Ready, aim, engage. At least, that’s the motto of Loyalty Lab, a San Francisco-based on-demand ‘best’ customer management solution provider for leading brands. It gets you ‘ready’ to build brand loyalty by putting programs in place, and then helps you collect the data and learn what customers are really up to. It takes ‘aim’ by segmenting your customer markets and building strategies that connect you with each customer segment on their own terms. And it enables you to ‘engage’ with your customers wherever they are — online, in person, via email, phone or even through social networks.

The company makes multi-channel engagement a reality by combining web-based software with world-class services, delivering an integrated, multifaceted CRM solution that allows leading brands to maximize their customer relationships. Loyalty Lab’s flagship Customer Relationship Manager Suite provides retailers and service companies with integrated and on-demand loyalty program management, email, incentives, and campaign management. Clients include New York and Company, 1-800-Flowers.com, Bally Total Fitness, and a number of other prominent retail and service companies.

Loyalty Lab chose the Microsoft platform — including Microsoft® Windows Server, SQL Server, the .NET Framework, and Visual Studio developer tools — because it provided a comprehensive and integrated set of technologies that met the company’s requirements for reliability, scalability, affordability, and ease of use.

According to Mark H. Goldstein, CEO, the company has scaled and grown its business based on the original Microsoft-based platform it started with in 2004.

Explains Goldstein, “We have a loyalty and retention platform. And the way it works is that our clients upload their customer data to us, and we watch everything that goes on their web sites or online communities and in their stores, anywhere that the customers might be touching the client brand. Our software automatically detects opportunities to trigger offers, messages, and reminders that keep that customer engaged, and then tracks whatever the customer might do as well as records and rewards points, or discounts or some type of bonus or recognition for the customer.”

What makes Loyalty Lab different is that it focuses on helping clients grow by using their existing customer bases. Says Goldstein, “And the economics around that are pretty good because it’s generally a lot less expensive to get an existing customer to buy from you than to go out and try to reach someone who hasn’t bought from you in the past.”

The Microsoft Connection?

Goldstein says they made the decision to go with the Microsoft. NET Framework because retailers they were talking with were comfortable with it, and, in fact, were more comfortable working with an organization that had a .NET Framework than one based on Java or an open source platform. Early on, the company benefited from its relationship with the Emerging Business Team, gaining access to tools, technologies, and product teams. Goldstein says they forged a strong relationship with EBT Director Mark Barry, who has since left Microsoft to join OpenView Venture Partners.

Explains Goldstein, “Mark ended up being a significant reference for us because he was familiar with our approach and technology. In fact, I think the whole Microsoft involvement actually led to our latest round of capital. Mark left Microsoft to join OpenView Venture Partners, which invested $7 million in us last year.”

Goldstein says they leveraged another Microsoft EBT company as well, ExactTarget. Says Goldstein, “We spent quite a bit of time with their CFO and CIO, talking to them about how they scaled their stack and technology platforms, recognizing that we were both built on .NET.”

And just recently, the company sent its technical team to a Microsoft Architecture Review session where it had direct access to product teams. Says Goldstein, “They help us think through our business and determine how we’ll leverage the next generation of Microsoft reporting services.”

Where are they now?

Today, Loyalty Lab has 75 clients, most of them consumer name brands ranging from traditional retailers (Bon-Ton, Smart & Final) to airlines (Virgin Atlantic), and consumer product companies (Miller, Clorox). The company claims to be “the fastest growing loyalty company out there,” and Goldstein says they have built a critical mass of customers, have scaled the business, and are processing millions and millions of transactions every day — doubling its sales every year.

Just recently, in April 2008, Loyalty Lab scored a large customer win by signing an alliance with HSBC Finance Corporation’s card and retail services business to extend advanced loyalty and customer retention marketing (CRM) capabilities to retailers that offer private label and co-branded credit cards through HSBC. The new alliance means HSBC’s more than 70 merchant partners have the option to employ Loyalty Lab’s rewards engine to power their private label, co-branded and CRM solutions. Merchants will be able to internally collect and analyze select information that will help merchants improve customer retention.

Explains Goldstein, “HSBC is the premier private label credit card issuer and we’re thrilled to be working together to put sophisticated loyalty and retention programs in the hands of their merchants. Linking loyalty programs directly to the payment mechanism makes the most sense for consumers and the merchant. By working together, merchants will get faster integration and gain broader program capabilities.”

For more information, visit Loyalty Lab online.