Loyalty Manager at Uganda Airlines

*Number of Opening(s): One (1)

Reports to:                 Director Commercial
Close relations:          Sales Teams, Contact Centre, Stakeholders                

Job Summary:

Loyalty management can be defined as the strategy, tools, and tactics around how the Airline acquires, engages, and retains customers. It helps the brand target the right audience and then provides benefits, experiences, and rewards that drive long-term engagement. The ultimate goal is to ensure that our Airline is the number one choice for any traveller across our network

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

• Develop a loyalty program product strategy that is economically viable to Uganda Airlines and attractive to customers through ongoing refinement of customer benefits.
• Continuously review loyalty program activities, including member behaviour, member engagement, program structure, financial performance, benefits, and processes
• Effectively plan and manage active membership and member acquisition initiatives that align with set Airline’s objectives through member research and testing plans to increase member knowledge and marketing effectiveness.
• Formulate and manage marketing plans for recruitment, new member conversion, reactivation and reduce churn rate to achieve active membership targets
• Defining a member-based strategy and tactics to manage member lifecycles to drive loyalty and align with the business objectives of Uganda Airlines.
• Lead Uganda Airlines loyalty strategy across all customer segments and customer touchpoints.
• Responsible for managing member lifetime value, member penetration, member spend, member communication and retention.
• Responsible for driving incremental revenue by increasing ancillary revenue and overall bookings.
• Leading and managing all loyalty marketing projects/activities as required across the department and business.
• Responsible for defining member communication strategy, all loyalty program fulfilment processes and member services/support.
• Develop and implement loyalty partnerships for Uganda Airlines across various businesses such as Financial Services, Retail, Telco, Hotels etc., to drive member acquisition, partner revenue, member engagement, profitability and retention.
• Define partnership goals that generate incremental revenue for Uganda Airlines and value for program members.
• Partnership benchmarking in key markets by regularly monitoring the competitors’ offering/latest trends and analyze customer data to identify key issues, trends and opportunities.
• Responsible for the day-to-day operations and the relationships with partners and stakeholders.
• Manage program budget and cost.
• Manage regional offices/outstations to ensure a seamless loyalty experience for the members through all customers’ touchpoints and travel journeys.
• Analyze, interpret and use complex data to support business decisions to the benefit of the program and customers
• Ensure online, and offline distribution channels effectively and efficiently support the program’s products and services.
• Work with cross-functional stakeholders such as Marketing, E-commerce, Sales, Ground Operations and Contact Center to develop and implement initiatives and campaigns that are data-driven and segment-focused to increase and drive members’ behavior and engagement in the loyalty program.
• Responsible for participating in the department/team’s objective, plans, procedures, and practices, and suggesting appropriate changes if needed.
• Provide loyalty product expertise and leadership to various teams across the network.

Qualifications, Skills, and Competencies:

• Bachelors Degree, computer science, Administration, Finance, Marketing or a related field
• At least 8-10 years at senior level in a reputable airline handling loyalty and partnerships in Africa and the Middle East.
• Experience in Travel/Airlines industry – preferably in commercial sales management.
• Strong background in dealing with hospitality/travel industry sales or managing corporate accounts with international clients.
• Proven record of hitting sales targets with exceptional win rates.
• Experience in the development of RFP responses, sales pitches and bid management.
• Knowledge of Tourism markets and the key players is a MUST.
• Should have worked with an International Airline.
• Experience in managing marketing and promotional campaigns with good bid presentation skills.
• Prior knowledge of the European, African, Asian aviation markets
• Excellent spoken and written English plus a good trainer.
• Knowledge of other international languages will be an added advantage.
• Management skills – Ability to delegate work, set clear direction and manage workflow. Strong mentoring and coaching skills. Ability to train and develop subordinate’s skills. Ability to foster teamwork among team members.