In the world of customer loyalty, few programs embody purpose as completely as AARP Rewards. More than a points-based platform, it’s a mission-driven engagement engine designed to empower people aged 50 and older to live better, healthier lives. By leveraging traditional loyalty mechanisms in non-traditional ways, AARP has built an emotional connection with its members that goes beyond incentives and aims for impact.
At the heart of this innovative program is Arapit Patel, Vice President of Loyalty at AARP. With a background in technology consulting and systems integration, Patel brings a product-minded approach to loyalty that’s focused on outcomes over optics. His path to AARP was unconventional, but his commitment to member well-being is unmistakable.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Understanding customers preferences, their
interests and what their driversof engagement and, more
importantly, customer loyaltyare, is very crucial in today's
marketing environment.
As people age, their passionsand priorities shift.
They become increasinglyfocused on health and wellness
and they often prune theirsocial networks.
Yet seeking meaningful brandrelationships and connections
(00:25):
that add unique value to theirindividual scenario is very
important.
Personalization and authenticengagement can enhance their way
of living, and though thespecifics can vary from
individual to individual, intoday's leaders and customer
loyalty series, we're going tobe speaking with Arupit Patel.
He's the vice president loyaltyat AARP.
He's going to be speaking withAarapit Patel.
He's the Vice President ofLoyalty at AARP.
(00:45):
He is going to be sharing someinsights into the impactful
initiatives that AARP has andthey're implementing for their
over 50 crowd.
Aarapit, thank you very muchfor taking the time to speak
with us today.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
How are you?
I'm doing great, Mark.
How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Well, thank you.
Thank you for taking the timeto speak with us.
It's been a while, so lookingforward to this discussion.
Likewise.
First off, for those who maynot be familiar I'm sure
everyone is can you give us ashort introduction to AARP?
Yeah, absolutely Happy to.
So.
Aarp is a nonprofit.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
We're a nonpartisan organization dedicated to
empowering people aged 50 andolder to choose how they live as
they age.
Aged 50 and older to choose howthey live as they age.
So the organization was foundedin 1958 by Dr Ethel Percy
Andrews.
She was a retired educator and,just based on what she was
seeing around her, envisioned abetter life for older Americans.
So that's where AERIPE comes in.
(01:38):
It's our mission.
We're committed to enhancingthe quality of life for older
Americans through advocacy,information and services, and
our work spans across health,financial security, personal
fulfillment and basicallyensuring members have access to
what they need to support theirindependence, dignity and
purpose as they age.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Okay, can you tell us a little bit more about your
role at AARP, maybe?
How did you get there?
How did you get involved incustomer loyalty?
How did you get involved incustomer loyalty?
How did you get involved inmarketing?
Were there some positions thatyou had along the way that
inspired you?
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yeah, sure.
So I run the AARP RewardsLoyalty Program.
How I got here, you know it'snot really the trajectory you
would imagine.
I spent a majority of my careeras a technology consultant,
supporting a variety of clientsand initiatives spanning
strategy, applicationdevelopment, systems integration
(02:33):
, cloud enablement, et cetera.
And I came to kind of a fork inthe road and I made a decision
to leave for a smaller firm andthat decision actually landed me
at AARP to lead the technicalbuild-out of the AARP Rewards
Loyalty Program.
And once the program was up andlive, aarp basically opened a
(02:53):
role to kind of oversee andexecute on the program.
And by that point I was prettycommitted.
I'd been working on it for awhile and I thought let me throw
my hat, throw my name into thehat, and you know I applied and
the rest is history.
So here I am, five years later.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
There you go when you look at some of the
opportunities or potentialchallenges that you see within
your role.
What keeps you up at night?
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Oh, that's a tough question.
I think some of the challengeswe're dealing with right now are
just keeping up with theoverwhelming amount of change in
the digital landscape, rightWith AI, with personalization
capabilities.
It's a big challenge we'reconstantly looking at.
(03:45):
How can we improve ourpersonalization capabilities?
How can we integrate newtechnology to make our
experience better, create deeperengagements and better guide
our members through our loyaltyexperience?
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Okay, we've heard the AARP Rewards Program has been
described as a social changeplatform disguised as a loyalty
program.
Can you tell us a little bitmore about what that means and
what inspired that approach tocustomer loyalty?
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yeah, so you heard me mention our mission, and so on
a day-to-day basis, we'reworking on how we can empower
people to choose how they liveas they age, and our personal
job is doing that with AARPRewards, and so basically what
we do is we incentivize folks totake positive steps towards
(04:37):
behavior change that we know isgoing to help them through the
various life transitions thatfolks go through.
Aarp has over 60 years ofresearch indicating that folks,
although different, a lot ofpeople go through the same life
transitions as they get older,whether it's transitioning from
working to being on fixed incomeor transitioning to becoming a
(05:00):
caregiver, and those transitionsrequire support and knowledge
and if you know how to navigatethem, that is the best way to
mitigate the negative effects ofthat.
And so we incentivize, you know,folks learning about that,
practicing that we give pointsfor, for example, you know,
taking daily steps or taking aquiz up and learning about
(05:20):
caregiving or filling out aretirement calculator to really
understand and look at yourfinances.
And so we use the kind of basicgive get of the loyalty program
to incentivize people to learnbasically and make it a little
more fun.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Okay, and AARP rewards is different from many
traditional loyalty programs.
You've talked a little bitabout how the program is
different.
Can you tell us a bit more howthe program is different and
many traditional loyaltyprograms?
You've talked a little bitabout how the program is
different.
Can you tell us a bit more howthe program is different and how
you pull together such acollective of brands to support
your efforts?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah, I mean, like I mentioned, the key difference is
we're incentivizing learningand making positive changes to
your life, building healthyhabits, all to ladder up to our
eventual goal, which is, youknow, total wellness for our
users.
And so the key difference therebeing we're not incentivizing a
(06:20):
transaction or a commercialactivity or some kind of
purchase.
We're incentivizing atransaction or a commercial
activity or some kind ofpurchase.
We're incentivizing thatengagement with the content that
we put out and our hope is thatit helps further our social
mission.
It helps people live betterlives.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Okay, the AARP membership comes open to people
once they turn 50 years old.
As everyone knows, that meansthe membership is primarily baby
boomers, some gen x, now uh,and soon will be millennials.
You know how?
Have your members needs andpreferences changed?
Uh, as the you know, you movefrom the different generations?
Speaker 2 (07:00):
yeah, that's a great question.
I mean we, we try to thinkabout yeah, that's a great
question.
I mean we try to think about,you know, what is common among
(07:22):
generations, right as an issuethat only boomers would care
about, but we have data thatshows about 29% of family
caregivers are millennials orGen Z, and so you can see how
there are some misconceptionsabout hey, is this really
relevant to this specificgeneration?
But what we found is, acrossthe key areas that we focus on,
the generation doesn't make thatbig of a difference.
(07:44):
I think what does change arethe tactics we use to
potentially engage withdifferent generations and how we
help them potentially, overtime, support these different
life transitions.
A simple example is some of thedigital transformation we've
overgone the past many years.
As younger generations start toget into the fold with ARP, we
(08:08):
have to connect with them in newways.
We have to connect with themwhere they are, and they are in
the digital space.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Okay, Customer loyalty is a very important
facet of many brands' customerapproaches right their marketing
approaches, customer experienceapproaches and having an
effective customer loyaltyprogram is very important, but
some brands struggle with that.
When you look at the customerloyalty approach of AARP, how
does that?
Kind of fit into your broadermission, particularly when the
(08:38):
mission is rooted in moresocietal impacts, more
personalized impacts than profitnecessarily.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Yeah, you know, I think we've talked about that a
little bit in terms of how theprogram is structured to align
with our mission.
But I think the key answer toyour question is you know
there's multiple ways to look atloyalty.
You can look at transactionalloyalty, which is there's
multiple ways to look at loyalty.
You can look at transactionalloyalty which is hey, I made a
transaction here today, I getincentivized to make it tomorrow
, I get incentivized to make ita week from now, and then I get
(09:09):
into a habit and build thattransaction loyalty with a brand
.
Since we don't have those kindsof transactions, I think where
we focus is on the emotionalloyalty side.
Right, we try to make adifference in our members' lives
.
We try to make an impact thereand build that emotional loyalty
through what we incentivizecontent, getting more support on
(09:31):
how they should structure theirfinances, financial well-being
as they transition to retirement.
That leaves a lastingrelationship between the brand
and the individual, and so westrive to strike that emotional
(09:53):
loyalty as opposed to thattransactional loyalty.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
And.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
I think other brands, even if they want to create
more transactions, can also lookat that model and fold it into
how they approach customerloyalty.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Okay, how do you define success with your
customer loyalty program?
What metrics are you looking at?
Obviously, enrollment,engagement.
Are there other metrics thatyou're looking at that really
speak to the success and theefficacy of the program?
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Yeah that you're looking at that really speak to
the success and the efficacy ofthe program.
Yeah, I mean you talked.
You know we look at the coreKPIs, just like any loyalty
program enrollments.
You know active users, you knowhow many engagements we get per
user time on site.
We look at all the basic kindof digital KPIs, but I think the
key thing we really look at isour customer feedback and
(10:42):
customer satisfaction scores.
You know our program users aregreat.
They always tell us whensomething's not working, but
they also give us really goodfeedback on the impact that
we've really made on their lives, on some healthy habits they're
building just by being a partof the program and we really pay
(11:05):
attention to that type offeedback to see that we're on
the right track and we'reachieving what we want with the
program.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Okay, fraud's a big concern for many brands right
now with regard to loyaltyprograms in general.
You know, is fraud somethingyou're seeing at AARP and, if so
, how does AARP take to kind ofthe challenge of protecting the
loyalty and reward program fromabuse fraud, gaming that, you
(11:34):
know, seems to be quite frequentthese days?
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yeah, I mean that's a great question, mark.
I mean it's something we workon every day.
You know fraud will be aconcern anywhere that there's
value for users.
We take it very seriously.
You know we have a layeredapproach to contain fraud, to
protect the program for ourmembers and keep the value for
our members.
But it's challenging, right?
(12:00):
We don't want to create such atight environment where we
create undue burden on ourmembers, and so there's always
that balance that we have tostrike on the fraud controls we
have in place in order toprotect the program and the
folks that use it.
So you know it's a daily battle.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
There's no winning right.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
It's a chess match that goes on forever.
Technology has been great forloyalty programs, for you know,
furthering a lot of our socialmission, but it's also been a
terrible tool for bad actors andfor fraud that impacts us and I
think you know, across theboard, you see cyber crimes on
(12:42):
the rise.
So it's a challenge.
Yes, for loyalty programs, butI think just across the board,
if you have a digital footprint,there are folks looking to
expose any gaps you have in yourapproach.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Okay.
When you look at a strongloyalty program, the goal is to
have a deeper, longer termconnection with your customers.
Personalization making surethat there's engagement,
processes and techniques thattruly resonate with the customer
.
When you look at AARP, what aresome of the things that you are
doing to keep your customersactively involved with the
(13:16):
program over time?
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Yeah, I think our biggest thing we do is kind of
freshness right.
We try to keep the programfresh.
We want to constantly have newcontent, new rewards, new ways
folks can engage with us.
We try to figure out newexperiences we can build into
our ecosystem.
Like you know, we havesite-wide scavenger hunts.
(13:41):
We have, you know, some wheelspin opportunities.
We celebrate milestones.
You know we curate learningchallenges.
So I think the key is stayingnimble and hungry to introduce
new value into the program sothat even folks that have been
(14:01):
with you for a while keepfinding something to come back
for.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Okay, have there been any surprises when it comes to
what's actually drivingengagement?
Is there a type of content orreward that may work better than
you had anticipated?
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Yeah, that's a good question.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
I think the you know, as you would imagine financial
content, health content.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
those earning activities are super popular
with our users.
They resonate with what a lotof people focus on on a daily
basis.
Surprising is we have speakingof fraud.
(14:47):
We have fraud content thatfolks can engage with and one
learn about what's going on outthere and also help prepare and
protect themselves from fraudattacks.
And we were actually quitesurprised at how popular that
content was.
And you know we've all beenthere, we've all gotten those
spam calls or those textmessages saying we haven't paid
our tolls, and so you know, justlike fraud against businesses,
(15:12):
you know that B2C fraud is alsoincreasing and it was surprising
to see how aware folks areabout that and how eager they
are to learn and protectthemselves.
Okay, so we're doing everythingwe can to make sure they have
what they need yeah, it seemsthat the, the fraudsters,
obviously kind of move moretowards organized crime.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
That's what we've heard, you know, from the, the
members of wealthy 360.
It's a topic we meet everythree months on and brands kind
of an open discussion aroundwhat they're seeing, which is
obviously very impactful.
But it's becoming moreorganized, more frequent.
I mean it's it's on facebook,now it's linkedin and and
linkedin has become like theking of fraud recently, just
people trying to connect withyou just to, uh, you know,
(15:54):
befriend you, so uh, but theyseem to have one to three
connections and they justcreated their linkedin profile.
So, uh, you, you would hope andthink that potentially some of
the walled gardens can do moreto kind of mitigate that.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
So when you look at personalization, that's another
very relevant topic right now,very germane to our audience.
Making sure you get it right,have the right data, have the
right content, right channel,right message, right.
It's a big opportunity.
Some brands do it very well.
What does personalization meanto you and to the members of
AARP?
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Yeah, Mark, I think that's a challenge for every
brand to define for themselves.
At AARP, we have a terminternally we use called
responsible personalization.
We want to do it in a mannerthat really supports what users
are coming to us for, thatreally meets their needs.
And so, you know, I think thekey driver for personalization
(16:53):
for us is discoverability ofrelevant content.
Right, If you're coming to usfor a specific need, or maybe
even you don't know you have aneed, a specific need, or maybe
even you don't know you have aneed, and we can use
personalization and all of ourresearch to put content in front
of you we think will berelevant to you, can help you as
you transition through life andmeet challenges.
(17:16):
That's how we really want touse personalization, right,
Because we serve a really broadaudience.
You know the 50 plus is a lot ofpeople and people are at
different stages of life, and soyou know content is hard to
curate for it as a one size fitsall, and so that's I think
that's where personalizationreally comes in.
You know, a 49 year old mighthave very different needs than a
(17:39):
69 year old, might have verydifferent needs than a 35 year
old-old, might have verydifferent needs than a
35-year-old, and we want to behere to support all of them, and
so I think usingpersonalization to make sure
your journey through ERP is asrelevant as it can be to you and
your needs is where thepowerful personalization lies in
for ERP.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
When you look at your customer loyalty program
overall more holistically, whatare two or three things you're
most proud of?
Speaker 2 (18:05):
loyalty program overall.
More holistically, what are twoor three things you're most
proud of?
Good question um.
First, I'd have to give a shoutout, of course, to my team.
Now, we're small but mightyteam and the outsized impact
we've been able to createthrough our peer rewards is
something I'm very proud.
Proud of um on a daily basis.
Um, and I think you know.
Adding on to that, I think thescale we've achieved as I'll
(18:27):
call it a startup team within alarger organization has been
great.
I'm super proud of it.
I mean, it can be a real uphillbattle to challenge the status
quo while simultaneouslybuilding necessary partnerships
across an organization like ERPor any organization rather, and
I think we've navigated thatreally well and it set us up for
(18:49):
success and I'm super proud ofthat as well.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Okay, and last question today what can loyalty
360 do to help you and your teamand their customer loyalty
journey?
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yeah, you know, I think learning from other
loyalty programs is alwaysfantastic.
There's so many great ideas andgreat ways to deliver value to
members, and we love hearingabout how other programs do that
successfully, how they're ableto connect with their users and
(19:20):
really, you know, at the end ofthe day, drive value to their
lives, which is what we're hereto do.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Excellent, and now we have our wonderful quick fire
round of questions.
The first question is you know,what word or short phrase do
you use to inspire others?
Speaker 2 (19:38):
That's a good question.
I find myself often saying isit difficult or are we making it
difficult?
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Okay, what is your least favorite word?
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Synergy.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Okay, what's your favorite food?
Pizza.
What excites you at work?
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Seeing the positive impact we have on real people.
I talked about the feedbackthat we get in review.
Some of it's really touching.
It's really great to be able todo something on a day-to-day
basis that's actually helpingfolks out in the real world.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Okay, what do you find tiresome at work or at home
?
Speaker 2 (20:29):
At home.
I would say what do I findtiresome?
My kids can be tiresome.
I have two little girls.
You know it was a lot of workAt work.
I would say meetings can betiresome.
There are just so many meetingsto be attending, um, and I
think they do get overwhelmingat times.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Makes sense uh, is there a book that you've read?
Uh, you really like that yourecommend to colleagues.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Oh um, it's not about work, but I recently read Dune
after watching the movies, and Ithought it was a fantastic book
.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Okay, that's awesome, that's good.
Is there a profession that youwould like to attempt, maybe a
little different than the oneyou have now?
So what is it?
Speaker 2 (21:18):
I don't think I'll ever attempt it, but I've always
wanted to be an astronaut.
That sounds fun.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
There you go.
Is there something that youenjoy doing that you don't get
the chance to do as much anymore?
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Yeah, I like doing DIY projects around my house
tearing things down, buildingthem up new.
I just don't get the time to doit as often as I'd like anymore
okay and who inspired you to bethe person that you are today
oh, that is a tough questionprior to say my dad, okay, and
(21:55):
how do you want to be rememberedby your friends and family?
As someone who's dependable andlikes to have fun.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Perfect, great responses, very insightful.
And then you know, thank youfor the overall interview as
well.
It was great getting an updateon AARP, some of the vision you
have for the program, how you'refocusing on making you know
everyone's life better,especially for the members.
So it was a very interestinginterview and very timely, so
thank you, thanks, Mark.
Very timely so, thank you.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Thanks, Mark.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Absolutely, and thank you everyone else for taking
the time to join us today.
Make sure you join us backevery Thursday for our Leaders
in Customer Loyalty series, theBrand Stories edition.
And until then, have awonderful day.
Understanding customers preferences, their
interests and what their driversof engagement and, more
importantly, customer loyaltyare, is very crucial in today's
marketing environment.
As people age, their passionsand priorities shift.
They become increasinglyfocused on health and wellness
and they often prune theirsocial networks.
Yet seeking meaningful brandrelationships and connections
(00:25):
that add unique value to theirindividual scenario is very
important.
Personalization and authenticengagement can enhance their way
of living, and though thespecifics can vary from
individual to individual, intoday's leaders and customer
loyalty series, we're going tobe speaking with Arupit Patel.
He's the vice president loyaltyat AARP.
He's going to be speaking withAarapit Patel.
He's the Vice President ofLoyalty at AARP.
(00:45):
He is going to be sharing someinsights into the impactful
initiatives that AARP has andthey're implementing for their
over 50 crowd.
Aarapit, thank you very muchfor taking the time to speak
with us today.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
How are you?
I'm doing great, Mark.
How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Well, thank you.
Thank you for taking the timeto speak with us.
It's been a while, so lookingforward to this discussion.
Likewise.
First off, for those who maynot be familiar I'm sure
everyone is can you give us ashort introduction to AARP?
Yeah, absolutely Happy to.
So.
Aarp is a nonprofit.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
We're a nonpartisan organization dedicated to
empowering people aged 50 andolder to choose how they live as
they age.
Aged 50 and older to choose howthey live as they age.
So the organization was foundedin 1958 by Dr Ethel Percy
Andrews.
She was a retired educator and,just based on what she was
seeing around her, envisioned abetter life for older Americans.
So that's where AERIPE comes in.
(01:38):
It's our mission.
We're committed to enhancingthe quality of life for older
Americans through advocacy,information and services, and
our work spans across health,financial security, personal
fulfillment and basicallyensuring members have access to
what they need to support theirindependence, dignity and
purpose as they age.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Okay, can you tell us a little bit more about your
role at AARP, maybe?
How did you get there?
How did you get involved incustomer loyalty?
How did you get involved incustomer loyalty?
How did you get involved inmarketing?
Were there some positions thatyou had along the way that
inspired you?
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yeah, sure.
So I run the AARP RewardsLoyalty Program.
How I got here, you know it'snot really the trajectory you
would imagine.
I spent a majority of my careeras a technology consultant,
supporting a variety of clientsand initiatives spanning
strategy, applicationdevelopment, systems integration
(02:33):
, cloud enablement, et cetera.
And I came to kind of a fork inthe road and I made a decision
to leave for a smaller firm andthat decision actually landed me
at AARP to lead the technicalbuild-out of the AARP Rewards
Loyalty Program.
And once the program was up andlive, aarp basically opened a
(02:53):
role to kind of oversee andexecute on the program.
And by that point I was prettycommitted.
I'd been working on it for awhile and I thought let me throw
my hat, throw my name into thehat, and you know I applied and
the rest is history.
So here I am, five years later.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
There you go when you look at some of the
opportunities or potentialchallenges that you see within
your role.
What keeps you up at night?
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Oh, that's a tough question.
I think some of the challengeswe're dealing with right now are
just keeping up with theoverwhelming amount of change in
the digital landscape, rightWith AI, with personalization
capabilities.
It's a big challenge we'reconstantly looking at.
(03:45):
How can we improve ourpersonalization capabilities?
How can we integrate newtechnology to make our
experience better, create deeperengagements and better guide
our members through our loyaltyexperience?
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Okay, we've heard the AARP Rewards Program has been
described as a social changeplatform disguised as a loyalty
program.
Can you tell us a little bitmore about what that means and
what inspired that approach tocustomer loyalty?
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yeah, so you heard me mention our mission, and so on
a day-to-day basis, we'reworking on how we can empower
people to choose how they liveas they age, and our personal
job is doing that with AARPRewards, and so basically what
we do is we incentivize folks totake positive steps towards
(04:37):
behavior change that we know isgoing to help them through the
various life transitions thatfolks go through.
Aarp has over 60 years ofresearch indicating that folks,
although different, a lot ofpeople go through the same life
transitions as they get older,whether it's transitioning from
working to being on fixed incomeor transitioning to becoming a
(05:00):
caregiver, and those transitionsrequire support and knowledge
and if you know how to navigatethem, that is the best way to
mitigate the negative effects ofthat.
And so we incentivize, you know,folks learning about that,
practicing that we give pointsfor, for example, you know,
taking daily steps or taking aquiz up and learning about
(05:20):
caregiving or filling out aretirement calculator to really
understand and look at yourfinances.
And so we use the kind of basicgive get of the loyalty program
to incentivize people to learnbasically and make it a little
more fun.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Okay, and AARP rewards is different from many
traditional loyalty programs.
You've talked a little bitabout how the program is
different.
Can you tell us a bit more howthe program is different and
many traditional loyaltyprograms?
You've talked a little bitabout how the program is
different.
Can you tell us a bit more howthe program is different and how
you pull together such acollective of brands to support
your efforts?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah, I mean, like I mentioned, the key difference is
we're incentivizing learningand making positive changes to
your life, building healthyhabits, all to ladder up to our
eventual goal, which is, youknow, total wellness for our
users.
And so the key difference therebeing we're not incentivizing a
(06:20):
transaction or a commercialactivity or some kind of
purchase.
We're incentivizing atransaction or a commercial
activity or some kind ofpurchase.
We're incentivizing thatengagement with the content that
we put out and our hope is thatit helps further our social
mission.
It helps people live betterlives.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Okay, the AARP membership comes open to people
once they turn 50 years old.
As everyone knows, that meansthe membership is primarily baby
boomers, some gen x, now uh,and soon will be millennials.
You know how?
Have your members needs andpreferences changed?
Uh, as the you know, you movefrom the different generations?
Speaker 2 (07:00):
yeah, that's a great question.
I mean we, we try to thinkabout yeah, that's a great
question.
I mean we try to think about,you know, what is common among
(07:22):
generations, right as an issuethat only boomers would care
about, but we have data thatshows about 29% of family
caregivers are millennials orGen Z, and so you can see how
there are some misconceptionsabout hey, is this really
relevant to this specificgeneration?
But what we found is, acrossthe key areas that we focus on,
the generation doesn't make thatbig of a difference.
(07:44):
I think what does change arethe tactics we use to
potentially engage withdifferent generations and how we
help them potentially, overtime, support these different
life transitions.
A simple example is some of thedigital transformation we've
overgone the past many years.
As younger generations start toget into the fold with ARP, we
(08:08):
have to connect with them in newways.
We have to connect with themwhere they are, and they are in
the digital space.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Okay, Customer loyalty is a very important
facet of many brands' customerapproaches right their marketing
approaches, customer experienceapproaches and having an
effective customer loyaltyprogram is very important, but
some brands struggle with that.
When you look at the customerloyalty approach of AARP, how
does that?
Kind of fit into your broadermission, particularly when the
(08:38):
mission is rooted in moresocietal impacts, more
personalized impacts than profitnecessarily.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Yeah, you know, I think we've talked about that a
little bit in terms of how theprogram is structured to align
with our mission.
But I think the key answer toyour question is you know
there's multiple ways to look atloyalty.
You can look at transactionalloyalty, which is there's
multiple ways to look at loyalty.
You can look at transactionalloyalty which is hey, I made a
transaction here today, I getincentivized to make it tomorrow
, I get incentivized to make ita week from now, and then I get
(09:09):
into a habit and build thattransaction loyalty with a brand
.
Since we don't have those kindsof transactions, I think where
we focus is on the emotionalloyalty side.
Right, we try to make adifference in our members' lives
.
We try to make an impact thereand build that emotional loyalty
through what we incentivizecontent, getting more support on
(09:31):
how they should structure theirfinances, financial well-being
as they transition to retirement.
That leaves a lastingrelationship between the brand
and the individual, and so westrive to strike that emotional
(09:53):
loyalty as opposed to thattransactional loyalty.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
And.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
I think other brands, even if they want to create
more transactions, can also lookat that model and fold it into
how they approach customerloyalty.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Okay, how do you define success with your
customer loyalty program?
What metrics are you looking at?
Obviously, enrollment,engagement.
Are there other metrics thatyou're looking at that really
speak to the success and theefficacy of the program?
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Yeah that you're looking at that really speak to
the success and the efficacy ofthe program.
Yeah, I mean you talked.
You know we look at the coreKPIs, just like any loyalty
program enrollments.
You know active users, you knowhow many engagements we get per
user time on site.
We look at all the basic kindof digital KPIs, but I think the
key thing we really look at isour customer feedback and
(10:42):
customer satisfaction scores.
You know our program users aregreat.
They always tell us whensomething's not working, but
they also give us really goodfeedback on the impact that
we've really made on their lives, on some healthy habits they're
building just by being a partof the program and we really pay
(11:05):
attention to that type offeedback to see that we're on
the right track and we'reachieving what we want with the
program.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Okay, fraud's a big concern for many brands right
now with regard to loyaltyprograms in general.
You know, is fraud somethingyou're seeing at AARP and, if so
, how does AARP take to kind ofthe challenge of protecting the
loyalty and reward program fromabuse fraud, gaming that, you
(11:34):
know, seems to be quite frequentthese days?
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yeah, I mean that's a great question, mark.
I mean it's something we workon every day.
You know fraud will be aconcern anywhere that there's
value for users.
We take it very seriously.
You know we have a layeredapproach to contain fraud, to
protect the program for ourmembers and keep the value for
our members.
But it's challenging, right?
(12:00):
We don't want to create such atight environment where we
create undue burden on ourmembers, and so there's always
that balance that we have tostrike on the fraud controls we
have in place in order toprotect the program and the
folks that use it.
So you know it's a daily battle.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
There's no winning right.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
It's a chess match that goes on forever.
Technology has been great forloyalty programs, for you know,
furthering a lot of our socialmission, but it's also been a
terrible tool for bad actors andfor fraud that impacts us and I
think you know, across theboard, you see cyber crimes on
(12:42):
the rise.
So it's a challenge.
Yes, for loyalty programs, butI think just across the board,
if you have a digital footprint,there are folks looking to
expose any gaps you have in yourapproach.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Okay.
When you look at a strongloyalty program, the goal is to
have a deeper, longer termconnection with your customers.
Personalization making surethat there's engagement,
processes and techniques thattruly resonate with the customer
.
When you look at AARP, what aresome of the things that you are
doing to keep your customersactively involved with the
(13:16):
program over time?
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Yeah, I think our biggest thing we do is kind of
freshness right.
We try to keep the programfresh.
We want to constantly have newcontent, new rewards, new ways
folks can engage with us.
We try to figure out newexperiences we can build into
our ecosystem.
Like you know, we havesite-wide scavenger hunts.
(13:41):
We have, you know, some wheelspin opportunities.
We celebrate milestones.
You know we curate learningchallenges.
So I think the key is stayingnimble and hungry to introduce
new value into the program sothat even folks that have been
(14:01):
with you for a while keepfinding something to come back
for.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Okay, have there been any surprises when it comes to
what's actually drivingengagement?
Is there a type of content orreward that may work better than
you had anticipated?
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Yeah, that's a good question.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
I think the you know, as you would imagine financial
content, health content.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
those earning activities are super popular
with our users.
They resonate with what a lotof people focus on on a daily
basis.
Surprising is we have speakingof fraud.
(14:47):
We have fraud content thatfolks can engage with and one
learn about what's going on outthere and also help prepare and
protect themselves from fraudattacks.
And we were actually quitesurprised at how popular that
content was.
And you know we've all beenthere, we've all gotten those
spam calls or those textmessages saying we haven't paid
our tolls, and so you know, justlike fraud against businesses,
(15:12):
you know that B2C fraud is alsoincreasing and it was surprising
to see how aware folks areabout that and how eager they
are to learn and protectthemselves.
Okay, so we're doing everythingwe can to make sure they have
what they need yeah, it seemsthat the, the fraudsters,
obviously kind of move moretowards organized crime.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
That's what we've heard, you know, from the, the
members of wealthy 360.
It's a topic we meet everythree months on and brands kind
of an open discussion aroundwhat they're seeing, which is
obviously very impactful.
But it's becoming moreorganized, more frequent.
I mean it's it's on facebook,now it's linkedin and and
linkedin has become like theking of fraud recently, just
people trying to connect withyou just to, uh, you know,
(15:54):
befriend you, so uh, but theyseem to have one to three
connections and they justcreated their linkedin profile.
So, uh, you, you would hope andthink that potentially some of
the walled gardens can do moreto kind of mitigate that.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
So when you look at personalization, that's another
very relevant topic right now,very germane to our audience.
Making sure you get it right,have the right data, have the
right content, right channel,right message, right.
It's a big opportunity.
Some brands do it very well.
What does personalization meanto you and to the members of
AARP?
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Yeah, Mark, I think that's a challenge for every
brand to define for themselves.
At AARP, we have a terminternally we use called
responsible personalization.
We want to do it in a mannerthat really supports what users
are coming to us for, thatreally meets their needs.
And so, you know, I think thekey driver for personalization
(16:53):
for us is discoverability ofrelevant content.
Right, If you're coming to usfor a specific need, or maybe
even you don't know you have aneed, a specific need, or maybe
even you don't know you have aneed, and we can use
personalization and all of ourresearch to put content in front
of you we think will berelevant to you, can help you as
you transition through life andmeet challenges.
(17:16):
That's how we really want touse personalization, right,
Because we serve a really broadaudience.
You know the 50 plus is a lot ofpeople and people are at
different stages of life, and soyou know content is hard to
curate for it as a one size fitsall, and so that's I think
that's where personalizationreally comes in.
You know, a 49 year old mighthave very different needs than a
(17:39):
69 year old, might have verydifferent needs than a 35 year
old-old, might have verydifferent needs than a
35-year-old, and we want to behere to support all of them, and
so I think usingpersonalization to make sure
your journey through ERP is asrelevant as it can be to you and
your needs is where thepowerful personalization lies in
for ERP.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
When you look at your customer loyalty program
overall more holistically, whatare two or three things you're
most proud of?
Speaker 2 (18:05):
loyalty program overall.
More holistically, what are twoor three things you're most
proud of?
Good question um.
First, I'd have to give a shoutout, of course, to my team.
Now, we're small but mightyteam and the outsized impact
we've been able to createthrough our peer rewards is
something I'm very proud.
Proud of um on a daily basis.
Um, and I think you know.
Adding on to that, I think thescale we've achieved as I'll
(18:27):
call it a startup team within alarger organization has been
great.
I'm super proud of it.
I mean, it can be a real uphillbattle to challenge the status
quo while simultaneouslybuilding necessary partnerships
across an organization like ERPor any organization rather, and
I think we've navigated thatreally well and it set us up for
(18:49):
success and I'm super proud ofthat as well.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Okay, and last question today what can loyalty
360 do to help you and your teamand their customer loyalty
journey?
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yeah, you know, I think learning from other
loyalty programs is alwaysfantastic.
There's so many great ideas andgreat ways to deliver value to
members, and we love hearingabout how other programs do that
successfully, how they're ableto connect with their users and
(19:20):
really, you know, at the end ofthe day, drive value to their
lives, which is what we're hereto do.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Excellent, and now we have our wonderful quick fire
round of questions.
The first question is you know,what word or short phrase do
you use to inspire others?
Speaker 2 (19:38):
That's a good question.
I find myself often saying isit difficult or are we making it
difficult?
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Okay, what is your least favorite word?
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Synergy.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Okay, what's your favorite food?
Pizza.
What excites you at work?
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Seeing the positive impact we have on real people.
I talked about the feedbackthat we get in review.
Some of it's really touching.
It's really great to be able todo something on a day-to-day
basis that's actually helpingfolks out in the real world.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Okay, what do you find tiresome at work or at home
?
Speaker 2 (20:29):
At home.
I would say what do I findtiresome?
My kids can be tiresome.
I have two little girls.
You know it was a lot of workAt work.
I would say meetings can betiresome.
There are just so many meetingsto be attending, um, and I
think they do get overwhelmingat times.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Makes sense uh, is there a book that you've read?
Uh, you really like that yourecommend to colleagues.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Oh um, it's not about work, but I recently read Dune
after watching the movies, and Ithought it was a fantastic book
.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Okay, that's awesome, that's good.
Is there a profession that youwould like to attempt, maybe a
little different than the oneyou have now?
So what is it?
Speaker 2 (21:18):
I don't think I'll ever attempt it, but I've always
wanted to be an astronaut.
That sounds fun.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
There you go.
Is there something that youenjoy doing that you don't get
the chance to do as much anymore?
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Yeah, I like doing DIY projects around my house
tearing things down, buildingthem up new.
I just don't get the time to doit as often as I'd like anymore
okay and who inspired you to bethe person that you are today
oh, that is a tough questionprior to say my dad, okay, and
(21:55):
how do you want to be rememberedby your friends and family?
As someone who's dependable andlikes to have fun.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Perfect, great responses, very insightful.
And then you know, thank youfor the overall interview as
well.
It was great getting an updateon AARP, some of the vision you
have for the program, how you'refocusing on making you know
everyone's life better,especially for the members.
So it was a very interestinginterview and very timely, so
thank you, thanks, Mark.
Very timely so, thank you.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Thanks, Mark.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Absolutely, and thank you everyone else for taking
the time to join us today.
Make sure you join us backevery Thursday for our Leaders
in Customer Loyalty series, theBrand Stories edition.
And until then, have awonderful day.
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