Fly Buys is New Zealand’s largest coalition loyalty programme, with more than 2.1 million active members. The Points Summary pack is one of their most significant communications pieces, and has been part of the annual marketing calendar since Fly Buys began in 1996. It’s a DM sent to approximately 385,000 targeted Fly Buys and Airpoints members that includes a statement of recent points activity and ‘The Good Stuff’ rewards catalogue.

The pack serves both sides of the Fly Buys business model: it reminds members they are part of the programme, thereby encouraging them to earn more points, and through The Good Stuff, drives reward redemption.

The Points Summary pack is a Fly Buys. It’s hugely successful, and the organisation experiences huge spikes in reward redemption and Service Centre enquiries whenever the packs are sent out. So it was a brave person who suggested that perhaps things could be improved.

Months of analysis of the Points Summary production process led to some radical changes: four lodgements per year became eight, and the member-targeting process was made more sophisticated and efficient than ever before. The overhaul improved every single area: the peaks and troughs at the Service Centre that had previously led to poor customer experience were successfully smoothed out, total reward redemption and points collection figures went up, and at the same time Fly Buys sent 200,000 fewer Points Summary packs than in 2013, and reduced their total production cost by more than 15%.