#537: Leaders in Customer Loyalty: Supplier Voices | Why Group O Thinks Loyalty Programs Should be Built to Pivot Quickly

When Paul Flemr is asked about the advice that he would give brands looking to improve their customer loyalty experience strategy, the Senior Vice President of Incentive Marketing Solutions at Group O has a simple message for them. 

“Engage with passion and purpose,” Flemr said.  

The way Flemr sees it, engagement is the strength of loyalty, the thing that will drive the program’s success. This requires brands knowing their end goals and objectives and building that engagement into the base of their loyalty program. 

Although Group O offers support for specific needs clients have with their loyalty programs, the company especially prides itself on being an end-to-end solution provider for clients who need a more hands-on approach. This includes everything from program design and development to implementation and ongoing execution, and then ultimately fulfillment and customer care throughout the life of the loyalty program. 

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Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Supplier Voices, the podcast where we sit down with industry experts to explore the trends, strategies, and innovations shaping the future of customer loyalty. In today's episode, we're joined by Paul Flimmer, Senior Vice President of Incentive Marketing Solutions at Group O. Paul will share insights into how customer loyalty is evolving, what brands are looking for in today's marketplace, and how personalization, AI, and flexible rewards are transforming loyalty strategies. Whether you are refreshing an existing program or building a new one, this conversation will be full of practical takeaways. Welcome, Paul. It's great to have you here. How are you?

SPEAKER_01 0:45

It's great to be here, Sam. Thanks so much for having me, and I'm doing great. Wonderful.

Paul Flimmer’s Background And Role

SPEAKER_00 0:49

Well, well, to start, can you tell us a little bit about yourself, uh your role with Group O and your background?

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Absolutely. So you mentioned the title, but uh I've spent a little more than 18 years with Group O now, uh, with prior experience of about 15 years in both the in-source and outsourced side of call center operations with different leadership roles there. So I brought a great base of uh customer-centric customer service mentality into the roles that I've had at Group O. And I now oversee our incentive marketing division and operations, which includes all of our client and customer-facing teams, as well as our sales, business development, data analytics teams, the full gamut. And really what I'm tasked with each and every day is maintaining those great client and partner relationships that we have, along with delivering great customer service to any and all that we interact with, um, and continue that ongoing pursuit of innovation and new service offerings that we can bring to the market.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

Nice. Sounds like you have a full plate there.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

It is. Fortunately, I've got a fantastic team uh alongside me that helps make my days a lot easier and makes me look very good at times. I can't always do that on camera, but they can make me look very good in the sense of our business and what we provide to our clients.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

That's great to hear. Uh, can you give us a brief overview of Group O and the industries that you support?

What Group O Does Across Industries

SPEAKER_01 2:08

Absolutely. An incredibly unique and diverse organization. Uh, we are a minority-owned uh organization organization, fifth largest Hispanic-owned company in the US. Um, took a lot of pride in that, certainly, but also specific to our incentive and loyalty solutions. Um, we are industry agnostic. So we're willing and able to deliver our services across just about any vertical that you can think of. And that's really represented in our portfolio as we do business with everybody from telecom to automotive to consumer packaged goods and energy, e-com, online retail, and even advanced manufacturing organizations. So a diverse set of clients that give us an opportunity to create a lot of key learnings for ourselves and bring a lot of those to market with various industries that are looking for ways to be more successful in the loyalty space specifically, uh, creating that attachment to their customers. And we bring ideas from those various industries into our discussions and solution provisioning.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

Wonderful. Uh, and and what would you say sets group O apart from your competitors?

The End To End Loyalty Advantage

SPEAKER_01 3:14

Well, anyone that's read our marketing efforts online will see this, and I brag about it just about every chance I get. And that's that we're an end-to-end solution provider. So we can certainly offer a la carte any of the various required services that an incentive marketing organization would do or a loyalty program manager would do. But what we really pride ourselves in is being able to bring to market an end-to-end solution for each of our clients if they so need. Um, and that's everything from program design and development to implementation and ongoing execution and ultimately fulfillment and customer care throughout. So we're acknowledged by many of our current clients and those that we speak to in market as really providing the gold standard of care and concierge-level servicing, whether that's our client stakeholders, the customers themselves, and the participants in the program. But ultimately, we've built that reputation around being able to take care of all needs. Where needed, we certainly can look to outsource partners, and we do that from time to time. But ultimately, we've built that level of expertise that enables us to provide one seamless solution to each of our clients.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

Great. Uh, and and how do you define customer loyalty?

Defining Loyalty As An Outcome

SPEAKER_00 4:24

What does that mean to group O and and the brands that you work with?

SPEAKER_01 4:28

Well, I think that's an evolving topic, right? It's it's it's one that years ago we might have looked at different differently, um, maybe more as a commodity, but it it's not the end product that Group O is selling. What it really is is a business outcome. Um, we help our clients create that outcome, is ultimately what our role is. So in the ecosystem in which we work in, I talked about design and implementation and all those elements of a program that we help with, but that's really what we're trying to do is bring all those elements into marketplaces where customers then can be influenced in terms of their behaviors. And I say customers, that could be anyone from an employee base to a dealer sales channel or ultimately consumers in market. Um, and no matter who that client is for us, as I talked about the agnostic approach we have to the industries, the objective is fundamentally the same. We want to use incentives, rewards, recognition, whatever those elements are that a client wants in market. And we help strategize around those. But it's really to bring those into market to the point of developing that devotion through the behaviors that the customers display and get customers to think about the brand that they're associating with from the very start throughout their customer journey as the brand that they can trust. And that's through engagement and through those various activities and recognition and rewards that are provided in the loyalty space. And that's really where, again, we pride ourselves on is not looking at it as a commodity, but instead looking at it as an end result of all of the efforts that we in partnership with our clients deliver to market.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

Wonderful. I think that's a great way to look at customer loyalty. And you mentioned that uh you would uh probably have looked at it differently in the past. So from your perspective, how would you how have you seen the definition of customer loyalty evolve over the last few years?

How Loyalty Expectations Have Changed

SPEAKER_01 6:13

Yeah, again, I go back to that kind of commodity approach. It's it's not um just a marketing function, although that there are elements of that that certainly have to be a part of any strong and sustained loyalty engagement. Um, but it really has a more of a cross-functional discipline that requires a mix of, I mentioned strategy. That's a part where we've grown tremendously in our connection with our clients. We're no longer just that executioner. We're the ones bringing the data, the analytics, the insights back. Um, and it's real time. It has to be, there have to be measurements in place within these programs that bring that feedback in real time back to our clients so that they can make pivots and adjustments to the program to ensure that they're meeting the market demands. Um, there are higher expectations, I think, in general, from customers and consumers alike around personalization. They want real-time engagement and ultimately instant gratification. So certainly they can appreciate rewards and recognition from the programs historically, but now it's a more immediate, and a lot of that has to do with the digital environments in which customers engage in. But they they want that special treatment, they want it personalized. Um, and that probably matches, if we think about it, the emotions, the calories they spent when they originally chose that brand. Depending on the industry and the products and services, it's not always an easy decision for customers. They expend a lot of thinking and research, calculations, and maybe some financial budgeting concerns, whatever it might be ultimately in choosing uh that brand. And you want to make sure you're reinforcing that through the right levels of engagement and reinforcing it through the activities and ultimately the rewards that you deliver back to those customers.

Data And Resourcing Challenges Today

SPEAKER_00 7:53

And when you look at the state of customer loyalty, what is the biggest challenge or opportunity that you see today?

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Well, uh it's a great question. I think I I first go back to the data piece. I think that's one of one of the elements, and it's probably a dual challenge along with resourcing and making sure that you have the right things in place. That certainly can be from a people standpoint, making sure you have people that understand the environment and ultimately how we need to advise or direct um our clients in their engagements, because to many of them, there's a reason why they're looking at a loyalty program, whether it's one they've already had in place that's been ineffective or they don't have anything in market today, and they realize that their company is looked at as simply being within whatever category they're in. Let's say it's a telecom. That telecom may want to move themselves into more of a brand recognition category where they're seen again as a trusted and loyal provider of services and products. Um, it's not just that utilitarian view that customers have had in the past. And I think overcoming some of that in terms of lack of experience and expertise within both the client environment as well as the incentive marketer environment is where many of us are finding the challenge. And so we're innovating, we're finding folks that have been educated academically in this space more, um, turning to those that have had experience working in these programs previously. Um, it's it's meant that we're targeting different resources. And then from a technology standpoint, those are other resources you have to develop and evolve as well, because your your your good old multi-tenant platforms that deliver the same functionality to every organization may not work. You may have to customize, you may have to look for ways to go outside of the box and ultimately deliver a solution that is tailored to the needs of that brand.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

All

Engage Digitally And Still Delight

SPEAKER_00 9:47

right. And so then uh, you know, delivering uh tailored and customized uh solutions, what uh what are your clients asking you for?

SPEAKER_01 9:56

Most recently, what we're hearing is help us with ways to engage, but also delight. You know, it's it's you think through the functional part of it of what are we asking customers to do? How do we engage them, especially digitally? But then how do we delight them while still reinforcing the original decision they made to choose the brand? Um, because in some cases you may be asking them to make additional investments. Maybe to earn a specific reward from a loyalty standpoint, they may have to upgrade a service uh category within their uh their purchases, or they may have to buy additional products. Those are the behaviors you want to uh influence. But to do that, you've got to find other ways to delight them. So make the reward at the end of it something that's worthwhile. Drive those customers towards earning that with the behaviors that you need most in your business. And matching those two things up can be a challenge. But that's what our clients are asking for is help us get there affordably because they don't want to lose other investments they've made, maybe in the acquisition side of things or further down the road in terms of a retention uh basis. So you've got to find the right mix and merge those uh kind of dueling priorities and make sure you're meeting your clients' needs while still finding ways to ultimately build that devotion from the customers.

Bringing Loyalty Into Acquisition

SPEAKER_00 11:11

And so we've heard from brands throughout our member meetings, uh, digital roundtables, and our research reports uh that many are interested in updating, enhancing, or revamping their customer loyalty offerings. Uh so what enhancements or changes are brands most interested in and incorporating and incorporating into their programs?

SPEAKER_01 11:30

The ones we've been hearing about most recently, and this has been very prevalent even in 2026, um, and I think it's a change over what even where we were two, three years ago. But many of the companies and brands we support in a variety of industries are looking for ways, again, to integrate the loyalty aspect right up front in the initial either acquisition or engagement or product sale to a customer. So it's sort of teasing ahead and helping customers see that when they're making that choice, there are additional rewards following. There are ways that they will be uh paid back for their loyalty to that brand. And they're finding subtle ways and sometimes not so subtle ways to push that up front to a customer to reinforce. It also provides brands the opportunity to sort of put on hold maybe the ultimate investment they would have made at acquisition and save some of those dollars towards the loyalty end of things. So that's shifting of some of the budget and some of the dollars associated with these programs, if it makes sense, if it's appropriate. Some of that can depend on the objectives of the brand. Are they competing against those that are maybe outperforming in the marketplace today? Are they just trying to sustain something that's already very positive in terms of brand image? All those things kind of play into the discussion. But what we're hearing most recently is help us find ways to merge that sort of acquisition first-sale end of things to the loyalty side of it. These used to be represented separately and still are inside of many of the brands we work with. And so we encourage a lot of cross functionality here and cross-training. Bring in your acquisition and sales channels, help them understand what your needs are on the loyalty side, and vice versa. That'll help us in guiding and directing you and strategizing on best methods to put that environment in place.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

All right. And so earlier a few minutes ago, you spoke about tailoring and personalizing solutions and uh uh for your for your customers.

Flexible Rewards Through Segmentation

SPEAKER_00 13:27

How are brand and customer expectations evolving when it comes to more personalized or flexible reward offerings?

SPEAKER_01 13:36

Great question. So I think we talked about the personalization demands from customers and in terms of the flexibility of rewards, it's choice. Um, and I think brands are seeing that. They're seeing that what customers want is the flexibility to choose the reward. So having multiple offerings within even a loyalty platform is really critical, making sure that customers understand that you're not trying to pin this particular program or platform towards one customer type. There are many different lifestyle needs that vary by demographic, by marketplace, um, and brands need to take that into consideration with their offerings and even some of the behaviors that they're trying to drive. You need to look at segmentation of your data and understand your customer base very well. Understand what it is that they're asking for and needing. And again, some of that you can collect in some of the data and surveys that you do right up front when you first acquire that customer. Find out what's important to them, not just in terms of your brand, but in terms of their lifestyle. That helps guide you in terms of your offerings back to them within the programs that ultimately you put in market. And you can't be afraid to make changes within those programs as those things evolve. We've seen economic conditions change pretty drastically in the last several years. And I know different brands have responded in different ways to that, and they tout that in their marketing efforts to say we're doing this in response to these conditions. That's good, but make sure that you don't put everybody into that bucket. Make sure that you've segmented your data and understand your customer base so that your loyalty programs have the same level of flexibility that's demanded by those users.

SPEAKER_00 15:16

Wonderful.

Practical AI Uses Without Losing Humanity

SPEAKER_00 15:17

Um, so I think one of the uh you know buzzwords and hot topics uh uh going around uh loyalty and marketing is AI. So uh how should brands be approaching AI and its benefits for customer loyalty strategies? Do you have any recommendations on where brands can start with AI?

SPEAKER_01 15:35

Yeah, it's uh coming from experience personally. Um I can tell you as an old school um marketer of sorts, but certainly working in the customer service space and ultimately an incentive marketing. Um, I was always old school about making sure we share our own thoughts, find our own answers and solutions, um, deliver it with meaningful rhetoric around what we truly believe in, what's important. And that's not to say that AI can replace all of that by any means, but it is a critical component in the incentive marketing world in part because of how fast things are evolving and how quickly changes may need to be made, or understanding may need to be gotten around a specific topic or marketplace condition. AI can help us do that. Where I always recommend people starting even individual users is use it as a research tool. It's great for doing market research, competitive analysis, behavioral analysis around again what we talked about, customer demands and behaviors in market changing. Find out what AI has to say about that. Get into one of the typical AI offerings, and you can put prompts in that very quickly feedback information that's very current, up to date, and something that you can act on then once you've done additional validation of that, either internally within your operations or with your clients. Then I think more practically, the area that we found one of the biggest benefits is in integration within our technology and platforms, making sure that we can deliver transactionally and experientially the kind of the necessary components of a successful loyalty program and make that so that it's intrinsic, make sure that it's it's something that's intuitive to the users so that as they engage with those platforms or with those digital pieces of technology, that AI is driving some of those transactional pieces, making it more efficient, kind of expecting what customers might answer with, and providing the prompts uh accordingly back to them to help guide them through the experience. So I think it's important that we as incentive marketers embrace it in terms of what AI is in the market today and how it's evolving and expanding. Um, we've talked with many of our partners who have told us that AI's growth isn't just measured in years or even months, it's sometimes in weeks in terms of how expansive it can be used and how the advantages are starting to show in some of the use cases. So the great thing is there's lots of evidence out there. You can always prove your point, whether you're trying to convince a client of its use within their loyalty programs, or internally, if you're trying to sell it to your executive stakeholders in terms of implementation within your systems or within your processes, it's a really critical component. But you don't want to rely on it so heavily that you forget about the human, uh customer-centric approach that again, I'm coming from the old school, have learned and know how valuable that is. So you always want to reinforce that to your customers that you're still there for them, that you're guiding them. Um, and ultimately it's the brand making those decisions, not some robotic AI component that's a part of the environment.

SPEAKER_00 18:43

Um, I think uh evolution and uh continuous improvement are extremely important in the loyalty spaces. I think uh a lot of brands realize that and uh you know they don't want to be left stagnant because if you're stagnant, you're being left behind. Uh so what is one piece of advice you would share with brands looking to improve their customer loyalty or experience strategies?

One Rule: Passion, Purpose, Pivot Fast

SPEAKER_01 19:04

Well, I think I think where I would go in my heart is telling them to engage with passion and purpose. So ultimately, engagement is the strength of loyalty. Um, it ultimately is what drives loyalty to its greatest extent or can drive it to its lowest, depending on how effective it is. When you put the passion and purpose behind it as a brand and you know exactly where you're trying to drive uh customers to for the objectives that you as a company hold dear, whether it be financially or otherwise, but also in terms of those customers caring about those customers, ultimately you can realize the best results from starting there. That takes knowing your end goals and objectives in terms of building the devotion first and foremost from the base. Um, and then also how do you stay a step ahead of what's next, whether it's your competitors, whether it's the marketplace, the economy, whatever those factors might be that can affect loyalty very quickly. Because that's one of the things I think we've all learned in this space as incentive marketers. It can come from a lot of different areas that are somewhat unexpected at times. People's loyalty to a brand can be driven by the most simplest thing. When we think about social media, we think about events that happen all over the world. Um, I think some of our beverage companies have realized this in terms of the advertising they've chosen to do at times and how that can affect the customer sentiments towards a brand. Um, it's really critical that you be prepared for those things and have ways that you can pivot quickly as an incentive marketer in recommending things to clients to adjust, whether it's elements within their platform and program that they're doing in market, or maybe it's some of the customer messaging and customer care that they're providing so the customers again still feel like they're being cared for and that they're getting the attention and the personalization that they've wanted and demanded.

SPEAKER_00 20:49

Yeah, I think that's that's all great advice. Um, so as we move forward into the second half of 2026, uh what's next for for group O?

What’s Next For Group O

SPEAKER_01 20:58

Well, we've got a lot on the table. We're continuing to explore innovations in a lot of our offerings. I mentioned technology already and digital products, whether it's payment products or the like. I think that that element is again where the customer experience is being driven so often. And we want to make sure those digital experiences are as positive as any other that they would have had. Um, again, meeting those more recent demands of personalizing and giving flexibility and choice. Um, so we're we're working in ways that we can do that within our current offerings as well as what we're going to market with for new prospects and new clients that we bring on board. We also are working on that strategic part. We want to become even more of a strategic partner, have a seat at the table when clients are trying to discuss and figure out what's next. Where do we need to drive customer loyalty and devotion from? And then ultimately delivering in the programs that we manage and execute the analytics and insights that help them informing what's next within loyalty programs, or in some cases, a brand new loyalty program that we'll bring to market and essentially sustain the customer devotion that these brands so desperately need in today's marketplace. So we're constantly looking for new ways to help them hold on to people as their as their customers, but also ways to first of all engage, reinforce that original buying decision. Um not an easy thing for any of us in this space, but it's moving fast, it's exciting, and ultimately it's not a bad place to be. When you're talking about rewarding people, um, helping them celebrate decisions they've made, and ultimately driving value back into the brands and expanding the awareness of that brand and market. It's a lot that we can be very proud of. And there are a ton of people in this space doing that work very, very well.

SPEAKER_00 22:39

Yeah, definitely a lot to be proud of. And uh it sounds like a lot to look forward to uh uh as we uh again approach the second half of

Roadmap, Website, And How To Connect

SPEAKER_00 22:46

2026. So uh last question for you how can brands learn more about uh about Group O's work and how can they get in touch with your team?

SPEAKER_01 22:54

Well, first and foremost, we invite you to come over to our website, thegroupo.com. And if I add the backslash incentives, you'll go right to one of our key offerings here in 2026, and that's our 2026 incentive strategy roadmap. We've got some fantastic content that's out there. Again, this is about helping all of us in the space get better. So we've got some great recommendations from a lot of great experts that work directly within GroupO as well as some of our partners. We think that many of the elements of that roadmap will provide guidance, reinforcement, and validation, and in some cases, new knowledge for folks that are looking for some of the things that we've just talked about today on how to enhance their offering within the loyalty space and help their clients bring to market the most effective solutions possible.

SPEAKER_00 23:43

Awesome. Well, Paul, thank you for joining us today. It was a pleasure speaking with you and learning more about Group O.

SPEAKER_01 23:49

Thank you, Sam. I appreciate the time.

Thanks And Subscribe

SPEAKER_00 23:51

Yeah, of course. And thank you to everyone who tuned in. Be sure to check back every Tuesday for a new episode of Leaders in Customer Loyalty Supplier Voices podcast. Make sure to subscribe and follow us on YouTube and across our social media channels listed below.