(Joyalty* Moments of Magic = Your customer’s feeling of maximum joy and delight from one or a series of Moments of Magic (MoMs) delivered by your brand.)
The Loyalty Leader interviews I do continue to add Joyalty* Moments of Magic!
This interview (#34) with Chloe Buxton - Loyalty & Customer Engagement Specialist at Princess Polly reveals the reality of how Joyalty* (AKA surprise and delight) is at the core of their loyalty program Princess Polly Rewards.
Princess Polly is an online women's apparel and accessories business with a broad demographic of 15 to 25yo women. It was established in 2010 from a beachside apartment on Australia’s Gold Coast and is now owned by a.k.a Brands (they also own brands Culture Kings, MNML and Petal + Pup). They are listed on the NYSE.
“The brand is a thriving team of 300 (and counting!) super passionate, innovative and creative individuals collaborating across our headquarters in Burleigh Heads (Queensland, Australia) and West Hollywood (California, USA).”
With many case studies shared in this interview of how Chloe and her team surprise and delight their members, it is not surprising their loyalty program was winner of the 2024 Power Retail All Star Awards for The Top Loyalty Program Award dedicated to the retailer that has an innovative, immersive and inspiring Loyalty Program.
Chloe is passionate about adding joy to the lives of their members, always seeking out imaginative ways of creating memories for their members and in this interview, Chloe shares some amazing examples.
This interview was a joy!
1. So, who is Chloe? A little on your work biography
I moved to the Gold Coast from Dubbo, New South Wales when I was 18. I'm 28 now, so just about to hit the ten-year mark. A little bit about me: I love my big orange cat, Oscar, hanging with my friend’s, eating food and trying new wines, daydreaming about my next holiday, live music, drinking tea, reading and watching (sometimes playing) sport.
I relocated to the Gold Coast to study a Bachelor of Business in Convention and Event Management at Southern Cross University, where I also completed an events and communications internship with the Cancer Council in Byron Bay.
Six years ago, I started at Princess Polly with my first role within the returns department. Later I moved into customer service (where I learnt A LOT about the business) and then finally landed in the marketing team three years ago which is when I started to work on Princess Polly Rewards.
I feel super grateful that I have been able to experience different aspects within the company, resulting in forming strong relationships (a must for smooth collaborations) as well as broadening my understanding as to how we operate.
I work in the CRM team, a small and amazing team of specialists with a strong focus on Princess Polly Rewards (among many other things!)
2. Tell us about Princess Polly Rewards
So, our program is tier based and is set to the theme of a music festival. Our tiers are General Admission, Front Row, VIP & Backstage Pass. Members earn one point for every dollar spent and there are also other opportunities to earn points through actions such as subscribing to SMS, following our socials, or leaving a product photo review.
We pride ourselves on our global community and our more exclusive Facebook Insider groups for our top tier members.
It is a highly engaged community with members forming online friendships and supporting each other, sharing style tips and answering each other's questions.
3. What is the most unique element of the program?
The way we bring to life our theme through storytelling is one of the unique ways we engage our members through campaigns and through the surprise and delight initiatives (Joyalty*).
As an example, every month we surprise at random four of our top tier Backstage Pass members for their birthday. They receive an exclusive tote bag with a handwritten card and then we also find an item that's in their wish list and add that to it. Plus, they also get one of our exclusive backstage tees. This isn't an advertised perk or anything.
We've just been doing it for a few years now, and we get amazing feedback because we'll reach out to make sure that they've received their order. Otherwise, they're going to be really confused when something turns up.
Members tell us it's made their whole month!
Another example is when we invited members to the Harry Styles concert with us. That was a really cool surprise and delight. We ran a ‘how well do you know Harry Styles’ quiz and then reached out to some of the top scorers to invite them and their bestie to the show with us.
We included flights, accommodation, an office tour and a beautiful lunch. We had a private car take us to the concert and bring us back. It was awesome and they loved it!
Another surprise and delight we've done before is within our Facebook groups.
We had a member in the US group say there was a sold-out dress that she really wanted. We had one left on the AU site, so we just ordered it for her and sent it to her free of charge.
Another member posted that she wore a Princess Polly dress to her wedding reception and everyone was sharing their love with her in the comments. So we sent her a little post wedding celebratory gift. A gift card that she could come back and shop with at any time, and she just loved that.
On another occasion we had a member who posted about losing her favourite pair of sunnies. I looked them up and unfortunately saw they weren't coming back into stock.
I reached out to the merch team, who then contacted the supplier directly. They were able to provide us with two samples of the exact style, so we sent both to our member who (hopefully) now will never again have to go without!
I just love doing this for members!
Although I wouldn't necessarily say we plan these, we do look out for opportunities where we can do something for someone. Sometimes, members will reach out to our customer service team who will then share the query with me. From here we can look into ways to further improve their experience. Although it’s a case-by-case situation it’s my favourite thing to do.
Some other unique experiences of our program include our annual festival giveaway, which ties back into our overarching theme. This is a big one. Backstage pass members have the opportunity to enter the draw to win a 3k festival weekend, which allows them to select a double pass to a festival of their choice. We also arrange transport, accommodation and their outfits of course. For the US, we've sent someone to Coachella and more recently Gov Ball in NYC. And then for AU members, the festivals include Spilt Milk and Splendour In The Grass.
The last thing I want to share about the uniqueness aspect of our program is that we build and curate our program off direct customer feedback to make it as customer centric as possible, which I believe is special!
4. If you had to choose the most important measures of success for your program, what would they be?
There are two sides to loyalty. You've got the emotional and transactional.
For transactional we look at retention and redemption. This gives us real time data on how our members are interacting with the program, but it doesn't necessarily show their emotional loyalty to our brand.
This is why we also look at engagement with our Facebook Insider groups and giveaways. We find those who engage with these have love for our brand and are deemed our biggest promoters, and we know this translates to long term advocacy.
5. What are some of the challenges you face on an ongoing basis to keep the program relevant/fresh/thriving (internally and externally) and how do you overcome these?
One challenge I encounter is balancing my enthusiasm for innovative, ambitious ideas with the practicalities of business feasibility. While some concepts may initially seem outside our scope, I believe in exploring possibilities. To ensure these ideas align with our goals, I work closely with cross-functional teams to refine and adapt them, transforming them into solutions that are both cost-effective and beneficial for the business. This collaborative approach is key to fostering innovation while staying aligned with the company's strategic objectives.
Externally it is about keeping up with the shifting tides of what our members want at their core. Times have changed since Covid and our members are searching for real value amongst a sea of competitors and they want to get more bang for their buck. So that's something we're always aiming to optimise as well.
6. If you could start again with a blank strategy canvas, what would you do differently?
We are extremely happy with our program with great results globally. One key learning I think is simplifying everything as much as possible. We have a whole range of marketing activities running at any given time, so it's important to create the most cohesive and seamless experience as possible for our customer. We don't want to overbear and exhaust our customers with all the initiatives we've got going. I feel something I've learned is not everything has to reinvent the wheel.
7. What advice would you give to brands thinking about a loyalty program?
1. Truly understand what your audience wants and how you can relate to them beyond your product offering. Are they seeking experiences and high value perks, or are they looking for a way to save money? Do they want to be a part of a community, or do they just want fast shipping options at a lower cost? I think you should just find out everything you can about them and then let that shape what you can financially afford to offer on a continuous basis.
2. Have a strong platform and relationship with your technology provider because you want everything to be seamless and easy.
3. Building a good team skilled in different areas makes a big difference.
8. What’s the biggest frustration you have with loyalty programs (in general)?
I wouldn't say it's a frustration, however I think awareness of programs is an ongoing challenge for us and for other programs. I have been surprised at times with brands I purchase from and not knowing they have a loyalty program.
I think it's because consumers receive so many communications from so many brands and knowing there are programs often doesn't stick with so much marketing noise everywhere.
As a consumer, I can see how over saturated the market is. There are a lot of loyalty programs, and people are shopping at a lot of places. So, that's where we need to be different, so people know who we are, and they remember to use our program.
9. What do you think is creeping up on programs that could disrupt them for better or worse?
I think its program saturation.
I think now more than ever having a loyalty program in retail and fashion is important. However, your offering must be compelling because consumers have so much choice. You need to have something that leads your members to be emotionally tied to you - the emotional factor.
10. What’s the most underestimated force behind a program’s performance?
I think data and insights.
Our customer and rewards surveys are extremely valuable. We analyse every answer and make changes to ensure we remain customer centric. It’s often an underestimated resource (from other businesses) that directly assists in the value & continued curation of the program.
11. What are three important skills a loyalty program marketer needs?
1. Collaboration. Forming strong partnerships internally and externally can lead to fun and unique offerings.
2. Imagination. Step outside the box. I like to throw everything out and then you can adapt and bring it back in.
3. Logic. You can have all the dreams in the world, but it needs to be logical from a business point of view.
12. If we are chatting again in (say) 2 years’ time, what do you predict would be the hot topic related to loyalty programs?
I think customer experiences relating to travel. Aspirational high value rewards and competitions based on travel are where more programs will focus. It’s such a cool way to be different from your competitors and an awesome incentive for your rewards program. The memories you create are all connected back to your program!
13. Leave us with a lasting loyalty thought
Summary
For me, this interview with Chloe shines with Joyalty*.
The actions Chloe and her team take to add Joyalty* Moments of Magic to the lives of their members are imaginative and yet also simple.
A lost pair of sunnies replaced, items in a wishlist given as a gift, a post wedding celebratory gift card are just some of the random acts of kindness delivered to members.
And the benefits back to Princess Polly are word of mouth and customer love!
Thank you Chloe for your passion and imagination to find new and exciting ways of adding Joyalty* Moments of Magic to the lives of your members.
Have a happy loyalty day!
