PAYBACK partners successful thanks to long-term customer loyalty

WMF, Apollo-Optik and NH Hoteles extend contracts Companies participating in PAYBACK, Germany’s leading bonus programme, are reaping the benefits. Thanks to the strong partner network, the companies are not only winning new customers, but also maintaining customer loyalty in the long term. In fact, PAYBACK customers are more satisfied and buy more goods more often than non-PAYBACK customers. The PAYBACK partner companies WMF, NH Hoteles and Apollo-Optik have just extended their contracts with the leading coalition programme. WMF AG, a partner in the programme since 2003, has extended its contract with PAYBACK for another five years. “PAYBACK provides our customers with significant added value and greater benefits because a wide range of partners with well-known brands participate in the programme. Only the market leader is able to offer these strong network effects. In this way, the cost-benefit ratio of PAYBACK is ideal for WMF,” explains Peter Obeldobel, Head of WMF subsidiaries. “More than half of our customers already use the card regularly and they buy more than non-PAYBACK customers.” The relatively new PAYBACK partner NH Hoteles has noticed the benefits from the PAYBACK programme, too. NH, one of the biggest hotel chains in Europe, has been rewarding its guests with points for booking overnight stays since June 2005. The company increased the number of new PAYBACK customers by more than 30 % in the space of six months. “Additional revenue of more than Euro 1 million since the start of our partnership shows that PAYBACK works for NH too,” says Christine Woll, Director of Marketing at NH Hoteles Germany. NH Hoteles has extended its contract with PAYBACK for an extra two years. “One of the reasons for the programme’s success is the network effect of the strong brands. A great many of our PAYBACK customers come from the partner network,” explains Volker Reeh, Direktor Marketing at Apollo-Optik. The Schwabach-based company – a founding partner of PAYBACK – has been involved in the programme for six years now. During this time, the company has been able to increase its incentive-based sales by almost 70 %. “We are delighted with the programme’s success. The continued cooperation with these partners underlines the fact that the programme will continue to increase the added value for our customers and participating companies in the long term,” says Bernhard Brugger, Member of the Board of Management and Head of the PAYBACK Partner Management.