or the purchase that we ask from these customers.

So just imagine just if you’re a five year customer, a 10 year customer, you instantly get a reward from us. You don’t even have to do anything. You just have to go to the app and redeem it. And then the reward is just specifically tailored for you. So GD campaign is really started out that one, it really, it stems out from the inside of what are we doing to be able to incentivize more our most loyal and most tenured customers and then throughout the eight years, it has blown up to be able to become so much bigger and more.

So to your point, we’ve infused a lot of the community subculture conventions into that program aside from tenure, who would have think us as a loyalty program, we’ve crafted gaming events. We’ve crafted music festival events. With the hopes that with your one global rewards point, you can get access to these events as well.

Paula: Amazing. Yeah. 

Jerome: So, we’ve set a lot of the customers. In the US for example, concert is one of the biggest countries that you guys have here, and that it comes with a premium price. But here in the Philippines, you don’t even have to pay for your country ticket, but you get to gain access to, let’s say for example, the 20 most popular bands in the country for just five points. 

And then, yeah, we infuse a lot of those events with a lot of points, Play program, for example. In that event, we actually get you access to one point for a pizza, one point for a drink. One point for a beer. 

Paula: Amazing.

Jerome: So those are the things that we actually infuse into these events to be able to really get in touch with the customers because we do know that one point is really hard to obtain for them. So we really make it as hardworking as we can to really bring back the power of a point is equal to so much more than one peso. 

Paula: So I’m guessing you have to subsidize that then. So I’d be curious, is that how that works? You have a, I guess a limited amount because obviously the budget’s always going to be limited in some way.

So is that how it works? You know, you create this portfolio of rewards. You subsidize it and you offer them then, as you said, throughout the month of September, your kind of anniversary month, is that it, that you literally put this whole, I suppose, competition almost portfolio together to make sure that people start to get stuff almost for free?

Jerome: Yeah. So that’s one model of it. So usually a lot of the programs, things that you got to subsidize for all of this, but which we do, we subsidize for a lot of things during the celebration, because it’s really a month that we do know that it’s a month that we will spend, but it’s a spend for the loyalty of our customers, but to be able to really reach more customers and to bring that scale, the partnership piece comes into play.

Paula: Oh, tell us. Yeah.

Jerome: So aside from us subsidizing it, a lot of it is also together with amazing partners and sponsors that we brought up for this amazing campaign. So, together with them, we get to actually delight and really give benefits and perks to a whole lot of more customers at a more efficient, cost efficient way.

And then they do recognize and understand the mission and the vision where we want to bring it. So a lot of these partners and sponsors, even though it’s a spend for them, it’s a spend on their A&P. But it’s a spend that they’re really willing to give because they do know that once their sponsorship packages is with us, they do know that they’re going for a good cause of celebrating loyalty of customers.

Paula: Yeah, I really like that because of course, there’s all of the principles and safety and security of partnering with a big brand like Globe, you know, constraining it to one month of the year, knowing exactly what the intention is to sponsor your customers. It’s almost like you create that halo benefit. Where, you know, they get some recognition, some advertising, as you said, and promotion, you guys get the stickiness and together it’s that win, win, win which for me certainly is why I fell in love with loyalty. You know, it’s like those, all of those benefits joined together. 

And I think the piece that I also think is important because we used to do it at Christmas time. And again, we would go out to sponsors and we would source prizes. It actually didn’t have maybe the same scale, but it still had, you know, a theme. It had that whole experience of excitement and every year it got bigger. 

And I think we’ve seen it in other markets as well. For example, you know, in China and in the US you know, so whether it’s, you know, the 11th of November or whatever, there’s all of these big occasions during the year. And I think consumers really do appreciate it because it gives them a sense of something to look forward to.

Jerome: Exactly.

Paula: Gives you a sense, I suppose you’ve 11 months to negotiate and you’ve got time. 

Jerome: That’s good. That’s good. Thanks. 

Paula: Yeah, it takes a lot of time. It always just looks so beautiful and slick when it goes live, but I know how much work goes into it. 

Jerome: It does, it does. 

Paula: Yeah. So I think you were involved in that, in those partnerships as well, Jerome, all along. I think I saw, for example, other partners with with AirAsia, I saw partnerships with banks. So would you maybe talk us a bit through that as well? Because they look like, I suppose, always on type partnerships as well. So are they core parts of your core proposition? 

Jerome: Got it. Yeah. So, I mean, at the beginning of the program, we actually didn’t have this non telco capability or even partnering with this different sponsors and partners. So we started off with like a telco rewards kind of thing. But way back when, just before the 917 G Day pop out, we really doubled down or really getting a whole lot of partners and opening up our space for non telco lifestyle partnerships and brands.

So when we did that, that really took off. That’s where the program really took off to be able to really gain access to the customers that they don’t look at loyalty in our sense as just a form of a rebate. Because that’s the usual thing that you think. I spent more, therefore I get to rebate more, because it’s a bill rebate.

So that’s where we actually was able to shift that mindset of the Filipino consumers here to be able to think of Globe Rewards and loyalty as so much more as rebate. It’s actually now your gateway to be able to get access to lifestyle events, lifestyle partners. 

So for example we have partners before, I’m actually familiar with the KFC and Jollibee here in the country, here in the Philippines. So we have consumers really reaching out to us prepaid customers that it’s the first time to be able to get a taste of KFC and Jollibee because of our loyalty program. And then they were able to treat their sons and daughters for the first time in those events. So just imagine that the power of the points that you actually get from the program, that it doesn’t just stop at being at a rebate, but actually a lifestyle enabled to be able to give you more access to these partners.

So, currently, we boast around 100 partners here and there, so both local and global partners. It’s inside the catalog now, be able to offer up and then really, be a lifestyle catalog for our consumer. So whichever, regardless of what you want, if you’re a shopper, if you’re a gamer, if you’re a movie fan, if you’re a traveler, like Air Asia, or you just want black perks, like your credit card points conversions. So we have all those themes and catalogs to be able to cater to all of our customers, regardless of what your preference is, regardless of what your niche is. 

Paula: Indeed. And I think that is a brilliant point, Jerome. And I remember it again, back in my telco loyalty days where we would give away a lot of I suppose, quite affordable things again, with some of our sponsors, we used to give a lot of coffee. We used to give a lot of chocolates, so maybe not the healthiest, but you know, it was fine mutual choice.

Jerome: But it works. 

Paula: Exactly. And again, you’re mentioning restaurant brands there where, as you said, people may not have had the opportunity in the country to go and dine in those restaurants before. So I think what you’re creating is a moment that they actually I’m going to say we’ll never forget, and that might sound like we’re overstating it, but as you said, it’s a third world country. 

Jerome: Exactly. 

Paula: So for people who maybe have never been before, and even yesterday I had a wonderful memory with them. A friend of mine back from Ireland, actually, she was a customer of the same network that I worked on a different program, but there was a beautiful campaign where they were sponsoring the rugby team. This is, I know, totally off topic, but I think you’ll enjoy it. There was the number of the rugby players where they put the customer’s name in a tiny little space. So they reduced down, I don’t know, like a thousand people’s names to make up the number of the player. And this person was telling me this story and she still had goosebumps. And that’s 20 years later. 

Jerome: Yes, yes. That’s amazing. 

Paula: So again, It’s amazing. It’s a moment. It’s something that the brand did to connect with their customers to make it special in a way that you guys are doing. So, so well done on all of those thoughtful campaigns and making sure to reach as many people as possible at scale. I know you have, I think I saw 55 million customers, so not easy to get to everyone, but again, you just have to make that impact once and it stays there long term. 

Jerome: That’s correct. Just imagine that rugby example of your friend and that’s really like unlocking a core memory that to your point that they will never forget. 

Paula: Exactly. Yes.

Jerome: Ever, regardless of the switch networks or switch programs, they will never forget that moment. 

Paula: For sure. She will never forget. She would never leave that network. And as I said, her, you know, her skin was like standing up on end with the emotion and the joy of being on that shirt in miniature when the Irish team were playing the rugby. So absolutely extraordinary. 

So let’s talk about the key, like why we do all of this, Jerome. You know, there’s a lot of KPIs that I was always challenged by when I was working in this sector. So I think that’s something that again, every vertical has very different sets of KPIs. So for Globe Rewards, what is it that you consider success? What are you focused on driving? 

Jerome: All right. So for us, it’s one thing. It’s engagement. It’s customer engagement. So other loyalty programs without both, they would have both revenue and sales, and then they would have customer engagement. 

But for us, I think at the beginning of the program even with years before we really tried to fight that we will net, we will, we will help. We will be loyalty is really a gateway to be able to gain access to higher ARPU, higher top ups, higher sales and revenues for the customers. But it’s not the main KPI that we aspire for specifically from the Globe Rewards POV. So we really focus on customer engagement of how they would actually engage the loyalty program that we created for them rather than focusing on revenues and sales from us. 

So I do know that’s really also a very tricky KPI for a lot of the loyalty programs out there. But I think that’s one of the beautiful things that we’ve tried to institutionalize throughout the years that customer engagement is key for any loyalty program to work. So our team specifically as mentioned, we really wake up, create programs of how to create engagement and delightful campaigns for the customers, which hopefully it will not turn into millions the next day, but potentially it will turn into millions the next year, the next two years.

Paula: Of course.

Jerome: Because that loyalty engagement that you create for them will last you a lifetime.

Paula: It does. 

Jerome: So that’s actually the aspiration that we try to do. And as a KPI that’s one of the, we have a lot, we have a lot of KPIs. I’m sure everyone does. But one of the key things, the biggest share or biggest chunk of percentage that really gets us across is really the customer engagement. And then.

Paula: Beautiful. Yeah, as many people as possible.

Jerome: It really creates a flexibility for us for the campaigns that we create or curate for the customers that were not really hindered being able to think of revenue. That’s why partnership models for us, whenever we pitch to partners, it’s actually the best model because you get to take all the sales and revenues of your food and bed, for example, that’s all yours.

But what we will chase for is the stickiness and the engagement of the customers going to you. Just imagine that perfect collaboration and perfect sync between us, the partners, and even the brands that we have in here in Globe. So even of the prepaid business, the postpaid broadband business. So together with them, we really collaborate a lot of times to be able to create campaigns for them to drive their sales and their revenues and us to create more stickiness and engagement. So we don’t actually how do I say it? Cannibalize each other’s KPIs.

Paula: Of course. 

Jerome: So that that collaboration and that pattern chasing and North Star is really super synced across the different brands and partners. So I think that’s one of the key things as well. That’s a lot of partners wants to go in go in together with Globe because of that kind of engagement that we have with them. 

Paula: Brilliant. My final question for you, Jerome, is around, I suppose, the outcome. So I love the fact that you’ve got this engagement, the KPI. It sounds like your team has a huge amount of fun. But NPS is a very specific metric that I know, particularly as we’ve talked about, coming out of your September campaign, your big annual campaign. So can you give us any sense of what kind of performance? Do you see a change? Is it working? 

Jerome: For sure. So I think in general, so as mentioned, so before we talk about NPS engagement, because that’s in our space, the loyalty for a lot of maybe the listeners of this show as well for the business metrics all usually comes first. So the business of in telecom, it’s ARPU, it’s average revenue per user. It’s your top up, it’s your reloads. It’s your anti churn, for example. So in general, in all of the studies that we did, engage customers to our program really have higher ARPU, higher reload rates and higher attention rates. So across the board, as long as you’re engaged with the program, you’ll eventually be more you will invest more to the company, not today, not tomorrow, but for sure, in the long run, you will actually have a better stay with us. So that’s on the business side.

On the loyalty and engagement piece, whenever we talk about, so, I mean, KPIs engagement. The second one is actually NPS. So Net Promoter Score is really something that we all aspire and really strive for to be able to bring it up a notch. So for us, so throughout the years, I think we’ve increased our uplift around 20, plus 20 percentage points in our NPS scores for our customers.

Paula: Incredible. Yes.

Jerome: So that’s something, yeah, so it’s really driven by us being really customer centric and focused to be able to insight well of what’s not working, what’s what’s not working, what’s working for them to be able to pivot and iterate at real, hopefully at real time. So that’s really one of our aspirations because we’re also running as an agile squad, as an agile team.

So us being to do that, we get to release and give out more campaigns and try to just talk customers at a faster rate, then we get to iterate better. So it’s like failing fast, failing forward, and then I do it for the better for these customers. So that’s why NPS has really driven and really spiked up that much because of the multiple iterations that we did to be able to cater and really tailor fit it for what the customer insights are, what their pain points are and then try to deliver as much as we can.

So not everything will happen overnight. In the telco space, a lot of the thing is really more complex because of the technology. But as you as soon as we pin down the pain point and insight that we see that our customers feel, that’s something that we try to already address as much as we can. So that customer engagement and NPS starts with it and then the business metrics will follow. Revenue will follow, top up will follow, reload rates will follow. So as much as we can, those are the things that we try to instill when it comes to loyalty metrics of engagement and NPS, and then hopefully everything else will follow as well. 

Paula: Yeah, wonderful. And I think the point it proves as well, Jerome, is that, you know, loyalty has to be absolutely instilled throughout the organization as a long term strategy. You know, I do think that you know, from time to time, there are brands that think it can be done more tactically, particularly in the utility space, whereas more mature industries, again, like the airlines and hotels we’ve talked about before, realize that you have to build the momentum over time.

So I know I’m preaching to the converted, but thinking back when I was sitting in Ireland and trying to build my first program, I didn’t have that depth of understanding. So it’s wonderful to see it in action and, you know, incredible to hear 20 percentage points on your NPS. I mean, that is a huge leap. I think we all know how hard it is to push that up in such an ultra competitive sector.

Jerome: It is.

Paula: And again, yeah, talking to people around the world as well, like you’ve already made the point as well, Jerome, where I think loyalty programs are becoming part of, you know, I suppose a solution in a small way to the cost of living crisis. Or as you said, for people who may be below certain income thresholds, so we can make a meaningful difference. And that’s what I’m hearing coming through with Global Rewards. 

So listen, it’s been a fabulous conversation, Jerome. I’ve asked all of the questions that I was dying to ask you today. Again, great fondness for me to hear what you’re doing. I wish I met you 15 years ago. But have you any final thoughts or any comments from your side before we wrap up? 

Jerome: Yeah, I guess first off is really thank you very much for having me here, Paula. I think throughout the past, throughout the celebration. So, I’m sorry if I wasn’t here earlier cause you were doing the September campaign, but I’m so happy to be here to be able to share the vision and the beauty that we get to try to inspire to all of our, the loyalty, co loyalty practitioners that we have out there.

I guess, as a final word from us from Globe Telecom is really as mentioned the business metrics on those will follow. But at the core of everything is really look at the customer. So customer centricity, customer focus is really key. As long as we pin down the right pain point and insight and really chase a singular north star for all of us here in the company. I think that’s really one of the secret sauce that’s written working for us throughout the years as well. 

So I guess my word for all the other loyalty practitioners who will come to the show is hopefully we get to keep that vision. We get to fight, we get to keep the fight for the customers and re-engage them for the better. I think, I mean, like you said, I think everyone here, we’re preaching to the choir that we all love our customers so much that we create this delightful campaigns for them, day in and day out. So I think let’s not stop with that trust.

Paula: Absolutely.

Jerome: And really believing that we could do so much more for them. 

Paula: Indeed. And please, God, we’ll see you winning some awards next year in London. I know you’ll be entering again next year. 

Jerome: Hopefully, too.

Paula: So we’ll certainly see you there. So listen, it’s been a wonderful conversation. Amazing to hear all of the insights coming from Globe Telecom and Globe Rewards in the Philippines. 

So Jerome Patalud, thank you so much Director, Product Owner of Globe Rewards. Thank you so much from Let’s Talk Loyalty. 

Jerome: Thank you so much Paula. Thank you so much for having me here.

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 through its Loyalty Academy, which is already certified, over 500 executives in 38 countries as certified loyalty marketing professionals.

For more information, check out thewisemarketer.com and loyaltyacademy.org.

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