Redefining Customer Loyalty for Retail Giant With Salesforce Loyalty Management Implementation

Business Overview

Keells, a premier retail chain in Sri Lanka, stands as a benchmark in delivering exceptional shopping experiences and innovative customer engagement strategies. As part of the John Keells Group, Keells operates 135+ outlets across the nation, embodying its core purpose of enhancing the quality of life for Sri Lankans. Keells is the country’s first supermarket to launch an online shopping platform, offering customers the convenience of home delivery and click-and-collect options. The supermarket utilizes state-of-the-art systems to ensure smooth operations and consistent access to the products that customers need. Additionally, their Nexus loyalty program provides customers with great deals, enabling them to save while shopping and earn points in the process.

Challenges

1. Inefficient Loyalty Management System with Delayed Point Accumulation

Keells’ loyalty program relied on an intranet system that processed transactions and update reward points overnight, resulting in delayed, non-real-time point accumulation. The system also posed challenges in data extraction, verification, and rectification, making the loyalty management process time-consuming and inefficient. Additionally, Keells needed to improve their point accrual process, particularly for tier-based rewards.

2. Difficulty in Migrating the Legacy Loyalty Program: 

They were facing challenges in transitioning from the legacy loyalty system to Salesforce due to differences in technology platforms and data structures. The existing system’s limitations in scalability, flexibility, and performance required meticulous planning and execution to ensure a smooth migration. This included preserving historical data accuracy, minimizing disruptions during the transition, and integrating new functionalities without compromising existing operations.

3. Challenges in Streamlining Member Lifecycle: 

The customer enrollment and recycling processes faced challenges in achieving optimal efficiency and seamless execution. Data redundancy and fraud prevention issues impacted the enrollment process, while the recycling process required optimization to improve operational efficiency. Additionally, customers faced delays in enrollment and were not promptly notified about their profiles being recycled, leading to extended waiting times for engagement.

4. Battling Data Management Leading to Operational Silos: 

The existing data management system relied on multiple platforms that lacked integration, creating operational silos. Although functional, this fragmentation sometimes resulted in duplicated records, manual errors, and inefficiencies in retrieving accurate information. It also added complexity to daily operations and strategic planning, leaving opportunities to streamline and centralize data management.

5. Challenges in Real-Time Point Processing: 

The previous approach to loyalty point updates, while functional, offered opportunities for enhancement to support a more seamless member experience. Introducing real-time points accrual ensures that rewards are instantly reflected after a transaction, enabling immediate redemption. This advancement enhances customer engagement, fosters trust, and aligns with the expectations of a dynamic loyalty program.

6. Ensuring Data Security for Enhanced Trust and Compliance Stays Intact: 

The organization’s existing system effectively safeguarded sensitive information, meeting foundational data protection requirements with reliability and confidence. However, as the digital landscape evolves and compliance standards become more demanding, there is a need to further enhance the security framework to ensure continued robust protection and maintain customer trust.

7. Optimizing Point Expiry Management for Enhanced Customer Engagement:

The existing process for managing point expirations was thoughtfully designed to meet operational needs but relied heavily on manual interventions and was time-consuming. While effective to an extent, this approach occasionally resulted in customers not being fully informed about upcoming point expirations. As a result, there were missed opportunities for customers to redeem their points, which could impact their overall engagement with the loyalty program.

8. Streamlining Point Transfers for Enhanced Member Experience: 

The manual process for transferring points between members posed challenges related to efficiency and accuracy. With each transfer requiring manual intervention, there were delays in processing, and real-time updates were not consistently reflected on member profiles. This created a less seamless experience for customers, as the transfer process was time-consuming and prone to errors, affecting the overall engagement and satisfaction with the loyalty program.

Solutions

To stay ahead in the competitive retail landscape, Keells embarked on a comprehensive digital transformation of its loyalty management platform using Salesforce. Thus, we successfully migrated the legacy loyalty system to the platform via Salesforce Loyalty Management.