Welcome to another Leaders in Customer Loyalty: Executive Spotlight, where we bring you insights from top executives driving innovation and excellence in customer engagement. Today, we’re thrilled to feature Aly Blawat, Senior Director of Customer Strategy at Blain’s Farm and Fleet. She is a seasoned leader in customer loyalty and the driving force behind Blain’s rewards programs, credit card offerings, and customer insights strategy.
With over 15 years of experience in the loyalty space, Aly has a deep understanding of what it takes to foster customer advocacy, streamline in-store training, and create meaningful engagement strategies. In this conversation, she shares her approach to aligning loyalty initiatives with business goals, leveraging first-party data to enhance customer experiences, and overcoming the challenge of driving program adoption across diverse customer segments.
Beyond her professional expertise, Aly also opens up about leadership lessons learned from her early career in retail management, the challenges of balancing a high-impact career with family life, and her passion for outdoor recreation.
Join Loyalty360 CEO Mark Johnson as he explores how Aly is shaping the future of customer loyalty at Blain’s Supply and gain valuable insights into the strategies that are making an impact in today’s evolving retail landscape.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Good afternoon and good morning.
This is Mark Johnson fromLoyalty360.
I want to welcome you back toour new interview series, the
Loyalty360 Executive Spotlight.
These conversations will bewith some of the leading minds
and personalities who aredriving success within the most
revered and successful customerloyalty programs in the market
today, all of whom are membersof Loyalty360.
(00:22):
In this series, you will learnabout the individuals working
behind the scenes to develop andmaintain their customer loyalty
efforts.
Yet we will take a morepersonal look at how they got to
where they are today, thesuccesses they've achieved, and
address some of the challengesthey may have faced along the
way.
Today, with the pleasure ofspeaking with Allie Blouat.
She's the Senior Director ofCustomer Strategy at Blaine
(00:45):
Supply.
Welcome, Allie, it's great toconnect with you again.
How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I'm doing well, thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Good First off.
Could you please provide us alittle background on your focus
at Blaine Supply?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Yeah, I oversee the Blaine's loyalty programs,
including rewards, cobra andcredit card, extended product
protection and service plans,and they also manage our
customer insights research andanalytics team.
My team sort of represents thevoice of the customer for
strategic and department levelinitiatives and we really are
(01:20):
trying to ensure that allbusiness units understand who
our customers are and who we'retargeting and want to grow with
through wallet share, trips andnew customers.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Excellent, and how does Blaine's supply work to
meet the evolving needs andexpectations of today's
customers?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah, we leverage post-purchase surveys and some
other first-party research tounderstand how our customers are
expecting their experience tobe at Blaine's and we track that
over time to learn how thoseexpectations are changing.
We're also leaning into ourvendor partners, our store teams
, our contact center team toreally learn where we might be
(01:58):
falling behind or where theremay be friction in our
customers' experience today and,what's the most important thing
to our neighbors, our customers.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Yeah, Okay, excellent .
How does the customer loyaltyprogram play into meeting those
needs and expectations?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
So the loyalty program kind of works in two
ways to support our customerneeds.
On one hand it's getting usaccess to better quality data so
we can do more robust analyticson loyalty members.
Many of the expectations fromour customers kind of land in
the world of enhancing thatexperience or doing more
(02:41):
personalization, and our loyaltydata allows us to do that.
It helps us to communicatebetter through our owned
channels and we get higherengagement.
Our rewards customers are alsolooking to be rewarded for their
loyalty.
So that's kind of more of thesecond objective of the program
to keep our neighbors comingback and choosing us for more
(03:02):
solutions.
And we can't really afford todisappoint our members.
So we really use the programfor both everyday value and
surprise and delight to keepthem coming back.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Okay, excellent.
In your opinion, what is thesingle most important factor
that influences a great customerexperience?
Those are the hard ones to pickone a great customer experience
.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Those are the hard one to pick one To me.
I think it comes down to theinteraction at point of sale,
whether that's in store oronline.
It's the ease of purchase.
It does take a lot to detersomeone from buying something
that they've already decidedthey want or that they need.
If they took the time to do theresearch, they took the time to
(03:46):
go to the store or to go to thewebsite, they looked at all the
different retailers anddifferent prices, sizes, colors,
availability of the item andthey selected their product,
they added it to their cart.
They're going to get tocheckout.
You know it'll take quite a bitto get them to not get to
checkout if they've already doneall that work.
But if that process from thereon is too difficult or you don't
(04:07):
offer the payment type they'relooking for, you don't have the
shipping transparency when willI get this?
How much is shipping?
Or if you're in store and youdon't have that nice, friendly,
welcoming associate to elevatethe experience and to create a
positive emotion, you can kindof make it or break it in that
(04:30):
moment.
So I would put ease of purchaseas one of those big factors and
moments that can help influencethe customer experience.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
That's awesome, I know, getting to know you over
the last year.
You have a passion for yourcustomer loyalty program but
also one of the things thatyou've developed kind of a focus
is around in-store training anddeveloping advocacy for the
program.
Can you tell us a little bithow that came to bear?
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Yeah.
So I've been in the loyaltyspace for about 15 years and to
me, getting the buy-in is one ofthe hardest parts.
People want to know what thesecret is to getting more people
to sign up for your program.
Is it the value proposition orthe signup bonus, hiring the
right kind of people who areselling the program in your
(05:14):
store, or putting together themarketing to sell the program
online?
And while all those things areimportant, I think it really
just it's so simple because itjust comes down to asking
consistently and there's not asilver bullet, there's not, you
know, some super fancy secretout there that you can pay all
the money in the world to get.
It really just comes down toasking every customer every time
(05:37):
about if they know about theprogram and how you personalize
your response back to them.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
What have you learned from this?
Focus on training and advocacyfor the program.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
That it doesn't really matter.
You know the type ofpersonalities you're dealing
with.
You know you want a prettydynamic and unique group of
people who are talking about theprogram.
But giving a little moreattention to how you got to this
place and why the program is soimportant to the customer, to
(06:15):
your business, to your team, foryour store, you know, insert
whoever, why is this programimportant?
And helping them understandthat, why bringing them along
the journey for how you came upwith a hypothesis if you wanted
to make a change or introducethe program.
Helping people understand thoseconnections that's where I've
(06:38):
noticed the buy-in comes intoplay.
So, taking the time to do thatand not just assuming everybody
already knows or the detailsdon't matter, you know, here's
what matters.
Don't worry about how I gothere.
That, I think, has made areally big difference in how
I've been managing our programs.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Well, that's awesome to hear because, as you know and
you mentioned right, gettinginitial buy-in for the program
but also sustaining that buy-in,that executive level support,
can be pretty challenging forbrands to attain and then to
sustain.
It's just the same and you seemto do a great job of that, so
that's great to hear.
When you look at things you maydo outside of work, what's one
(07:19):
passion outside of work that youenjoy?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Well, right now, in my current stage of life, my
hobbies have sort of becometaking my children to wherever
they want to go.
But as a family we enjoyoutdoor recreation quite a bit.
We fish ice fishing right now,in the wintertime ice skating.
We do hunt as a family.
We go hiking.
We're planning on getting alittle more into camping and
(07:44):
kayaking this summer, now thatmy youngest is a little bit
older.
I also have horses so I do alittle riding whenever there's
time.
So lots of outdoor things.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
That's awesome.
What was your first job aftercollege?
Speaker 2 (07:58):
An assistant store manager with Kohl's.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
OK, and what do you remember most about the position
?
Okay.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
And what do you remember most about the position
At that point?
The dynamics of the people onmy team.
So I was a young 22-year-oldleading a group of people who
had incredibly diversebackgrounds.
Some were part-time, working inhigh school or college just to
make some extra money.
Some were part-time and theywere retired college just, you
know, to make some extra money.
(08:26):
Some were part-time and theywere retired and they had worked
for decades as a nurse or amachine operator or a teacher or
a cop.
So they had very long advancedcareers before working in retail
.
And even some people on theteam had worked in retail longer
than I'd even been alive.
So having that group of peopleto lead right out of school as
(08:46):
an assistant manager, theytaught me so much what to do,
but also definitely what not todo, the patience and how to
build credibility with the team.
I really owe a lot of mysuccess in my career to that
team in Brownsburg, indiana.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
That's awesome.
And then what's?
One or two things that youshouldn't do?
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Make assumptions, you know, unless you're assuming
positive intent.
Don't assume everyone knowseverything.
Not all communication comes inthe same form and sometimes
people might be missing somecritical components of that
message.
Critical components of thatmessage Patience.
(09:29):
So patience was a big one asfar as understanding that while
this is someone's career youknow it was my career and I was
very passionate about that thereare other things that are just
as, if not more, important thanyour career and have that human
element as a leader.
It goes a long way.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
That's awesome.
Along those lines, what's thebest work advice you've ever
been given?
Speaker 2 (09:50):
So they?
It's about communication,talking to people and explaining
.
So, whether it's good news orbad news or no news at all, just
communicate.
People deserve to know, even ifthere's no new news, what's
going on.
What am I waiting for?
Or, if they've done somethingreally well, recognition in the
(10:13):
form of communication, justtelling them that they did a
great job.
If they could have done better,using communication to have
some dialogue back and forth.
I was always told to constantlyask questions and if you get a
lot of questions, don't take itas a bad thing.
You know, it's not necessarilythat you weren't clear in your
(10:34):
instruction, but there's more toit than just you know the words
on the page.
So two-way dialogue and makesure that you're just
communicating with your team andyour leadership and your peers.
That that will make the worldgo round.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
That's awesome.
You have a very successfulcustomer loyalty program.
You've mentioned that you'vedriven organizational alignment.
You have a great trainingprogram.
What do you think the biggestopportunity for customer loyalty
is?
Your customer loyalty program.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Us.
I think our opportunity atBlaine's is with the breadth of
loyalty stages.
So we have a lot of customerswho shop us weekly for
consumable type goods that needreplenished.
But then we have othercustomers who shop two to three
times a year more for weatherrelated or seasonal goods.
(11:24):
We've got people who come to usjust for toy land or people who
come to us only when the suncomes out for the first time in
spring, and my goal is really toreward all of them and
everything in between in uniqueways, because we're solving
multiple problems here and Ithink the way our program sits
today it's just a little toouniversally fit where it works
(11:49):
but it's not as customized and Ithink we can do quite a bit
more to encourage those lessfrequent shoppers to become
quite a bit more loyal, even ifthey aren't purchasing in that
consumable good area wherethey're buying animal feed, dog
food or food and beverage forthemselves or their families.
There's another way to kind ofbreak in.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
When you look at the opportunity to potentially break
in there, getting yourcustomers, your vast set of
customers you have, and theyhave different interests, as you
mentioned.
Do they know the array ofproducts and services that you
put forth, or is that part ofthe opportunity that you see?
Speaker 2 (12:26):
It's definitely part of the opportunity that we see
Because we are a destination forsolutions.
A lot of times what happens isa customer will be very mission
focused on their trip and we sayinternally you know that
they've got blinders on, they'rewalking in, they're going
straight for the thing that theyneed and they've got to get
home to get that projectfinished or something fixed, and
(12:49):
so they're really not there toexperience all that we have to
offer.
But they do think of us in thatmoment of need.
How do I get them to come backlater when they don't have
something leaking at home or amess that they're working on?
How do I get them to come backbecause they had such a great
experience for that one solutionfor things that they didn't
know that we had?
We do have people who shop ourentire store, every single
(13:11):
department.
They have learned all thesethings that we have to offer.
But we definitely have thatwall to break down with several
new people who have been comingover the last couple decades.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Okay, that's awesome.
When you look at the passionyou have for the program.
It's definitely sincere andit's always great to hear how
you talk about the program butalso the employee advocacy
elements that you've championedwithin Blaine Supply.
You know you are certainlyfocused and passionate about
that.
What drives that passion andwhat are you seeing as some of
(13:43):
the outcomes of these programsand initiatives you put in place
?
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Yeah.
So the passion for me?
You know I've always been veryresults oriented.
I like to see what I've doneand be able to look back and
notice a change.
I need to see the KPIs, I needto see that improvement.
And with a company like Blaine'swe've been around for 70 years
(14:17):
there's a lot of people who havethat the tenure with us.
They know us through andthrough.
A lot of our customers and evena lot of our employees have
been here for a very long time.
And so coming in, you know, toan organization that's well
established, that has theloyalty from their customers,
with or without the program, itjust really inspired me to try
to make a difference for theorganization, to see how you can
(14:38):
elevate that a little bitfurther and take it a little bit
in a different direction.
So we started the organizationas a discount retailer for
farmers and the only way to getthe discount was if you were a
member, through having fiveengines or more.
So it was kind of that idea ofthe first discount store, the
first loyalty program in thestate of Wisconsin, you know, 70
(15:01):
years ago.
I don't want to lose thefundamentals of the history and
I want to make sure we're alwayskind of grounded with what we
were and our roots.
But now that we've grown andwe're flourishing, how do we
continue to tap into what ourneighbors are looking for?
Because our family farmersstill very important aspect of
our customer base, our corecustomer really but their
(15:25):
lifestyle has evolved quite abit.
So making sure that we aren'tjust doing the things that we've
always done, but we are focusedon delivering on the experience
and recognizing the loyalty ofthis new dynamic customer base
that we have.
That goes from your familyfarmer to new homesteaders, to
(15:47):
hobby farmers, to people wholive in the suburbs but have
nice yards and they want to havegardens, or they just want to
have a nice green yard for thefirst time.
They're outdoors, they're doingfishing or hunting, they're in
the recreation camping.
There's so many different waysto solve the problem that some
of our neighbors are dealingwith that I think the loyalty
(16:09):
program can help elevate thatexperience just a little bit
more and get that access to thecustomer data to make it more
personalized.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Okay, when you look at kind of the life personal
work, you know what's thebiggest challenge you have faced
in your life and how has thatshaped you as a person.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
You know I'm a mom, I'm a wife, daughter, sister.
You know all the, all the roles, but I have a career and so,
kind of being a working mom, II'm trying to balance all the
things that my family wants todo what I want to do with my
career and in my personal life.
So really the idea was kind ofput into your head and everyone
(16:54):
kind of hears this like youcan't have it, all that old
saying.
And I grew up with thiscomplete opposite train of
thought of yes, you can.
So you can kind of havewhatever it is you want.
You just have to have theenergy and the focus.
You have to have thewillingness to ask for help to
(17:17):
make it all happen.
So for me the challenge kind ofcomes into play of wearing all
these different hats and makingsure that I've prioritized those
roles in my life in the rightway so that I can do all the
things that I want to do withall the people that I want to
surround myself with and that mykids are happy and healthy, my
(17:38):
husband is happy and healthy.
I'm happy and healthy with bothmy personal life and my work
life.
So that that's really been justan evolving challenge.
As people grow and age andchange, priorities change over
time, but staying true to towhat that end goal was.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
And that's awesome.
That's great to hear.
I know that that can be a bigchallenge, especially for
working moms.
I know my wife works and shedoes a great job of balancing it
.
As you know, a little bit ofsacrifice there, especially at
the younger ages.
But as you find things that youand your kids have a passion
for, things get to be a littleeasier at some point yeah, that
you and your kids have a passionfor things get to be a little
easier at some point.
Yeah, so when you look at lifelessons you've learned, are
(18:20):
there life lessons, or is therea life lesson that has shaped
your perspective?
Speaker 2 (18:24):
You know, there's definitely a lot of different
lessons that I've learned overtime.
I touched a little bit oncommunication.
I do think a lot of what I'velearned has to do with the type
of people you surround yourselfwith, the partnerships you make
and the relationships.
(18:45):
I believe it takes a villageand you really have to depend on
other people and that's notalways easy to do but to lean
into your support system,whether that's family or friends
or coworkers and it could beall of the above depending upon
the situation but being open andhonest and just communicating
(19:08):
when you need help,communicating when you're behind
or when you're moving too fastor you have too much on your
plate, and being able toreprioritize all of those things
.
You know you have to take timefor yourself, but you also need
to make sure you're not goingdown that path alone.
(19:29):
You know, take the time youneed, but count on the people
around you.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Yeah, that's one of my biggest challenges is asking
for help uh and feeling likeyou're disappointing someone
right especially yeah, uh, andnot realizing.
They may not realize how busyyou are, but you right being
able to realize how busy theyare as well, to just kind of
that reciprocity, that can bevery important yeah uh, you've
driven change within yourorganization.
(19:54):
How have you done that sosuccessfully, especially when
you look at championing thecustomer loyalty efforts and the
programs that you have?
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Yeah, so we are in that right now.
The change you know we want tochange the way we not only see
things but also the way that wedo things.
So we're trying to make somepretty big changes here at
Blaine's.
Some of that comes in the formof new leadership, some comes in
the form of new priorities.
But what's been working for meis bringing those business
(20:26):
partners and the leadership kindof along for the ride.
Sharing data that informed ahypothesis if there was any
insight or conversation that washad with a customer or through
survey or focus groups,explaining that data a little
bit in more detail, how any newtactics are performing.
(20:48):
Everyone wants to know the KPIsand wants to know what our
goals are and are we on track toreach those things?
If there are setbacks, why whathappened?
And then really leaning intothe subject matter expert for
products, for marketing my teamwe are the customer strategy, so
(21:09):
we will offer suggestions orthought starters.
We need to get the conversationgoing.
So we usually come in prettystrong with who the customer is.
What's the problem we're tryingto solve?
What does that customer targetneed or want from this category
or brand?
But then leaning into theexperts there for recommending
(21:32):
the actual tactics and makingsure those will ladder up to the
strategy.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
That's awesome.
That can be a big challenge toois having the strategy
especially if you're workinginternal teams, external teams
on strategy that it can besomewhat arduous to be able to
implement everything in thetimely manner that maybe the
consultant or the strategy teamdeveloped.
But and again it gets back tohaving that alignment internally
, which you seem to do anamazing job of you know driving,
(21:59):
and obviously that can help youknow champion the efforts that
you put forth, especially whenthey have measurable results, as
you've alluded to.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Well, thank you.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Yeah, absolutely so.
When you look at your careersuccess, you know what are a
couple of things that you'remost proud of.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
The partnerships.
For sure you know people.
It's probably a quick responsethat most people will say is the
people you know.
I really like to get to knowwho I'm working with on a little
bit more of a personal level.
You know what makes them tick,what's important to them, where
are they rushing off to, whatelse might be on their mind when
(22:37):
we're having theseconversations, and you know if
we're scheduling meetings andthey can't attend or whatever.
Just having that relationshipwith the people on the team that
has helped me.
You know quite a bit.
I don't know.
I've launched a lot of reallycool things.
So I've launched rewardsprograms I was part of creating
(22:59):
an associate level recognitionprogram in my past revamping
rewards or credit programs,testing new components of
customer experience throughdigital enhancements or new
things that are kind of cominginto the website or the customer
journey.
I love always love doing focusgroups and research and learning
(23:21):
exactly what our customers arelooking for A little more
unbiased, you know, if you canget to that.
All those things are reallyinvigorating and enjoyable for
me and I get to do all of thosein my rollout planes.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Awesome If you go back in time and change one
thing about your life.
You know what would that be andwhy yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
That's a tough one.
I'm very happy with everything.
You know where all landed forme.
But one thing that you knowI've learned about myself since
you know, even even childhood isthat I'm kind of moving 100
miles an hour all theconversation.
I'm not super present in themoment and so I tend to miss
(24:09):
some details.
Or, you know, I might hear youbut I'm not really listening at
times.
So I would probably try to goback and just slow down a little
, live a little bit more in themoment, or at least write things
down more so that I canremember better now as an adult,
you know, recalling memorieswith my grandparents or
(24:30):
conversations I had with someonetwo or three years ago.
Yeah, it's there, but it's notall there.
So you know, if I could go back, it would be slow down.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
That's awesome.
I commiserate with that as well.
I have a tendency to do thatalways and I try to slow down
and put the devices away and bemore present and spend more time
on vacation.
This last vacation I had nodevices.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
It's hard to do that.
Sometimes it's hard yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
You championed the whole loyalty program, the
training program on customerloyalty.
Is there another change thatyou would like to bring to the
workplace?
You know, what would that bepotentially, and why?
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Hmm, one like the low , low hanging one.
That's not real, but it would begreat Pet friendly, wouldn't
that be awesome if you can bringyour dog to work or your cat?
But in real speak here I wouldsay, part of your regular weekly
schedule is could we as aworkforce kind of protect time
(25:39):
for development, whether it'ssponsored by the employer or
it's individual time by theemployer or it's individual time
?
But development for, likeleadership skills, for
management, like projectmanagement or any other skills
that generally come with time inthe position or on the job.
But you know, as you'rematuring in your career,
(26:01):
sometimes it's nice to have thatstructure to close the gap on
the skill set of some of thepeople who have high potential.
So how do you protect that time?
And we're all moving quickly,we all have tons and tons of
meetings and in between meetingswe're trying to get all this
work done.
So we kind of put developmenton the back burner throughout
(26:22):
the year.
You know it usually starts offstrong and then quickly trickles
out of priorities.
But I would love to see theworkforce protect a little bit
more time for that development.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Okay, that's a good focus.
I know that that can be achallenge.
You know a lot of theavant-garde tech companies have
that.
You know 10% of the work.
You know that we can be justthinking right and being
creative and strategizing.
It's a little bit differenthaving that time for development
as well whether it's takingclasses, you know because there
is a balance, especially forthose who want to learn.
(26:53):
I know some people don't havean interest in continual
learning, right, they're kind ofa fixed mindset.
But for those who actually havethe passion and desire to learn
and better themselves, findingtime to help them achieve that
can be a big challenge.
Yeah, book Is there a book or apodcast that you recommend to
your colleagues?
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Oh, interesting.
Well, I'm into.
I read a lot, but I read morefiction books than I do anything
.
But I do recommend getting intosome of the fictional stories,
whether it's in sci-fi orfantasy or romance, having an
outlet of um, just letting yourimagination kind of run wild.
(27:36):
So you know, right now, today,today is the, or maybe this week
I would say, is the day.
Uh, the third book in one ofthe more popular series was
released.
So if you haven't read theFourth Wing, iron Flame and now
Onyx Storm series, that's top ofmind this week for me.
But, I do think those books andbooks like that were created to
(27:58):
give us an outlet as an adult.
You know we grew up with thosekinds of stories as kids and now
they're a little more elevatedand mature for all of us to
think more like the real worldthat doesn't actually exist.
So it's a nice outlet.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Awesome.
Since you've been a member ofBulletin360, you've been quite
active.
What do you like about theassociation?
What have you found value in?
Is there something that youmaybe would like to see a little
bit more of?
Speaker 2 (28:24):
I really like the roundtables, hearing from people
who are in similar roles asmine and kind of bringing forth
what they're doing in theirorganization, even if it's in a
totally different industry.
So I really enjoyed theroundtables and the different
topics that come up as far askind of seeing more.
This year I'm really hoping toget to the conference to see
(28:44):
some more people in person andmake some of those connections
face to face.
That will go a long way.
For me is just to be able tohave that new relationship with
somebody in person, sharecontact information, get to know
everybody a little bit better,versus just talking about the
one topic at hand in the roundtable.
So I don't know if there's away to do social hours or
(29:06):
anything where we're notnecessarily talking about a
structured topic but we can getto know each other a little bit
better on more of that socialside.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
We do.
We have a great brand onlymember only networking event,
video games and bowling, I thinkwe did last year.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Oh, that's cool yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Yeah, so you definitely you be coming.
I think we got you on a paneland, yeah, you actually have
extra gift cards from last yearfrom Andretti.
That's where we do it.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Very cool.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
This whole stack.
That'll be more card time, soit's good, nice.
What is one question you wouldlike to ask from another
individual who runs a customer?
Is there one kind of pressingquestion you have right now?
Speaker 2 (29:54):
I mean I go right to kind of the KPIs and the data.
On the data side, I would wantto know, you know, what else are
they tapping into their loyaltydata to help inform for the
rest of the business?
You know I mentioned whatBlaine's in a lot of other
places that I've talked to.
We leverage the loyalty programto collect more zero party and
(30:15):
some first party customer datato do a little bit more
personalization with that's kindof where it's been more, I
think, more pigeonholed.
So I'd love to know what elseare you guys doing with the data
there from a customerperspective?
What else are you using it toinform within the business?
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Okay, and last question we have.
We like to end these with wordsof advice for someone new or
somewhat new relatively new tothe customer loyalty industry.
What would you recommend tothem?
For those who are looking toelevate the customer experience
and do something unique fortheir program, what's a piece of
advice you would give?
Speaker 2 (30:53):
them.
I will bring it back to thecustomer every time.
You need to know who you'refocused on, who is your customer
and is that the group that youwant to grow with?
What is it that you want fromthem?
Is it more items in their cart,more trips to your store or
your site, and then kind ofidentifying that as the problem
(31:13):
you're trying to solve for yourbusiness.
But then you also have toidentify what's the problem you
want to solve for your customerand can those be solved with the
same solution?
But really the foundation ofall of that is to know the who.
So take the time to reallylearn who that person is or that
(31:36):
group of people are, understandtheir needs and their wants,
understand where there'sfriction, understand that
problem that you think yourcompany can solve for them, and
then work into the businessproblem.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Allie thank you very much for taking the time to
speak with us today in ourExecutive Spotlight series.
It's great to hear about yourpassion and also some of the
things that you do in yourpersonal life.
It seems to be that you put100% into everything that you do
.
We definitely appreciate youtaking the time to share your
advice with our listeners andlook forward to learning from
(32:08):
more from you and your team inthe future.
So thank you very much fortaking the time today.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Absolutely.
Also, I want to take the timeto thank everyone for listening
today to this edition of ourexecutive spotlight.
Please be sure to join us backevery Saturday for another
edition and make sure you signup for our podcast series and
subscribe to our YouTube channelto stay up to date on all
things customer loyalty.
Until then, have a wonderfulday.
Good afternoon and good morning.
This is Mark Johnson fromLoyalty360.
I want to welcome you back toour new interview series, the
Loyalty360 Executive Spotlight.
These conversations will bewith some of the leading minds
and personalities who aredriving success within the most
revered and successful customerloyalty programs in the market
today, all of whom are membersof Loyalty360.
(00:22):
In this series, you will learnabout the individuals working
behind the scenes to develop andmaintain their customer loyalty
efforts.
Yet we will take a morepersonal look at how they got to
where they are today, thesuccesses they've achieved, and
address some of the challengesthey may have faced along the
way.
Today, with the pleasure ofspeaking with Allie Blouat.
She's the Senior Director ofCustomer Strategy at Blaine
(00:45):
Supply.
Welcome, Allie, it's great toconnect with you again.
How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I'm doing well, thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Good First off.
Could you please provide us alittle background on your focus
at Blaine Supply?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Yeah, I oversee the Blaine's loyalty programs,
including rewards, cobra andcredit card, extended product
protection and service plans,and they also manage our
customer insights research andanalytics team.
My team sort of represents thevoice of the customer for
strategic and department levelinitiatives and we really are
(01:20):
trying to ensure that allbusiness units understand who
our customers are and who we'retargeting and want to grow with
through wallet share, trips andnew customers.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Excellent, and how does Blaine's supply work to
meet the evolving needs andexpectations of today's
customers?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah, we leverage post-purchase surveys and some
other first-party research tounderstand how our customers are
expecting their experience tobe at Blaine's and we track that
over time to learn how thoseexpectations are changing.
We're also leaning into ourvendor partners, our store teams
, our contact center team toreally learn where we might be
(01:58):
falling behind or where theremay be friction in our
customers' experience today and,what's the most important thing
to our neighbors, our customers.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Yeah, Okay, excellent .
How does the customer loyaltyprogram play into meeting those
needs and expectations?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
So the loyalty program kind of works in two
ways to support our customerneeds.
On one hand it's getting usaccess to better quality data so
we can do more robust analyticson loyalty members.
Many of the expectations fromour customers kind of land in
the world of enhancing thatexperience or doing more
(02:41):
personalization, and our loyaltydata allows us to do that.
It helps us to communicatebetter through our owned
channels and we get higherengagement.
Our rewards customers are alsolooking to be rewarded for their
loyalty.
So that's kind of more of thesecond objective of the program
to keep our neighbors comingback and choosing us for more
(03:02):
solutions.
And we can't really afford todisappoint our members.
So we really use the programfor both everyday value and
surprise and delight to keepthem coming back.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Okay, excellent.
In your opinion, what is thesingle most important factor
that influences a great customerexperience?
Those are the hard ones to pickone a great customer experience
.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Those are the hard one to pick one To me.
I think it comes down to theinteraction at point of sale,
whether that's in store oronline.
It's the ease of purchase.
It does take a lot to detersomeone from buying something
that they've already decidedthey want or that they need.
If they took the time to do theresearch, they took the time to
(03:46):
go to the store or to go to thewebsite, they looked at all the
different retailers anddifferent prices, sizes, colors,
availability of the item andthey selected their product,
they added it to their cart.
They're going to get tocheckout.
You know it'll take quite a bitto get them to not get to
checkout if they've already doneall that work.
But if that process from thereon is too difficult or you don't
(04:07):
offer the payment type they'relooking for, you don't have the
shipping transparency when willI get this?
How much is shipping?
Or if you're in store and youdon't have that nice, friendly,
welcoming associate to elevatethe experience and to create a
positive emotion, you can kindof make it or break it in that
(04:30):
moment.
So I would put ease of purchaseas one of those big factors and
moments that can help influencethe customer experience.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
That's awesome, I know, getting to know you over
the last year.
You have a passion for yourcustomer loyalty program but
also one of the things thatyou've developed kind of a focus
is around in-store training anddeveloping advocacy for the
program.
Can you tell us a little bithow that came to bear?
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Yeah.
So I've been in the loyaltyspace for about 15 years and to
me, getting the buy-in is one ofthe hardest parts.
People want to know what thesecret is to getting more people
to sign up for your program.
Is it the value proposition orthe signup bonus, hiring the
right kind of people who areselling the program in your
(05:14):
store, or putting together themarketing to sell the program
online?
And while all those things areimportant, I think it really
just it's so simple because itjust comes down to asking
consistently and there's not asilver bullet, there's not, you
know, some super fancy secretout there that you can pay all
the money in the world to get.
It really just comes down toasking every customer every time
(05:37):
about if they know about theprogram and how you personalize
your response back to them.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
What have you learned from this?
Focus on training and advocacyfor the program.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
That it doesn't really matter.
You know the type ofpersonalities you're dealing
with.
You know you want a prettydynamic and unique group of
people who are talking about theprogram.
But giving a little moreattention to how you got to this
place and why the program is soimportant to the customer, to
(06:15):
your business, to your team, foryour store, you know, insert
whoever, why is this programimportant?
And helping them understandthat, why bringing them along
the journey for how you came upwith a hypothesis if you wanted
to make a change or introducethe program.
Helping people understand thoseconnections that's where I've
(06:38):
noticed the buy-in comes intoplay.
So, taking the time to do thatand not just assuming everybody
already knows or the detailsdon't matter, you know, here's
what matters.
Don't worry about how I gothere.
That, I think, has made areally big difference in how
I've been managing our programs.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Well, that's awesome to hear because, as you know and
you mentioned right, gettinginitial buy-in for the program
but also sustaining that buy-in,that executive level support,
can be pretty challenging forbrands to attain and then to
sustain.
It's just the same and you seemto do a great job of that, so
that's great to hear.
When you look at things you maydo outside of work, what's one
(07:19):
passion outside of work that youenjoy?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Well, right now, in my current stage of life, my
hobbies have sort of becometaking my children to wherever
they want to go.
But as a family we enjoyoutdoor recreation quite a bit.
We fish ice fishing right now,in the wintertime ice skating.
We do hunt as a family.
We go hiking.
We're planning on getting alittle more into camping and
(07:44):
kayaking this summer, now thatmy youngest is a little bit
older.
I also have horses so I do alittle riding whenever there's
time.
So lots of outdoor things.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
That's awesome.
What was your first job aftercollege?
Speaker 2 (07:58):
An assistant store manager with Kohl's.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
OK, and what do you remember most about the position
?
Okay.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
And what do you remember most about the position
At that point?
The dynamics of the people onmy team.
So I was a young 22-year-oldleading a group of people who
had incredibly diversebackgrounds.
Some were part-time, working inhigh school or college just to
make some extra money.
Some were part-time and theywere retired college just, you
know, to make some extra money.
(08:26):
Some were part-time and theywere retired and they had worked
for decades as a nurse or amachine operator or a teacher or
a cop.
So they had very long advancedcareers before working in retail
.
And even some people on theteam had worked in retail longer
than I'd even been alive.
So having that group of peopleto lead right out of school as
(08:46):
an assistant manager, theytaught me so much what to do,
but also definitely what not todo, the patience and how to
build credibility with the team.
I really owe a lot of mysuccess in my career to that
team in Brownsburg, indiana.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
That's awesome.
And then what's?
One or two things that youshouldn't do?
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Make assumptions, you know, unless you're assuming
positive intent.
Don't assume everyone knowseverything.
Not all communication comes inthe same form and sometimes
people might be missing somecritical components of that
message.
Critical components of thatmessage Patience.
(09:29):
So patience was a big one asfar as understanding that while
this is someone's career youknow it was my career and I was
very passionate about that thereare other things that are just
as, if not more, important thanyour career and have that human
element as a leader.
It goes a long way.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
That's awesome.
Along those lines, what's thebest work advice you've ever
been given?
Speaker 2 (09:50):
So they?
It's about communication,talking to people and explaining
.
So, whether it's good news orbad news or no news at all, just
communicate.
People deserve to know, even ifthere's no new news, what's
going on.
What am I waiting for?
Or, if they've done somethingreally well, recognition in the
(10:13):
form of communication, justtelling them that they did a
great job.
If they could have done better,using communication to have
some dialogue back and forth.
I was always told to constantlyask questions and if you get a
lot of questions, don't take itas a bad thing.
You know, it's not necessarilythat you weren't clear in your
(10:34):
instruction, but there's more toit than just you know the words
on the page.
So two-way dialogue and makesure that you're just
communicating with your team andyour leadership and your peers.
That that will make the worldgo round.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
That's awesome.
You have a very successfulcustomer loyalty program.
You've mentioned that you'vedriven organizational alignment.
You have a great trainingprogram.
What do you think the biggestopportunity for customer loyalty
is?
Your customer loyalty program.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Us.
I think our opportunity atBlaine's is with the breadth of
loyalty stages.
So we have a lot of customerswho shop us weekly for
consumable type goods that needreplenished.
But then we have othercustomers who shop two to three
times a year more for weatherrelated or seasonal goods.
(11:24):
We've got people who come to usjust for toy land or people who
come to us only when the suncomes out for the first time in
spring, and my goal is really toreward all of them and
everything in between in uniqueways, because we're solving
multiple problems here and Ithink the way our program sits
today it's just a little toouniversally fit where it works
(11:49):
but it's not as customized and Ithink we can do quite a bit
more to encourage those lessfrequent shoppers to become
quite a bit more loyal, even ifthey aren't purchasing in that
consumable good area wherethey're buying animal feed, dog
food or food and beverage forthemselves or their families.
There's another way to kind ofbreak in.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
When you look at the opportunity to potentially break
in there, getting yourcustomers, your vast set of
customers you have, and theyhave different interests, as you
mentioned.
Do they know the array ofproducts and services that you
put forth, or is that part ofthe opportunity that you see?
Speaker 2 (12:26):
It's definitely part of the opportunity that we see
Because we are a destination forsolutions.
A lot of times what happens isa customer will be very mission
focused on their trip and we sayinternally you know that
they've got blinders on, they'rewalking in, they're going
straight for the thing that theyneed and they've got to get
home to get that projectfinished or something fixed, and
(12:49):
so they're really not there toexperience all that we have to
offer.
But they do think of us in thatmoment of need.
How do I get them to come backlater when they don't have
something leaking at home or amess that they're working on?
How do I get them to come backbecause they had such a great
experience for that one solutionfor things that they didn't
know that we had?
We do have people who shop ourentire store, every single
(13:11):
department.
They have learned all thesethings that we have to offer.
But we definitely have thatwall to break down with several
new people who have been comingover the last couple decades.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Okay, that's awesome.
When you look at the passionyou have for the program.
It's definitely sincere andit's always great to hear how
you talk about the program butalso the employee advocacy
elements that you've championedwithin Blaine Supply.
You know you are certainlyfocused and passionate about
that.
What drives that passion andwhat are you seeing as some of
(13:43):
the outcomes of these programsand initiatives you put in place
?
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Yeah.
So the passion for me?
You know I've always been veryresults oriented.
I like to see what I've doneand be able to look back and
notice a change.
I need to see the KPIs, I needto see that improvement.
And with a company like Blaine'swe've been around for 70 years
(14:17):
there's a lot of people who havethat the tenure with us.
They know us through andthrough.
A lot of our customers and evena lot of our employees have
been here for a very long time.
And so coming in, you know, toan organization that's well
established, that has theloyalty from their customers,
with or without the program, itjust really inspired me to try
to make a difference for theorganization, to see how you can
(14:38):
elevate that a little bitfurther and take it a little bit
in a different direction.
So we started the organizationas a discount retailer for
farmers and the only way to getthe discount was if you were a
member, through having fiveengines or more.
So it was kind of that idea ofthe first discount store, the
first loyalty program in thestate of Wisconsin, you know, 70
(15:01):
years ago.
I don't want to lose thefundamentals of the history and
I want to make sure we're alwayskind of grounded with what we
were and our roots.
But now that we've grown andwe're flourishing, how do we
continue to tap into what ourneighbors are looking for?
Because our family farmersstill very important aspect of
our customer base, our corecustomer really but their
(15:25):
lifestyle has evolved quite abit.
So making sure that we aren'tjust doing the things that we've
always done, but we are focusedon delivering on the experience
and recognizing the loyalty ofthis new dynamic customer base
that we have.
That goes from your familyfarmer to new homesteaders, to
(15:47):
hobby farmers, to people wholive in the suburbs but have
nice yards and they want to havegardens, or they just want to
have a nice green yard for thefirst time.
They're outdoors, they're doingfishing or hunting, they're in
the recreation camping.
There's so many different waysto solve the problem that some
of our neighbors are dealingwith that I think the loyalty
(16:09):
program can help elevate thatexperience just a little bit
more and get that access to thecustomer data to make it more
personalized.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Okay, when you look at kind of the life personal
work, you know what's thebiggest challenge you have faced
in your life and how has thatshaped you as a person.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
You know I'm a mom, I'm a wife, daughter, sister.
You know all the, all the roles, but I have a career and so,
kind of being a working mom, II'm trying to balance all the
things that my family wants todo what I want to do with my
career and in my personal life.
So really the idea was kind ofput into your head and everyone
(16:54):
kind of hears this like youcan't have it, all that old
saying.
And I grew up with thiscomplete opposite train of
thought of yes, you can.
So you can kind of havewhatever it is you want.
You just have to have theenergy and the focus.
You have to have thewillingness to ask for help to
(17:17):
make it all happen.
So for me the challenge kind ofcomes into play of wearing all
these different hats and makingsure that I've prioritized those
roles in my life in the rightway so that I can do all the
things that I want to do withall the people that I want to
surround myself with and that mykids are happy and healthy, my
(17:38):
husband is happy and healthy.
I'm happy and healthy with bothmy personal life and my work
life.
So that that's really been justan evolving challenge.
As people grow and age andchange, priorities change over
time, but staying true to towhat that end goal was.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
And that's awesome.
That's great to hear.
I know that that can be a bigchallenge, especially for
working moms.
I know my wife works and shedoes a great job of balancing it
.
As you know, a little bit ofsacrifice there, especially at
the younger ages.
But as you find things that youand your kids have a passion
for, things get to be a littleeasier at some point yeah, that
you and your kids have a passionfor things get to be a little
easier at some point.
Yeah, so when you look at lifelessons you've learned, are
(18:20):
there life lessons, or is therea life lesson that has shaped
your perspective?
Speaker 2 (18:24):
You know, there's definitely a lot of different
lessons that I've learned overtime.
I touched a little bit oncommunication.
I do think a lot of what I'velearned has to do with the type
of people you surround yourselfwith, the partnerships you make
and the relationships.
(18:45):
I believe it takes a villageand you really have to depend on
other people and that's notalways easy to do but to lean
into your support system,whether that's family or friends
or coworkers and it could beall of the above depending upon
the situation but being open andhonest and just communicating
(19:08):
when you need help,communicating when you're behind
or when you're moving too fastor you have too much on your
plate, and being able toreprioritize all of those things
.
You know you have to take timefor yourself, but you also need
to make sure you're not goingdown that path alone.
(19:29):
You know, take the time youneed, but count on the people
around you.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Yeah, that's one of my biggest challenges is asking
for help uh and feeling likeyou're disappointing someone
right especially yeah, uh, andnot realizing.
They may not realize how busyyou are, but you right being
able to realize how busy theyare as well, to just kind of
that reciprocity, that can bevery important yeah uh, you've
driven change within yourorganization.
(19:54):
How have you done that sosuccessfully, especially when
you look at championing thecustomer loyalty efforts and the
programs that you have?
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Yeah, so we are in that right now.
The change you know we want tochange the way we not only see
things but also the way that wedo things.
So we're trying to make somepretty big changes here at
Blaine's.
Some of that comes in the formof new leadership, some comes in
the form of new priorities.
But what's been working for meis bringing those business
(20:26):
partners and the leadership kindof along for the ride.
Sharing data that informed ahypothesis if there was any
insight or conversation that washad with a customer or through
survey or focus groups,explaining that data a little
bit in more detail, how any newtactics are performing.
(20:48):
Everyone wants to know the KPIsand wants to know what our
goals are and are we on track toreach those things?
If there are setbacks, why whathappened?
And then really leaning intothe subject matter expert for
products, for marketing my teamwe are the customer strategy, so
(21:09):
we will offer suggestions orthought starters.
We need to get the conversationgoing.
So we usually come in prettystrong with who the customer is.
What's the problem we're tryingto solve?
What does that customer targetneed or want from this category
or brand?
But then leaning into theexperts there for recommending
(21:32):
the actual tactics and makingsure those will ladder up to the
strategy.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
That's awesome.
That can be a big challenge toois having the strategy
especially if you're workinginternal teams, external teams
on strategy that it can besomewhat arduous to be able to
implement everything in thetimely manner that maybe the
consultant or the strategy teamdeveloped.
But and again it gets back tohaving that alignment internally
, which you seem to do anamazing job of you know driving,
(21:59):
and obviously that can help youknow champion the efforts that
you put forth, especially whenthey have measurable results, as
you've alluded to.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Well, thank you.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Yeah, absolutely so.
When you look at your careersuccess, you know what are a
couple of things that you'remost proud of.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
The partnerships.
For sure you know people.
It's probably a quick responsethat most people will say is the
people you know.
I really like to get to knowwho I'm working with on a little
bit more of a personal level.
You know what makes them tick,what's important to them, where
are they rushing off to, whatelse might be on their mind when
(22:37):
we're having theseconversations, and you know if
we're scheduling meetings andthey can't attend or whatever.
Just having that relationshipwith the people on the team that
has helped me.
You know quite a bit.
I don't know.
I've launched a lot of reallycool things.
So I've launched rewardsprograms I was part of creating
(22:59):
an associate level recognitionprogram in my past revamping
rewards or credit programs,testing new components of
customer experience throughdigital enhancements or new
things that are kind of cominginto the website or the customer
journey.
I love always love doing focusgroups and research and learning
(23:21):
exactly what our customers arelooking for A little more
unbiased, you know, if you canget to that.
All those things are reallyinvigorating and enjoyable for
me and I get to do all of thosein my rollout planes.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Awesome If you go back in time and change one
thing about your life.
You know what would that be andwhy yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
That's a tough one.
I'm very happy with everything.
You know where all landed forme.
But one thing that you knowI've learned about myself since
you know, even even childhood isthat I'm kind of moving 100
miles an hour all theconversation.
I'm not super present in themoment and so I tend to miss
(24:09):
some details.
Or, you know, I might hear youbut I'm not really listening at
times.
So I would probably try to goback and just slow down a little
, live a little bit more in themoment, or at least write things
down more so that I canremember better now as an adult,
you know, recalling memorieswith my grandparents or
(24:30):
conversations I had with someonetwo or three years ago.
Yeah, it's there, but it's notall there.
So you know, if I could go back, it would be slow down.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
That's awesome.
I commiserate with that as well.
I have a tendency to do thatalways and I try to slow down
and put the devices away and bemore present and spend more time
on vacation.
This last vacation I had nodevices.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
It's hard to do that.
Sometimes it's hard yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
You championed the whole loyalty program, the
training program on customerloyalty.
Is there another change thatyou would like to bring to the
workplace?
You know, what would that bepotentially, and why?
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Hmm, one like the low , low hanging one.
That's not real, but it would begreat Pet friendly, wouldn't
that be awesome if you can bringyour dog to work or your cat?
But in real speak here I wouldsay, part of your regular weekly
schedule is could we as aworkforce kind of protect time
(25:39):
for development, whether it'ssponsored by the employer or
it's individual time by theemployer or it's individual time
?
But development for, likeleadership skills, for
management, like projectmanagement or any other skills
that generally come with time inthe position or on the job.
But you know, as you'rematuring in your career,
(26:01):
sometimes it's nice to have thatstructure to close the gap on
the skill set of some of thepeople who have high potential.
So how do you protect that time?
And we're all moving quickly,we all have tons and tons of
meetings and in between meetingswe're trying to get all this
work done.
So we kind of put developmenton the back burner throughout
(26:22):
the year.
You know it usually starts offstrong and then quickly trickles
out of priorities.
But I would love to see theworkforce protect a little bit
more time for that development.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Okay, that's a good focus.
I know that that can be achallenge.
You know a lot of theavant-garde tech companies have
that.
You know 10% of the work.
You know that we can be justthinking right and being
creative and strategizing.
It's a little bit differenthaving that time for development
as well whether it's takingclasses, you know because there
is a balance, especially forthose who want to learn.
(26:53):
I know some people don't havean interest in continual
learning, right, they're kind ofa fixed mindset.
But for those who actually havethe passion and desire to learn
and better themselves, findingtime to help them achieve that
can be a big challenge.
Yeah, book Is there a book or apodcast that you recommend to
your colleagues?
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Oh, interesting.
Well, I'm into.
I read a lot, but I read morefiction books than I do anything
.
But I do recommend getting intosome of the fictional stories,
whether it's in sci-fi orfantasy or romance, having an
outlet of um, just letting yourimagination kind of run wild.
(27:36):
So you know, right now, today,today is the, or maybe this week
I would say, is the day.
Uh, the third book in one ofthe more popular series was
released.
So if you haven't read theFourth Wing, iron Flame and now
Onyx Storm series, that's top ofmind this week for me.
But, I do think those books andbooks like that were created to
(27:58):
give us an outlet as an adult.
You know we grew up with thosekinds of stories as kids and now
they're a little more elevatedand mature for all of us to
think more like the real worldthat doesn't actually exist.
So it's a nice outlet.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Awesome.
Since you've been a member ofBulletin360, you've been quite
active.
What do you like about theassociation?
What have you found value in?
Is there something that youmaybe would like to see a little
bit more of?
Speaker 2 (28:24):
I really like the roundtables, hearing from people
who are in similar roles asmine and kind of bringing forth
what they're doing in theirorganization, even if it's in a
totally different industry.
So I really enjoyed theroundtables and the different
topics that come up as far askind of seeing more.
This year I'm really hoping toget to the conference to see
(28:44):
some more people in person andmake some of those connections
face to face.
That will go a long way.
For me is just to be able tohave that new relationship with
somebody in person, sharecontact information, get to know
everybody a little bit better,versus just talking about the
one topic at hand in the roundtable.
So I don't know if there's away to do social hours or
(29:06):
anything where we're notnecessarily talking about a
structured topic but we can getto know each other a little bit
better on more of that socialside.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
We do.
We have a great brand onlymember only networking event,
video games and bowling, I thinkwe did last year.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Oh, that's cool yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Yeah, so you definitely you be coming.
I think we got you on a paneland, yeah, you actually have
extra gift cards from last yearfrom Andretti.
That's where we do it.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Very cool.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
This whole stack.
That'll be more card time, soit's good, nice.
What is one question you wouldlike to ask from another
individual who runs a customer?
Is there one kind of pressingquestion you have right now?
Speaker 2 (29:54):
I mean I go right to kind of the KPIs and the data.
On the data side, I would wantto know, you know, what else are
they tapping into their loyaltydata to help inform for the
rest of the business?
You know I mentioned whatBlaine's in a lot of other
places that I've talked to.
We leverage the loyalty programto collect more zero party and
(30:15):
some first party customer datato do a little bit more
personalization with that's kindof where it's been more, I
think, more pigeonholed.
So I'd love to know what elseare you guys doing with the data
there from a customerperspective?
What else are you using it toinform within the business?
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Okay, and last question we have.
We like to end these with wordsof advice for someone new or
somewhat new relatively new tothe customer loyalty industry.
What would you recommend tothem?
For those who are looking toelevate the customer experience
and do something unique fortheir program, what's a piece of
advice you would give?
Speaker 2 (30:53):
them.
I will bring it back to thecustomer every time.
You need to know who you'refocused on, who is your customer
and is that the group that youwant to grow with?
What is it that you want fromthem?
Is it more items in their cart,more trips to your store or
your site, and then kind ofidentifying that as the problem
(31:13):
you're trying to solve for yourbusiness.
But then you also have toidentify what's the problem you
want to solve for your customerand can those be solved with the
same solution?
But really the foundation ofall of that is to know the who.
So take the time to reallylearn who that person is or that
(31:36):
group of people are, understandtheir needs and their wants,
understand where there'sfriction, understand that
problem that you think yourcompany can solve for them, and
then work into the businessproblem.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Allie thank you very much for taking the time to
speak with us today in ourExecutive Spotlight series.
It's great to hear about yourpassion and also some of the
things that you do in yourpersonal life.
It seems to be that you put100% into everything that you do
.
We definitely appreciate youtaking the time to share your
advice with our listeners andlook forward to learning from
(32:08):
more from you and your team inthe future.
So thank you very much fortaking the time today.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Absolutely.
Also, I want to take the timeto thank everyone for listening
today to this edition of ourexecutive spotlight.
Please be sure to join us backevery Saturday for another
edition and make sure you signup for our podcast series and
subscribe to our YouTube channelto stay up to date on all
things customer loyalty.
Until then, have a wonderfulday.
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