Customer loyalty that scales
 

When focussing on growth, flexibility and scalability are valuable attributes to have. In order to remain competitive, businesses must be able to adapt quickly to changing market conditions, and implement product or service enhancements at ever greater speeds.

Retailers certainly know this more than most. On the frontline of the economy, they must contend with shaky consumer confidence, post-financial crash, and find new ways to attract and retain business.

Loyalty cards are of course one way of improving customer retention.

We are all familiar with the loyalty cards offered by the airlines we fly with, the supermarkets we frequent, or our favourite coffee shop. They encourage our repeat purchases, in exchange for financial incentives or ‘gifts’ at participating retailers. Some chains offer loyalty schemes exclusive to their brand, but many sign up to specialist providers which allow customers to earn rewards while purchasing from numerous participating retailers.

In order for big loyalty card schemes to work, they must be offered and redeemed at as many sites as possible. So when breaking into new markets – or launching in a new territory – speed is critical. And providers must be able to command customer confidence from the outset.

Nectar knew this when launching its new Italian division. The company’s success in the UK, where it is the market leader, clearly demonstrated the opportunities available. Being a nectar card holder myself I appreciate the rewards I can get through buying groceries, booking a holiday, paying household bills and getting petrol. Nectar Italia needed to attract customers quickly and retain them, putting a lot of pressure on its IT systems to deliver a consistent service. It also needed to be able to scale its offer according to demand – with the real time connectivity and infrastructure to manage high volume transactions. Nectar Italia’s systems must be capable of handling a high number of transactions from a growing base of retailers, with more than 5,500 point of sale systems.

Large volumes of data and fast-track commercial expansion demanded a combination of real-time connectivity and rapidly scalable processing power from a responsive network and IT services partner.

Colt helped Nectar to define its initial requirements while providing a robust framework to respond to new challenges. Two fully managed data centres were employed; one to run Nectar’s service and another focussed on disaster recovery for business continuity, high availability and resilience.

At launch, Nectar Italia was able to focus its attention on the business –  without having to worry about infrastructure. We are proud to have played an integral role in Nectar Italia’s journey from start-up to household name, and continue to facilitate business growth by providing expert guidance and robust, flexible IT infrastructure and networking services, allowing the loyalty card brand to better serve its customers – and evolve its service offer.