Senior executives from major Australian and New Zealand convenience and energy brands shared insights about the evolving landscape of customer loyalty and what they value most in technology solutions at the 2025 Asia Pacific Loyalty Conference.
Speaking to broader loyalty trends, Bronwyn Barbarel, Loyalty, Customer Experience & Brand Marketing Leader for New Zealand fuel service and convenience station operator Z Energy, said there were exciting efficiency gains the loyalty industry could benefit from thanks to AI and data.
"However, I think we need to be really careful that we're not looking for technology to solve things. We actually still need to make business decisions and really clear business goals rather than have technology drive our decisions about what we're doing," she said.
"There's some really neat efficiencies, but we need to be driving that from a business point of view first."
Barbarel also emphasised the importance of staying focused on building emotional connections with customers.
"It's all about emotional connection and creating those dopamine hits and that lovely moment about leaving on a high. All of those things that when you get deep into the detail of delivering a program, you forget that it's not about the bits and bytes and the connecting and the integrations; it's about creating that emotional connection," she added.
"For us, getting that reminder coming here this year has been really helpful at a time when we've just launched four months ago. [After] getting it out there, now it's about making sure you get that emotional connection between our customer service reps and our customers."
Andrew Stewart, Head of Digital Customer Platforms at Australian petroleum company Ampol, said his company had observed that customers particularly valued immediate gratification.
"Customers value something happening in front of them. That's probably what we've noticed the most,” he said.
“Our program allows them to come into the shop and realise a treat or a benefit right away. They're buying whatever they want from the shop, [and] we're giving them a treat straight away if they've earned it. I think that's what they really value."
Janelle Gostelow, a former senior executive at Australian fuel distribution company Viva Energy Australia, said AI presented opportunities to free up teams for more strategic work.
"I think the jargon word at the moment is AI, of course, and I'm seeing a lot of use cases for AI. But interestingly, I think my view on AI is a little bit different to some of my peers. What excites me about AI in particular is what it's going to release my team to work on," she said.
"Instead of spending time on tasks that are repetitive, they can spend time on the exciting things about their jobs that they really love, like the creative elements, the campaigning, how we connect better with customers; that thinking piece [where there's] a human element. I can get rid of all the boring things that are about setting things up and administrative tasks from their day."
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