If you manage a loyalty program – large, small or somewhere in  – you’re accustomed to looking at metrics like activation rate and breakage. You also likely read about industry best practices and review third-party research. And while it’s important to understand the performance of your loyalty program and the impact of its performance on your organization’s overall business goals, there’s another key source of insights loyalty program managers may be overlooking.

Nearly all organizations do some kind of analysis or reporting that leverages data. As an outcome, countless decks are produced containing a myriad of charts and graphs, showcasing diverse metrics and results – but only some of them provide useful and actionable analysis that clearly and convincingly articulate “the story” behind those data points such that a broad audience can understand what they mean and act upon their valuable insights.

Loyalty program managers are often tasked with pulling together results decks and creating compelling charts and graphs to show off the health of their program. When done correctly, these reports can help tell the story of your work and provide insight into how to set your program up for success.

You may not know this, but Connexions Loyalty produces premium video content for those of us who prefer to watch and listen when gathering new ancillary travel and loyalty program information.

Who doesn’t love an arsenal of information at their fingertips? Over the years, Connexions Loyalty has generated a plethora of information – everything from understanding consumers’ preferences to helping brands combat the growing threat of loyalty fraud.

Making headlines is one thing. Making headlines because of a massive data breach is another. It’s a scenario real enough to keep any program manager awake at night. With major national data breaches seemingly in the news every day, we’ve pulled together five ways loyalty program managers can keep their customers satisfied within their own service recovery process if (and when) a data breach occurs.

Mistakes happen in life and in business. Regardless of top-notch products, systems and procedures, training and good intentions, poor customer experiences are inevitable. While businesses can’t always undo or fix that bad experience, they can do their best to not only apologize but mitigate the situation through a customer recovery effort.

Our loyalty fraud team recently partnered with Dark Web expert and Director of Security Research Jason B. Lancaster at SpyCloud to take a deeper dive into the Dark Web. As part of our loyalty fraud prevention series, this blog post will cover: the Dark Web Market, how fraudsters are selling rewards points and miles on the Dark Web, and what happens to member data after a breach has occurred.

Financial institutions have upped the ante when it comes to protecting customers against fraud. Each year, banks employ increasingly sophisticated measures making it more and more difficult for thieves to penetrate customer accounts. And it’s working. The American Bankers Association reports that for every $10 in attempted deposit account fraud, banks’ anti-fraud protection measures stopped $8.

It’s no secret that fraud is prevalent on the internet, from phishing scams to loyalty account takeovers. But what happens after a fraudulent loyalty account takeover? To start, hackers often take to the Dark Web, the often seedy underbelly of the internet where they can auction off stolen loyalty account logins, points and miles, even merchandise that they’ve fraudulently redeemed.