In this edition of TheCustomer QT: The untold riches in loyalty asset value, more personalization = less accuracy, paying attention to Kahneman’s System 1, and what better way to walk the dog??
Happy skimming!
LOYALTY 
American Airlines to Use Frequent-Flier Program to Raise $7.5 Billion
Quick-Take: The airline on Monday said it would issue $5 billion in notes and seek a $2.5 billion term loan backed by AAdvantage, its loyalty initiative for customers, to secure the funds.
Gap Inc. Bets on Yeezy, Loyalty Programs
Quick-Take: The company aims to turn every customer into a loyalist, and started on its goal by shifting dollars into rewards programs like Navyist, Gap Good, Banana Republic and Athleta. In Q4 alone, the brands enrolled 6.4 million new program members.
This is how traveler loyalty has changed
Quick-Take: Ketchum’s research suggests that nearly 70 percent of travelers think loyalty is becoming more difficult to maintain, she says. And almost 9 in 10 consumers say brands aren’t doing enough to earn their long-term business.
PERSONALIZATION
Market Research In The Era Of Consumer Data Empowerment
Quick-Take: Empirical studies show that the accuracy of targeting one attribute in an online ad, gender, is 42%; for two attributes, gender and age, accuracy rate is 20%. For three attributes – gender, age and income – accuracy goes down to almost zero. A brand team might as well toss dice or spin a roulette wheel to target digital ads.
Consumers Want Personalization, Especially Those With High Incomes
Quick-Take: Almost 81% of those with an annual pre-tax income of over $200,000 rate personalization as important.
Top Retail Personalization Brand Index
Quick-Take: “Brands at the top of this year’s Index—even those with significant brick and mortar investments—are financially successful because they operate at the speed of the customer, compared to many other organizations that have been challenged by a lack of agility,”
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Digital transformation: 3 driving trends
Quick-Take: Resilience-building technology is more important than big-bang innovation
Companies faced unprecedented uncertainty and instability throughout 2020, with technology investments focused on returning to near-normal or maintaining some level of stability. In 2021, they’ll need to do the “simple” things using technology better to make their organizations more resilient.
Enterprise Design Thinking Can Improve Data Security
Quick-Take: Enterprise design thinking is a framework used to help teams across multiple industries focus on the true purpose of a design: to serve the customer and solve their problems. It involves a human-first approach to designing a product or concept that scales into the enterprise.
DATA & PRIVACY
Virginia Is for…Privacy?
Quick-Take: The CDPA applies to entities that conduct business in the commonwealth and either: Control or process personal data of at least 100,000 consumers; or Derive more than 50% of gross revenue from the sale of personal data and control or process personal data of at least 25,000 consumers. Notably, the general revenue trigger present in the CCPA is not present in the CDPA.
How Cybersecurity Experts Can Nudge Users
Quick-Take: Cybersecurity professionals need to recognize that many users act on autopilot, so building behaviors that naturally rely on System 1 thinking is key.
CX
Evolving Customer Experience Trends
Quick-Take: Customer experience (CX) is number one. It’s the battleground today, and it is hard to do right. We’ve gone from “tell me in my terms” (e.g., press 1 for billing, press 2 for loans) to “tell me in your words” (e.g., “How can I help you?” with a response in natural language), largely pushed forward by increasingly popular smart speaker experience. Today, people rank their financial experience not against other banking apps but against the best apps and websites that they deal with.
Customer engagement beyond the pandemic
Quick-Take: As per the study, 88% of marketers believe their teams have excellent or good customer engagement practices, but 74% still worry about translating it into tangible business outcomes. Only 26% of marketing leaders say their firms have a shared, company-wide definition of success when it comes to their customer engagement campaigns.
TECHNOLOGY
Stop Experimenting with AI and Machine Learning
Quick-Take: Gartner predicts that by 2022, at least 50% of ML projects will not be fully deployed into production.
UX
Why Clubhouse’s UX is so alluring
Quick-Take: There’s the fact that audio is a great background medium. I grew up in a household where public radio, the BBC in my case, was always playing in the kitchen. Audio is perfect for multitasking. People listen to it while commuting to work, sitting at their desks, or walking the dog.
Photo by Ja San Miguel on Unsplash.
