Are you a fan of loyalty programs? I tell you I am, in case it delivers better service, extras or more personalized offers. My preferred program is Lufthansa’s Miles and More, because it’s s a huge network of business partners, including hotels, rental car provider Hertz, or the credit card service that allows me to collect miles and spend them for upgrades when travelling. Being tall, that is important to me.

What is important to other people may be different. My colleague, Thomas Brence, is loyal visitor of Marriott, because he has access to the free breakfast lounge. Thanks Thomas, for inviting me during our last trip. A great thing to build relationships in business if you can invite people for a breakfast. Are you a loyal member of a certain hotel chain? If yes, what are the reasons for it?

Check out my latest Video on the good and bad of merging loyalty programs, and let me know what you think as a traveler and what you think if you are in the role of leading marketing or customer service at any company.

A benefit of merger or acquisition is realizing the potential of cross- or up-sell opportunities. It is what every sales and marketing leader is aiming at and it starts with data. Think of the recent merger of Tesla and Solar City. Are people driving an electric car, a good target audience for putting solar panels on their roof? Probably. Why? Because electric car owners are probably concerned about sustainability and are likely to want renewable energy. But maybe do not target those that are more concerned with the status of driving a Tesla. Knowing customers’ preferences helps with segmentation and personalization.

Everybody is talking and writing about digital transformation and the impact to customer experience, but what is required to make it really work? Solving such kind of data-driven challenges in an intelligent way is what we do with Enterprise Cloud Data Management at Informatica. It starts with a strong engine to intelligently and trustworthy match and merge different versions of Ben Rund and Benjamin Rund into one single 360 view. 

What sources can you trust for what information, and how to integrate all these sources in real time? How can the validation of certain customer information be automated in an intelligent way? What rules and processes are needed to ensure this? How can my suppliers get alerted when Ben Rund has moved houses? 

And it goes way beyond that by adding the potential of relationships and Big Data sources (see this blog about influencer marketing), placing the next best offering intelligently.