Designing a Winning Travel Rewards Program

Welcome to Travel Buddy

In this episode of the Travel Buddy podcast, Ashley Martinez, Head of Global Sales at Switchfly, discusses designing a successful travel rewards program.

Key points include:

1. Importance of Travel Loyalty: Travel rewards create lasting loyalty by providing memorable experiences, which are more impactful than material rewards.

2. Market Reception: The market positively receives travel rewards, and integrating travel benefits enhances brand loyalty significantly.

3. Timing for Implementation: Brands should consider travel rewards when they want to offer more meaningful experiences, regardless of the size of the reward, as even small contributions can lead to significant trips.

4. Customer Engagement: Switchfly uses AI and machine learning to assist in travel planning and promote relevant deals, simplifying the booking process and increasing engagement.

5. Case Studies and Examples: Successful promotions, like a spring break travel deal, have significantly boosted engagement and bookings.

6. Comprehensive Solution: A robust travel rewards program should offer diverse inventory, personalization, and comprehensive customer support to handle the entire travel journey, including post-booking issues.

7. Current Trends: There's a growing demand for experiential rewards post-COVID, with brands looking to integrate travel with other wellness benefits and unique experiences.

8. Advice for Brands: Brands should critically evaluate their potential for offering travel rewards, considering the technical lift required for integration but recognizing the substantial loyalty and revenue benefits.

9. Personal Anecdotes: Ashley shares her positive travel experiences, reinforcing the emotional and loyalty benefits of travel rewards.

Ashley emphasizes the value of personalized and diverse travel experiences and comprehensive customer support for a successful travel rewards program.

Transcript

Welcome to Travel Buddy, presented by Switchfly. In this podcast, we talk about all things travel, rewards, and loyalty. Let’s get to it.  

 

James, Ashley, welcome to another episode of the travel buddy podcast by switchfly. Today we have Ashley Martinez, who is the head of global sales for  switchfly, which I’m really excited about because we’re going to talk about today, designing a winning travel rewards program.

 

And so I am so excited to have Ashley here to tell us a little bit about how we’re going to engage  customers through the customer engagement process for travel rewards and some strategies to help design a really great travel rewards program, and then have some best practices and takeaways for our beautiful listeners.

 

So I will stop there and I’ll let James and Ashley take it away. Okay. 

 

I think just to start it off  do you mind going into, Ashley,  what’s it, why travel loyalty? Why are we talking about this? Obviously,  most people probably have a credit card or a bank somewhere that offers points and cards and  all that stuff.

 

Why, 

 

I’ll tell a little personal anecdote of how I got to switch fly and directly how that was from a loyalty experience. My first job out of college, I had the opportunity to travel the world.  And it’s powerful travel experience that I had with that company.

 

Like I said, completely affected me personally and professionally has brought me here today.  

 

Awesome.  The dive in one of the questions I know I get  trade shows or it seems to come up on all these calls is how do you even begin to introduce the idea of travel to brands that maybe they have a almost everyone has a loyalty program, some kind of form, right?

 

I go to Kroger, I get discounted on, I get discounted coupons, gas, whatever I hit my local coffee shop, my 12th visits free.  How do your conversation you’re having tons of dozens of conversations a month. Like, how does that go? Like, how’s the market receiving it?  But what does the world think of travel loyalty? 

 

In 2024, 

 

so travel is an experience and I believe in the experiences are worth more than material things. And we’re really seeing a shift in the market as well. But to your example at Kroger how would I associate getting rewards from my local grocery store with travel or why would Kroger want to add a travel benefit to their existing offering?

 

And the answer is simple.  If you can bring a powerful experience, that loyalty will be tenfold. And the fact that if I had a lasting experience or the, it’s really a gift that keeps on giving. So if I just had 10 percent off my next purchase, that is great. There’s absolutely, but travel is something bigger and more powerful than that.

 

And that really establishes brand loyalty. There’s a lot of. Brands within this in the travel space specifically, but beyond that I go specifically because I can get a travel experience from there So I really think the market is receiving it  Positively people see the value in travel  And so there’s it becomes really a no brainer.

 

Why wouldn’t I want to offer this as an ancillary option? 

 

fair enough. Taking one more step on that then. when’s the right time for a brand to start exploring travel? Obviously a grocery store is  probably more edge case in terms of they’re selling things that cost pennies or dollars versus  I have not stepped on a plane for under a hundred dollars in a minute.

What does that  what’s a sweet spot for a brand that’s considering it, someone that might be offering bits and pieces, but is looking to go the next step. 

 

That’s a great question, James, in terms of timeline and when is the right time to  leverage this type of offering? I will say what switch flies offering the actual reward amount is not becomes trivial because you have the output. capability to leverage your reward amount with a combination of cash.

 

So you’re not just limited by the actual reward amount. So even if it’s a  a smaller type reward that still can contribute towards a bigger trip. So travel also doesn’t have to be looked at as this massive expense, right? We can have travel experiences, our own backyard, the switch by platform has travel experiences local tours, things in all different price points.

 

So I. The concept that travel just has to be something when I have enough points or I’ll save up one day until I can go on a big trip. I think we can have travel and experiential type rewards,  every day in our own backyard. And it’s not just reserved for,  one day. We can incorporate them now. 

 

Awesome.  Speaking of incorporating them, I know obviously we’ve also had,  not just people talk to you, but sign up, launch programs. How do they,  obviously there’s the whole technical part of the onboard, but once everything’s locked and loaded. Like, how do they actually, how are these brands actually getting people to sign up sending people on trips, delivering smiles?

 

Like, how do what’s the education or the evolution for the customer look like there? 

 

The travel process is, I’m actually a travel agent on the side. So I’m very versed in the whole  customer journey. So it starts with the idea of, okay, I want to go on a trip, right? Where do I want to go? That could be very,  We get this concept in the interstate of paralysis by analysis.

 

There’s it becomes overwhelming, right? So how can, in a simple way, I can break this down for a customer to so that’s not intimidating. There’s not that barrier of entry. Okay, where do I even begin here? So we In our platform have great features and functionality to leverage helping with the travel planning process.

 

So we have incorporates an AI and machine learning to really educate of the different destinations that you can go on and the capabilities and the breadth of offerings that we have in our inventory. So I would say starting that the tool, the internal tools that we have, but also switch by we work with.

 

Our partners to help promote special deals. So travel is very cyclic coming up on, we’re coming up now in the U S on summer holidays. So we do promotional work based off upcoming trips or upcoming  relevant holidays that are coming. So we do a lot of work with our customers and with our partners to help educate the end user of what they can get with the offering. 

 

Awesome. Obviously we’re talking about offerings, we’re talking about logos. Do you have an example or two of like a recent customer or even a customer who’s been here a minute,  doing something interesting? Like, how is this,  obviously I have a credit card, I might go look at their site. 

 

There’s this website called Google where you have  infinite options to go find sources for travel inventory and pricing.  What what are you seeing  post contract in terms of use case of limitation,  out? 

 

To increase engagement, we’ve really focused on promoting travel deals. So for spring break, we just ran a promotion across the best travel deals and rates that you can get for spring. And we saw over 3X engagement on when promoting travel deals. Specific deals. I think travel specifically, I like you just alluded to James.

 

We have different windows. We’re using Google. We’re trying to see what is that best deal I can get. But with the Switchfly platform, it’s all in one search. You have those best deals. You don’t have to leave to then go book a hotel or a car or other inventory. It’s all within one page. And I think that really alleviates the customer journey and simplifies the really complex  journey or a travel booking process that  Can be a travel experience.

 

Like I said, as a travel agent, there’s the booking there’s, many different steps, there’s post booking, there’s customer support, everything that’s handled within Switchfly So  I think we’ve had great success promoting deals who doesn’t love a travel deal, right? So the spring break promotion was, very successful for our partners.

Outside of destination, the pricing is definitely one of the biggest levers. So I definitely hear you there.  I know we’ve also talked a lot about switch fly, both in terms of logos,  our ethos,  but if we zoom out a little bit to be more market agnostic,  can we go through the steps to developing winning travel program or like more broadly  a travel, how travel can inform a customer engagement strategy? 

 

I’m sorry for me, obviously, as a sales professional, always leaning into a little bit of stuff, but holistically, my biggest advice for building a travel award winning platform would be a comprehensive solution. Like I said, from my experience being a travel agent, there’s that. Okay. Understanding the customer.

 

Really? What are their needs? They looking for in terms of not all travelers can be in one bucket, right? Some people like to stay at hotels. Some people like  prefer Airbnb or vacation rentals. So I think approaching it in a holistic that every traveler is very different. Price points can be different.

 

Their needs,  do you have family trips?  So I think looking at it as from a comprehensive solution, finding a partner that offers a breadth of inventory  in a very diverse product offering.  Just how you like to travel. Maybe James and I, we’ve conversed  how we, not everyone wants to necessarily go backpacking, right?

 

Someone would, or someone would prefer a more leisurely a week long at the beach. So I think really trying to understand  Understand what that and that travel is not a one size fits all 

 

For sure, I in my 20s I used to find the cheapest flight I could to Europe or somewhere interesting. And then would beg, borrow, steal,  but couch surfing and using strangers bat,  using strangers houses,  or borrowing space, let’s call it that.  I, my back is creaky, I’m just getting a little too old for that.

 

Definitely have  leveled up my travel game a little bit there. And obviously especially coming out of the last couple of years,  the expectations experiences have definitely evolved to, you did, I really was, I liked what you said though, about needing kind of a solution that’s both personal and broad.

How do you wrap your arms around that as a brand though, to be able to,  Help Bob the backpacker all the way up to,  five star Frank or, someone that wants what’s best in class across the board. That  is that overwhelming? Like how are,  what’s the best way to approach that without just getting completely gas while also running,  the nine to five business that all the brands we work with have 

 

Travel is really complicated right that’s why as a child there’s many steps there’s the Once you make a booking, like we haven’t even gotten into after you make a booking, the customer support and the, it’s not their whole journey isn’t just,  planning a trip. So it could get really overwhelming.

 

And I think working with a partner that has a comp, not only comprehensive solution in terms of inventory, but also they’re offering for post booking.  It’s so important to have a positive. Travel experience, right? I’m sure we’ve all in this,  in this room have had a Experience and probably negative experience, whether that’s from a flight from a hotel booking.

 

And so ensuring that The travel experience in itself isn’t, it doesn’t become a negative experience. So having the right customer support tools, having the right technology that you want to agree and that in that your partner can be a one stop shop for that, that you don’t have to think about, Oh if I’m exposing my customers and giving them this awesome experience, but what if there’s a travel delay? 

 

So maybe I would ensure that you’re working with a partner that their customer support Port team is has coverage and that it’s, they’re thinking about all of those aspects of travel because it isn’t just the travel booking. 

 

for 

 

I’m curious.  I think what might help our listeners think through some things is you’re having like 100 conversations with brands about their engagement platforms and different ways to do travel and rewards. How do you what are some trends that you’ve been seeing over? Let’s say last 6 or 12 months that you’re seeing either in the news or in these conversations that Yeah.

 

Maybe brands are asking for or asking you guys to accommodate or is there just  just some general patterns that you’re seeing that are actually becoming really popular or interesting, or is there like a conversation that you’ve had recently that like really caught your attention to just some, broader like patterns in the, travel and reward space that you’re in. 

 

So I would say going back to post COVID, right? We’ve definitely seen a shift in the market for everyone looking for experiential type rewards and travel is that perfect is fit there.  Be I think. Some interesting client conversations regarding  how can we then expand this offering?

 

How can we bring in other elements such as Ticketing and  other types of products that serve the travel experience. Right now they, once they get a taste for being able to offer experiences, they want to grow as well to more in that market and steer away from maybe just material type things.

 

So I think travel is opening up. How are there other ways or types of wellness benefits that we can provide beyond travel?

That actually triggered a thought  early in the pandemic, there was a national geographic article talking about just the benefits of travel.  Obviously no one was living their best life  in early 2020, 21.  But there’s multiple studies whether it was from Cornell in 14  or even an earlier one to know too, that even just having a trip to look forward to is one of the strongest ways to.

 

Increase your general wellbeing and happiness,  that you can do. And that specifically was in comparison to physical goods or,  I know for us, there’s a couple of times a year, maybe there’s something you bought online and you’re excited for it to get here. And you have that little bit of window or that honeymoon phase of  it’s not here yet.

 

You’re thinking of all the great things that you can do, try whatever.  But travel just takes that to a different level and in a way that.  Like we just got a turntable in the house. It was fun or novel to play with vinyl. But at some point you do have your iPhone in your hand and you’re like, this is just better. 

 

And there’s a reason that we don’t always listen to turntable, but it’s nice when it’s nice when you want it.  That being said, there’s trips that I think about from 10, 15 years ago. And those are some of your fondest memories. And it’s been super interesting to see how some. 

 

Especially our employee travelers on the platform. We’re sitting out  north of 10 million. Now I lose count cause it keeps growing.  Same thing with,  all of the both household brands and some of the up and comers, like that’s a huge opportunity for brand affinity, employee experience.

 

Like it’s almost endless just from the goodwill you get.  It’s been.  I think there’s a huge opportunity between user generated content to just,  Brandon likes to go to France.  He also likes Apple. If there’s a way to merge some of these synergies  like that’s money all day long.

 

Um, I don’t think Apple is struggling for brand relevance right now, but, actually, just like you were saying, there’s new expectations in the marketplace.  And I think solutions that approach familiar relationships  differently are definitely going to stand out in the coming days and years.

 

Absolutely. 

 

 Obviously that’s  super high level though. What, does it look like in terms of  say I pick up the phone today and I’m a brand that  You know, I might be a director of partnerships. I might be someone actively in the middle of loyalty management myself,  what,  trying to get a little more agnostic again here, what does a normal implementation look like in terms of,  I’m starting to look into the can you just walk us through the customer journey from travel curious to being the next Expedia competitor. 

 

So in terms of customer Jersey, or if someone who’s thinking about adding travel to their existing rewards or loyalty program and there is a technical lift, but it’s not, it’s we ensure in terms of our being agnostic, but that the travel perks are exclusive to that brand. So there is that technical to make sure that is something that’s only specific to your users and what that looks like and how that best. 

 

Fit for that brand. So there’s a technical lift of speaking again from switch fly of a technical, a most platforms are having API integration. So you could expect a little bit of a technical lift there in terms of defining what you want your platform to look like and  in terms of brand and logo, things like that. 

 

But the first step there would be a technical lift in terms of an API integration. I would say from there. Once you find alignment, a solution can be deployed in a matter of days, right? That’s the biggest once you establish where and what you want the platform to look like. There’s a. Pretty again, speaking from a Switchfly perspective a pretty easy onboard.

 

It’s an easy solution to, to deploy.  And again, this isn’t  travel is complicated, but your part, the travel partners are taking care of that. That’s not something or the lift is on,  the, brand.

 

And obviously there’s the set up, there’s the promotion. There’s also, though  just speaking from someone who’s had to stand up a marketing tech stack before  has been through enterprise implementations.  what there’s also the, just the being in the right headspace, which oftentimes takes more time to just set internal expectations  build alignment.  What, should brands be either asking themselves, like how, can they approach this both critically and in a way that’s going to be successful versus  I can  if I dig through our CRM, I can find  than one or two names where  Seem to be the perfect fit, but like just fizzled out because there’s some kind of blocker.

 

Like  how, can someone help themselves as they’re starting to move into the kind of this travel curious state or start pursuing some of these more experiential type,  loyalty options 

 

There, there does. It takes time to put on the road map and get the right internal resources to vote. Obviously, there’s brands usually have an existing road map. And so just to bring a travel platform on. But I would ask them to ask them something. How often do you think about planning a trip? 

 

Or how when, or even in your personal life, are you thinking about planning a trip or going on an experience? And every day that.  You don’t have a travel booking solution, then you’re learning, you’re losing potential loyalty.  Also there’s revenue benefit from there as well. So  I would say  start thinking critically and bringing that internally.

 

If we could be, if we had this today, we would be able to leverage this and,  in so many different ecosystems internally and with our end customers.  It takes some time to, but I think when the, once you can, it becomes almost a no brainer.

 

for sure.  Hey, I know we  we’ve covered  both how to start approaching this questions to think about, how people at Switchfly or Switchfly customers are using it.  Talked a little travel ourselves.  Just to round things out. Do y’all have an example or two of travel loyalty,  recent or  someone else’s story,  the, that stands out in your mind? 

 

Yeah, absolutely. We have one partner that has done over in the past six months, over 2. 5 million in bookings from implementing our platform. So that’s a massive. Change that they’ve seen in  their marketplace. And just, I really think bring it full circle shows in numbers in dollar values, the power of travel  not power of travel could obviously there’s the financial component, but the PR more importantly for me.

 

And that’s why I’m at switch. I believe in the personal,  power of travel.

 

I, can’t, it’s hard for me to think of a  maybe a rewards.  Like function or feature or something that really caught my attention, but I just stayed at a nice hotel in London and.  It was such a great experience, just the way that the people interacted, especially with my one year old daughter, that it made me want to like, if I’m ever in that area, or even that brand, really, I’m going to like, look at that brand. 

 

Anywhere I go in, in, Europe now. So yeah, it was something that really did catch my attention where I was like, it was such a superior experience, just the, person ability of people. And so I think what’s neat for, this conversation would be like, the more that you can personalize travel or make a personable experience or just really elevate that experience and people’s unique needs or preferences.

 

The better you’re going to be, because now I’m literally going to make searches for this hotel brand  when I, keep traveling. So yeah, it’s stuff that’s really, powerful. And I think it’s overlooked by a lot of brands. 

 

I I think I’ve shared this story before and y’all, I apologize to resubject you to it. You But  Amex, not only are they a customer, I’m a customer of theirs.  I got stranded in the Middle East during, the last couple of years,  on Thanksgiving day, 

 

Nope. 

 

closed on route. I was sitting in Doha  and had the,  probably the most memorable and least fun.

 

10 hours of Thanksgiving I’ve ever had.  But Amex was there  it was literally like the perfect  case study in when everything could pop we’re on holiday, we’re in a different time zone continent. I’ve been traveling. I think I’d been traveling at that point for over 20 hours. 

 

And  just to get a warm person on the phone that,  they saw the humanity in the moment, even though.  They’re not in Doha. They can’t physically change the world.  But just knowing that there was someone from my country that cared about me,  was huge, right? Like  I wasn’t on the verge of a breakdown, but I could see how someone got there. 

 

And that’s definitely kept me a loyal Amex card holder,  for the last several years. And I don’t plan to change that anytime soon.  but again, something we talked about earlier is just that trust factor, especially as travel. Like I’m stepping on a plane and hoping things work out.

 

9 percent of the time they do, but that one, like the edge case.  So you know, that, that was an amazing,  customer experience. Then loyalty portion of that  that’s, where I go to look for travel bookings now, right? I could book direct,  but I, the support I got stays with you.

 

Yeah, I’m so glad you said that because I feel that exact same way with, Amex. So when I was in London, this was a few weeks ago, my daughter is just like two 30 in the morning, got a stomach bug, would not go to sleep. I didn’t know what to do. We had no Tylenol with us. The hotel wouldn’t give us any cause of I don’t know rules  we didn’t know where to go with a doctor or whatever.

 

And I would find, we were able to, But because of the time zone, it was still like in the afternoon with our pediatrician. So we just called them and, worked it out and it’s fine. But  my next step, what I was going to do is I was going to call Amex, like I’m an Amex platinum holder and I pay a premium for that, but it’s for that exact purpose.

 

I’m able to just have somebody that I can call.

 

I think there’s like medical insurance or whatever, sometimes with, depending on your trip or whatever. So yeah, I’m just  it makes me think like I’m going to stick with them for a long time because I have that ability so yeah  I’m glad you said that. That was a great story. 

 

for sure.  On Anyway, 

 

I  if someone’s interested in exploring travel, I think we’ve  the major points on  where, how and why,  any last minute parting wisdom, Ashley  in terms of,  moving from travel curious to  travel juggernaut. 

 

Yeah. My key takeaways and from a high level and easy to implement next steps. So when evaluating travel partners and  make sure they have a personalization and that diverse global inventory, just recognizing that travel experiences  aren’t, don’t look the same for everyone. 

 

And, but if executed properly, they’re extremely powerful. So yeah.  I would say one global diverse inventory and personalization, then making sure they’re a comprehensive solution. We just talked about all of those customer support features and be  that someone can be with you at every step of the way of the travel process.

 

And then  so those would be my really to when evaluating partners and looking at the, to grow your,  Rewards and loyalty program to add experiences that we’ve discussed at like the importance of experience and travel, but really comprehensive solution  provides personalization of rewards. 

 

Great.  Last question. What is your favorite place that you’ve ever traveled? 

 

I love this question.  I, south of Spain. I will 

 

Okay. 

 

one day. I will live in Sevilla. I will,  I,  is funny. I’m, my family back in the day is from Spain. So when I got there, I felt at home.  It was a very unique feeling. I’m  but Spain without a doubt.

 

Okay. Okay. I’ve never been, I need to check this out. 

 

I’ll help you book a trip. 

 

That sounds great.  That’s perfect.  Okay. Ashley, thank you  📍 so much for this conversation. Super helpful. James always appreciate your expertise and your wisdom and helping us just talk through these things. So both of you very appreciate you and I’m looking forward to next episode. 

 

see you next time.

 

Thank you.

 

Thanks for having 

 

Have a great time. 

 

Thanks, James.

 

Adios.