Meet our people: Xiao Yao Chin

At On Point Loyalty, our people are the key driver behind everything we do. Coming from diverse backgrounds, but all with a shared passion for loyalty strategy, our teams work around the world to deliver world-class solutions for our clients. In this series we profile some of our key team members - to begin with Xiao Yao Chin. Xiao Yao (yes a first name consisting of two words) is a Partner in the Kuala Lumpur office of On Point Loyalty.

How did you end up in loyalty strategy after pursing a PhD in materials science from Cambridge University?

Although I had a good time during my PhD, I realised that academia was not the path I wanted to take for my career. Hence, I ventured into the corporate world after graduation and got into management consulting at Bain & Company. In one of my projects, I was assigned to work on a credit card rewards program and that was when I started to develop an interest in loyalty. After leaving Bain, I worked at AirAsia BIG where I got deeper exposure to loyalty strategy and its operations. The evolution is unplanned and natural and I am enjoying the path so far with my current role at On Point Loyalty.

People always think that I had wasted all my years in getting a PhD and completely abandoned all that I had learnt to make the switch into a career in business. I must disagree on this as the skills acquired during a PhD are in fact very transferable. Apart from problem solving and analytical skills, other soft skills such as creativity, attention to detail and time management are very applicable in my current role (as well as previous ones).

One of my favourite projects was a program redesign we did for a national carrier. It was an interesting project with a lot of analysis done to come up with the new program design and we had a good working relationship with the clients. Our internal project on the Top 100 Most Valuable Airline Loyalty Programs published in January 2020 is also one of them. It was an extensive data collection and modeling exercise and I am happy that the industry is endorsing the valuations in the report as the go-to benchmark.

Can you tell us a bit more about working at On Point Loyalty?

We are a very lean and agile team with people all over the world. I love the diversity of the team and the expertise that everyone brings in from their respective regions and experiences. The lean structure allows us to work in a flexible manner with very fast decision making, being free from bureaucratic burden that many organisations suffer from. Although we work remotely, it is easy to receive support from others with the help of the internet and technology. On the flip side, I have not met some of my colleagues personally as our company retreat was cancelled last year due to the pandemic.

If I were to compare with my previous experience in management consulting, the key difference is that my current scope of work is solely focused on loyalty strategy, which allows the development of deep knowledge and expertise in this field. The consulting nature of my current role also requires less involvement in the operational matters of the business which I had to deal with at AirAsia BIG.

The key value that On Point Loyalty can bring to our clients is our strength in loyalty strategy and financial analysis to help our clients to optimize their business towards profitability and sustainability. What really differentiates us from other consulting firms is our deep industry expertise and hands-on experience in running loyalty programs. We have a global team of very experienced loyalty experts with many valuable industry knowledge and insights to share.

You are a certified mindfulness teacher for the Search Inside Yourself program – how did you get involved in this and do you see any applications in your day-to-day work?

I started my meditation and mindfulness practice a few years ago out of curiosity and it turns out to be a very rewarding journey. It might sound a bit cliché but I am not exaggerating that the practice has been life-changing for me in a very positive way. As a first-hand beneficiary of mindfulness practice, I embark on the teaching journey as I am passionate to increase the awareness and adoption of the practice so that more people can benefit from it.

The practice has definitely helped me to better cope with stress and be more focused at work. There have been many scientific publications on the benefits of mindfulness and in fact many large corporations have started introducing mindfulness to enhance their employees’ wellbeing.

I do miss the work travels that I had from time to time before 2020. We established good working cadence with clients and the travels were manageable. Hence, normally I could still squeeze in some time for quick sightseeing activities and of course having good dinners as rewards for the hard work during my travel.

Although the loyalty industry is relatively niche, within the industry itself there are many segments that are different in nature and maturity. In terms of program value proposition, I think the more advanced programs will be increasingly sophisticated in providing personalized offers to members and come up with more innovative program design and products. There might be new business models of loyalty emerging due to the convergence of payments and loyalty and the changing market dynamics driven by digital disruptors. Companies that currently still hold a very traditional view on loyalty as a cost centre and lag in their loyalty and data capabilities will probably be out of the league in capitalizing on their loyalty programs and member data.

I think the loyalty industry is very interesting in the sense that the business model and program design allow the program operators to have a great degree of creativity and control over the program. There are many program levers and aspects that the operator can continuously optimize to enhance the program. However, the degree of flexibility also indicates the complexity in aligning all the moving parts of the program to achieve the business goals.

Many of the program operators are struggling to have a clear view of the loyalty economics and financial performance and as a result, leading to the challenge of justifying a business case for the program.

Other struggles are the usual lack of resources, capabilities and technological support that are also common in other industries. 

Although On Point Loyalty is still a relatively young company, we have had great opportunities to work on various projects with some major airlines and companies across the globe. I hope that we continue help existing and new clients to grow their business in 2021 and witness our work get implemented and launched to the public.