Amanda Shaw is the Chief Marketing Officer at the Alberta Retired Teachers’ Association (ARTA). ARTA has more than 27,000 Members in Alberta and across Canada. We caught up with Amanda for a short interview recently.
What is the vision of ARTA and why are rewards an important part of what you offer your Members?
Our mission is to support Members in an engaged and active lifestyle in retirement. Therefore, we look for unique opportunities and ways to provide that to them.
We found that a membership rewards program, such as BOOM, offered them more access to activities or experiences that maybe they would not have considered or found too cost prohibitive. This provided another avenue for ARTA to support our Members and to engage with them to support an active lifestyle.
What were you looking for in a rewards program?
We have offered a rewards program to our Members in one way or another since 2012. We were looking to transition to a new rewards program that would appeal to our diverse Members. We were looking for offers that are Alberta-based but can be used by anyone no matter where they live. As well, a company that is full service so that we did not have to do any of the additional work.
We used to run our own rewards program, and it can take a lot of time, from maintaining all those relationships to getting the most exclusive offers for our Members. That was something we were not able to sustain as it is very time consuming. We wanted to find someone to do that on our behalf and to offer our Members the best available discounts and support.
What made you decide to work with BOOM?
We received a call from BOOM and it was fortuitous timing as we were investigating programs that would increase the discounts available for our primarily Alberta-based members.
In the initial conversation we were able learn about BOOM, how they work with their clients, and what they have to offer. And we made the move to their platform.
It has been wonderful working with BOOM throughout the transition. They have been very open to new partners and they fully support our Members, which is all very attractive to us.
The BOOM platform is fully supported and provides many different ways for our Members to access their rewards, from online and mobile apps to emails and a monthly newsletter. This was very important to the success of the program for our Members as our previous program only had a website, which limited access to our diverse membership.
How has your experience been working with BOOM?
They are very responsive! If we get a question, it is easy to reach out to BOOM and get a response the same day, if not the same hour. So it has been fantastic in that regard.
I appreciate getting user statistics on a monthly basis so we can track the uptick in activations each month and so we know Members are utilizing the program and finding benefit.
BOOM is really able to service our Members quickly. Everyone is very friendly. Working with BOOM has been great.