THE CHALLENGE: Create a system to support the growth of a pilot loyalty program.

This 50 year old retailer had no data on their customers and needed the information to target their marketing efforts. Customers would sign up for the loyalty program in store and then would receive emails with special offers and promotions unique to them. My company focused on the strategy and creative of the program, and outsourced the technical development to a technology partner.

The program was a huge success, which actually turned out to be a problem. The technology partner I was working with didn’t have the capability to keep up with the success of the program. The system they had built wasn’t able to close the loop on the abundant amount of information that was being received back from the stores.

That’s when I turned to Headspring. Because my business is me, I’ve worked with many developers in my 30 years, and I’ve had a lot of experience with bad ones. I worked with Dustin some years ago on another small project that was actually very similar to this one. I knew that Headspring had the back-end, data capture, user interface, and reporting experience to get the job done.

Headspring made the program functional. Without their abilities, the program would just been data collection with no follow-through. Customers of the retailer would have discontinued use because they would not receive any benefit from the loyalty program, in turn my client would have discontinued their contract with me.

The program went from being interesting to something that drives the business. Headspring not only managed the numbers for the 18-store pilot—they also helped get the program extend to the company’s remaining 200+ stores within three months. My client attributes $150 million dollars in incremental revue to the program—about 17% of the annual revenue for this $900 million company.

In marketing, timing is extremely sensitive. When I need things done, I need them immediately, before the market changes. I can’t believe how flexible Headspring is for a small customer like me. Headspring delivers a quality product on time; they own their part of the deal. Predictability and reliability really keep me with Headspring.