Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Powered by Loyalty360
Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Powered by Loyalty360
#404: Interview with Michelle DeVore: Launching the Supercuts Reward Program
Designing an enterprise-level loyalty program from scratch is challenging on its own, but doing so for a large franchise organization like Supercuts—spanning 1,900 locations with over 400 local loyalty initiatives—raises the stakes even higher.
Despite the daunting nature of the project, leadership at Supercuts saw an opportunity to build on the brand’s existing culture of customer loyalty. With a culture centered on customer connections, they leveraged guest feedback as a guide throughout the process. These details- the holistic approach and the culture- are table stakes needed within an organization to lay foundational guideposts to create a successful and personalized customer loyalty strategy.
Loyalty360 CEO Mark Johnson recently spoke with Michelle DeVore, Sr. Vice President and Head of Marketing for Regis Corporations, parent company of Supercuts, who is responsible for the launch of the Supercuts for Reward Program. Their discussion touches on several fundamental principles in building a successful loyalty program and best practices that can apply to any industry.
Creating a loyalty program from scratch can be a challenging proposition. Creating a loyalty program within a franchise organization can be even more daunting as you have to work to create an understanding and alignment within the franchise network. To create an enterprise loyalty program from scratch in a franchise organization with 1,900 locations that already has over 400 local loyalty programs is even more challenging. Yet by surveying the landscape within the organization, understanding that there was already a baseline understanding of and interest in customer loyalty programs, add to that a culture steep in focus on and passion for the customers, effectively leveraging the voice of the customer and voice of the employee, was already commonplace. These details, the holistic approach, the culture, are table stakes needed within an organization to lay foundational guideposts to create a successful and personalized approach to customer loyalty.
Speaker 1:Today we are pleased to have Michelle DeFore. She's the Senior Vice President and Head of Marketing for Regis Corporations and is responsible for the launch of the Super Cuts Reward Program. Michelle, welcome to the Leaders in Customer Loyalty. Thank you very much for taking the time to join us today. How are you?
Speaker 2:I'm good. Thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to talk about our new program.
Speaker 1:Looking forward to talking about your program as well. Customer loyalty is always a fun thing to talk about in my world. So first off, for those who may not be familiar, can you give us a short introduction to Supercuts and tell us about your role with the company, and maybe even a little bit about your background as well? That'd be great to know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure. So I'll start with Supercuts. It's one of the leading hair salon franchises in the United States. We have over 1,900 locations in the US, puerto Rico and Canada and our value prop is really simple. We've actually been in the market almost 50 years. Our birthday is next year. We offer great quality haircuts at an affordable price and in no appointment required experience. So you can check your wait times ahead of time online. You can walk in, you can call ahead, but you don't have to have your name on the list in advance. You can walk right in and get that service and that quality cut at an affordable price, really at your convenience. And that's where we win. Our guests maybe don't always love to plan ahead, and so we can be the answer to that in their busy schedules and get that service for them.
Speaker 2:One of the things you know in my role as Senior Vice President, head of Marketing at Regus Corporation, supercuts is one of our brands in our portfolio, but I really focus on overall brand growth, innovation everything from social media loyalty, program development, but really telling the brand story in the market across all of our touch points and life cycle experiences.
Speaker 2:And as far as my background goes, I've been at Regus a little over two years but prior to Regus spent some time at European Wax Center, which is another franchise personal care and grooming brand, and then, prior to that, had been in a lot of high growth digital transformation companies and I've had the privilege of gosh I was trying to count it up before this I think I've redesigned to launch three from scratch and worked on kind of originally the Neiman Marcus group. Their in circle program is where I started my career and so kind of learned from the best. They were one of the originators of kind of loyalty in the business with their private label, credit card and in circle. So loyalty has been a theme and a string that's been throughout my career and it's been a thrill to bring kind of that expertise to Supercuts, which is, you know, a longstanding brand, and really bring that loyalty opportunity to those guests that come back and see us all the time. We want to reward them for that.
Speaker 1:Excellent. Very familiar with the European Wax Company, I think they've won a number of awards from Walthy360 back in maybe two or three years back.
Speaker 2:So yeah, that was a fun program to kind of update and tweak yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, perfect. So I know recently Supercuts announced a new loyalty program that you're launching a new loyalty program I think you just mentioned. As we prep for this, it was in September Can you tell us a little bit about the program, how it works, the benefits for being a member and kind of how you get customers to engage?
Speaker 2:with the program? Yeah for sure. So one of the tenants a lot like our service and value proposition. The program is simple. We reward guests for visiting our salons. They earn one point per dollar spent on both hair care services and also retail products so shampoo, conditioner, styling aids and then they can save those points to redeem for reward certificates. So we have three different levels there's a $5 certificate at 100 points, a $10 certificate at 200 points and then at 400 points you actually get a free haircut and you can redeem those. As I said, you can redeem them for cuts, for that free haircut, or their certificates themselves can be used for services or retail products.
Speaker 2:So what we found in the research and development of this program, you know it needed to be simple. Our services are simple and guests don't like a lot of extra stuff. But guests wanted choice. They wanted to be able to select where they spent and at what point they were rewarded. And then free haircuts were really an exciting benefit because that's a lot of the business that we do is cuts alone, and so being able to kind of build all of those into the program is really exciting. The other thing that's fun, you know we wanted to make this a really exciting thing to join, and so we've built in what we call a welcome bonus. So just for signing up, a guest gets 50 points, which gets them halfway to that first reward, which we love, because you know you want a program to be rewarding and exciting, but getting folks close to reward right out of the gate is something that that we think has really been been exciting and the guests really engaged really well with.
Speaker 1:That's a very important consideration for a program because we actually have been working within our member community to look at benchmarks and KPIs. We have an advisory board and one of the things that we did we developed a series of metrics, and time to first transaction or time to second transaction are very important Because many programs have customer loyalty offerings and people can accrue points. They gain significant value, but if they don't make that first redemption it can be challenging to keep them engaged right. So everyone's very journey happy right now. So the quicker you can get that first person or the individual to that, that that first reward redemption obviously bodes well for future engagement with the program, as you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure, and our stylists love the idea of. You know a lot of the signups that we see. You can sign up online on supercutscom slash rewards, or you can sign up in the app or in salon. We see that the majority of our signups are in salon, and I think a large part of that is because our stylists love the idea of being able to say, oh my gosh, you want to get rewarded for the service that I'm providing you, but also I can get you 50 points if we get you signed up today. It's a very compelling thing because our stylist in that relationship with the guest is so strong and so it works really well to have that welcome bonus there.
Speaker 1:And do you incentivize the stylist for, like, a programmatic perspective? Is there a sign-up bonus if they get 20 people, or are there ways to incentivize the stylist to encourage program participation?
Speaker 2:So that's not a tenant of the program. All of our stylists are employed by our franchisees and each of those salons are owned and operated separately so they have their own compensation models that they use. But I will say we've heard anecdotally that when a guest redeems for a free haircut, that tip is higher than if they had been paying out of pocket, and so there are those kind of additional benefits. I think stylists will observe and continue to see as the program gets traction and folks get up to those reward levels for sure.
Speaker 1:Okay, you know, when you look at the introduction of the program, the Supercuts Reward Program, what motivated Supercuts to design the program and does it stand out from other loyalty programs in the market? I'm not quite familiar if there are other programs in the market, or is this somewhat novel within the industry.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that you asked that because it's interesting. What we found kind of in our original competitive scope of the market was that there wasn't anybody at the scale of a salon network that we have that was doing programmatic loyalty. We actually had 400 different local programs that our franchisees were executing individually of our thousands of salons, and so there were some things happening locally but nothing was happening in a true overall Supercuts umbrella experiential standpoint, and so we felt like that was a huge opportunity for us to do that consistently at the brand level.
Speaker 2:But, moreover, we've been in business for 50 years. We love our consumers, we love our guests and haircuts hairs regrow right. We want them to come back to us, and so there's a large group of folks who are very, very loyal, and then we wanted to reward them. But there's also a lot of folks who, because they're you know, at the last minute, needing convenience, they may not continue to choose the Supercut salon over and over, and so we wanted an opportunity to make that a little bit more exciting for them to come back to us versus maybe selecting the one that's a little bit closer or the one just down the street. And so we're excited about that, and we've heard feedback from guests, certainly that they love how easy the program is to understand and really how relatively quickly they can earn rewards with coming back on their haircuts, routine or routine.
Speaker 1:It's interesting you mentioned that you had 400 kind of regional programs or individual programs before. When you look at behavior with regard to kind of getting your haircut, are people pretty loyal to a brand or a location? I know my son and I get our haircut at a competitor, sorry, close.
Speaker 2:Well, we're going to solve that today, Mark. You're going to be a member, we'll get you signed up.
Speaker 1:That's good, that's good. But you know, we go on a certain night cause there's certain people we know have been there for a long time. Right, we get our haircut probably every 10 days Sometimes it's fairly often so the pro. But we don't go to other locations, right, I mean we don't. We go to that one, that one, that one don't, I mean even though there's one a mile, two miles away and one maybe three miles the other way. So are people pretty loyal to one specific location or is there a segment of your audience who may go to three, four, five, 10?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So we see the majority of our guests are going to one salon, maybe two, and that might be that there's one close to their home and maybe one close to their office, but for the most part folks go to one, maybe two salons.
Speaker 2:I would say too, when we talk to our guests about why they choose Supercuts, the stylist comes up a lot, but also that dependency and that quality. I think one of the great things about the Supercuts brand, and why I think loyalty is such a great addition to it, is we have a very set way that we cut hair. There's a methodology to how we train our stylists, and so that quality is consistent, no matter the salon that you go to. And so it's kind of twofold. You may be loyal to a stylist, you may be loyal to a location due to its convenience, or you may just be loyal to the fact that, gosh, no matter what super cuts I go to, I know I can get in really quickly. I don't have to have that appointment. So there's a lot of different reasons. I think folks choose super cuts, but as far as salon frequenting, it's usually one or two.
Speaker 1:Okay, you mentioned that the program members. They'll get access to several member only perks. You know what are some of the exclusive member perks and benefits that you have planned for the program.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So one of them is that you know they're kind of going to be on the first notification level, almost like a VIP list, for any promotions or programs that we have coming out, so they'll get first dibs on if there's a new product launch, if we have a special coming out. We have a gift card program that is available to members in terms of, at the holiday season, being able to purchase gift cards at a discount. So there's things like that that they're going to have first access to or exclusive access to right out of the gate. The other is that in the future and this is very standard with loyalty, as you know, you know, once we kind of get a base of members out there and we've got folks aware of the program because it did just launch less than a month ago bonus opportunities where they can earn additional points for certain things, like maybe they're a haircut only guest If they wanted to try an additional service like a style or a blow dry.
Speaker 2:Those are things that we could incentivize with additional bonus points that we get really excited about, because I think you know folks know Supercuts for haircuts, but we're a full service salon. We offer color, we offer gray blending, we offer highlights as well as kind of those full styles and blowouts. So there's a lot, I think, that people can discover as members with these extra perks.
Speaker 1:Okay, you talked about the program, how it was constructed. Not a lot of competition in the market. Did you look at guest feedback, employee feedback when you developed the Supercuts loyalty program, especially in terms of potentially ways to engage the customers, ways to earn points and redeem points?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we started completely with guest feedback. So guest feedback was a huge tenant, but also internal stakeholders and our stylists and our franchisees, because Regis as a corporation, you know, we're nothing without our franchisees and the stylists are the ones doing the services. They are that product at the end of the day. So we did a ton of internal stakeholder, franchisee and stylist stakeholder feedback of what kind of things they think would appeal to a guest. What, from a financial standpoint, a franchisee would be comfortable with, a stylist would like because of those varying comp models, as we said. But then we took the ideas of the ways that we thought we could kind of construct this and really did a full survey with guests for validation. So it was a variety of research setups to understand, kind of relative to one another, the rewards and benefits. We also looked at the payout rates. So you know, I think this ends up being about a 5% payout. We looked at a higher and a lower payout to understand how appealing those things were versus one another.
Speaker 2:And that's where I said, you know, the free haircut. That was, by and large, the most compelling benefit across all of the constructs, across all of the surveys that we conducted with consumers, and so that had to be in the program, right. But these other things we learned about. Well, maybe you don't, maybe it doesn't have to be as rich, but they really wanted to be able to choose their rewards. They didn't want to be told you have to use this for a haircut or you have to use this for retail product. So I would say I mean, I feel like, of all the programs I've engaged with or built, this one is really built on consumer feedback and what those guests indicated to us. But I love that it also includes those considerations from our stakeholders in the market who are going to have to tell the guests about the program, right. And that's where that simplicity piece came in as well.
Speaker 1:Okay, personalization is a very germane relevant topic for our audience right now. We meet with our brands once a week and another brand will lead a topic on some area of customer loyalty. Customer experience and personalization is one we deal with quite often and when you look at how Supercuts looks at personalization, how do you incorporate it into the member experience, the broader customer journey, and what does personalization mean to you and to your guests? From you know a comprehensive customer loyalty and customer experience approach.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I think you know table stakes with loyalty is being able to know that Michelle is you know this consumer and this is her point balance. And so we mentioned we discussed a little bit earlier you know what kind of platform we're using. Our loyalty program is part and parcel to our POS system that we use, and so those consumer profiles and that guest purchase and transactional behavior is connected, which is really helpful to start with. So we one of the tenets of this and communicating the program out and, of course, getting new members was you're going to get that welcome bonus at the start, but also we're going to proactively communicate with you as you're getting near a reward, as you have a reward earned, as you have redeemed a reward, to celebrate that with you. And so that was those point balance communications.
Speaker 2:You know being really connected to that consumer is so important and just baseline table stakes of loyalty. But when you think about the super cuts business, you know it's haircuts, hair regrows and guess what? To your point, you and your son go really often I may go a little less a little less between my or a little longer between my cuts because my hair is longer, and so the right reminder for you of when to come back is probably different than the reminder for me, and so that is one of the things you know, right in line and parallel with loyalty and perhaps building on it, that we are trying to bring in our consumer behavior is okay.
Speaker 2:What is Michelle's typical haircut routine and how can we help keep her on that, help get her more engaged with our salon, maybe try something new? But it's all about kind of that one-to-one consumer timing, because we can set everybody at a four-week cadence or a six or eight-week cadence and that's a good way to start at least knowing their last date and when we think the average guest comes in. But it's such a variety and so I think that's one of the pieces that's really coming through from a personalization and the direction we're taking, even since I started two years ago of trying to take those stage gates and really personalize them relative to the consumer's last date of visit.
Speaker 1:Another question I have for you a little different question. So when you look at hairstyles, maybe for men or for women, do they stay pretty consistent with them? Because I know when I go in my boy go in. You know half guard here hair trip, but it's, they have notes, they work off right.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Sure, you have something very similar in your CRM system. Do people stay pretty consistent for periods of time or do trends influence different hairstyles? I know the mop was pretty. Yeah, I'm curious Did your son have the?
Speaker 2:broccoli hair, I feel like they call it. It's an interesting question because I think that's one of the fun things about supercuts Having been around for 50 years we've kind of seen every trend, every hairstyle right that's been through. I would say you know there are core classic styles that Supercuts and really any hair brand does and knows, I would say, from our consumer. They're not maybe as trend driven, they're probably more traditional or classic in those cuts. But on the flip side I mentioned earlier how we approach training our stylists and that consistency for that quality service no matter where you go. And the kind of other side of that of like training on those classic cuts is that we actually have trend content that we train on and provide video training and even in-person training on around color, around those new styles.
Speaker 2:You know the stuff that you see on TikTok even We've had content around TikTok hair trends. So our stylists are up on, you know, not only the everyday cuts so you can depend on. You know the regular guys crew cut but also kind of the latest and greatest as well. So it's, I think, a little known thing about Supercuts really how on the pulse we are because we're also nationwide right so we can see the trends from California to Florida and everywhere in between.
Speaker 1:That's interesting. So I guess with the mop haircuts you just let that grow old and look like it's dying off.
Speaker 2:It's probably doing that, right. Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Just kidding. Just kidding, when you look at other loyalty programs, brands now are not necessarily just looking within their industry, right, they're looking kind of cross-industry. Now are not necessarily just looking within their industry, right, they're looking kind of cross industry. They want to be one of the leaders in customer loyalty and especially if they have organizations that are focused on kind of customer loyalty from a holistic perspective, you know they look at other programs, things they like. They may not like partnerships, potentially the way the program functions, the reward structures you talked about earlier. So when you look at that, are there other loyalty programs that you admire and, if so, what do you like about their offerings?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know it's interesting, as I mentioned, there aren't a ton in kind of the personal care space or hair care space. I think that the one that I most recently. I have two little boys and they love McDonald's and so I've experienced kind of McDonald's pre rewardsrewards and their post-rewards and I've loved how front and forward they are with getting consumers, getting their customers, to make sure they're using their points and using their app, which I think folks who aren't as deep in loyalty don't understand. That like we do want you to redeem your rewards. We see your mentality when that happens, like please do. But I love how front and forward McDonald's is and how digital. First they are right that app, the in the store ordering they ask you to pull it up, and even at the at the desk. So I love how kind of comprehensive omni channel that is.
Speaker 2:And kind of the food space. I will say one of the things I love Nordstrom's kind of the Nordy club. They do a really great job of trying to get folks to try additional services outside of just come shop, come shop there's always things around their restaurants or trying alterations and some of those things. So I think, thematically, I love the idea of not just growing value with a customer, getting them to do more of what they're already doing, but getting them to try something new and get that holistic, you know, full guest profile built out further. So I love that as well. Plus, I love to shop, so it makes it a really rewarding program for me.
Speaker 1:Are there elements of those programs or maybe other programs that you've kind of seen, that you want to incorporate into the Superguts program going forward?
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure, you know, I think that front and forward of like when you get a new guest to your salon or existing guests, making sure they're engaging with the program and the opportunity that you know we want them to have FOMO if they're not members, right, and so our stylists are being ready for them to communicate with guests that way and being loyalty first and a lot of our web and app and even email communications I feel really strongly about, which is kind of like that, that McDonald's kind of show it everywhere, make sure you can't miss it. I think on the Nordstrom side for sure, as I mentioned, supercuts is a full service salon and I think there's a lot of folks who just come to us for haircuts and they probably are missing out on other services that they can engage with or benefits that they can have at our salons, and so I love the idea of being able to use loyalty to get them to try something new and kind of expand their awareness of what the brand offers. For sure.
Speaker 1:Excellent, new and kind of expand their awareness of what the brand offers. For sure, Excellent.
Speaker 2:Last question, a little self-serving you know what can Loyalty360 do to help you and your team with your customer loyalty efforts. Yeah, you know I would love for help getting the word out. As I mentioned, you know, the program just launched September 26th. We actually had a pilot that we did for a year and we had a wave, one group that launched in May and then the balance of the network at the end of September. But that was a large, you know the largest kind of group that we had to add on, and so we're still in early days. So growing that membership is kind of our biggest focus we have right now of getting folks aware and signed up, getting their welcome bonus so they can get in. So getting the word out there, linking to supercutscom slash rewards so folks can get more information about the program or sign up online if they want to, would be awesome.
Speaker 1:Excellent. We'll definitely get the word out for you, hopefully for this, and we'd love to have you speak. We have a couple conferences next year. We'd love to have you potentially even tell the story, then get in front of all your peers, and it could be a good opportunity there as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean based on what we've seen in our pilot program, which was what, of course, drove us to roll it out nationally. You know, benefits and consumer retention, some average ticket increases. They're spending a little bit more, even net of reward. We're really excited to have this out in the full system, and so I can't wait to be able to tell that story later on, when we've got a few more months under our belt of success that we can share.
Speaker 1:Excellent, now we have our wonderful quick fire question. Oh yes, I'd like to keep it to one word or short phrase responses. So, first off, what word or short phrase do you use to inspire others?
Speaker 2:Wouldn't it be magical if?
Speaker 1:There you go. What is your least favorite word that others use? Maybe, in the franchise world gold plate. Okay, what excites you at work?
Speaker 2:Optimism, Excellent. What do you find tiresome at work or at home? Gosh negativity.
Speaker 1:Okay, when you look at books that you may have read in the past, is there a book that you find impactful, that you recommend to colleagues?
Speaker 2:Two Good to Great and Never Split the Difference. Okay, what profession other than the one that you currently have. Would you like to attempt? This is so funny.
Speaker 1:I've always wanted to be an HSN on your host. Okay, and what do you enjoy? Maybe in the past that you enjoy that you don't maybe have enough time to do or don't get the opportunity to do as much today.
Speaker 2:I really love sewing. I was a fashion major and I just don't have a lot of time to get the machine out nowadays.
Speaker 1:Okay, and who inspired you to become the person you are today.
Speaker 2:Definitely my mom.
Speaker 1:Okay and last question how do you want to be remembered by your friends and family?
Speaker 2:To borrow a word from our theme, I would love to be known as fiercely loyal.
Speaker 1:Okay, great. Well, Michelle, thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us today. It was great getting to know a little bit more about you and also the passion you have for Supercuts and the program you just launched. So looking forward to hearing more about the program over the coming year. So thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. I can't wait to share more as we get a few more months under our belt.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and thank you, everyone else, for taking the time to listen, looking forward to hearing having you back for additional episodes of our Leaders in Customer Loyalty series soon. Until then, have a wonderful day.