0:00 - on the experience in the first six months of program launch 1:27 - on gamification uptake, raffles, and seamless digital CX 4:02 - on new initiatives and features 5:34 - on partnerships 7:28 - on budgets for next year 8:59 - one advice for anyone looking to launch a loyalty program
GLO0:00 – on the experience in the first six months of program launch
1:27 – on gamification uptake, raffles, and seamless digital CX
4:02 – on new initiatives and features
5:34 – on partnerships
7:28 – on budgets for next year
8:59 – one advice for anyone looking to launch a loyalty program
Read full transcript below.
00:00
Ali Bin Zayed, EmCan Loyalty Program: It’s a great pleasure to be here discussing one of the most important aspects that not everyone sees: loyalty. It could be loyalty to a brand, it could be loyalty to a person, it could be loyalty to even a product. We are privileged to be responsible for such programmes and projects.
00:23
GLO: You’re six months into your loyalty program. How has the experience been? Has it met your expectations? Have you encountered any hurdles or challenges?
Ali Bin Zayed, EmCan Loyalty Program: I am very optimistic. For me, this is just the beginning. We’re just scratching the surface. However overall, we have very happy customers and a lot of signups. We exceeded what we had planned for 2023. We have achieved triple the KPIs we set for the year. The transactions, the conversions and the retention of the customers have been amazing. Now our task is to maintain the momentum to keep that ball rolling.
1:27
GLO: It’s great that you had such a great journey in the first six months and congratulations on your success. You have done several raffles since the launch. How has the uptake been? I remember the last time we spoke you were doing the Millionaire Raffle. Now you’re doing the Gold Raffle. Can you share your experience with our members?
Ali Bin Zayed, EmCan Loyalty Program: We took an innovative approach, moving from the traditional concept of raffles, which, in our view, made the customer experience more cumbersome. Traditional raffles require participants to fill out a piece of paper, hoping someone can read your handwriting, put it in a box, tear it apart, and keep that ticket with them. We wanted to make it simple and quick. Hence, we introduced a digital raffle. All you have to do is make a purchase, and you are automatically entered into the raffle. You’ll be able to track and see how many raffles you have entered into via your app.
We kicked it off with a 1 million Dirham cash prize in June to teach our customers the new culture of Emarat and the new culture of EmCan: digital and seamless customer experiences across all our offerings. The sales have been amazing. Very high sales and a lot of conversions: We have increased the basket size, and we have managed to acquire even more people during that period, which was a great success for us.
For the second raffle, we wanted to be a bit more innovative, support communities, and allow EmCan to be part of a community. We wanted to give tuition to eight winners to pay for their kids’ schools, their university education, or even their relatives, which was again something completely new to the market. This is how we want to interact with our customers. And now we want to give something for the holidays coming up, which is gold. There are many different things that we want to cater to and show our customers that we are part of their community. We are always part of your journey; you will always go and fuel with us, and you always pass by a convenience store. This is what we want to tell the customers: We are with you, and we appreciate your loyalty.
4:02
GLO: It’s a great idea to involve the whole family. You already said you want to be part of the community; you want to be part of the daily spending. What’s next? What can we expect next from EmCan?
Ali Bin Zayed, EmCan Loyalty Program: In the coming weeks, we will be announcing the introduction of a tier system for Emarat. The customers will get special benefits for being even more loyal. Members will get some exclusive discounts just by being extremely loyal. We’re going to introduce three different categories: bronze, silver and gold. For the bronze category, anyone who has recently signed up is a loyal customer; he took a step forward for us. When he becomes a more frequent, loyal customer, they will move to the silver category and get special features and special discounts. He can go to the cinema on us, and he can get extra points on specific items. So he will be exclusive to us. He will be a part of us that we appreciate. And of course, the more he spends within our ecosystem, he is going to move to the highest category which is gold and then he’s gonna have endless opportunities of different offers, VIP treatment and different outlets of demand.
5:34
GLO: This leads me to the next question on partnerships because as a member to be able to spend on a cinema ticket, for example, you need to have partnerships and agreements with cinema operators. How has your journey been in regards to partnerships?
Ali Bin Zayed, EmCan Loyalty Program: Firstly, we wanted to get to know our customers, we wanted to make sure that we understand our customers and we wanted to know their behaviour to give our members a better experience. Within the first six months, we managed to learn a lot about our customers: Where they like to spend, how they like to spend, what kind of products they want. Based on that we wanted to have specific partnerships that we will be announcing very soon in three different sectors. We are close to announcing our partnership with a major airline. We want to give our customers an opportunity to be part of EmCan even while they’re 1000s of feet above ground. We are close to announcing a partnership with one of the major retailers in the market and one e-commerce partnership as well. We want to cater to our members’ daily lives. EmCan aims to give members different opportunities to enhance their experiences. So, it’s not just a journey that you will take because you have to fill your car up or because you have to grab something on the go. Right partnerships can open so many doors and even enhance your experiences abroad and present you with different opportunities.
7:28
GLO: Looking forward to seeing the announcement about your partnerships and very glad to hear that you’re moving towards your dream of being the SuperApp. Building such an app will require a certain budget. Are you increasing your budget for next year?
Ali Bin Zayed, EmCan Loyalty Program: The budget depends on the products and services you’re going to add and the utilisation of the points. Our budget will definitely increase because we have tripled our customer base. We have increased our incremental sales by around 12% of the overall sales of Emarat, which is an excellent number. This is something we did not expect to achieve in the first six months. But with the great work from our team on the ground, our colleagues, as well as our marketing team we have managed to surpass our expectations. Our budget will increase given the utilisation of the points and the high burn rate. So far, within the first six months, we’re looking at around a 50% burn rate, which is which is phenomenal.
8:59
GLO: Since your journey is quite fresh and you started building this loyalty program recently, what advice would you give companies who are looking to embark on such a journey?
Ali Bin Zayed, EmCan Loyalty Program: Mainly they should ask themselves what type of loyalty program suits them (their product and their company) rather than copying other programs. Different companies and organisations need to decide what kind of loyalty program they need for their companies. In addition to that, they need to assess where the gaps are and decide on a strategy they want to embark on. So, I would say, first of all, they need to know the “Why”. Why do they need to have a loyalty programme? Secondly, who are your customers? And the third and most important part is the financial aspect. It’s very important to create value for the customer. Companies can just embark and say I’m going to make a loyalty programme but then fail to create value. I have seen these common mistakes in different companies. When we were working out the strategy with our partners it took us around six months only to create the perfect business case. Make sure that the business case is viable. Decide what kind of technology is needed and be clear about who are your customers. I would say focus on these elements and make sure that it’s not a wasted investment. Put in the effort at the beginning to make sure that the engine will run properly afterwards.
10:43
GLO: Ali, thank you so much for your time. I’d like to close with one of your phrases from our last interview. “If it’s not challenging, is not worth it”. We very much look forward to interviewing you soon again and hearing where you’ve taken your SuperApp the next time.
