Jaimi Farrey – a Loyalty Leader and champion of the customer

An interview by Adam Posner with Jaimi Farrey – Senior Loyalty & Personalisation Manager – Grill’d Relish Membership Program.

I had a joyful and insightful interview with Jaimi Farrey for my series on Loyalty Leaders! (#17).

Jaimi’s energy and vitality is infectious. Her knowledge and experience in loyalty programs is grounded in the love of the customer curated over more than a decade in hospitality and events.

This article should be read with a Scottish accent in mind!

At times during the interview this caused a few misunderstandings, especially when Jaimi said “I am a footy…” (that’s what I heard), to which I asked her “…so which footy team are you supporting (I thought that’s what she meant) when actually she said… “I am a foody!!! (lots of laughter from this).

Enjoy the read!

1. So, who is Jaimi (outside of work) + a little on your work biography

I am originally from not so sunny Scotland, Dundee, where I studied film, media and journalism.

Since finishing my studies and for the best part of more than 10 years I worked in hospitality and events.

I arrived in Melbourne seven years ago and was working as head of events for Apples and Pears Entertainment  Group with restaurants and event spaces, managing a team and working across more than 1000 events per year. This experience gave me the first-hand knowledge and experience of interacting with customers.

My fiancée’ (now husband) was working in recruitment and received a role in loyalty at Nando’s and the opportunity was presented to me. In 2017, my loyalty journey began with Nando’s and within six months I was promoted to loyalty manager.

I was involved in a huge digital transformation project with them, gaining significant experience there and part of the team launching their loyalty program Peri Perks in New Zealand. I then worked at Lovisa focusing on how to leverage their data and was involved in the design of a program there.

And now I am back to my hospitality roots with Grill’d as their Senior Loyalty and Personalisation Manager within Digital, leading a team acrossinsights and looking after channel planning and the Relish Membership offering. It’s great being a part of a people first company who are committed to doing good for the community and for the planet.

Outside of work, I love Melbourne. I am a real foody (I heard footy…see story in the intro)!

I am also a ‘drinky’... (I had never heard of that one before) – love my wine and Whisky!

I love eating out and going to live music gigs. In fact, I am looking forward to going to few (7 or 8) concerts coming up – Guns ‘n Roses, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, the Killers, Billy Joel - to name only a few (Jaimi mentioned quite a few more...a muso at heart). 

I also love sport…real football (English and Scottish Premier Football) and UFC (wow!)

2. Tell us about about Grill’d Relish Membership program

Grill’d was founded in 2004 and Relish was launched in 2019 so it is relatively new. We refer to Relish as our ‘membership with heart’.

We have nearly 1.5 million members and they are rewarded with our ‘Eight & Donate’ proposition where you can unlock freebies and rewards as you visit and purchase. After your 8^th visit (purchase) you get the choice to have a burger for free or you can donate your burger and do more with your hunger!

If you choose to donate, we donate the cost of the burger to our partner Vinnies to pass on as meals via their distribution networks. We also close a CBD restaurant in each main city on the first Tuesday of every month, to feed those doing it tough in our cities.

The impact has been astonishing via the stories we’ve heard from the homeless. We love this initiative as it makes it simple for our Relish members to see the immediate impact they can make on an individual basis.

We also have a ‘Tree-day Tuesday’ where if our members purchase a burger with us on a Tuesday we give a donation to Greenfleet  and they plant native trees in Australia. To-date we have planted 10 forests in Australia on behalf of our members.

We also revamped our Relish birthday offer. We compiled a test and learn program of the current offer vs a new offer on 50/50 split test. The old offer was a one-off free drink with a burger purchase with two weeks to redeem and the new offer was free chips with any burger purchase which could be claimed every day during the trial.

The new offer had a 59% higher redemption over the current offer. We have now rolled out the new birthday offer and extended this to be valid every day in the month of the member’s birthday

(This is a brilliant example of test and learn).

We are still in the early days of our program and there is so much more potential so stay tuned.

3. What is the most unique element of the program?

The most unique part of Relish is definitely our Eight & Donate initiative where members choose to Take or Donate their free burger after their 8^th purchase

Through this unique program proposition we have made a big difference to the lives of those doing it tough in our cities with over 51,000 meals donated so far from our members!

Interestingly, many of our members go through the Eight & Donate journey many times in the year and while some members donate, many of them take the free burger to enjoy themselves (which is great, they’ve earned it!). We also see members mix it up - sometimes they take and sometimes they donate so it’s great to see members interacting in different ways.

We are constantly looking at ways to influence these different behaviours and really want to drive our donations.

(I loved this insight).

We are also integrating our “Local Matters’ (bottle top drops into jars in the stores) into the Relish program by introducing the concept digitally to enhance our omni channel approach.

4. What are some of the challenges you face on an ongoing basis to keep the program relevant (internally and externally) and how do you overcome these?

Internally

Making sure the program is getting exposure across the different parts of the business by

1.  Including awareness and understanding of the program as part of new employee induction.
2. Continuously sharing the data, the insights, and results.
3. Making time to celebrate the wins.
4. If there is something happening in the business making sure Relish is at the centre of this and is being represented.

Externally

1. Educating the benefits to the members as there is always a lot happening. There are many stories and communications happening and sometimes messaging gets lost.
2. Showing members, the actual impact re donations and trees – without bragging!
3. We are testing how behaviour changes when we surface the impact made because of their program engagement (and yes, it had an impact). So, they can share the love and pay it forward (what a great mantra)

5. What advice would you give to brands thinking about a loyalty program?

1. Having the program is just the beginning. How do you plan for what comes after? The program is an enabler…so once launched what are you going to do this with this tool.
2. Have the relevant resources and technology is key and align with what you want to achieve with the size of your team and resources available.
3. Make sure you understand what the point of your program is. What’s the gap you want to fill?
4. Keep it relevant to your brand.

6. What do you think is creeping up on programs that could disrupt them for better or worse?

1. Web 3.0 and NFT adoption will be a disruptor in time - some will make it work with the right strategy and business buy-in and some might not succeed due to lack of strategy, capital and technology impacting the experience with the brand.
2. The growth the younger generation will also disrupt programs - those consumers born in 2010 who are now in their early tweens (Gen Alpha) and growing up with greater expectations on brands ESG focus and will have a big impact on programs and brands. 

7. What’s the most underestimated force behind a program’s performance?

The team.

Listen to them. Ask for their feedback.

They have the ideas and insights as they are living the program every day. They should be members of your program to know and understand the value of the program so they can share it with their customers.

8. What are three important skills a loyalty program marketer needs?

1. Understand customer behaviour. What motivates people. Understand psychological levers not to manipulate them but to frame content and offers to them in way it can impact on what they do next.
2. Be data centric. If you are not close to your data then how can you make changes to improve.
3. Take on feedback. Always ask. Always listen.

9. If we are chatting again in (say) 2 years’ time, what do you predict would be the hot topic related to loyalty programs

1. NFT’s and Web 3.0. We are only at the start so we will be talking about this more again when we meet in two years’ time.
2. We will see more CSR and sustainability. This will not be a differentiator. It will be an expectation!

10. Leave us with a lasting loyalty thought

In life loyalty has to be earned. So, what are you doing to earn your customers’ loyalty?

Loyalty is not a given. Just because someone is loyal today does not mean they will be loyal tomorrow.

Champion your customer.

… and Jaimi is a loyalty leader and champion of her customers!

Summary

The interview was full of wisdom and insights from a professional loyalty marketer living the reality of loyalty programs every day.

For me, the standouts were (among many):

1. Connecting a program and its proposition or benefits to help a cause or community will be a member expectation not a program differentiation.
2. If your program has a connection to helping a cause or community - bring the impact it makes to life and make it visible.
3. Give members choice – ‘choose to take the burger or donate it to help the hungry’.
4. Test and learn! Yes, this is not new…however the example provided is a perfect use case.
5. Take on feedback. Always ask. Always listen.

Have a happy loyalty day!