Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Powered by Loyalty360
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Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Powered by Loyalty360
Loyalty for Good: How AARP Rewards Drives Emotional Engagement and Meaningful ChangeUntitled Episode
In the world of customer loyalty, few programs embody purpose as completely as AARP Rewards. More than a points-based platform, it’s a mission-driven engagement engine designed to empower people aged 50 and older to live better, healthier lives. By leveraging traditional loyalty mechanisms in non-traditional ways, AARP has built an emotional connection with its members that goes beyond incentives and aims for impact.
At the heart of this innovative program is Arapit Patel, Vice President of Loyalty at AARP. With a background in technology consulting and systems integration, Patel brings a product-minded approach to loyalty that’s focused on outcomes over optics. His path to AARP was unconventional, but his commitment to member well-being is unmistakable.
Understanding customers preferences, their interests and what their drivers of engagement and, more importantly, customer loyalty are, is very crucial in today's marketing environment. As people age, their passions and priorities shift. They become increasingly focused on health and wellness and they often prune their social networks. Yet seeking meaningful brand relationships and connections that add unique value to their individual scenario is very important. Personalization and authentic engagement can enhance their way of living, and though the specifics can vary from individual to individual, in today's leaders and customer loyalty series, we're going to be speaking with Arupit Patel. He's the vice president loyalty at AARP. He's going to be speaking with Aarapit Patel. He's the Vice President of Loyalty at AARP. He is going to be sharing some insights into the impactful initiatives that AARP has and they're implementing for their over 50 crowd. Aarapit, thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us today.
Speaker 2:How are you? I'm doing great, Mark. How are you?
Speaker 1:Well, thank you. Thank you for taking the time to speak with us. It's been a while, so looking forward to this discussion. Likewise. First off, for those who may not be familiar I'm sure everyone is can you give us a short introduction to AARP? Yeah, absolutely Happy to. So. Aarp is a nonprofit.
Speaker 2:We're a nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering people aged 50 and older to choose how they live as they age. Aged 50 and older to choose how they live as they age. So the organization was founded in 1958 by Dr Ethel Percy Andrews. She was a retired educator and, just based on what she was seeing around her, envisioned a better life for older Americans. So that's where AERIPE comes in. It's our mission. We're committed to enhancing the quality of life for older Americans through advocacy, information and services, and our work spans across health, financial security, personal fulfillment and basically ensuring members have access to what they need to support their independence, dignity and purpose as they age.
Speaker 1:Okay, can you tell us a little bit more about your role at AARP, maybe? How did you get there? How did you get involved in customer loyalty? How did you get involved in customer loyalty? How did you get involved in marketing? Were there some positions that you had along the way that inspired you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure. So I run the AARP Rewards Loyalty Program. How I got here, you know it's not really the trajectory you would imagine. I spent a majority of my career as a technology consultant, supporting a variety of clients and initiatives spanning strategy, application development, systems integration, cloud enablement, et cetera. And I came to kind of a fork in the road and I made a decision to leave for a smaller firm and that decision actually landed me at AARP to lead the technical build-out of the AARP Rewards Loyalty Program. And once the program was up and live, aarp basically opened a role to kind of oversee and execute on the program. And by that point I was pretty committed. I'd been working on it for a while and I thought let me throw my hat, throw my name into the hat, and you know I applied and the rest is history. So here I am, five years later.
Speaker 1:There you go when you look at some of the opportunities or potential challenges that you see within your role. What keeps you up at night?
Speaker 2:Oh, that's a tough question. I think some of the challenges we're dealing with right now are just keeping up with the overwhelming amount of change in the digital landscape, right With AI, with personalization capabilities. It's a big challenge we're constantly looking at. How can we improve our personalization capabilities? How can we integrate new technology to make our experience better, create deeper engagements and better guide our members through our loyalty experience?
Speaker 1:Okay, we've heard the AARP Rewards Program has been described as a social change platform disguised as a loyalty program. Can you tell us a little bit more about what that means and what inspired that approach to customer loyalty?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you heard me mention our mission, and so on a day-to-day basis, we're working on how we can empower people to choose how they live as they age, and our personal job is doing that with AARP Rewards, and so basically what we do is we incentivize folks to take positive steps towards behavior change that we know is going to help them through the various life transitions that folks go through. Aarp has over 60 years of research indicating that folks, although different, a lot of people go through the same life transitions as they get older, whether it's transitioning from working to being on fixed income or transitioning to becoming a caregiver, and those transitions require support and knowledge and if you know how to navigate them, that is the best way to mitigate the negative effects of that.
Speaker 2:And so we incentivize, you know, folks learning about that, practicing that we give points for, for example, you know, taking daily steps or taking a quiz up and learning about caregiving or filling out a retirement calculator to really understand and look at your finances. And so we use the kind of basic give get of the loyalty program to incentivize people to learn basically and make it a little more fun.
Speaker 1:Okay, and AARP rewards is different from many traditional loyalty programs. You've talked a little bit about how the program is different. Can you tell us a bit more how the program is different and many traditional loyalty programs? You've talked a little bit about how the program is different. Can you tell us a bit more how the program is different and how you pull together such a collective of brands to support your efforts?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, like I mentioned, the key difference is we're incentivizing learning and making positive changes to your life, building healthy habits, all to ladder up to our eventual goal, which is, you know, total wellness for our users. And so the key difference there being we're not incentivizing a transaction or a commercial activity or some kind of purchase. We're incentivizing a transaction or a commercial activity or some kind of purchase. We're incentivizing that engagement with the content that we put out and our hope is that it helps further our social mission. It helps people live better lives.
Speaker 1:Okay, the AARP membership comes open to people once they turn 50 years old. As everyone knows, that means the membership is primarily baby boomers, some gen x, now uh, and soon will be millennials. You know how? Have your members needs and preferences changed? Uh, as the you know, you move from the different generations?
Speaker 2:yeah, that's a great question. I mean we, we try to think about yeah, that's a great question. I mean we try to think about, you know, what is common among generations, right as an issue that only boomers would care about, but we have data that shows about 29% of family caregivers are millennials or Gen Z, and so you can see how there are some misconceptions about hey, is this really relevant to this specific generation? But what we found is, across the key areas that we focus on, the generation doesn't make that big of a difference. I think what does change are the tactics we use to potentially engage with different generations and how we help them potentially, over time, support these different life transitions.
Speaker 2:A simple example is some of the digital transformation we've overgone the past many years. As younger generations start to get into the fold with ARP, we have to connect with them in new ways. We have to connect with them where they are, and they are in the digital space.
Speaker 1:Okay, Customer loyalty is a very important facet of many brands' customer approaches right their marketing approaches, customer experience approaches and having an effective customer loyalty program is very important, but some brands struggle with that. When you look at the customer loyalty approach of AARP, how does that? Kind of fit into your broader mission, particularly when the mission is rooted in more societal impacts, more personalized impacts than profit necessarily.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I think we've talked about that a little bit in terms of how the program is structured to align with our mission. But I think the key answer to your question is you know there's multiple ways to look at loyalty. You can look at transactional loyalty, which is there's multiple ways to look at loyalty. You can look at transactional loyalty which is hey, I made a transaction here today, I get incentivized to make it tomorrow, I get incentivized to make it a week from now, and then I get into a habit and build that transaction loyalty with a brand. Since we don't have those kinds of transactions, I think where we focus is on the emotional loyalty side. Right, we try to make a difference in our members' lives. We try to make an impact there and build that emotional loyalty through what we incentivize content, getting more support on how they should structure their finances, financial well-being as they transition to retirement. That leaves a lasting relationship between the brand and the individual, and so we strive to strike that emotional loyalty as opposed to that transactional loyalty.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I think other brands, even if they want to create more transactions, can also look at that model and fold it into how they approach customer loyalty.
Speaker 1:Okay, how do you define success with your customer loyalty program? What metrics are you looking at? Obviously, enrollment, engagement. Are there other metrics that you're looking at that really speak to the success and the efficacy of the program?
Speaker 2:Yeah that you're looking at that really speak to the success and the efficacy of the program. Yeah, I mean you talked. You know we look at the core KPIs, just like any loyalty program enrollments. You know active users, you know how many engagements we get per user time on site. We look at all the basic kind of digital KPIs, but I think the key thing we really look at is our customer feedback and customer satisfaction scores. You know our program users are great. They always tell us when something's not working, but they also give us really good feedback on the impact that we've really made on their lives, on some healthy habits they're building just by being a part of the program and we really pay attention to that type of feedback to see that we're on the right track and we're achieving what we want with the program.
Speaker 1:Okay, fraud's a big concern for many brands right now with regard to loyalty programs in general. You know, is fraud something you're seeing at AARP and, if so, how does AARP take to kind of the challenge of protecting the loyalty and reward program from abuse fraud, gaming that, you know, seems to be quite frequent these days?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean that's a great question, mark. I mean it's something we work on every day. You know fraud will be a concern anywhere that there's value for users. We take it very seriously. You know we have a layered approach to contain fraud, to protect the program for our members and keep the value for our members. But it's challenging, right? We don't want to create such a tight environment where we create undue burden on our members, and so there's always that balance that we have to strike on the fraud controls we have in place in order to protect the program and the folks that use it. So you know it's a daily battle.
Speaker 1:There's no winning right.
Speaker 2:It's a chess match that goes on forever. Technology has been great for loyalty programs, for you know, furthering a lot of our social mission, but it's also been a terrible tool for bad actors and for fraud that impacts us and I think you know, across the board, you see cyber crimes on the rise. So it's a challenge. Yes, for loyalty programs, but I think just across the board, if you have a digital footprint, there are folks looking to expose any gaps you have in your approach.
Speaker 1:Okay. When you look at a strong loyalty program, the goal is to have a deeper, longer term connection with your customers. Personalization making sure that there's engagement, processes and techniques that truly resonate with the customer. When you look at AARP, what are some of the things that you are doing to keep your customers actively involved with the program over time?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think our biggest thing we do is kind of freshness right. We try to keep the program fresh. We want to constantly have new content, new rewards, new ways folks can engage with us. We try to figure out new experiences we can build into our ecosystem. Like you know, we have site-wide scavenger hunts. We have, you know, some wheel spin opportunities. We celebrate milestones. You know we curate learning challenges. So I think the key is staying nimble and hungry to introduce new value into the program so that even folks that have been with you for a while keep finding something to come back for.
Speaker 1:Okay, have there been any surprises when it comes to what's actually driving engagement? Is there a type of content or reward that may work better than you had anticipated?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a good question.
Speaker 1:I think the you know, as you would imagine financial content, health content.
Speaker 2:those earning activities are super popular with our users. They resonate with what a lot of people focus on on a daily basis. Surprising is we have speaking of fraud. We have fraud content that folks can engage with and one learn about what's going on out there and also help prepare and protect themselves from fraud attacks. And we were actually quite surprised at how popular that content was. And you know we've all been there, we've all gotten those spam calls or those text messages saying we haven't paid our tolls, and so you know, just like fraud against businesses, you know that B2C fraud is also increasing and it was surprising to see how aware folks are about that and how eager they are to learn and protect themselves. Okay, so we're doing everything we can to make sure they have what they need yeah, it seems that the, the fraudsters, obviously kind of move more towards organized crime.
Speaker 1:That's what we've heard, you know, from the, the members of wealthy 360. It's a topic we meet every three months on and brands kind of an open discussion around what they're seeing, which is obviously very impactful. But it's becoming more organized, more frequent. I mean it's it's on facebook, now it's linkedin and and linkedin has become like the king of fraud recently, just people trying to connect with you just to, uh, you know, befriend you, so uh, but they seem to have one to three connections and they just created their linkedin profile. So, uh, you, you would hope and think that potentially some of the walled gardens can do more to kind of mitigate that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:So when you look at personalization, that's another very relevant topic right now, very germane to our audience. Making sure you get it right, have the right data, have the right content, right channel, right message, right. It's a big opportunity. Some brands do it very well. What does personalization mean to you and to the members of AARP?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Mark, I think that's a challenge for every brand to define for themselves. At AARP, we have a term internally we use called responsible personalization. We want to do it in a manner that really supports what users are coming to us for, that really meets their needs. And so, you know, I think the key driver for personalization for us is discoverability of relevant content. Right, If you're coming to us for a specific need, or maybe even you don't know you have a need, a specific need, or maybe even you don't know you have a need, and we can use personalization and all of our research to put content in front of you we think will be relevant to you, can help you as you transition through life and meet challenges. That's how we really want to use personalization, right, Because we serve a really broad audience.
Speaker 2:You know the 50 plus is a lot of people and people are at different stages of life, and so you know content is hard to curate for it as a one size fits all, and so that's I think that's where personalization really comes in. You know, a 49 year old might have very different needs than a 69 year old, might have very different needs than a 35 year old-old, might have very different needs than a 35-year-old, and we want to be here to support all of them, and so I think using personalization to make sure your journey through ERP is as relevant as it can be to you and your needs is where the powerful personalization lies in for ERP. Okay.
Speaker 1:When you look at your customer loyalty program overall more holistically, what are two or three things you're most proud of?
Speaker 2:loyalty program overall. More holistically, what are two or three things you're most proud of? Good question um. First, I'd have to give a shout out, of course, to my team. Now, we're small but mighty team and the outsized impact we've been able to create through our peer rewards is something I'm very proud. Proud of um on a daily basis. Um, and I think you know. Adding on to that, I think the scale we've achieved as I'll call it a startup team within a larger organization has been great. I'm super proud of it. I mean, it can be a real uphill battle to challenge the status quo while simultaneously building necessary partnerships across an organization like ERP or any organization rather, and I think we've navigated that really well and it set us up for success and I'm super proud of that as well.
Speaker 1:Okay, and last question today what can loyalty 360 do to help you and your team and their customer loyalty journey?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I think learning from other loyalty programs is always fantastic. There's so many great ideas and great ways to deliver value to members, and we love hearing about how other programs do that successfully, how they're able to connect with their users and really, you know, at the end of the day, drive value to their lives, which is what we're here to do.
Speaker 1:Excellent, and now we have our wonderful quick fire round of questions. The first question is you know, what word or short phrase do you use to inspire others?
Speaker 2:That's a good question. I find myself often saying is it difficult or are we making it difficult?
Speaker 1:Okay, what is your least favorite word?
Speaker 2:Synergy.
Speaker 1:Okay, what's your favorite food? Pizza. What excites you at work?
Speaker 2:Seeing the positive impact we have on real people. I talked about the feedback that we get in review. Some of it's really touching. It's really great to be able to do something on a day-to-day basis that's actually helping folks out in the real world.
Speaker 1:Okay, what do you find tiresome at work or at home?
Speaker 2:At home. I would say what do I find tiresome? My kids can be tiresome. I have two little girls. You know it was a lot of work At work. I would say meetings can be tiresome. There are just so many meetings to be attending, um, and I think they do get overwhelming at times.
Speaker 1:Makes sense uh, is there a book that you've read? Uh, you really like that you recommend to colleagues.
Speaker 2:Oh um, it's not about work, but I recently read Dune after watching the movies, and I thought it was a fantastic book.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's awesome, that's good. Is there a profession that you would like to attempt, maybe a little different than the one you have now? So what is it?
Speaker 2:I don't think I'll ever attempt it, but I've always wanted to be an astronaut. That sounds fun.
Speaker 1:There you go. Is there something that you enjoy doing that you don't get the chance to do as much anymore?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like doing DIY projects around my house tearing things down, building them up new. I just don't get the time to do it as often as I'd like anymore okay and who inspired you to be the person that you are today oh, that is a tough question prior to say my dad, okay, and how do you want to be remembered by your friends and family? As someone who's dependable and likes to have fun.
Speaker 1:Perfect, great responses, very insightful. And then you know, thank you for the overall interview as well. It was great getting an update on AARP, some of the vision you have for the program, how you're focusing on making you know everyone's life better, especially for the members. So it was a very interesting interview and very timely, so thank you, thanks, Mark. Very timely so, thank you.
Speaker 2:Thanks, Mark.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and thank you everyone else for taking the time to join us today. Make sure you join us back every Thursday for our Leaders in Customer Loyalty series, the Brand Stories edition. And until then, have a wonderful day.