Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Powered by Loyalty360
- Leaders in Customer Loyalty: for those looking to deepen customer experience, engagement, and brand loyalty. Each episode features innovative brands, industry experts, and executive leaders who share actionable insights, proven strategies, and real-world experiences designed to help marketers and brand professionals stay ahead in the ever-evolving world of customer loyalty.
Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Powered by Loyalty360
#543: Leaders in Customer Loyalty: Brand Stories | How Journeys Keeps Customers Engaged Across Fast-Moving Trends
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All marketers face the challenge of adapting to changing consumer expectations and behaviors, regardless of industry. But Eric Creel, Loyalty Program Manager at shoe retailer Journeys, notes that this challenge can be especially tricky to navigate in his industry.
“In a weird way, I'd say one of the biggest challenges is also one of the things that I find the most interesting, and that’s how shoe retail is very much driven by trends and what's hot in the moment,” he said. “Our customers are constantly evolving with that, and we have to be able to recognize that as quickly as we can and then make the necessary adjustments to stay relevant to them and deliver the experiences they're looking for.”
Whether it’s a seasonal trend, a new shoe drop, or a certain style that has become trendy on social media, Creel and his team must stay abreast of trends and what’s new in the footwear space. This requires meeting the customers where they are through social media or other channels and then reacting to what they are looking for now.
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Welcome And Guest Introduction
SPEAKER_00Good afternoon, good morning. Mark Johnson from Loyalty 600. It's happy, safe, and well. I want to welcome you back to another edition of our Leaders in Customer Loyalty Podcast. The Recorded Stories Edition. It's great having you with us every Thursday. Today we're going to be joined by Eric Creel. He is a loyalty program manager at Journeys, the Genasco-owned footwear retailer with nearly 800 stores across the US and Canada. They're built around self-expression, fashion, and culture. Journeys has earned a loyal following by staying closely connected to what customers want and where the trends are headed, which is a very good thing to have. Now, following the launch of its Enhanced All Access Rewards 2.0 program, the brand is taking its customer loyalty strategy to the next level. In this conversation, we'll discuss what customer loyalty means to journey, why trust is at the center of every customer relationship, and how AI and personalization are shaping customer experience. And also what it takes to keep members engaged between purchases, which is something we all uh would love to know more about. We're also going to explore the evolving customer expectations, Gen Z engagement, and the role cross-functional collaboration plays in loyalty access. Eric, thank you for taking the time to join us today. How are you? Doing well, Mark, how are you? Doing well, thank you. Uh first
What Journeys Sells And Why
SPEAKER_00off, for those who may not be familiar, can you give us a brief introduction to Journeys, what you guys do, how you do it?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. So Journeys is a shoe retailer. Uh, we're part of the larger Genesco family that owns a lot of brands that work in the shoe space. So that is Journeys in US and Canada, Johnson and Murphy as well. And also uh Little Burgundy in Canada, and then Shoe in the UK and Ireland. Um in the Journeys part specifically, we've got about 800 stores. Um, give or take a little bit, we're in the process of doing some remodels and uh launching a new look in our locations there. But uh very proud to be a part of the Journeys family. I've been with them about two years now. And earlier this year we actually celebrated our 40th anniversary as a company. And uh just really focusing on staying relevant in the the shoe space with uh younger consumers. And uh yeah, that's uh that's what we do.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that's great. So uh Genesco is uh kind of a larger shoe company, as you mentioned, John Samurvey and others. You know, when you look at uh journeys in the Genesco family, you know, what's led to the success it's had as an organization?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so they've they've done a really great job of kind of staying at the forefront of that self-expression through fashion, uh kind of youth movement there. Uh I would say it really kind of starts with some of the leadership positions that uh folks that we we have in leadership leadership positions, rather. Um our merchandising and product teams do a fantastic job of building relationships with some of the biggest brands in this use space and uh then getting the styles and the brands that our consumers are look really looking for. We then come combine that uh good product with a great in-store experience and uh on online experience is very user-friendly. And uh that's what keeps them coming back.
SPEAKER_00Okay, excellent. Well, what
Footwear Trends And Nike’s Return
SPEAKER_00uh what are the styles, what are the trends right now that are that are popular with uh with the in general, and then maybe even the how are the younger generations different potentially?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so um one of the one of the big ones for us right now is we we're very female focused. I would I would start there.
SPEAKER_00That's good. That's probably good with shoes, it's probably good to be uh focused on the female side.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely, yeah. Um we're we're very female focused and brands like Ug and Birkenstock are kind of leading the way for us. Um in the last year we added Nike as well, or or I should say rather returned Nike um back into the family, and uh that's seen some really positive results for us. Um seasonally, uh as we get into cooler weather, we're gonna see more of the in the shoe uh boot aspects of shoes. So um brands like like Hunter and Timberland start to really take off also.
SPEAKER_00Okay, well that's good. I used to be a big Timberland guy, I think I have like uh eight colors, uh, and then I kind of fell out just as I was collecting one. So I think only like one or two are broken in. So and uh I don't know if you had ever heard a pair of Timberlands, they are not fun to break in.
SPEAKER_01I I was always more the the Converse and Vans type guy, which are also good brands for us.
SPEAKER_00That's good. Uh well good, perfect. Uh so I have uh a bunch of uh ladies in my household, so there's I seem to trip over Uggs uh like at every door. So uh they all look the same, like fluffy and tan, and they have a fluffy inside, but uh they they seem to like them and they you know they always want them for Christmas and birthdays, and they they swear they're all different, but uh I'm not really sure. Um so Nike, you mentioned real quick that you just returned to Nike. Uh why did you come back to Nike? What what happened there? Did it just uh w why the transition? It's out of curiosity.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, uh in terms of why why they brought them back, it's just I mean, Nike is just a very popular brand. I I know that they were part of the family in years past, and not really sure why that was the case that it had stopped, but I know uh in recent years there's been a lot of interest in it. And both with the new look of the stores and the the added interest on our site and the growth of our loyalty program, there was just a lot of good reasons to bring that back up and return to the return to the fold with them. We launched women's last year, kids earlier this year, and um we'll be launching men's Nike here very soon. So excited to I'm I'm a big Nike guy.
SPEAKER_00I probably got about a hundred pair of Nikes in my uh closet upstairs. So uh like the shoes I don't bought them recently because they're uh they kind of changed some of their shoeline by the uh like the Air Force Max's used to be my thing, right? And then because they're very light and very comfortable, but uh they seem to be kind of flipping it back, right? And as styles kind of come in and come out, right? Uh and they seem to be, I know they have a whole new leadership board there as well, but uh they seem to be doing some good things too. It's glad that uh good hear that you that you're working with them again. That's good. Yeah, very excited to have them. Yeah, and one of the things is really interesting too, you know, we have a couple of shoe retailers that are part of Loyalty 360, just how you know the promotion some of the those retailers can bring, right? A new shoe drop can be very important to you and your line, correct? So Nike has a new shoe drop, a new shoe release. You know, you can have people waiting online, sign up for your loyalty program to get access to those new releases, correct?
SPEAKER_01Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Well, shoes are very interesting in that regard because yes, they're a utility and there's a need there, but there's such a part of that that is very self-expression, very uh fashion forward culture piece. And uh a big part of our business is those launches, as you mentioned. You know, new new style coming, people just gotta have them.
SPEAKER_00So I would assume that would drive a pretty significant amount of emotional loyalty or emotional connection to the customer to journeys or through to journeys. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, that's good to hear. Um perfect.
Running Loyalty Across Teams
SPEAKER_00Your role, uh, you run you run the loyalty program. You mentioned you've been there about two years. Can you tell us a bit more about what you do, uh kind of a day-to-day perspective at Journeys?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, for sure. So official title, loyalty program manager. Um, I oversee loyalty operations for both the US and the Canada side. Um the the job itself is kind of fun. It's it's very eclectic. I get to sit in on conversations with various aspects of the business. You know, loyalty is is unique in that way that we're touching a lot of different parts of the customer journey. So my day is consisting of having conversations with different departments, whether that's marketing and creative or training department to work with our sales teams or um just really whatever aspect is is the focus there. Um we're we're just constantly looking at how do we how do we engage with the customer more, how you know how do we impact that decision to get them to join, keep them engaged throughout the funnel, wherever they may be, and uh really just focus on deepening their relationship with the brand. Um you know I'm I'm constantly having conversations internally, uh, but also externally as well, whether that's working with our platform partners, whether that's diving into industry research or you know, looking into articles on fashion trends or loyalty trends.
SPEAKER_00Um today looks like we kind of touched on a little bit, are there any uh fashion trends that are that are kind of standing out right now? I did read that uh uh that the kind of the the the well, maybe it's not appropriate, but just some of the fashion trends like women are wearing things that are see-through more so to different events, and uh that's kind of had a backlash. There's a big article in the Wall Street Journal about that a couple weeks ago.
SPEAKER_01Uh you know, one of the trends from a shoe perspective, I would say right now is um what they call like the ballet style shoes. So pretty much every brand is in the process of either just released or or kicking off their ballet flat version of their shoe. Um some of them are really interesting. Uh some of them are are less my interest, I would say, but uh a lot of variety there. But that's a that's a big one right now for sure.
SPEAKER_00So ballet shoes, like no, no real soul to them then, kind of a soft soul or soft soul, more of a more of a flat, uh I would say. Okay. Yeah. And you mentioned uh you run operations for the US side and Canada side and the loyalty program. Uh obviously uh you talked about dealing with your vendors, kind of keeping up to date on fashion and program specifics. You know, what's the biggest opportunity or maybe challenge you face within your role of keeping the customer loyalty program relevant, engaging, uh, you know, up to date? What's the opportunity or challenge maybe that you face in that role?
SPEAKER_01Sure. Um in a weird way, I'd say one of the biggest challenges is also one of the things that I find the most interesting. And that's kind of what we've been talking about here. You know, shoe retail is very much driven by trends and and what's hot in the moment. Our customers are constantly evolving with that. You know, what what they're looking for is different, whether it's seasonal, whether it's a new release. Uh, and we have to be able to recognize that as quick as we can and uh then make the necessary adjustments to stay relevant to them and delivering the experiences they're looking for. Um on one hand, I have the benefit that Journeys has been able to do that really well for the last 40 years. So that's helpful to have some of that resources available. Um, but it's it's one of those things that we are constantly doing. So staying abreast of trends, knowing what's new, what's next in the footwear space is uh definitely a challenge.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Uh are there any uh kind of keys to doing that well? Is it just uh being because I would assume there's all kinds of trends, especially with influencers right there, they're wearing things that are new, different. Uh, you know, is there a kind of a trick to the trade to be able to do that effectively? Because you mentioned Journeys does that quite well.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it it kind of stems from the relationships that we've built internally. So we've got you know people working in the affiliate marketing space, people working in uh social media spaces, just staying involved in the places that our consumers are, okay, and being able to see what they're looking for and and react accordingly.
SPEAKER_00Okay. You mentioned uh one of the big uh parts of your role is you know keeping up with customers. You talked about customers changing, the adaptation that that that everyone's seeing. When you look at that, are there some specific things that you see uh from a kind of customers changing? Is that they want uh different uh types of shoes more quickly? Uh and then you know, what are you seeing in that regard? How are how are you seeing those changes manifest themselves and how are we keeping up?
Defining Loyalty As Trust
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I'd say, you know, recent months there's there's definitely been some patterns emerging around uh customer behaviors. Maybe maybe even go as far as to say people are being more intentional with their purchasing than in the past. Okay. Um, prioritizing certain spending decisions, that kind of thing. But I I mentioned this a bit earlier as well, though, but you know, footwear is very much self-expression. Uh so even in a world where people are being more intentional with their spending, there's there's a percentage of the customer base that is always going to be about you know what they're looking for, they gotta have it, they gotta have it now. And um being able to kind of balance both sides of that is is uh something we're constantly working to do.
SPEAKER_00Okay. And you mentioned about you touched on a little bit of value. Uh, you know, that customers are asking brands for more value, right? They could be in different uh sizes in a restaurant or at sea stores, you know, maybe there's more a discount on fuel purchases, value is taking, you know, uh kind of a number of uh form factors now. Uh, you know, how are you looking at value for your customers, especially in this K-shaped economy, K-shaped recovery or however you may phrase it? You know, what how are you looking at value from an organizational perspective?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know, I mean, first everyone is kind of experiencing the economy a little differently. Uh, kind of ties into what I was saying about shoes operating in a unique space, but uh definitely recognize that for a good portion of our customers, the the price point, the rewards that we're offering, all of those things are still very much relevant to how they perceive value. But I don't know if I'd say that's necessarily the whole picture for everyone, especially not today. You know, we we do see a lot of consumers that are looking for a confidence in their purchases. Like they want to, they want to know that when they're shopping with a brand or shopping with journeys, that we're not only providing the the products that they're looking for, but we understand who they are as an individual, um, you know, being able to help them with their shopping experience, both online and in-store, being seamless there, um, delivering personalized experiences for them, regardless of where they are in the funnel, that kind of thing. So if we can consistently do that, then we're creating not just value, but really long-term value for them.
SPEAKER_00That makes perfect sense. So uh you've talked about customer loyalty a little bit. Uh, and one of the great things about my role is I get to speak to smart people like yourself who are driving these customer loyalty programs, who are intimately focused on customer experience, customer engagement. And when you look at customer loyalty from a qualitative perspective, you know, what does customer loyalty mean to you and to the journey's brand?
SPEAKER_01Sure. Yeah, this is this is the the big question, right? Um loyalty for me, it really just starts and ends with trust. You know, we are consistently delivering on-brand promises and trying to create experiences with customers to get them to come back and not just come back because they have a coupon that they want to use, but come back because they genuinely enjoy doing business with us. You know, it's it's a situation where we're we are constantly over and over again trying to build that loyalty relationship. You know, every interaction we have is a chance for us to either reinforce or challenge the expectation they have. So if they're visiting a store, they're browsing the site, opening an email, you know, any touch point that we have with a customer is something that contributes to the relationship we have with them. And you know, Journeys kind of takes that mindset as well. You know, it's it's the overall customer experience that really funnels into loyalty. And my job is simply to ensure that anytime we have those interactions, we're strengthening that relationship. Uh that way they continue to come back to us over time. Excellent.
SPEAKER_00You know, you talk about the interactions, you know, you have hundreds of stores, uh, and you know, 800 stores across the US. The the the frontline employee can be very important in that, right? You can have a great loyalty program, you can have all sorts of behavioral, attitudinal uh data, transactional data on customers, right? But that that that frontline employee is very important in that. Uh, you know, how do you manage that relationship from a training perspective, getting to understand the importance of customer loyalty? Because you can have tons of success and one bat an employee who may be on the front line, may not be happy that day, may have had a bad day, and he can you know torch all the goodwill that you have. So, you know, how important is
Training Store Teams To Deliver
SPEAKER_00the employee loyalty part, the employee training, the understanding, socialization of the program?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's extremely important. Uh, we we do a really great job of bringing in a staff that kind of fits who we are as a company. Um, our our in-store training team has done an excellent job with being able to create documents to show what our all access program is, what we're trying to accomplish there. And even with our recent change to our what we're we've called internally our 2.0 of all access, uh, we work directly with the training team to make sure that they had all of the resources necessary to speak to the new elements and the the aspects of the program that have changed. And um they they're doing a great job of getting that out to the stores so that they can learn what's new, learn what's different, and then help speak to the value of why someone would want to be a member in the stores.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
AI Personalization With Zeta Global
SPEAKER_00Um you work with uh Zeta Global. Uh they help bring uh and build out the the all access program. You know, what uh resources do they bring to the program and and and maybe you know how how are they improving the customer experience and personalization side?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so uh working with Zeta has been fantastic. Uh we were actually a customer of Marigold even prior to the Zeta acquisition, what about a year ago, I guess it was now. And um they've they've been a great partner the entire time. When we started talking about this 2.0 initiative, they came to us with some some industry things that they had seen and uh some ideas that they thought would be successful and really kind of integrated them with our ideas and their ideas and and came up with a really good plan on the back end. Um from a you know, what are we doing standpoint, uh like AI solutions, that kind of thing. I would say that even prior to the Zeta piece, uh that's something we've been working to integrate even more. Um we use AI in a lot of different aspects of our of our pro of our loyalty program, but even wider on our just our digital business in general to to kind of improve efficiency and help us act a little quicker in some areas. A couple of examples, we we do uh AI to help select things like uh hero images and emails and uh banners on site, that kind of thing, based on even product corrects, based on um information we have on the customer and and what their viewing behaviors have been, what their purchasing behaviors have been. And that lets us scale that kind of more personalized experience at a level we wouldn't really be able to do manually. Um, even another example would be um like business intelligence uses a lot of day and reporting dashboards and the analytics pieces there to try to identify trends as quick as possible, kind of tying into what we were talking about earlier. You know, trends change very fast in the fashion space and especially in in shoe fashion. So being able to identify things as quick as we can and then act on them um allows us to really reduce some of the friction there, be more efficient.
SPEAKER_00That's awesome. That's great. It definitely has been a warming. We just released a state of customer loyalty paper uh into the market this uh a couple of weeks back, and uh uh the the usage of AI has definitely grown pretty significantly over the last year. Uh brands were had some consternation, uh concerns about using it, how to use it, who has access, what happened to the data. But I think uh on the customer loyalty marketing CXI brands are are definitely uh picking up the pace with regard to how they can use it and how it can drive value for the brand. So that's good to see as well. Uh shoes,
Keeping Members Engaged Between Purchases
SPEAKER_00uh you know, it's uh not an everyday purchase, but it's uh a more than uh yearly purchase, right? How do you keep the reward members engaged when they are not currently in you know in the market for a new pair of shoes? What do you do as a brand to communicate with them, you know, for messages, gamification, uh engagement, you know, kind of that uh offline transactional opportunity. How are you doing that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so uh to start, I would say that if we're only interacting when the member is ready to make a purchase, then we're we're missing a lot of opportunities to have messages with them and to strengthen that relationship. And that was kind of the whole driving philosophy behind the 2.0 initiative was to create more meaningful reasons to engage in between those shopping periods, uh, whether it's personalized content, whether it's you know gamification pieces, adding in some surveys and wheels and that kind of thing. Um we've also implemented some new elements through the 2.0 with uh badges and punch cards and things to try to generate some additional interest there. Um the badges help us kind of celebrate different milestones. Maybe they've bought so many items of a particular brand, maybe they've um engaged in a certain number of surveys, that kind of thing. So it really kind of helps us um speak to them even when that's not the moment of purchase. Yeah, just kind of stay at the forefront of their mind.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's interesting on our side, and we have weekly meetings with the brands that talk about different topics around customer loyalty and the this simplicity, right? Badges, punch cards, even just true punch cards, right? Just getting out, going back to kind of the old school way of doing it, or using the app to mimic or mirror what a punch card would like, uh would look like are very important and using uh you know different behavioral science uh kind of methodologies to accelerate the engagement. But they're doing quite well, right? Because it's tangible, it's nostalgic, it has uh you know uh a very emotive appeal as well. And brands seem to be doing uh more of that than they have, right? Uh either just a traditional parts punch card or you know using the app to mirror some of those things. It's it's quite interesting to see that for sure.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we're we're roughly a month into our new program launch. Um We we're still very early in the terms of the the data that we've been able to pull from that, but thus far it's been very promising for us.
SPEAKER_00That's great. Good to hear.
What’s Next And Internal Buy-In
SPEAKER_00Um, what's next for customer loyalty, customer experience and journeys? What are you guys looking to do over the next year or so?
SPEAKER_01Uh well, kind of continuing on what I was just saying, you know, we're we launched about a year ago, a year ago, goodness, a month ago with our new program pieces. And uh we're gonna be compiling the data that we get there and and then uh kind of making some decisions from what we receive. Um, the mentioned earlier that the the company is 40 years old, the loyalty program is much younger, right? So we've had loyalty for about three years, and it was really the information we've collected to this point that kind of led to the the 2.0 changes, right? So we we saw what pieces were working, we saw what pieces weren't, and we saw where some opportunities slide for us to make improvements to the program. And it really was recognizing those opportunities that led to us uh crafting the 2.0 strategy and and saying this is the type of relationship our customer wants to have with us and building from there. So, in terms of what's next, it's going to be continuing that process. You know, we'll we'll pull the information in, learn what we can learn from the story the data tells us, and then adjust accordingly from there.
SPEAKER_00Earlier you talked a little bit about what customer loyalty means to you as an organization. You know, one of the big things brands uh are doing or seeing is spending more time or at least having kind of a consistent message to socialize internally around, right? How important the program is, because uh, you know, a byproduct of that is that you'll see a more successful program eventually or consecutively or concurrently, right? It does well. Uh how is uh customer loyalty viewed internally? I would assume it's viewed pretty positively. Uh you're making investments, you rolling out new programs. That seems to be a pretty solid commitment within the organization internally around the program.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. So we've been increasingly adding more and more to the program as we go. Uh, we've got great buy-in from the leadership team, and all of that stems from the data that we've collected to this point. You know, there's there's evidence there that shows our our members are shopping more frequently and they're spending more when they come. Uh, so of course, that's a very easy sell to say, let's let's continue to push this and and grow the program. Uh and then the the members themselves are are kind of speaking to it as well. You know, we've continued to see growth. I mentioned we're we're three years in at this point, but even just looking at this year, you know, we're six months into our fiscal year and we're six for six outpacing new acquisitions from from last year. So we're we're growing at a great rate. And um, all of that adds up to say this is working for us and this is moving the needle for us, and we want to continue to keep the foot on the gas, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00Perfect. Okay.
How Loyalty360 Helps And Closing
SPEAKER_00Last question. And what can loyalty 360 do to help you and your team in your customer loyalty efforts?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, uh so I I feel like I kind of have to start with the fact that uh it's it's a little surreal to be sitting here chatting with you today. I have a fairly long commute to the office, and I like to do podcasts and things to get into work mode on the way in. And I listen to the show every week. So that was a little surreal to be on the other side of the microphone. But uh in general, even beyond the podcast, I would say uh 360 is helpful just to you know be able to share conversations and talk about ideas kind of like we're doing now. Uh I mentioned I did not start in the loyalty world. I was in the PR industry for a long time and then switched over to loyalty, about four years in total now in the loyalty space. But uh coming into that later in my career, I really relied on the tools and resources that were out there, 360 being one of them. So um I would say continuing to do the things that you're doing from a podcast standpoint, from the articles on the site standpoint, those have really helped kind of accelerate my growth and my understanding of the industry.
SPEAKER_00That's great to hear. So yeah, and uh uh it's definitely a very interesting time to be in customer loyalty and customer experience, and and getting to speak to people that are on the forefront, both on the technology side and uh the brand side is uh you know just one of the best things to do to have as a job. It's it's just great to speak to you know people about you know, there's there's a lot of passion around it, a lot of interest in it. So it's not a not a boring area. So uh thank you for the compliments and thanks for everything you do to support the industry as well. Yeah, thank you so much. Perfect. And thank you everyone else for taking the time to tune in. Be sure you check back every Thursday for a new episode of Believers in Customer Loyalty Podcast, the Brand Stories Edition. Don't forget to subscribe and follow us on YouTube and across our media channels. They are all listed below in the comment section below. Thank you very much.