Future Customer Podcast

Claire Gartland has an unrivaled and varied experience in customer engagement, across a wide range of sectors and brands such as Samusung, AMEX, Sky, British Airways, GoDaddy and JP Morgan.  In this episode Claire discusses the growing trend towards AI but not in terms of the technology solution!  Claire talks about how AI is changing how customer lifecycle needs to create deeper connection and how this MUST change how brands structure their business.

Mike is a highly experienced commercial leader and expert in  customer lifetime value.  Mike specialises in growth, pricing, commercial planning and performance, CRM, new product development and product marketing.   And Mike has a wealth of experience in growing brands through customer engagement optimisation

Tune in to hear Tom discuss the value propositions behind customer strategy with Mike, who shares his experience in developing business value through customer lifetime value.  Mike provides some excellent examples of how he has driven delivered on average 2.3x increase in ARR for his clients and consistently higher lifetime value.

In this episode of the Future Customer Podcast Tom is joined by Dan Herman, Strategy Director at Ogilvy UK.  Dan is now located in London but is a South African by birth and therefore has experienced two of the most innovative and vibrant loyalty marketplaces in the world.  This episode was a fantastic insight into Fan Engagement, in which Dan is a considerable expert, having developed strategy and large scale CDP implementation across global sport franchise in motorsport and football (soccer).

Listen in to hear Dan talk about the interesting challenges that creating engagement with loyal fans poses.  It's a fascinating sector that requires an unusual approach as loyalty fans change behaviours depending on the scenarios unfolding in their favourite sports.  Tom talks about how his fandom for motorsport changes from a global fan to a local fan when racing hits north west Europe and Dan showcases how the strategy evolves to maximise fan engagement in this type of scenario.

A fascinating discussion that all sectors can learn from.  Hope you all enjoy the lively debate.

Rasmus Houlind is a customer engagement expert, author in hyper-personalistion and keynote speaker, as well as CXO at Agillic.  There is no better advisor on how brands can achieve effective results through hyper-personalistion, and Rasmus talks through how brands can achieve this, using his innovative bow tie methodology.

In this episode of the Future Customer podcast Tom interviews Dr Jacqui Nortje, Product Specialist at Discovery, the company behind Vitality Health Insurance.  Jacqui also has a PhD in the Effects of goal framing within Gamification.  Jacqui's wealth of experience and expertise is not to be missed!

Tom and Jacqui first of all discuss the Vitality loyalty programme that creates Customer engagement and retention by incentivising members to be healthier.  A very different approach to health insurance, creating genuine innovation and helping to build a global phenomenon.

Jacqui then shares her views on the important new trend emerging in our industry to align with members health and wellbeing.  

It's becoming increasingly important to align with members lifestyle and offer opportunities for members self improvement, health and wellbeing.

Listen to the episode to understand how you can develop a lifestyle approach for your programme.

In this episode Tom interviews Emily Ong, currently Customer and Loyalty Product Leader at Landmark Group and previously Razer and Sephora loyalty leadership.  Emily has an amazing background, starting with her own fashion business and confectionery retail, and evolving into a global brand champion at some of the world's best loyalty programmes.

It's always a pleasure to speak to Emily, who really enthuses her love for customer engagement and in this episode we talk about Emily's 4 tips for customer success.

1. Integrate your programme with the customers lifestyle

2. Use the data and use it well to show you understand the customer!

3. Keep it Simple - an over-engineered programme won't work

4. Create emotional resonance if you want long-term loyalty

Tune in to hear one of the industries best speakers talk about the future of customer engagement.

In this episode Tom and Sebastian discuss the latest innovation sweeping the industry, Agentic solutions!  Sebastian is an industry expert in customer service and the use of AI, having worked across the travel and retail banking loyalty space for many years with brands like Aer Lingus, Qatar Airways, Lloyds and NatWest.

Sebastian shares his wealth of experience in how AI is shaping the way that brands engage customers now and into the future.  Sebastian explains what Agentic AI solutions are and goes on to talk through practical applications of this tool, and why brands need to invest.  Agentic solutions will start to predict future behaviours and enable brands to create highly relevant and enriching interactions.

It's a fascinating space and this show is a must listen for anyone in the sector looking to understand Agentic AI better!

In this episode Tom is joined by David Blake, a customer engagement giant with experience across utilities, fashion, electronics and luxury.  David has led loyalty and CRM for brands such as Curry's, New Look, Boohoo and Topshop in the UK, before moving to Dubai to help Al Tayer Group build their coalition loyalty across luxury fashion brands.

David has a wealth of experience across the end-to-end customer experience chain and really brings this to life in this podcast.  First of all, talking about the importance of the customer value chain and how brands MUST always keep this as the brand priority.  David then goes on to talk through how important it is for brands to have a unified and seamless customer experience.  

Often this is developed through simple journey testing that many brands ignore, and for brands looking to create this as a USP, it's about investment in technology

In this episode Tom is joined by Allie Ferguson, a senior loyalty strategist based out of Atlanta, with a wealth of experience across multiple sectors with brands like Honda, Bakkt, Cardlytics, Accenture and Visa.  Allie's experience across loyalty and customer engagement has lead to Allie becoming an expert in the use of Blockchain as a solution for customer engagement, and this technology is a significant part of the programs she now designs and works on.

Listen in as we discuss how Blockchain technology is providing members with greater value and flexibility, through ownership of your rewards and seamless customer journeys.  Blockchain and in particular NFTs also offer very interesting creative branding opportunities, quests and challenges for members.  

We also look at why brands need to consider Blockchain technology as a solution for the future.  Reducing technological complexity and providing the opportunity for more partnerships and highly personalised and local integrations that really drive value for members.

Finally Tom and Allie discuss how Blockchain is the future of customer engagement and could perhaps power a resurgence of coalition programs.