PAYBACK w Polsce - Lojalność przerosła oczekiwania

Poland Pharma Commerce 2012

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PAYBACK w Polsce - Lojalność przerosła oczekiwania

Sylwia Pyśkiewicz - the Managing Director of PAYBACK programme in Poland was a guest of II Forum Multipartner Loyalty Programmes organised by Blue Business Media in Krakow on 25 and 26 November 2010. Below find an exclusive interview with Sylwia Pyśkiewicz on developing the programme in Poland.

he first anniversary of Payback loyalty programme's operation on the Polish market is the opportunity for summing up its operations and speaking about its future. „Looking from the macroeconomic perspective, the period of rapid expansion and opening new sales points is over for large corporates and more attention is being attached to managing the existing customer base" - says Sylwia Pyśkiewicz, the Managing Director of Loyalty Partner Polska, the owner of the programme. In the interview: more about the image of a Polish consumer built on the basis of data collected by the programme so far, differences between the Polish and German editions of the programme and new prospective partners who may join the coalition in the nearest future.

How many clients does Payback have after one year on the market?

Sylwia Pyśkiewicz: Now, the programme has about 6.7 million clients.

When launching the programme, you were hoping for 3 to 5 million clients after one year. I may risk a statement that your forecasts were wrong.

SP: It's difficult to start without any plans. To some extent, our plans were based on the programme’s experience on the German market but these calculations included an element of probability. In addition, the partners who worked with us at the start of the programme were transferring their then-existing programmes to us. In other words, clients of five loyalty programmes had an opportunity to register with Payback. Some of them had already had an opportunity to use these programmes at the same time, which made our forecasts even more difficult. Still, the reality has gone beyond our expectations. But we are aware that, apart from acquiring new clients, we have to work towards making the programme continuously attractive to the existing clients.

A loyalty programme is a set of data on consumer behaviour. What is the image of the Polish consumer which you get after one year of the programme's operation?

SP: The picture which emerges from such data must be always analysed against the background of all consumers on the market. We are about to complete broad research in market behaviour of Poles to contrast them with behaviour of Payback participants. Of the top of my head, aware of some results, I can say that there is no such thing as a statistical client and this is way it is absolutely necessary to personalise the message. These days, no one wants to be flooded with leaflets and offers that they do not have the time to analyse. Consumers expect the senders to do the process for them so they can get an offer which really interests them.
Generally speaking, a consumer wants to feel treated on an individual basis and it applies both to loyalty programmes and neighbourhood stores. Goods offered only to programme members, which are not available anywhere else on the market, attract much more interest than those with identical nominal value but available to a larger group of buyers.

Does it apply to emotional awards, too? Some believe that their importance in loyalty programmes will be growing. Others say that, in crisis, clients tend to be more pragmatic and appreciate tangible awards above anything else.

SP: If we are to present general trends, I would more opt for a wide selection of awards as a factor appreciated by clients. It is less important whether these are emotional awards, fun-related awards or practical awards - a coffee maker, perhaps. Obviously, it is important to satisfy needs of each customer group, even a small one and there are always some people not interested in tangible awards.

For some time, points collected in Payback may be donated to charity. Are clients interested in this option?

SP: So far, their interest is moderate. Not too many programme participants use this option but we can see that their interest is growing. Each innovation needs time. The possibility of donating points to You Are not Alone Foundation of TVN Channel is addressed to those who do not care about catalogue awards. It is an opportunity for those, who see their collected points as an additional advantage from their shopping and would like to share it with others.

Have you learnt anything that surprised you when collecting information on behaviour of Polish clients of the programme? In the British edition of Tesco Club card, when analysing participants’ behaviour, a group was identified which was buying the cheapest and the most expensive food products at the same time. It turned out that these were well educated people with relatively low income. They were buying low cost products for themselves but spending on eco food for their kids...

SP: This is about consumer group profiling and, in our case, it is too early to jump to such conclusions. I guess we need to wait another year to do that. Personally, I am surprised by a seemingly obvious fact: the number of male and female participants of Payback is almost equal though female participants traditionally spend more time in shopping malls and shops and also make most shopping decisions in households.

What are differences in behaviour of Polish and German Payback clients?

SP: Polish consumers are defiantly more efficient when it comes on on-line shopping, using the Internet and financial services. It might be because we started off in Poland a decade later, when new technologies have become common. In addition, both programmes have very different partners and that also affects consumer behaviour. My impression is that a Polish client is younger, more dynamic, looking more for fun and emotions than for rationality which prevails on the German market. In Poland, everything happens faster. In one year, the growth of the programme has been almost equal to the growth of the programme in Germany in ten years.

You’ve mentioned a growth in the number of your clients. Let’s take about the other side of the coin – are there any, who stopped collecting points or leave the programme never to return?

SP: Analyses show that they are very few. If someone decided to join the programme, they rarely leave while it does not mean that all are active. There is also some seasonal volatility as all general shopping trends are reflected in the programme. Consumers tend to be less active in point collecting in the summer and more active around Christmas and Easter.

Does the popularity of the programme vary depending on the area?

SP: What’s interesting, areas surrounding big cities are the strongest – not the city itself but its satellite towns and villages. E.g. in Raszyn, almost 100% of population take part in Payback. It is partially a consequence of a strong position of our partners, BP and Real, in Raszyn but, on the other hand, in other locations with equally good partner portfolio, such spectacular results have not been reported.

Year ago, just after the programme was launched you said that it was impossible to have two companies from the same sector in the programme. Has anything changed in this respect so far?

SP: Not really, but in theory it may be that two companies from the same sector would be interested in joining the programme. These would need to be companies who do not consider themselves direct competition e.g. do not have stores in the same area.

In German Payback, there are several popular brands from the same categories: Nike and Adidas or Dell and HP.

SP: Obviously, they do not stand in each other’s way. But it isn’t our intention to replicate everything from the German market which is larger, more mature and has wealthier consumers.

Are there any sectors which are not very much interested in joining the programme? If there are, is it because of typically low customer loyalty in the sectors?

SP: In a multipartner programme, all sectors that offer shopping make sense. The idea is to build a portfolio of partners from all market segments so that clients can use their Payback cards on a daily basis. Many from the sectors consider such formula of a multipartner programme the only one that makes sense, primarily because of low frequency of shopping in the sector.

Any examples?

SP: Sectors that our clients would like to see in the programme first of all are sectors characterised by large shopping frequency or relatively high basket as well as those which are associated with entertainment in its broad understanding. In this context, desirable partners are fashion brands (clothes, shoewear, jewellery and cosmetics), bookstores, children’s brands, home and garden stores, cinemas and restaurants. These are only examples and the list of such sectors is longer.

Payback groups the elite of the Polish economy: a bank, a mobile phone operator, a fuel station or retail chain. These are mass companies with massive sales. Is the programme a sign of a different approach to consumers?

SP: Before Payback, such solutions were approached with certain indifference, discouragement with such solutions as if everybody had got used to them already. It was not the best time for loyalty programmes.

The first fascination with such programmes is gone, multipartner Premium Club experienced some difficulties...

SP: That's correct. The noise connected with the launch of Payback increased the awareness of loyalty programmes. In consequence, they are treated more seriously. There has been a major growth in importance of customer service. Looking from the perspective of the entire economy, for large companies the period of rapid expansion and opening new sales points has ended while more importance is being attached to “managing” the existing customer base. Managers of partner companies, working in the project, have also changed their attitude. Although they come from different companies and sectors, when working on joint Payback project, they are starting thinking as one group.

Sylwia Pyśkiewicz will be a speaker at the II Forum Multipartner Loyalty Programmes organised by Blue Business Media
Kraków, 25–26 November 2010r.