The Power of Partnerships and Interoperability in Loyalty
By Aaron Crowe, Head of Revenue APAC, Eagle Eye.
Loyalty partnerships increasingly connect technology, customer data and specialist expertise across organisations. At the recent Australian Loyalty Association (ALA) APAC Conference, industry representatives discussed how interoperability and collaboration can help businesses deliver customer loyalty programmes.
Loyalty often involves several teams and technology providers. Customer data may sit with one team, communications with another, and customer experience with a third. Meanwhile, the technology responsible for activating offers may involve multiple external vendors.
James Roth, General Manager of Operations at the Australian Loyalty Association, described the range of disciplines involved.
“What’s unique about loyalty is it touches so many different disciplines. It touches data at the core of it, with data personalisation a big focus. But it also touches marketing, it touches emotional engagement with the brand, it touches branding. [Loyalty] touches so many different facets and skill sets within a business’s ecosystem.”
A loyalty programme can use sophisticated technology but still struggle to deliver relevant experiences without sufficient customer understanding. Similarly, customer data has limited value if businesses cannot use it to improve customer experiences. Partnerships allow organisations to combine these capabilities without developing every area of expertise internally.
Interoperability Is Becoming a Greater Necessity, and It Creates Room to Evolve
Terry Mefsut, CEO & Co-Founder of Composed Digital, described a shift away from large, closed technology ecosystems towards interoperable solutions.
“We’re certainly seeing people moving away from the walled gardens of the big ecosystem monoliths. There is certainly a big shift towards best-of-breed technology vendors right across the space from cloud native data platforms through to loyalty technologies.”
Mefsut continued, “No longer are we seeing the best option for businesses is going down the path of their CRM providers’ platforms. We are really enjoying seeing customers reap the benefits of more interoperable technologies that serve a particular need and solve a particular problem, which has given the market a lot more flexibility to select one of those best-of-breed platforms.”
Jonathan Reeve, Regional Sales Director ANZ at Eagle Eye, highlighted the company’s work integrating with other technology providers.
“We’ve seen really great importance [on partnerships] the last couple of years. We’ve now built integrations to a lot of the other most popular platforms – Amperity, Braze, Bloomreach, and we’re in the middle of doing one with MoEngage right now.”
Reeve explained how these integrations can reduce the need for separate connections between platforms.
“It makes life simpler for the clients, because they don’t have to have multiple integrations. But it also makes life simpler for us as well, because we can come together more easily. For example, Composed Digital has built an integration or a demonstration of Eagle Eye, Amperity, and Braze together. That means we can show the value and the power of bringing all the platforms together to potential clients as well. So it helps in lots of ways.”
The Implication Is Broader Than Simply Choosing Between Technology Vendors
Interoperability can give businesses more flexibility as customer expectations change. Rather than replacing an entire technology environment, organisations can select solutions for specific requirements and combine expertise from different providers.
Billy Loizou, AVP & General Manager APAC at Amperity, discussed how technology providers can combine their capabilities.
“Amperity is all about bringing the best composable architecture to customers and brands in the market. Companies are starting to come together to build a kind of Megatron or Optimus Prime solution for enterprises. [To achieve this] we work really closely with brands like Braze, we provide the best fuel and the best data for them to power their orchestration through cross-channel engagement. And then with companies like Eagle Eye, we make sure those offers and personalisation that are sent to them are accurate and timely.”
Loizou added, “To me, that’s exciting. Gone are the days of one single vendor that can do everything. Now we’re trying to build a composable best-of-breed architecture, where partners want to work together. It’s by choice, it’s not by chance.”
Partnerships Should Be Measured by What They Enable, Not by Technical Prowess Alone
Reeve also discussed the growing emphasis on partnerships within the loyalty industry, including contributions from Qantas and Adairs at the conference.
“What I’ve seen a lot is a real focus on partnerships. I think that’s really been interesting, we’ve seen the likes of Qantas and Adairs giving interesting input on the importance of partnerships. I think that’s going to be a big trend going forward – the growth of partnerships, particularly for some of the smaller programs, has been talked about a lot. Now, with technology in particular, it’s really going to enable partnerships to become more integrated.”
The discussion reflects a focus on combining complementary capabilities rather than relying on individual technology providers to deliver every part of a loyalty programme.
For Loyalty Leaders, the Opportunity Is to Think Beyond a Programme Itself
Customer outcomes remain central to the discussion. Businesses need to identify the capabilities required to deliver those outcomes and consider where partnerships can add expertise, flexibility, or functionality.
Dana Teahan, Founder & CEO of Divide By Zero, questioned the assumption that loyalty programmes alone create customer loyalty.
“I think the biggest myth is that a programme creates loyalty when that’s not the case. The whole experience of a brand creates loyalty and a programme is a nice icing on the cake.”
The discussion also addressed how businesses measure loyalty, including customer behaviour and the value created through ongoing relationships.
“Loyalty programmes need to understand whether they are actually changing customer behaviour and where investment is being wasted,” Teahan added.
The strongest loyalty ecosystems will not necessarily be those with the most technology. Instead, the emphasis is on how different capabilities work together to serve customers.
About Eagle Eye
Eagle Eye is an AI-powered loyalty and promotions platform serving retailers, grocers, hospitality and travel brands. The company says its platform combines loyalty and promotions technology with AI-powered personalisation.
Its customers include Loblaws, Giant Eagle, Wakefern, Asda, Tesco, Morrisons, JD Sports, E.Leclerc, Carrefour and the Woolworths Group. Eagle Eye reports that its platform executes more than 1.7 billion personalised offers each week and manages over 750 million loyalty member wallets worldwide.
Visit eagleeye.com to learn more.