BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions boosts partner engagement and performance levels with incentive loyalty scheme
As the economy shows signs of recovery, confidence in business borrowing is growing. Figures released by the Finance and Leasing Association revealed asset finance new business was up 12 per cent in February 2014, compared with 2013.
With the market picking up, asset finance firms need to ensure they stay one step ahead of the competition and find new ways to gain market share. BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions division understood the role of effective partner engagement in making this happen. Its aim was to stimulate performance and ultimately boost sales.
Challenge
As a provider of finance solutions for lease deals across seven markets, BNP Paribas needed to enhance the way it engaged with its partners and better manage multiple incentives across the markets. Traditionally operated as two separate divisions (covering technology financing and equipment and logistics financing), BNP Paribas wanted to more closely align both parts of the business in order to share best practice, consolidate campaigns, improve success rates and make them more cost effective.
To achieve this it wanted to setup a channel engagement and loyalty platform that would grow with the business and provide a central source of information for its partners. It would also be integral in highlighting the benefits of being a BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions partner and ultimately increase engagement and performance levels, as well as give partners the tools to change how people view the leasing industry.
The solution
In order to meet its objectives, BNP Paribas enlisted The Grass Roots Group to bring its vision to life. The team had to work to tight timescales and get the new platform and first incentive out to market as soon as possible, to capitalise on World Cup fever.
The Grass Roots Group took a phased approach to get the new incentives out to market as quickly as possible and the World Cup-themed ‘Game on’ incentive launched in just six weeks. Designed to target the technology financing market, partners could earn points to spend in the online catalogue or have them transferred to a BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions branded VISA card, for faster payments. A variety of tactics including email communications, branded footballs, flyers, key rings and stress balls were deployed to get the message out and boost engagement levels.
To support the campaign, The Grass Roots Group designed a bold and engaging, secure online information platform to drive partners to. The platform gave BNP Paribas improved visibility of campaigns by providing the ability to see when people log-in and what they view, as well as access to weekly statistics for registrations and monthly performance reports. This provided valuable insight into engagement and performance levels, which could be used to analyse the success of campaigns and as intelligence upon which to base future schemes. Weareleasing.com was launched in April 2014 to support all seven markets, providing information about current promotions and incentives and supporting commission payments.
Results
With strong creative and a variety of comms tactics deployed by The Grass Roots Group, of those invited to register for the ‘Game on’ incentive, 60 per cent signed-up in the first few months and over 800 individual sales people enrolled in the scheme. Suhale Vorajee, head of marketing and communications at BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions, said: “The success of the pilot initiative generated incremental new business volume through those partners that had enrolled onto the ‘Game on’ scheme. The theme and tactics used to support the campaign helped keep us front of mind and really captured the imagination and competitive streak of our partners.”
The slick, contemporary feel and bold, eye-catching design of weareleasing.com made an initial impact on all who visited, with 90 per cent of those invited registering within the first two weeks.
Insight into email campaign open rates has seen levels soar from an average 20 per cent to upwards of 60 per cent, allowing BNP Paribas to intelligently segment and target partners based on what interests them and entices them to engage in
an incentive.
“The Grass Roots Group has been integral in helping us reinvent how we engage with our partners to stand out in a competitive market. We were originally sending out ‘call-to-action’ emails on a Friday but based on advice and insight from the team, we changed it to a Tuesday and immediately saw an increase in open rates and actions,” explains Vorajee.
Following the success of the ‘Game on’ incentive and positive launch of weareleasing.com, schemes are being rolled-out across the equipment and logistics financing division, in a bid to consolidate and share best practice, which will see similar tactics deployed to further maximise engagement and partner performance levels.
