Customer loyalty is no longer managed by a single department. Today's loyalty initiatives are more data-driven, personalized, and integrated across the customer journey than ever before, prompting brands to rethink how they structure the teams responsible for driving long-term engagement.
Loyalty360 asked leaders from Group O, Hightouch, ITA Group, Engage People, and Kobie how loyalty team structures are evolving, which capabilities matter most, and how organizations can prepare for the future. While each contributor offered a different perspective, one theme emerged consistently: successful loyalty programs are built on cross-functional collaboration, not organizational silos.
Key Takeaways
- Loyalty is now an enterprise-wide strategy. Leading brands are aligning marketing, technology, analytics, and customer experience around shared customer goals.
- Capabilities matter more than headcount. Successful loyalty teams prioritize data, technology, customer insights, and cross-functional collaboration.
- The future of loyalty is both human and technology driven. AI and automation are expanding what's possible, but strategy, collaboration, and human expertise remain essential.
Contributors
- Paul Flemr, Senior Vice President, Incentive Marketing Solutions, Group O
- Kiran Dhillon, Retail Product Marketing Lead, Hightouch
- Max Kenkel, Senior Customer Loyalty Solutions Manager, ITA Group
- Nick Relph, VP Client Success & Head of Marketing, Engage People
- Adriana Gomez, Strategic Consulting Director, Kobie
Loyalty Teams Are Becoming Enterprise Functions
Not long ago, customer loyalty programs were often managed primarily by marketing teams, with success measured through campaign performance, enrollment, and engagement. Over the past several years, however, customer loyalty has become increasingly central to the customer experience, and contributors agreed that this model no longer reflects how brands create long-term value.
Modern loyalty influences nearly every stage of the customer journey—from acquisition and retention to personalization, technology, customer experience, and business performance. Rising customer expectations, advances in AI, greater access to first-party data, and increasing pressure to demonstrate measurable ROI have all contributed to a broader shift in how organizations structure their loyalty teams. Rather than operating in silos, leading brands are bringing together expertise from marketing, analytics, technology, operations, finance, and customer experience to deliver more connected customer experiences.
"Over the past few years, incentives & loyalty teams have expanded beyond marketing and become more integrated across the organization. That shift has been driven largely by higher expectations around personalization, real-time engagement, and measurable business impact," said Paul Flemr, Senior Vice President, Incentive Marketing Solutions at Group O.
As loyalty programs have matured, organizations are increasingly recognizing that loyalty is no longer simply a marketing initiative—it has become a strategic business capability that influences customer acquisition, retention, lifetime value, and profitability.
"Historically, loyalty often sat exclusively within marketing and was measured by campaign performance, enrollment, and engagement," said Nick Relph, VP Client Success & Head of Marketing at Engage People. "Today, leading organizations treat loyalty as an enterprise capability that spans multiple areas. The reason is simple: loyalty now influences acquisition, retention, payments, customer lifetime value, and profitability."
Together, these perspectives point to a fundamental shift in how brands approach customer loyalty. Rather than asking one department to own the program, leading organizations are aligning multiple functions around a shared objective: delivering measurable value for both the customer and the business.
Building the Right Capabilities
With loyalty now spanning multiple business functions, contributors agreed that brands should focus less on building larger teams and more on developing the capabilities within their current team that are needed to deliver meaningful customer experiences. Rather than organizing around traditional job titles, leading organizations are investing in customer data, analytics, technology, strategy, and customer experience to better understand customers and respond in real time.
"Loyalty should become the customer operating system for the organization: the layer that recognizes a customer, determines the next appropriate action, and coordinates the response across every function that engages with them," said Adriana Gomez, Strategic Consulting Director at Kobie. She noted that modern loyalty teams are increasingly structuring themselves around that vision.
Kiran Dhillon, Retail Product Marketing Lead at Hightouch, echoed that perspective, emphasizing that the strongest loyalty teams are those that can unify customer data, orchestrate personalized journeys across channels, measure program performance, and quickly turn customer insights into action. "Loyalty is increasingly less about managing a program in isolation and more about turning first-party data into relevant experiences, measurable retention, and stronger lifetime value," she said.
] Max Kenkel, Senior Customer Loyalty Solutions Manager at ITA Group notes, "Loyalty is an enterprise solution. Treat it as such and it'll be very successful."
Preparing Loyalty Teams for the Future
Looking ahead, contributors agreed that the capabilities brands invest in today will shape their long-term success. As AI, analytics, and customer data become increasingly central to loyalty, organizations should leverage strategic partners to fill specialized gaps that can’t be filled internally.
As AI becomes more deeply embedded in loyalty operations, contributors expect organizations to place even greater emphasis on data strategy, customer insights, and the ability to translate analytics into personalized customer experiences.
"Teams need people who can turn customer data into action—building segments, orchestrating journeys, measuring incrementality, and increasingly evaluating AI tools that sit on top of that foundation," said Dhillon.
As technical expertise continues to grow in importance, contributors emphasized that building future-ready loyalty teams will require creating focused teams supported by the right technology and external partners.
"The most effective loyalty organizations will not necessarily be large departments. They will be small, strategically focused teams supported by the right technology and partners," said Relph.
Flemr added that for brands with limited resources, investments in strategy and customer insight often provide the greatest return, while external partners can help fill gaps in technology, fulfillment, and specialized expertise.
"Brands are going to try to do more with AI... but the human element will become more important than ever,” he said.“If you want to be successful, always find a way to make it human."
Ultimately, the future of customer loyalty won't be defined by the size of a team or the sophistication of its technology. It will be defined by an organization's ability to bring together the right people, capabilities, and partnerships to create meaningful customer experiences that drive long-term growth.