With a legacy that spans nearly a century, Tractor Supply Company (TSC) has grown from a humble mail-order catalog to the largest rural lifestyle retailer in North America. With over 2,500 stores across the U.S., including the Tractor Supply brand and pet-specialty retailer Petsense by Tractor Supply, the company continues to evolve—not just in size, but in how it builds meaningful, lasting relationships with its customers.
Driving customer loyalty for the brand is Joe Leone, Vice President of Marketing, who now leads Tractor Supply’s LEAP team, an integrated unit that oversees Loyalty, Engagement, Analytics, and Personalization. Leone and his team are reshaping the company’s customer experience through data, strategic listening, and a deep commitment to mission-driven loyalty.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
I want to welcome everyone back to our Leaders in
Customer Loyalty series, theBrand Stories Edition, where we
spotlight strategies, successesand standout voices shaping the
future of customer loyalty.
We're glad to have you with usevery Thursday.
In today's episode, we're goingto be joined by Joe Leone.
He's the Vice President ofMarketing at Tractor Supply,
(00:25):
known for a life out here with adeeply customer-centric
approach to their customers,Very focused on customer
experience and driving emotionalconnections to their loyalty
program.
Tractor Supply recently earnedsilver in the Customer Loyalty
Transformation category at the2025 Loyalty Expo, a recognition
that reflects their ongoingcommitment and evolution to
(00:48):
their Neighbors Club loyaltyprogram.
Joe's going to join us today todiscuss that transformation, the
strategic vision and importanceof the Neighbors Club, and how
Tractor Supply continues to meetits unique customer needs in a
rapidly shifting and shapingretail environment.
Joe, congratulations on theaward.
Thank you very much for takingthe time to meet us today.
(01:09):
How are you Doing?
Great Thanks for having me.
Absolutely Looking forward tothe discussion.
First off, for those who maynot be familiar with Tractor
Supply, can you tell us a littlebit about the company, a little
bit of a backstory?
How, why was the companystarted?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Yeah, so Tractor Supply has been around for the
company a little bit of abackstory, you know how.
Why was the company started?
Yeah, so Tractor Supply hasbeen around for a while now.
We celebrated our 85th birthdayanniversary a couple years ago.
We were founded back in the 30sand it started as a mail order
parts catalog.
And today fast forward.
We're the largest farm andranch retailer in North America.
(01:45):
We have about 2,500 stores.
It's 2,200 or 2,300 tractorsupply stores and about 200 pet
cents by tractor supply storesand counting.
We're adding more every year.
So clearly there's been alittle bit of an evolution there
from a parts catalog back inthe 30s.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Okay, what's led to?
Speaker 2 (02:08):
the great success that Tractor Supply has.
I think lots of factors go intosustaining success as a
retailer.
The one thing I'd mention hereat Tractor is our culture and
our mission and values.
We really work well together asa team and everyone is kind of
aligned around serving ourcustomers.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
There is a team and everyone is kind of aligned
around serving our customers.
Ok, let's talk about you alittle bit.
Can you tell us a bit moreabout your role at Tractor
Supply?
You know how did you get towhere you are today?
Have you been in customerloyalty for a while?
You know what led you to thisrole?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah.
I was recently given a newopportunity to kind of lead the
broader what we call the LEAPteam at Tractor L-E-A-P.
So that's loyalty, engagement,analytics and personalization,
so all related to our customersand all under, like, the
marketing umbrella.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
I've been with.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Tractor a number of years now.
I've had the chance to work ina handful of different teams in
different departments.
I've been on both themerchandising and marketing side
now, so it's been fun.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Okay, when you look at your role a new role in Leap
what kind of keeps you up atnight?
What are the biggest challenges, opportunities that you face
with your position?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah, I mean, it's retail, right, so everything
keeps me up at night.
I think the challenge ofknowing that every day, somebody
somewhere is out there tryingto do what you're doing better
than you are, so you never sitstill, you always have to move
forward and constantly belooking for the next thing and
(03:39):
kind of peeking around cornersthat's the fun of retail.
It's also the challenge ofretail is there's always
somebody you're competing with.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Okay, at the 2025 Loyalty Expo, you were given an
award for your customer loyaltytransformation, which was great
to hear and see.
Can you tell us a little bitmore about the transformation of
your customer loyalty program,the Neighbors Club, which
originally I think was launchedin 2015?
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Yeah, so back then we started Neighbors Club, which
originally I think was launchedin 2020, 2015?
Yeah.
So back then we startedNeighbors Club as more or less
an email list back kind of midlast decade, and over time it's
evolved.
So it's evolved intofull-fledged loyalty program.
Today We've added a tieredpoints-based program back in 21,
and we've continued to add andkind of evolve benefits and
(04:27):
features over time.
And specifically last year wetook some pretty big steps in
the program so we really wantedto make it more rewarding for
our customers.
We listened to our customersand the number one thing they
told us was it took too long toearn rewards.
So we addressed that directly.
We introduced a lower rewardvalue and so they saw more
(04:50):
benefits more often.
At the same time, we loweredour tier thresholds so they
don't have to spend as much toget additional benefits in the
program, and both of those werereally big hits.
We saw large increases inengagement and customer
satisfaction with the program.
And then separately we also kindof ramped up our
personalization efforts, workedto be even more relevant and
(05:12):
more personalized to ourcustomers.
And lastly, we also rolled outour Hometown Heroes program last
year, which is our firstresponder and military program
and veterans and we tied it intoNeighbors Club to give
customers an everyday benefit,put them in the top tier and
give them other special benefitsand discounts.
So pretty busy last year.
(05:33):
A great year, fun to see allthe work we did kind of come to
life and we saw big increases inmore or less all the metrics.
We track around our customersand their engagement with the
program.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Okay, excellent.
When you look at customerloyalty very important now and
we heard at the 2025 LoyaltyExpo that many brands are really
leaning into customer loyaltyand moving away a little bit
maybe from acquisition andtrying to leverage the very rich
data set and kind of emotionalconnections they may have with
their customers.
So, when you look at customerloyalty, what does customer
loyalty mean to you and toTractor Supply?
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Yeah, I think the best definition I've heard on
what is customer loyalty iswhether a customer is willing to
drive past your competitor toshop in your store, and that's
really what we're trying todrive.
Is we're trying to drive thatextra trip?
Our stores are in ruralcommunities.
(06:30):
People don't always live superclose and they might have to
drive past a Walmart or a HomeDepot or another farm store to
find us.
And that's really what we'restriving for.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Okay, and how does the neighbor club, neighbors
club program fit into thatvision for customer loyalty?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Yeah, so I mean, we're building it every day,
right?
So Neighbors Club is basicallylike the connective tissue that
ties together a lot of things atTractor.
It's kind of the foundationalplatform for everything that
we're doing to encourage andbuild loyalty over time, and
it's the starting point for notonly customer data but also
(07:11):
benefits offers program.
Everything that we do flowsthrough Neighbors Club.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Okay, when you look at the Neighbors Club program,
efficacy is very important,especially we heard again at the
2020 Heart Bulletin Expogetting those within the C-suite
to understand the program,buying the program.
Having that organizationalalignment is very important.
So you know what KPIs andmetrics do your team do they use
(07:41):
to measure the effectiveness ofyour customer loyalty
strategies.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeah, there are a lot of KPIs.
I think they're similarprobably to KPIs you'd hear from
any retailer that you'd askThings like annual spend,
customer lifetime value,retention, trip frequency.
There's a lot, including thingslike engagement with different
digital properties or clickrates on emails, just all kinds
(08:05):
of things.
I mean I don't know thatthere's any one that we only
focus on.
We focus on a lot of differentthings one that we only focus on
.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
We focus on a lot of different things.
Okay, are there KPIs that youmaybe don't have?
You've heard about others,maybe at a recent conference,
that you would like to have aspart of your kind of list of
metrics that you have.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Yeah, I don't.
I wish I could like snap myfingers and have every metric we
want all in one place just fromday one.
But you have to kind of work toget there.
So you have to build the righttools, you have to invest in
different capabilities, andthat's what really.
What we've been focused on forthe last five, six years or so
really is investing in the righttools and the right
(08:49):
capabilities.
So I think today, generally, ifthere's something we were
missing, we already would havefigured out how to get that.
So I don't feel like we'remissing anything massively, but
we could always do it better.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Okay, big discussion within our community and we meet
with our brands once a weekunderstanding customers, how
they change, how they may havechanged going through and coming
out of COVID.
But now, with some of thesearch for value or, you know,
kind of looking for value frombrands that they seem to be
changing a little bit as well,making sure that the experiences
(09:24):
online, offline, social are allconsistent.
You know, how do you see yourcustomers changing at Tractor
Supply and how are they maybechanging within the industry
holistically, I think that'sjust retail.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Customers are always evolving.
I think they're always lookingfor you to try and make their
lives easier and we reallyTractor.
We view ourselves as anomni-channel retailer, so a big
part of our strategy is reallyletting the customers dictate
how they want to interact withus.
We're not trying to force theminto anything.
So the key is to try and buildan experience that enables that
(09:58):
right.
So it includes having strongdigital properties, having
strong store processes, havingstores where they want to shop
being available when they needus to be available and, I think,
thinking through thoseintegration points when you have
any changements or enhancements.
So there's planning up front.
But if you do it well, then youdesign in an omni-channel
(10:19):
experience, a cross-channelexperience, instead of having to
kind of think about it afterthe fact and come back and
change things.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Okay, when you look at the next big thing for
customer loyalty, what do youthink the next big thing for
customer loyalty, customerexperience, is for Tractor
Supply.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Yeah for us, we have a lot of opportunities.
Still, I think we're juststarting to scratch the surface
on things like partnerships andaffiliates and figuring out who
we want to partner with for ourcustomers.
I don't know that it's the nextbig thing in all of loyalty.
I know a lot of people do thatwell today and we already have a
few ideas, but it's one thatwe're thinking more about
(10:58):
definitely.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Okay.
Were there any presentations orinsights that you gleaned from
the 2025 Loyalty Expo that youfeel could be a good addition
into your customer loyaltyprocesses?
Speaker 2 (11:14):
addition into your customer loyalty processes.
I think I really I just valuedbeing able to connect with
others in the industry and hearthe stories, hear what they're
working on.
I don't know that there was anyone big thing, but you get a
lot of inspiration from otherswhen you attend an expo like
Loyalty360, because you'reconstantly talking about loyalty
for multiple days straight andgetting to know people in other
industries in retail who maybearen't in your vertical.
(11:36):
So it's just, it's good forkind of inspiration and thinking
through.
Yeah, just the industry ingeneral.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
OK, you know what are two or three things that you're
most proud of.
You know the Neighbors Clubprogram.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Our growth.
So we've grown from this emaillist to over 40 million members
in the past six, seven years.
Now Over 80% of our sales arenow made to Neighbors Club
members.
So you know we've had some good, positive momentum for a number
of years now.
Hometown Heroes it was reallygratifying to kind of finally
(12:15):
bring that to fruition, be ableto offer that benefit to those
customers, the first responders,the military that support all
of us, and it also really helpedtie together a lot of the
things Tractor has historicallydone a lot with military and
(12:37):
veterans causes, and having theHometown Heroes there allows us
to tie all that together underone banner and one program.
You know we donate money.
Our customers now have a directline to us and can use their
benefits with us.
So, yeah, just really happy wewere able to bring that to life.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
That's awesome.
And last question, a little bitself-serving what can
Loyalty360 do to help you andyour team regarding your
customer loyalty journey?
Speaker 2 (12:58):
I mean, can you fund us like a whole bunch more
customers or I don't know?
No, I think it's justcontinuing to support the
industry right, connect loyalty,folks like us across companies,
across industries, bringingpeople together like at the expo
.
You know, as I talked aboutwe're, we're considering some
different partnershipopportunities and things like
(13:19):
that.
You know that's where knowingwho else is doing what in
loyalty helps us make somedecisions on who we might, who
we might want to partner with inthe future.
So yeah, just kind of beingthere and supporting the
industry.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Okay, excellent, well , joe, thank you very much for
the first part of the interview.
Now we have our rapid firequestions, so let's keep them to
a short phrase or a couple ofwords, so I don't get in trouble
with Hannah and Nick and thecontent team.
The first question we have foryou what is your least favorite
word that others use Me?
Speaker 2 (13:51):
What is your favorite word?
What is?
Speaker 1 (13:55):
your favorite word, us or we.
Okay, what excites?
Speaker 2 (14:00):
you at work, I think, working with a team that all
pulls in the same direction.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Okay, awesome.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
And what do you find tiresome at home?
Speaker 1 (14:09):
or at work, sitting in traffic.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Is there a book that you've read, or you read
frequently, that you'd like torecommend to your colleagues In
retail?
Speaker 1 (14:27):
there's a book called why we Buy, written by an
author named Paco Underhill, whowas one of the kind of initial
pioneers of customer research inretail.
Ok, what?
Speaker 2 (14:36):
profession may you like to attempt, if you weren't
in the one you currently are in?
Really can't think of anything.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Something in finance, maybe, Okay, what do you enjoy?
Speaker 2 (14:47):
doing that.
You often don't get the time todo Traveling.
We do some.
I'd like to do more.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Okay, who inspired you to be the person that you
are today?
My family, okay, what do youtypically?
Speaker 2 (15:03):
think about at the end of the day.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Tomorrow's work schedule.
Okay, and last question how doyou want to?
Speaker 2 (15:09):
be remembered by your friends and family, I think,
always willing to help.
It would be good if theythought I was a little funny too
, but just kind of nice personalways willing to help it would
be good if they thought I was alittle funny too, but just kind
of nice person Always willing tohelp.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Okay, awesome.
Well, joe, thank you very muchfor taking the time to speak
with us today.
It was a pleasure getting toknow you a little bit more but
also getting kind of an updateon Tractor Supply and their
customer loyalty efforts.
You guys obviously are anaward-winning program, so it's
great to hear what you guys are,what you're working on, so
thank you very much.
Yeah, or what?
Speaker 2 (15:33):
you're working on.
So thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Yeah, thanks for having me Absolutely, and thank
you everyone else for taking thetime to listen to us today.
Make sure you join us backevery Thursday for additional
episodes in our Leaders inCustomer Loyalty series and
until then, have a wonderful day.
I want to welcome everyone back to our Leaders in
Customer Loyalty series, theBrand Stories Edition, where we
spotlight strategies, successesand standout voices shaping the
future of customer loyalty.
We're glad to have you with usevery Thursday.
In today's episode, we're goingto be joined by Joe Leone.
He's the Vice President ofMarketing at Tractor Supply,
(00:25):
known for a life out here with adeeply customer-centric
approach to their customers,Very focused on customer
experience and driving emotionalconnections to their loyalty
program.
Tractor Supply recently earnedsilver in the Customer Loyalty
Transformation category at the2025 Loyalty Expo, a recognition
that reflects their ongoingcommitment and evolution to
(00:48):
their Neighbors Club loyaltyprogram.
Joe's going to join us today todiscuss that transformation, the
strategic vision and importanceof the Neighbors Club, and how
Tractor Supply continues to meetits unique customer needs in a
rapidly shifting and shapingretail environment.
Joe, congratulations on theaward.
Thank you very much for takingthe time to meet us today.
(01:09):
How are you Doing?
Great Thanks for having me.
Absolutely Looking forward tothe discussion.
First off, for those who maynot be familiar with Tractor
Supply, can you tell us a littlebit about the company, a little
bit of a backstory?
How, why was the companystarted?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Yeah, so Tractor Supply has been around for the
company a little bit of abackstory, you know how.
Why was the company started?
Yeah, so Tractor Supply hasbeen around for a while now.
We celebrated our 85th birthdayanniversary a couple years ago.
We were founded back in the 30sand it started as a mail order
parts catalog.
And today fast forward.
We're the largest farm andranch retailer in North America.
(01:45):
We have about 2,500 stores.
It's 2,200 or 2,300 tractorsupply stores and about 200 pet
cents by tractor supply storesand counting.
We're adding more every year.
So clearly there's been alittle bit of an evolution there
from a parts catalog back inthe 30s.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Okay, what's led to?
Speaker 2 (02:08):
the great success that Tractor Supply has.
I think lots of factors go intosustaining success as a
retailer.
The one thing I'd mention hereat Tractor is our culture and
our mission and values.
We really work well together asa team and everyone is kind of
aligned around serving ourcustomers.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
There is a team and everyone is kind of aligned
around serving our customers.
Ok, let's talk about you alittle bit.
Can you tell us a bit moreabout your role at Tractor
Supply?
You know how did you get towhere you are today?
Have you been in customerloyalty for a while?
You know what led you to thisrole?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah.
I was recently given a newopportunity to kind of lead the
broader what we call the LEAPteam at Tractor L-E-A-P.
So that's loyalty, engagement,analytics and personalization,
so all related to our customersand all under, like, the
marketing umbrella.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
I've been with.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Tractor a number of years now.
I've had the chance to work ina handful of different teams in
different departments.
I've been on both themerchandising and marketing side
now, so it's been fun.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Okay, when you look at your role a new role in Leap
what kind of keeps you up atnight?
What are the biggest challenges, opportunities that you face
with your position?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah, I mean, it's retail, right, so everything
keeps me up at night.
I think the challenge ofknowing that every day, somebody
somewhere is out there tryingto do what you're doing better
than you are, so you never sitstill, you always have to move
forward and constantly belooking for the next thing and
(03:39):
kind of peeking around cornersthat's the fun of retail.
It's also the challenge ofretail is there's always
somebody you're competing with.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Okay, at the 2025 Loyalty Expo, you were given an
award for your customer loyaltytransformation, which was great
to hear and see.
Can you tell us a little bitmore about the transformation of
your customer loyalty program,the Neighbors Club, which
originally I think was launchedin 2015?
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Yeah, so back then we started Neighbors Club, which
originally I think was launchedin 2020, 2015?
Yeah.
So back then we startedNeighbors Club as more or less
an email list back kind of midlast decade, and over time it's
evolved.
So it's evolved intofull-fledged loyalty program.
Today We've added a tieredpoints-based program back in 21,
and we've continued to add andkind of evolve benefits and
(04:27):
features over time.
And specifically last year wetook some pretty big steps in
the program so we really wantedto make it more rewarding for
our customers.
We listened to our customersand the number one thing they
told us was it took too long toearn rewards.
So we addressed that directly.
We introduced a lower rewardvalue and so they saw more
(04:50):
benefits more often.
At the same time, we loweredour tier thresholds so they
don't have to spend as much toget additional benefits in the
program, and both of those werereally big hits.
We saw large increases inengagement and customer
satisfaction with the program.
And then separately we also kindof ramped up our
personalization efforts, workedto be even more relevant and
(05:12):
more personalized to ourcustomers.
And lastly, we also rolled outour Hometown Heroes program last
year, which is our firstresponder and military program
and veterans and we tied it intoNeighbors Club to give
customers an everyday benefit,put them in the top tier and
give them other special benefitsand discounts.
So pretty busy last year.
(05:33):
A great year, fun to see allthe work we did kind of come to
life and we saw big increases inmore or less all the metrics.
We track around our customersand their engagement with the
program.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Okay, excellent.
When you look at customerloyalty very important now and
we heard at the 2025 LoyaltyExpo that many brands are really
leaning into customer loyaltyand moving away a little bit
maybe from acquisition andtrying to leverage the very rich
data set and kind of emotionalconnections they may have with
their customers.
So, when you look at customerloyalty, what does customer
loyalty mean to you and toTractor Supply?
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Yeah, I think the best definition I've heard on
what is customer loyalty iswhether a customer is willing to
drive past your competitor toshop in your store, and that's
really what we're trying todrive.
Is we're trying to drive thatextra trip?
Our stores are in ruralcommunities.
(06:30):
People don't always live superclose and they might have to
drive past a Walmart or a HomeDepot or another farm store to
find us.
And that's really what we'restriving for.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Okay, and how does the neighbor club, neighbors
club program fit into thatvision for customer loyalty?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Yeah, so I mean, we're building it every day,
right?
So Neighbors Club is basicallylike the connective tissue that
ties together a lot of things atTractor.
It's kind of the foundationalplatform for everything that
we're doing to encourage andbuild loyalty over time, and
it's the starting point for notonly customer data but also
(07:11):
benefits offers program.
Everything that we do flowsthrough Neighbors Club.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Okay, when you look at the Neighbors Club program,
efficacy is very important,especially we heard again at the
2020 Heart Bulletin Expogetting those within the C-suite
to understand the program,buying the program.
Having that organizationalalignment is very important.
So you know what KPIs andmetrics do your team do they use
(07:41):
to measure the effectiveness ofyour customer loyalty
strategies.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeah, there are a lot of KPIs.
I think they're similarprobably to KPIs you'd hear from
any retailer that you'd askThings like annual spend,
customer lifetime value,retention, trip frequency.
There's a lot, including thingslike engagement with different
digital properties or clickrates on emails, just all kinds
(08:05):
of things.
I mean I don't know thatthere's any one that we only
focus on.
We focus on a lot of differentthings one that we only focus on
.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
We focus on a lot of different things.
Okay, are there KPIs that youmaybe don't have?
You've heard about others,maybe at a recent conference,
that you would like to have aspart of your kind of list of
metrics that you have.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Yeah, I don't.
I wish I could like snap myfingers and have every metric we
want all in one place just fromday one.
But you have to kind of work toget there.
So you have to build the righttools, you have to invest in
different capabilities, andthat's what really.
What we've been focused on forthe last five, six years or so
really is investing in the righttools and the right
(08:49):
capabilities.
So I think today, generally, ifthere's something we were
missing, we already would havefigured out how to get that.
So I don't feel like we'remissing anything massively, but
we could always do it better.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Okay, big discussion within our community and we meet
with our brands once a weekunderstanding customers, how
they change, how they may havechanged going through and coming
out of COVID.
But now, with some of thesearch for value or, you know,
kind of looking for value frombrands that they seem to be
changing a little bit as well,making sure that the experiences
(09:24):
online, offline, social are allconsistent.
You know, how do you see yourcustomers changing at Tractor
Supply and how are they maybechanging within the industry
holistically, I think that'sjust retail.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Customers are always evolving.
I think they're always lookingfor you to try and make their
lives easier and we reallyTractor.
We view ourselves as anomni-channel retailer, so a big
part of our strategy is reallyletting the customers dictate
how they want to interact withus.
We're not trying to force theminto anything.
So the key is to try and buildan experience that enables that
(09:58):
right.
So it includes having strongdigital properties, having
strong store processes, havingstores where they want to shop
being available when they needus to be available and, I think,
thinking through thoseintegration points when you have
any changements or enhancements.
So there's planning up front.
But if you do it well, then youdesign in an omni-channel
(10:19):
experience, a cross-channelexperience, instead of having to
kind of think about it afterthe fact and come back and
change things.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Okay, when you look at the next big thing for
customer loyalty, what do youthink the next big thing for
customer loyalty, customerexperience, is for Tractor
Supply.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Yeah for us, we have a lot of opportunities.
Still, I think we're juststarting to scratch the surface
on things like partnerships andaffiliates and figuring out who
we want to partner with for ourcustomers.
I don't know that it's the nextbig thing in all of loyalty.
I know a lot of people do thatwell today and we already have a
few ideas, but it's one thatwe're thinking more about
(10:58):
definitely.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Okay.
Were there any presentations orinsights that you gleaned from
the 2025 Loyalty Expo that youfeel could be a good addition
into your customer loyaltyprocesses?
Speaker 2 (11:14):
addition into your customer loyalty processes.
I think I really I just valuedbeing able to connect with
others in the industry and hearthe stories, hear what they're
working on.
I don't know that there was anyone big thing, but you get a
lot of inspiration from otherswhen you attend an expo like
Loyalty360, because you'reconstantly talking about loyalty
for multiple days straight andgetting to know people in other
industries in retail who maybearen't in your vertical.
(11:36):
So it's just, it's good forkind of inspiration and thinking
through.
Yeah, just the industry ingeneral.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
OK, you know what are two or three things that you're
most proud of.
You know the Neighbors Clubprogram.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Our growth.
So we've grown from this emaillist to over 40 million members
in the past six, seven years.
Now Over 80% of our sales arenow made to Neighbors Club
members.
So you know we've had some good, positive momentum for a number
of years now.
Hometown Heroes it was reallygratifying to kind of finally
(12:15):
bring that to fruition, be ableto offer that benefit to those
customers, the first responders,the military that support all
of us, and it also really helpedtie together a lot of the
things Tractor has historicallydone a lot with military and
(12:37):
veterans causes, and having theHometown Heroes there allows us
to tie all that together underone banner and one program.
You know we donate money.
Our customers now have a directline to us and can use their
benefits with us.
So, yeah, just really happy wewere able to bring that to life.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
That's awesome.
And last question, a little bitself-serving what can
Loyalty360 do to help you andyour team regarding your
customer loyalty journey?
Speaker 2 (12:58):
I mean, can you fund us like a whole bunch more
customers or I don't know?
No, I think it's justcontinuing to support the
industry right, connect loyalty,folks like us across companies,
across industries, bringingpeople together like at the expo
.
You know, as I talked aboutwe're, we're considering some
different partnershipopportunities and things like
(13:19):
that.
You know that's where knowingwho else is doing what in
loyalty helps us make somedecisions on who we might, who
we might want to partner with inthe future.
So yeah, just kind of beingthere and supporting the
industry.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Okay, excellent, well , joe, thank you very much for
the first part of the interview.
Now we have our rapid firequestions, so let's keep them to
a short phrase or a couple ofwords, so I don't get in trouble
with Hannah and Nick and thecontent team.
The first question we have foryou what is your least favorite
word that others use Me?
Speaker 2 (13:51):
What is your favorite word?
What is?
Speaker 1 (13:55):
your favorite word, us or we.
Okay, what excites?
Speaker 2 (14:00):
you at work, I think, working with a team that all
pulls in the same direction.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Okay, awesome.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
And what do you find tiresome at home?
Speaker 1 (14:09):
or at work, sitting in traffic.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Is there a book that you've read, or you read
frequently, that you'd like torecommend to your colleagues In
retail?
Speaker 1 (14:27):
there's a book called why we Buy, written by an
author named Paco Underhill, whowas one of the kind of initial
pioneers of customer research inretail.
Ok, what?
Speaker 2 (14:36):
profession may you like to attempt, if you weren't
in the one you currently are in?
Really can't think of anything.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Something in finance, maybe, Okay, what do you enjoy?
Speaker 2 (14:47):
doing that.
You often don't get the time todo Traveling.
We do some.
I'd like to do more.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Okay, who inspired you to be the person that you
are today?
My family, okay, what do youtypically?
Speaker 2 (15:03):
think about at the end of the day.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Tomorrow's work schedule.
Okay, and last question how doyou want to?
Speaker 2 (15:09):
be remembered by your friends and family, I think,
always willing to help.
It would be good if theythought I was a little funny too
, but just kind of nice personalways willing to help it would
be good if they thought I was alittle funny too, but just kind
of nice person Always willing tohelp.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Okay, awesome.
Well, joe, thank you very muchfor taking the time to speak
with us today.
It was a pleasure getting toknow you a little bit more but
also getting kind of an updateon Tractor Supply and their
customer loyalty efforts.
You guys obviously are anaward-winning program, so it's
great to hear what you guys are,what you're working on, so
thank you very much.
Yeah, or what?
Speaker 2 (15:33):
you're working on.
So thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Yeah, thanks for having me Absolutely, and thank
you everyone else for taking thetime to listen to us today.
Make sure you join us backevery Thursday for additional
episodes in our Leaders inCustomer Loyalty series and
until then, have a wonderful day.
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