By Erica Thompson, Head of Loyalty, TrueLoyal

I’ve spent more than 20 years building, running and fixing loyalty programs. And there’s one question I never get tired of asking:

What’s the point?

What are we trying to help customers do? Why should they care? And how will we know whether it’s working?

I’m Erica Thompson, and I recently joined TrueLoyal as Head of Loyalty, based in San Antonio. I’ll be leading loyalty strategy and program services, working with our brand partners to build stronger customer relationships and turn those relationships into measurable growth.

But before we get into all that, I thought I should introduce myself—and give you a sense of how I see the world of loyalty.

I’ve had to make this stuff work

My background spans retail, ecommerce, CRM and loyalty, including leadership roles at PetSmart, Stride Rite, New York & Company and HSN, along with consulting work at Kobie Marketing.

I’ve owned the budget, built the team, worked through the technology challenges and stood in front of executives explaining the results. I know the distance between a great idea in a conference room and something a customer actually understands and uses.

I also began my career in strategic planning and finance. So while I love a compelling customer experience, I’m probably going to ask about the financial model, too.

That combination shapes my perspective: loyalty has to be worth something to the customer and the business.

Customers need a reason to choose you again. Businesses need to understand whether their investment is making that happen.

A big number isn’t the whole story

Our industry loves a big number. Millions of members. Billions of points. An impressive percentage of sales coming from loyalty customers.

Those numbers can tell us something. They rarely tell us enough.

If your members spend more than nonmembers, did the program create that difference—or were your best customers simply the first to join? If you gave someone a reward, did it encourage another purchase, or discount one they were already going to make?

And from the customer’s side: Is the benefit relevant? Can they realistically earn it? Does the experience make them feel recognized, or give them another password to remember?

I’m interested in all of those questions. The customer experience and the economics belong in the same conversation.

That’s also the thinking behind my forthcoming book, Pointless Loyalty. The title is a little cheeky, but the question is serious. We should be able to explain what a program is meant to accomplish, why customers would value it and how we’ll measure its impact.

Let’s take it one bite at a time

I’ll be sharing that perspective here through practical conversations about what makes loyalty work: customer understanding, relevant experiences, useful data, sound economics and honest measurement.

And because some of these subjects deserve a shorter introduction than a book chapter, I’m introducing Loyalty Bites, a series of short videos presented by TrueLoyal.

Each episode will tackle one question or idea in roughly 60–90 seconds. We’ll look at everything from whether you need points to why collecting customer data is only the beginning—and how to tell whether your program is changing behavior.

Expect plain English, real examples, a little humor and an occasional question that makes you look twice at your dashboard.

My goal is to give you something useful to bring into your next conversation, whether you’re designing a new program, improving an existing one or trying to explain its value to your CFO.

I’m glad to be here, and I’m looking forward to the conversation.

What’s the loyalty question you wish more people would ask? Send it my way. It might be our next Loyalty Bite.