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Signia Aspire: Prioritizing Meaningful Relationships with B2B Customers Produce Loyal Program Members · Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Powered by Loyalty360

• 0:05
  Mark Johnson: Good afternoon and good morning.
• 0:06
  Mark Johnson: This is Mark Johnson from Loyalty 360.
• 0:08
  Mark Johnson: Hope everyone's happy, safe and well.
• 0:09
  Mark Johnson: One to welcome you back to another edition are leaders in customer loyalty series.
• 0:14
  Mark Johnson: In this series we speak with leading brands about what they are seeing and hearing on the front lines of customer channel and brand loyalty.
• 0:19
  Mark Johnson: Today we have the pleasure of speaking with Stephanie Miller.
• 0:22
  Mark Johnson: She's a senior loyalty program manager at Signia.
• 0:25
  Mark Johnson: Thank you very much for taking the time to talk to us, stephanie, welcome.
• 0:29
  Stephanie Miller: Oh, mark, thanks so much.
• 0:30
  Stephanie Miller: I appreciate the invitation.
• 0:32
  Mark Johnson: First off, tell us a little bit about yourself, all you do at Signia, maybe a little bit about your work history, things you did before Signia, and also maybe a fun fact about yourself, something you enjoy doing outside of work.
• 0:44
  Stephanie Miller: Sure To tell you a little bit about myself.
• 0:48
  Stephanie Miller: I've been in the hearing industry for almost 25 years I know I don't look it, but I did start at that time about 25 years ago and I'll kind of combine the fun fact.
• 1:03
  Stephanie Miller: At the same time I started working for a company called Siemens which sold hearing aids.
• 1:09
  Stephanie Miller: That company today is now WSA.
• 1:12
  Stephanie Miller: I actually was here with the organization at Siemens for about 10 years left to get a little bit more greener under the digital marketing space, because that's where I want to kind of learn and grow.
• 1:25
  Stephanie Miller: Then I came back about nine years later and that was then Savantos, and then it switched over to WSA Audiology, which is the company that I'm representing and speaking about today.
• 1:44
  Mark Johnson: For those who may not be familiar with Signia, we'd love to have a short history of the program, the company.
• 1:50
  Mark Johnson: Guess what you guys do, how you do it, who you do it with?
• 1:53
  Mark Johnson: I know you touched on that a little bit, but if you could add a little more to that, that'd be great.
• 1:58
  Stephanie Miller: So Signia is one of about 14 brands under the WSA umbrella.
• 2:05
  Stephanie Miller: Wsa, or WS Audiology, is a global hearing aid manufacturer.
• 2:11
  Stephanie Miller: Their headquartered, the global headquartered, is in Denmark, here in the US, is in New Jersey.
• 2:19
  Stephanie Miller: We are the US headquarters as far as the history it's, even though we've had a few transitions from where we were to where we have over 140 years of experience in this space, even though Signia itself or WSA, is still new, but truly it has the background and the foundation that it makes itself a very key player in this hearing space.
• 2:53
  Stephanie Miller: In fact, every three hearing aids sold, one of them is a WSA or WS audiology hearing aid.
• 3:04
  Stephanie Miller: So globally we have a pretty big footprint.
• 3:08
  Mark Johnson: Can you give us a brief overview of your loyalty program, the Signia Aspire program?
• 3:12
  Mark Johnson: Very unique program, but how does the program work?
• 3:16
  Mark Johnson: How do members engage with the program and what are some of the benefits of being in the program?
• 3:22
  Stephanie Miller: The Aspire program is a loyalty program that's offered with the Signia brand or the Signia hearing aids that we offer, and it is part of our business model for our customers or our members who are part of the top 20 of our business revenue.
• 3:43
  Stephanie Miller: So it's really like a white glove service, a white glove type of program for those who are very loyal to our program and with that they have a couple of different options when they sign up.
• 3:59
  Stephanie Miller: That's not even options.
• 4:01
  Stephanie Miller: We give them the avenues that they can work in and everything is still available to them, like our baseline benefits, which are benefits that when they sign up, even if they don't choose anything else, these are going to automatically be given to them, be it points or co-op dollars.
• 4:19
  Stephanie Miller: But on top of that then we have these benefits that we call just bonus benefits and those are the ones that they can select from, because we know that every customer has a different journey, has a different path of how they want to navigate their practice, their business, how they want to engage with their customers.
• 4:38
  Stephanie Miller: So those bonus benefits help them customize from where their vantage point on the business side.
• 4:45
  Stephanie Miller: And then the third pillar, or the third part of this, is the Aspire Brilliant Benefits, which we recently just launched about a year ago, or not even actually in January, so it just feels longer at this point.
• 4:59
  Stephanie Miller: But the idea is those brilliant benefits are now leveraging our partnerships with other industry manufacturers or suppliers in this industry, along with leveraging some of the outside of industry service suppliers.
• 5:20
  Stephanie Miller: The idea is that we have these partnerships with them and they have an opportunity to work with them directly.
• 5:25
  Stephanie Miller: But we've leveraged our relationship with them so they can get a little bit of a break, work with them directly and still have that tag of being an aspiring member.
• 5:38
  Mark Johnson: So the program is somewhat complex in its design, but because you provide these clear pillars within the program, it also sounds like it would be fairly easy to navigate, even with some of the inherent complexity.
• 5:52
  Stephanie Miller: Because we do have such a wide range of opportunities within Aspire, it does get a little complex as far as you know.
• 6:02
  Stephanie Miller: What are my benefits, how do I sign up, who do I talk to?
• 6:05
  Stephanie Miller: Because there is those different spaces but it's all under one umbrella and that's the idea is that they have to just come to the site and then from there kind of navigate their path under our baseline program, under the baseline benefits themselves.
• 6:22
  Stephanie Miller: We have not only the points and co-op dollars to help them market themselves or help to purchase through our catalog.
• 6:31
  Stephanie Miller: They get continuing education because we actually build courses so they can get continuing education which gives them CEUs if they are certified in some of the associations that you need to stay in practice, along with lead generation.
• 6:47
  Stephanie Miller: So we do our own marketing campaigns as Signia, as a company, but we give our Aspire members priority first if they're a close enough member to that patient or future patient that can be walking in their door.
• 7:02
  Mark Johnson: And one of the things that's unique about the Aspire program is allows opportunities for direct to you discounts for products and services, including hotel and car rentals, business intelligence, reporting, financial services, staffing support and vendor of the month type opportunities.
• 7:20
  Mark Johnson: It allows the hearing specialists and the audiologists to do what they do best right, that is, you know, run their business, help people hear better something they have a passion for.
• 7:30
  Mark Johnson: So you take some of those other challenges out of the equation.
• 7:33
  Mark Johnson: You know how do these opportunities keep members engaged within the Aspire program?
• 7:40
  Stephanie Miller: So our brilliant benefits is what we're talking about here, with all the multiple levels of services or opportunities or discounts and that's something that I mentioned earlier that we launched this January and between.
• 7:58
  Stephanie Miller: Having vendor for the month means that every month, our members and our sales team can actually coordinate and talk about what they might get an added discount or an exclusive package based off of that particular vendor that we've negotiated or discussed a package with or a discount with.
• 8:18
  Stephanie Miller: So right off the bat, that's a monthly visit.
• 8:22
  Stephanie Miller: We have our partnership with a couple of other outside vendors that are not in the industry but they support almost like employee resource center, where they can come and get the discounts before travel or for, if you want to buy an RV or or really focus within the practice, possibly to practice insurance.
• 8:47
  Stephanie Miller: We have so many different levels of opportunity that we want our members to remember that they come to us just checking us out first just in case we were already negotiated something.
• 9:00
  Stephanie Miller: And that's the idea.
• 9:01
  Stephanie Miller: And again we tell ourselves team, don't forget to remind them like, hey, if they have a, an employee that's gonna have a in there in that practice at your visiting is gonna have a, an anniversary.
• 9:13
  Stephanie Miller: Remind the owner.
• 9:14
  Stephanie Miller: You can do flowers In dot-com or whatever the the services through the discount and they get a break and they get to still leverage that.
• 9:24
  Mark Johnson: You know the power of being part of the Aspire membership you touch on this a little bit already, but partnerships are growing area of interest at Loyalty 360 Significant area of interest.
• 9:34
  Mark Johnson: We actually meet on the topic every two months within our brand community to talk about Partnerships what's working, what's not working.
• 9:41
  Mark Johnson: So when you look at partnerships with regard to Signia, you know how has your brand traditionally Approached partnerships and what makes them so successful.
• 9:51
  Stephanie Miller: So I see partnerships almost two-fold.
• 9:53
  Stephanie Miller: Partnerships for us are our partnerships with our vendors that are helping us make Aspire a great place to be a member of, and that that takes dedication and time to work with our partners to make sure that they are, yeah, getting what they need from us and, at the same time, we're able to get the services or the programs we're looking for that the aspire members are Also trying to seek out.
• 10:20
  Stephanie Miller: Then we have the partnership with our actual members, and the, for me, partnership with our members is I Don't even like calling it a partnership, because then we can show that we are together in it, but I really love calling it just a relationship, because we really do.
• 10:38
  Stephanie Miller: From our sales, you know field members that are on the ground talking to our members, to Anybody that they talked to within our organization.
• 10:49
  Stephanie Miller: We we do build relationships with these hearing care professionals and audiologists, and a lot of times we know if they're celebrating an anniversary or if they're expanding on a new practice.
• 11:03
  Stephanie Miller: So, and being part of the aspire member Membership is really just an added level.
• 11:08
  Stephanie Miller: Like I said, it's a white glove service for these guys because they do so much for us, we want to give back.
• 11:15
  Stephanie Miller: So even even if they don't, are not on the site, you know, tomorrow or today or whatever, but if we have a reminder that, hey, their birthday is coming up, we'll try to send them a note, a card, just to remind them that we didn't forget about you and we were thinking of you, and when you're here, we're ready for you.
• 11:35
  Stephanie Miller: That's that sort of thing.
• 11:36
  Stephanie Miller: So it's it's really about relationship building and we get a lot out of that because we we're in it together.
• 11:44
  Stephanie Miller: We want them to succeed and that's how we, kind of you know, combine those two things together.
• 11:51
  Mark Johnson: When you look at your organization's culture, you know what does it mean from a customer experience and customer loyalty effort.
• 11:57
  Mark Johnson: Is that something you work on to change or maintain, or is it somewhat inherent within the with the brand?
• 12:04
  Mark Johnson: And if so, you know what are the challenges and opportunities you see regarding culture and using that culture to draw better experiences in customer loyalty.
• 12:14
  Stephanie Miller: So this is a bit of a loaded question.
• 12:16
  Stephanie Miller: You know, we'd like to celebrate each other, our differences and all of that stuff at the same time, which is really nice.
• 12:22
  Stephanie Miller: But the reason I'm saying it's a bit of a loaded question is because we really do converse with each other about the day-to-days and the ongoing stuff.
• 12:32
  Stephanie Miller: But even when I was in a different role a few years back, a smile was really like a quiet, like a secret, Like you don't know that it's happening.
• 12:41
  Stephanie Miller: And so that's where I feel like the culture, even though it is a tool, it is a platform to help our members and our customers grow.
• 12:51
  Stephanie Miller: Sometimes it gets buried with all the other stuff.
• 12:54
  Stephanie Miller: That's happening because at the end of the day, we're trying to sell hearing aids.
• 12:57
  Stephanie Miller: So that's why the culture we really are very supportive of each other, but at the same time it's we have so many avenues of interest and priority, as sometimes the Aspire program doesn't really get the showcase it needs, and I think that happens with a lot of loyalty programs.
• 13:19
  Stephanie Miller: So that's why we end up kind of like, hey, don't forget about ASPIRE and what it can do for your customer and how we can, you know, like bring up engagement and just all around, just show that we're loyal to them, and they'll start to reciprocate with more purchases, more interest.
• 13:40
  Stephanie Miller: So yeah, so that's why I think it might be a two-fold or a loaded question.
• 13:46
  Stephanie Miller: I'm not sure what they.
• 13:47
  Mark Johnson: You know, another important topic we hear from brands is their increased interest in personalization.
• 13:52
  Mark Johnson: How are you, as a brand, looking at personalization and what does it mean to your brand and what are the challenges or opportunities that you see for personalization?
• 14:02
  Mark Johnson: And how are you working as a brand and a customer loyalty offering to improve your personalization efforts?
• 14:08
  Stephanie Miller: Personalization for our overall organization is actually a really hot topic with us.
• 14:15
  Stephanie Miller: Part of it is, I think, in our industry, and probably it's similar to our life.
• 14:21
  Stephanie Miller: We have FOMO, like if you have something, I want it to, and once in a while we'll, you know, release new swag, be it a jacket for our team or some mugs and then when we go into the offices everybody's like I want that too, I want to.
• 14:35
  Stephanie Miller: So we do the brand side of things and we have a very small offering of like our brand or our personalized swag.
• 14:46
  Stephanie Miller: But we also realize that in our platform for our members they want to go ahead and do the same thing.
• 14:55
  Stephanie Miller: They see Sydney walking in with their swag.
• 14:57
  Stephanie Miller: So how can we get our swag when customers come into the practice?
• 15:02
  Stephanie Miller: So we've been really lucky to be working with a partner that has been able to bring a vendor that can do personalized swag just for them.
• 15:12
  Stephanie Miller: So it won't necessarily be co-branded Cygnia and you know ABC Hearing, but ABC Hearing was able to utilize the Aspire catalog to co or to brand their own swag, be it shirts or tote bags.
• 15:28
  Stephanie Miller: Or even one of our customers came up to me she's so excited because she got the phone, the little pop thing for the back of the phone and she was like I can't wait to give these out.
• 15:40
  Stephanie Miller: They're so excited.
• 15:41
  Stephanie Miller: She's like I'm so happy.
• 15:43
  Stephanie Miller: Thank you, Aspire, it was just so cute.
• 15:45
  Stephanie Miller: It was like so everybody wants to see their name in lights, and so our co or our swag branding for the customer is a way for them to do that.
• 15:57
  Stephanie Miller: So we're still working on the co-branding side.
• 16:00
  Mark Johnson: Are there other programs, customer loyalty programs or brands that you are loyal to from a customer loyalty perspective and, if so, why?
• 16:08
  Mark Johnson: You know?
• 16:08
  Mark Johnson: What do you like about the program?
• 16:09
  Mark Johnson: What keeps you loyal to them?
• 16:12
  Stephanie Miller: I'm going to share a little bit of my lazy side and I think everybody has this.
• 16:18
  Stephanie Miller: So I like, and I like my Walgreens Rewards program, just because when I come in they're just like hey, by the way, you have this many dollars, you want to apply it to your bill today.
• 16:31
  Stephanie Miller: I'm like, yes, absolutely, and I don't do anything special, right?
• 16:36
  Stephanie Miller: So that's kind of like what I enjoy, because it's like let's leave the work behind if we can't, because our program is not as plug and play, of course, so it has to do with the number of units that are sold and all that other good stuff.
• 16:55
  Stephanie Miller: So it is a little bit more work, but at the end of the day it's quite rewarding.
• 17:00
  Stephanie Miller: It's not a hey, you got a $3.50 break on your bill.
• 17:04
  Stephanie Miller: It's much bigger than that in so many aspects, from catalog shopping to courses to lead generation.
• 17:13
  Stephanie Miller: So and we really do try to remind our customers that are part of the program it's not even it's not a price break, it's not like a discount on your hearing, it's just as a partnership or this relationship is what we want you to get out of it.
• 17:30
  Mark Johnson: So yes, if we could be a little lazier.
• 17:33
  Stephanie Miller: I don't know if that's the right word or just a little more plug and play.
• 17:37
  Stephanie Miller: I think they would appreciate it.
• 17:40
  Stephanie Miller: So, actually, another, when I was at the Loyalty 360 event, I was listening to Claudia Infante from Margaritaville.
• 17:53
  Stephanie Miller: I love their program and it's kind of in that same way.
• 17:58
  Stephanie Miller: It's like you don't have necessarily a, you don't have a ranking or something like that or a tier structure, which is like it's the opposite of what we do.
• 18:06
  Stephanie Miller: But I love the fact that it's like hey, we know who you are, we see you participate in these locations or this how you use our brand or our program and I love that.
• 18:20
  Stephanie Miller: it's kind of like already like ingrained in what they do on a day to day or whenever they're on vacation or going to the restaurant or something like that.
• 18:28
  Stephanie Miller: So I like that program for its simplicity for the member.
• 18:35
  Stephanie Miller: But I would love for it to like evolve to that.
• 18:38
  Stephanie Miller: So, or maybe our, like I said we have those three pillars, maybe we could look at it if they just our members just signed up and they just take care of baseline.
• 18:46
  Stephanie Miller: All I do is, just as long as you're buying with us, that's the plug and play, I guess.
• 18:51
  Mark Johnson: The next question I have is somewhat self-serving.
• 18:53
  Mark Johnson: You know, what can Loyalty 360 do to help you and your customer loyalty?
• 18:57
  Mark Johnson: Program your efforts, your team's efforts.
• 19:00
  Stephanie Miller: We've gotten a lot just from the interaction I've had with Loyalty 360.
• 19:05
  Stephanie Miller: The other interviews that you shared with us or the newsletter, just like giving us like the news of what's going on in other industries.
• 19:17
  Stephanie Miller: That helps us kind of take those nuggets and see if it's applicable to us or see if there's a way for us to have that aha moment.
• 19:26
  Stephanie Miller: We could leverage that idea.
• 19:28
  Stephanie Miller: So to me it's the feedback or the input that we get from, or I get from, Loyalty 360.
• 19:37
  Stephanie Miller: That really has been a great like diving point to learn more.
• 19:47
  Stephanie Miller: And, to be very honest, I was not in the loyalty space before I took on this role.
• 19:51
  Stephanie Miller: You know I participated in the loyalty program.
• 19:54
  Stephanie Miller: I've run away from quite a few.
• 19:55
  Stephanie Miller: I'm like no, I'm not answering that phone call, but the truth is it's really nice to see where everybody else is at, see some of the pain points and know that we're not alone.
• 20:06
  Stephanie Miller: Even though we're B2B more than B2C, like the loyalty space, there's still a lot of take home learning moments that I do get a lot of and I've been able to throw some ideas out there about how can we improve our program, just from what I've heard, you know or read about or was able to listen on an interview that's been shared.
• 20:33
  Stephanie Miller: So keep doing what you guys are doing, because it's really it supports us a lot.
• 20:37
  Stephanie Miller: I do believe that.
• 20:39
  Mark Johnson: Stephanie, thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us today.
• 20:41
  Mark Johnson: We appreciate it.
• 20:43
  Mark Johnson: We look forward to hearing more about the Signia program in 2023.
• 20:47
  Mark Johnson: Thank you to everyone for listening today.
• 20:49
  Mark Johnson: Make sure you check back for additional episodes in our leaders and customer loyalty series soon.
• 20:54
  Mark Johnson: Have a wonderful day, thank you.