“The Diller team made us feel very well taken care of”

Olivenlunden 1830 is a gastronomic specialty store for olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and culinary products from the Mediterranean. It is a nationwide chain with 13 stores in Norway. We interviewed Marketing Manager Lene Sagenes to learn about their experiences with the start-up of a new loyalty program.

Why did you start a loyalty program?

For many years we have had a non-digital loyalty program. We found it difficult to follow up and didn’t think it worked very well. We therefore needed to renew ourselves and get better control of our customer base.

We have always known that a good loyalty program is essential to be able to communicate with customers to a greater extent, and to be able to adapt the communication so that it is more relevant. It was long over due!

What made you make the decision to make the change?

I started working at Olivenlunden in March 2021, and then we began looking into it. We went into a process with multiple vendors to see who could help us.

We chose Diller because they were a good fit to our size in addition to the fact that the program has very good functionality. We focused on collaboration and consulting, because it’s important to work with someone who can help us in the process of building a really good loyalty program.

Several suppliers presented their solutions, but with some of them we would become a very small customer. With Diller, we felt very well taken care of. Diller had lots of good input and advice on how to help us.

What do you see as the main benefits of a loyalty program?

For us it is to be able to adapt the communication and make it more relevant. In our industry, competition is intensified, because now you even can get olive oil at the pharmacy and in many other places.

We see that there are competitors coming in several industries, and we need to do what we can to keep our loyal customers. We therefore want to reward those who shop with us, and with a loyalty program we can achieve exactly that.

In our stores we always let customers taste our products, because with us you will get an experience of a generous concept. The fact that we can now also reward the most loyal customers fits like a glove with the concept. We do what we can to stand out positively!

How important is it that Diller is integrated with the cash register?

It’s very important. We want as few systems as possible, and with the integration with PCKasse we felt confident in the process of introducing a loyalty platform.

.. and how important is it that Diller is integrated into the online store?

It is equally necessary that the loyalty program is fully integrated with the online store, which we have built on WooCommerce. We used to have an outdated website, but after we launched a new website just before Christmas in 2021, we look forward to taking full advantage of all the new systems and processes. Now the basics are in place, and we look forward to developing this further!

How do you recruit new members?

We mainly recruit members in stores. Every time someone shops, you’re asked to join. The website will eventually become an important recruitment channel for us as well.

In the past, we have given new members a welcome gift when they sign up, but we want to change the concept and are in the process of thinking about our new loyalty program for both the store and the online store. It should be a really good thing for customers to become a member of our loyalty program.

What kind of results have you seen so far?

You’re always excited before the launch of a new system. What immediately came to light when we moved to a digital loyalty program was that it was very well received by the stores, because it is so easy to use. That was the first thing we noticed, and it was a very good launch. We also saw that the employees became eager to recruit, and that the customers wanted to become members.

We have seen a tremendous increase in the number of new members per month since we switched to Diller. We already have over 20,000 members in our customer base, and we enlist 1,500-1,700 members per month without any special promotions or activities.

What we’ve done is compare the stores to track the number of members per store. In the beginning, there was a big difference between the best recruiters and those who did not have much focus on it. Now we see that all the stores are recruiting consistently well.

Our Digital Manager will spend a lot of time with follow-up and structure going forward. Segmentation, analysis, and custom communication are some of the keywords. One of the company’s most important goals this year is to develop the loyalty program.

Do you have examples of successful campaigns?

Recruiting new members has gone very well, and it gives us a good foundation for developing custom campaigns for our members.

We look forward to using SMS campaigns, as it is such an effective channel for communication and response. I see for myself that I respond very quickly when I receive SMS.

We also have good potential for in-store events, and we have done this a lot in the past. Then we invited good customers “over the counter”. Now we can do this in a much better way. For example, we can hold olive oil courses, balsamic courses or invite to relaunch products. Now through data analysis we can easily see who are our most loyal customers. Then we can invite exactly them to courses or pre-tasting and so on. This will be fantastically good going forward.

How did you hear about Diller?

It was through PCKasse and our checkout supplier Totall, where we received a recommendation for Diller. In addition, our Digital Manager Krissa had heard of Diller.

What do you think of your collaboration with Diller?

We find that the Diller team is very helpful and positive, and it only takes a few minutes from asking for something until we get an answer! It’s really good follow-up. We would like for Diller to be advisors in our further journey to develop the loyalty program, and we feel well taken care of.

What are your plans going forward?

This year the plan is to establish the new tools, further develop the loyalty program and the program we offer the members, as well as to reinforce the website. We want to optimize the work we have done so far. We have a good team in place and good tools, so this will be fun.

We at Olivenlunden want to get even more people to discover our products and to get our story out. It hasn’t come out clear enough. We work closely with our suppliers and manufacturers. We have a lot of nice things to talk about, and we want to be even more visible.