From Transactional Value to Emotional Experience – Converting Loyal Customers into Fans

Businesses understand the need to take loyalty beyond transactional value to a level of emotional gratification where loyal members turn into fans. One of the surest ways is the experience provided to customers in a dynamic loyalty program that can offer benefits in real-time scenarios. An airline is often exposed to flight delays and cancellations, which customers undoubtedly dislike. What if the airline provides its frequent flyers with seats in the earliest possible flight, or a free upgrade, or permissible change in destination? The airline not only turns an unlikely event into a good experience, but also offers an emotional value to its loyal members motivating them to be fans of the airline. Since they cannot offer benefits to all their inconvenienced customers they can rank customers on their social media behavior, and not just on a traditional transactional basis.

When a loyalty member changes from dollars to Elevate points, TIBCO instantly calculates the point price for each combination of product (e.g. day of week, load, cabin) and guest (e.g. lifetime value, recency) variables. This enables the airline to manage yield in real time. The airline can see Elevate members as they book and return customized pricing and other offers instantly, and connect information and offers to all guest touch-points. For all passenger profiles, TIBCO’s loyalty repository serves as Elevate’s “points bank” for both redemptions and accruals.

TIBCO’s loyalty scientists showed speed-to-market and a knack for continuous innovation in loyalty programs. Elevate is unique in its use of technology to acquire new members and nurture existing ones through a never-ending push to enhance the customer experience. Virgin America was the first airline to allow members to earn points with virtual check-ins on Facebook Places and Foursquare

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