Vaillant UK’s Chris Kurylec: Loyalty Marketers Now Sit at the Top Table
WASHINGTON, DC — Loyalty marketing has moved well past points and redemption catalogs. The practitioners running these programs are now influencing business strategy at the highest levels, bringing customer intelligence into decisions that once belonged exclusively to sales and product teams.
“It’s not unusual for a loyalty marketer to sit at that top table and have real influence in business strategy and sales ability,” Chris Kurylec, head of Loyalty and Marketing Activation at Vaillant UK, told Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan at the Epsilon Loyalty Summit. “We’re very much data driven now and we build more insights and affect company strategy probably more than we did in the past.”
That elevation reflects a broader shift in how loyalty is understood. In the UK, Kurylec notes, the category was historically transactional in the narrowest sense. Spend something, earn points, repeat. The holistic view now expected of loyalty programs is a meaningful departure from that baseline.
Know motivations, not just transactions
The practical advice Kurylec offers organizations looking to modernize their loyalty approach goes deeper than data collection. Transactional data captures what customers do. Understanding why they do it is where the real strategic value lies.
“Don’t just focus on the transactional data points that you get, how often they visit, what the purchase history is. You need to get to know the motivations behind it as well,” Kurylec said. “Why are they purchasing these things? What do they intend to get out of the experience? Treat the interaction through every single touchpoint as important and relevant.”
Agentic AI will reshape loyalty platforms
The biggest takeaway Kurylec carried away from two days of sessions at the Epsilon Summit was the role agentic AI will play in the future of loyalty strategy and platform design. The capability is real. The discipline required to use it well is where brands will be tested.
“The biggest takeaway is the role of agentic AI in loyalty for the future. It’s going to really change the way that we strategize, build loyalty platforms, and interact with customer bases,” Kurylec said. “The challenge is making sure we use the technology in the right way. Don’t get carried away and go too far. Listen to your customer, find out what they want, and utilize it effectively.”
WASHINGTON, DC — Loyalty marketing has moved well past points and redemption catalogs. The practitioners running these programs are now influencing business strategy at the highest levels, bringing customer intelligence into decisions that once belonged exclusively to sales and product teams.
“It’s not unusual for a loyalty marketer to sit at that top table and have real influence in business strategy and sales ability,” Chris Kurylec, head of Loyalty and Marketing Activation at Vaillant UK, told Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan at the Epsilon Loyalty Summit. “We’re very much data driven now and we build more insights and affect company strategy probably more than we did in the past.”
That elevation reflects a broader shift in how loyalty is understood. In the UK, Kurylec notes, the category was historically transactional in the narrowest sense. Spend something, earn points, repeat. The holistic view now expected of loyalty programs is a meaningful departure from that baseline.
Know motivations, not just transactions
The practical advice Kurylec offers organizations looking to modernize their loyalty approach goes deeper than data collection. Transactional data captures what customers do. Understanding why they do it is where the real strategic value lies.
“Don’t just focus on the transactional data points that you get, how often they visit, what the purchase history is. You need to get to know the motivations behind it as well,” Kurylec said. “Why are they purchasing these things? What do they intend to get out of the experience? Treat the interaction through every single touchpoint as important and relevant.”
Agentic AI will reshape loyalty platforms
The biggest takeaway Kurylec carried away from two days of sessions at the Epsilon Summit was the role agentic AI will play in the future of loyalty strategy and platform design. The capability is real. The discipline required to use it well is where brands will be tested.
“The biggest takeaway is the role of agentic AI in loyalty for the future. It’s going to really change the way that we strategize, build loyalty platforms, and interact with customer bases,” Kurylec said. “The challenge is making sure we use the technology in the right way. Don’t get carried away and go too far. Listen to your customer, find out what they want, and utilize it effectively.”
