Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Powered by Loyalty360
Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Powered by Loyalty360
Loyalty360 Loyalty Live | Michael Snyder, Comarch
Data leads the way in modern marketing, serving as the foundation for informed decisions at every turn. Today's customer loyalty strategies rely on an intricate network of gathered and analyzed data points. These insights are then harnessed to craft personalized communications, offers, rewards, and experiences for a brand’s loyal customers.
The science of data is a passion of Michael Snyder, Senior Solution Consultant for Loyalty and Experience at Comarch. Loyalty360 recently had the opportunity to sit down with Snyder and gain insights into how Comarch is embracing data-driven customer loyalty techniques to create meaningful customer interactions and generate measurable results for clients.
Good afternoon and good morning. This is John Diether with Loyalty 360, welcoming you to another edition of Loyalty Live. In this series, we talk to the leading agencies, technology partners and consultants in customer channel and brand loyalty about the technology trends and best practices that impact the ability of brands to drive unique experiences, engagement and, most importantly, customer loyalty. Loyalty Live allows the deeper insight into the state of customer loyalty as we surface these challenges from the brand marketers we speak with and use Loyalty Live sessions as a pragmatic and empirically driven response to those challenges, which helps brands understand and evaluate the challenges and opportunities before them. Today we have the pleasure of speaking with Michael Snyder, senior consultant for Comarch. Michael, welcome, we're glad to speak with you today.
Michael Snyder:Thank you, John. I'm glad to be here and speaking with you as well.
John Diether:Great. Do you mind telling us a little bit more about yourself, your current role at Comarch and your background?
Michael Snyder:Yeah, not a problem at all. So my name is Michael Snyder. I'm from New York City. I've been with Comarch about two years now. I'm currently our senior solutions consultant for Loyalty and Experience. I come from a background in data analytics, so basically working with data to help inform decisions. Moving forward with Comarch now, today, I help pre-sales and current clients with consulting needs to develop their platform to best fit their environment and business situation.
John Diether:Well, for those of us who may not be familiar, can you give us a brief overview of Comarch, specifically what you do, how you do it and the industries that you work with?
Michael Snyder:Yeah, not a problem at all. So Comarch is a technological powerhouse. Basically, we develop and implement different technologies across a wide spectrum of industries. Where we'll focus today will be on our Loyalty division, where we help strategize from free go live, different programs for new companies, engaging on their loyalty experience for the first time, as well as implementing or transferring current existing programs onto our platform. We try to provide end to end fulfillment. So we host the data, we host the platform, we do manage services for our platform and we even offer end to end rewards fulfillment. As a Comarch partner, we're here to work with them one-on-one to ensure both their success, because their success is our success with this platform. We also, though, work in a number of different other industries, such as finance and insurance services, erp and business intelligence systems. We operate in the healthcare space, as well as telco, e-invoicing and ICT.
John Diether:So, as the year winds down here 2023, it seems that Comarch's focus continues to be on retail, specifically in e-commerce, integrating with platforms like Shopify and Magento. Can you tell us more about Comarch's loyalty management system and how it integrates with these e-commerce platforms and how brands benefit?
Michael Snyder:Yeah, definitely so.
Michael Snyder:Our whole philosophy has really been to try to innovate from within and build our systems out so that way we maintain full functionality and flexibility. But in today's day and age, when companies' tech stacks are so divided and they're utilizing so many different platforms namely Shopify and Magento we really saw a need to adapt to that current market situation. So what we have done over the last year has been to build some free connectors between our system and the Shopify and Magento system in a way that goes beyond a basic API connection. That way, we are maintaining as much functionality as we can between the two systems. This also allows for a quicker launch and implementation on new clients coming on board and also lowers the developmental costs for integrating into a new platform. It also offers some better features for your current in-store e-commerce build for your customer front-facing aspects, as well as faster updates, and there's also more flexibility between systems. So some processes can be done within Shopify and Magento that you don't need to always utilize the loyalty platform for, so there's less training involved for your entire team.
John Diether:Speaking of the loyalty platform, how exactly give us some examples of how you help brands drive customer retention?
Michael Snyder:Yeah. So one of the really biggest aspects we're seeing right now is the need for personalization on a higher level because, as we'll see, you know, in the growing future, bigger companies like Walmart and Amazon they're encroaching on everyone else's space or just your competitors have some form of loyalty. So you need to make sure your program is as personalized as can be to meet your customer's needs before they even know it. So we help our customers with some data science offerings, analyzing different aspects of the program, determining customer lifetime value and churn rate, to target those customers in their best times of needs. With one of our biggest clients, jetblue, here in the US, they've really rolled out a new refresh of their program and they've created a new tiered structure that has some cool gamification elements, such as badges and tier markers, and once you hit your new tier level, you're actually able to choose your own benefits, as opposed to having just fixed benefits that are assigned to each tier level. So it adds just another layer of personalization and gamification as you continue through the platform and program.
John Diether:I bet you're seeing a lot of creative things with gamification. It seems to be quite a trend these days.
Michael Snyder:Yeah, I think that's probably one of the bigger trends right now. We're just trying to find that next level edge, something that they can offer, just inspire them. When we look at some of the most profitable companies in the world now, we're looking at gaming companies that are now equipsing Hollywood and music with revenues and they are just leading the way with special challenges and tiers and badges and whatever, and people eat it up. So you know, I think other companies are trying to follow suit.
John Diether:Absolutely. Let's switch to a more mundane topic now customer data collection. As you know, the data collection through e-commerce delivers key insights to brands as they refine their customer loyalty programs. But, due to current and proposed privacy laws, are the brands you work with implementing or planning to implement changes to their customer loyalty programs or data collection initiatives? What are you seeing in that regard, in response to privacy?
Michael Snyder:Yeah, no, this is definitely a hot topic right now. I mean us being based out of the EU, we are confined by GDPR standards, so we've kind of been in this space for a few years now, but, as we see, especially in the US California adopting a lot of these same regulations, customers aren't going to be able to rely on third party data as much anymore. A lot of that OVNC is going away, so our customers are now implementing first party data collection tools, such as issuing surveys directly to customers, adding different data points for preferences in their profile and then collecting all of that and using that for more personalized offers, as well as even rewarding some customers for bonus points or incentives for giving them that data.
John Diether:Gotcha, can you give us one or two concrete examples of a client that's building a successful loyalty program? What overall strategies do you see that have led to success recently?
Michael Snyder:Yeah, and I think one of our biggest examples is from ExxonMobil, one of our biggest clients here. I come from a background in data, so I know how important it is to have a big data first approach and make all of your decisions based on what you're gathering from your customers. So over the years with Exxon, we've really expanded our partnership to offering a lot more data science services. So now we are analyzing basically different products that are being purchased, where our customers are spending their points, and we're even expanding our partnership program with Exxon so they are bringing on other Fortune 500 companies to be able to earn and burn points throughout different partners and really expanding that offering to their customers, finding those unique points where their customers are yearning to explore more and basically offering that ahead of time. And again, this can work for more than just rewards. It's also personalized recommendations or even exclusive access to certain products that are launching ahead of time. Customers really want to feel valued and if you can hit that area of engagement, you will retain a lot more customers there.
John Diether:Excellent, Thank you. One of the things, Michael, we noticed a top trend that we see in our state of customer loyalty research is that a lot of brands are focused on redoing their existing loyalty programs, adding functionality etc. Are you seeing anything around program relaunches and updates? What are your clients looking for in terms of reinvigorating the program?
Michael Snyder:Yeah, and I mean we're in the midst of it right now. Exxon's undergoing some refreshing at this moment. Jetblue just relaunched their badge program recently, so I think a lot of it now is they want sleeker designs, they want to be able to move quicker with their customers and they also are feeling the heat from all their competition. Now Every space typically has all the major competitors having some form of loyalty, so now they need to start innovating a little bit more. We talked more about some gamification elements, but I think some customers are offering more experiential rewards and offerings for their customers.
Michael Snyder:So Ford, for example, another one of our clients. They have a Bronco challenge where, essentially, if you are one of the top performers in their program, you have an opportunity to win a trip to a national park. Try out the new Bronco, have a great time, get some great experiences in, and that's what I think customers are looking for. The next level how can they value me more? So that's what we're trying to do and show our customers that this program really brings them value. It's easy to engage with and be rewarded for.
John Diether:Well, you know that's a great talking about experience. That is a great place to test drive the Bronco at a national park rather than at your dealership. On the road you're not going to realize the potential of that vehicle driving or driving around the neighborhood by the dealer. So is there any trend or idea, technology that you think is the most important thing for brands to focus on? We know how they're reinvigorating their programs. Are you seeing one thing emerge as the most important consideration among these brands? Is it experiences as something else?
Michael Snyder:Yeah, I think really, you know, overall it's more the personalization.
Michael Snyder:Whether your grocery, retail, gas, whatever it is, you need to find offerings that are actually going to resonate with your customers.
Michael Snyder:So you need to even if it's a bonus discount, you make it relevant to what their recent purchases are or what they are maybe viewing online in your car, something like that, where you're actually touching on something they need. I think gone are the days of just generic offerings to your customers, because that's not going to cut it at this point. Another minor thing that I think we're seeing now is just with the explosion of the amount of apps that everyone has. I think if you have a mobile friendly web page that's viewable on a phone, that's going to go a long way for current and constant engagement, because not everyone's going to want to download an app at this point. So if you have a web based portal that's easy for someone to view, either through Safari, google Chrome, whatever, it'll go an increasing way between just constant enrollment for your customers beyond just having to download an app, because if they don't have service or something like that, it's harder to download than just viewing a web page Gotcha.
John Diether:Let me put you on the spot for a second. Let's say I'm a client coming into your office and I'm looking to revamp my loaded program to make it more successful. I'm looking for some quick wins. What do you think if you were given advice to me? What is? Some low hanging fruit, some obvious opportunities to get more out of the program.
Michael Snyder:Yeah, no, that's definitely. Everyone's always looking for that quick win, and I think really it's. You know you have to put in. You're going to get out when you put into this program. So again, I always go back to that data first approach. My favorite thing to look at is specific product purchases, and you can end up with our platform. You're able to segment them based on specific products that they purchase and then target them with cross and upselling opportunities. So now they're getting offers for different items that really go together that they didn't see beforehand. You're getting more data from them as well, and in this case, you can then add on some client satisfaction feedback surveys. That way, you're finding out if these rewards are actually resonating with them, using that surveys to then build more data into your team. So I think it's really just expanding that data science team. We're seeing an explosion with AI these days, and I think every company would be forced not to take some form advantage of that.
John Diether:Right, good advice. We're almost to the end of 2023. As we wrap up this year ahead in 2024, what do you see as the next big thing for Comarch Where are you going to be concentrating? You believe in the year ahead.
Michael Snyder:Yeah, so I mean right now we have two different types of platforms. We have an enterprise level solution and a SaaS solution. This way, we're actually catering to all levels of the market. We don't want to just be focused on the high end customers. We see the value in growing with the mid-range companies who are just embarking on loyalty for their first time. So I think we're going to continue to expand upon those offerings, which includes building out more integrations between the biggest systems in the world.
Michael Snyder:We want it easy for customers to switch to our platform, get launched and get ready to go. We don't want to drag out implementation times there. We'll also continue expanding our managed services and strategy offerings. We're constantly looking for new partners to offer cooler rewards. We have a big thing right now is F1 races. We brought on a partner that can get you exclusive access to F1 events throughout the United States. We're trying to offer that to new clients as well and, as I mentioned, we also are opening our new data center in Arizona there, so we're trying to host our customers' data there as well. We want to be that full end-to-end provider in the loyalty space, from hosting, strategy platform provider and rewards fulfillment. We're basically trying to be here to your one-stop shop, essentially.
John Diether:So it's like a busy year ahead for you, more or less? Well, you can exhale for a moment, because we're going to go into our Loyalty 360 rapid fire questions. We ask everybody these at the end of the interview, and it turns out to be one of our most popular features. So get ready, Michael. What is your favorite word?
Michael Snyder:I'm going to go with space. It's just my favorite thing in general. Wish I could visit someday.
John Diether:There you go. On the other hand, what is your least favorite word?
Michael Snyder:Eggs I know I'm in the unpopular category here. I'm just not an eggs lover. I wish I loved them, but everyone seems to enjoy them. I just can't stand them, and they make my skin crawl.
John Diether:I believe that's the first time we've gotten that answer, Least favorite word, eggs. So it's unique. What excites you?
Michael Snyder:I'm a big adventure sports guy. I like getting that adrenaline going. I've been doing MMA for the last 20 years, so something just gets the blood pumping in there.
John Diether:There you go. What do you find tiresome?
Michael Snyder:You know hopefully my boss doesn't see this but updating the CRM, we all got to keep all that updated, all that information up there, but sometimes just a tedious task.
John Diether:There you go. So what profession, other than what you're doing right now, would you like to attempt?
Michael Snyder:If I could be anything, it'd be an astronaut. Just want to get up in that space, so I'll see the stars.
John Diether:I should have guessed that. And what profession would you avoid?
Michael Snyder:Probably a nurse or a doctor. Don't really do too well around dealing with too many sick people, but got to commend them for doing the best job out there.
John Diether:There you go. I hear that a lot too. Who inspired you to become the person you are today?
Michael Snyder:I'd say you know, my family has a big part in that too. Also my martial arts group I've been training with the last 20 years. You know just a big family at this point and obviously my wife wouldn't be here without her today.
John Diether:And what do you typically think about at the end of the day?
Michael Snyder:End of the day, I'm kind of more a relaxation guy. I got a beautiful little pug. I just, you know, relax with him and my mind's at ease.
John Diether:There you go. Last question how do you and probably it's fitting this one's at the end how do you want to be remembered by your friends and family?
Michael Snyder:I think just you know, a kind and generous guy, someone who always you know will be there if you need.
John Diether:There you go. Well, thank you, Michael, for taking the time to speak with us today. It was great hearing your perspective on customer loyalty and absolutely will have you back as we look forward to learning more throughout next year to find out what Comarch is up to, and I want to thank everyone for joining us. We look forward to having you back on our next Loyalty Live soon. I'm John Diether. Thank you for watching.