Customer experience is paramount to organizations that are looking to drive incremental engagement and profitability from their clients. A recent Forrester study linking the customer experience with customer loyalty concluded that “when it comes to both the additional purchases and the reduction in churn that result from a better customer experience, banks and hotels lead the pack. Adding together both of these areas, firms in these industries can generate more than $206 million per year from their existing customers.” This panel discussion will feature leading issuers and their strategies and tactics around leveraging a loyalty program to deliver an integrated customer experience. Learn how leading issuers utilize:

To ensure that your portfolio is operating at peak performance, you should examine every phase in the cardholder lifecycle - from acquisition and activation, to usage and retention. Hear from this expert panel, representing five leading financial institutions, as they discuss how they have implemented proven loyalty marketing strategies that identify best customers and profitable behavior. The panel will also share insights on how to design loyalty initiatives that create, retain and grow profitable relationships that deliver incremental yield and maximize customer lifetime value.

Join retail and loyalty leaders who will share real-world experience and proven case studies to help you build customer relationships and grow share of wallet, even with today's powerful, short-attentioned consumers.

• Advice from loyalty-marketing leaders about the challenges they face in a web 2.0 mobile world
• How to reduce customer attrition and churn and improve customer loyalty
• Using data and rewards to change customer behavior and build profitable relationships
• Integrating payment technologies into the loyalty program

Limited resources doesn’t necessarily have to translate into limited offerings. Find out how a bank successfully boosted its rewards program and how the lessons learned can translate to success for other organizations. This session will cover:

• Analytics: Finding the right mix of retailers, particularly for ABOC’s niche, 50-state customer base
• Promotion: Telling customers about the program and new offers to keep them engaged
• Incentives: Providing ongoing incentives to drive program usage
• Encouraging redemption: Customers who redeem rewards are more likely to keep using the program

Card marketers need to take note of the success of online engagement which ironically comes out of the political world-- and the Obama interactive team. There are five focal points that they have employed that should be copied by every marketer. In our terms they are:

• Who's in charge --what are they thinking and can they tell me?
• How to achieve on-going engagement that is timely, targeted, and even fun
• Make your website the interactive Grand Central Station for cardholders-- and their entire lifestyle
• Social networking is a fancy term for being the Zagats of the card world
• Mobile value that can drive merchants and cardholders ever closer to each other and to you

Loyalty programs engage consumers through traditional marketing channels. Often, these communications are delayed and no longer relevant to the customer. The market is ripe for extending loyalty real-time at the point of sale - the "last mile" in customer engagement. Real-time rewards engages the customer when it matters most – as they shop.
The panel discussion will share best practices from people supporting real-time solutions today. Highlights include:

• What are the various real-time channels – POS integration, mobile, retailer kiosk
• Overview of functionality: real-time communications, offers, and ability to redeem rewards points for purchase
• Effective segmentation strategies to ensure the real-time offer and communication is relevant to the individual customer

With all the challenges faced in the economic turmoil and the card act, card marketers most likely ended 2009 worn out. While we are not out of the woods yet, loyalty trends taking shape, particularly in partnership marketing, are showing promise for profitability and growth. Some are a result of the “new world” we live in due to the recession. Some are being driven by emerging technologies and evolving marketing channels. This panel will take a look at where we see partnership marketing and merchant-funded rewards getting really cutting edge for both card issuers and loyalty program managers. We will discuss new strategies that can be implemented to take loyalty programs to the next level and drive positive performance metrics.
Learn from Upromise and SunTrust how they successfully work with companies like Vesdia to take their loyalty programs, and the lines of business and products that they support, to a whole new level. This panel will include an overview a successful partnership marketing programs across credit, debit and consumer coalition programs. Attendees will hear first hand:

• Strategies for leveraging both traditional and evolving marketing channels to drive consumer engagement – without breaking an already tight marketing budget
• How merchant networks can improve the value of a loyalty program through compelling offers in-store, online, and through everyday activities – all funded by partners
• The importance of robust reporting and analytics to demonstrate the ROI of partner marketing activities and evolve loyalty programs to effectively engage consumers