Igniting Customer Connections: Fire Up Your Company's Growth By Multiplying Customer Experience & Engagement

Chapter 9Executive Insights: JCPenneyHow JCPenney Uses Loyalty to Inspire Engagement

JCPenney is one of the nation's largest apparel and home furnishing retailers, with approximately 1,100 stores and online shopping via jcp.com. Although it is one of the most venerable brands in the United States, JCPenney is looking forward and embracing new technologies to focus on improving the customer brand experience. As part of this effort, JCPenney's leaders are integrating customer data, supporting customer communications across multiple channels, and creating a more engaging online platform for customer interactions. Much of this work focuses on transforming JCP Rewards, the company's member loyalty program. I spoke recently with Elmer Smith, Vice President of Customer Strategy at JCPenney, who is spearheading many of the company's customer-focused efforts.

Elmer Smith, Vice President of Customer Strategy, JCPenney

Andy Frawley:

What are some of the challenges that JCPenney faces?

Elmer Smith:

Well, when I arrived in late 2012 we were a case study that proved how making important decisions without customer data will eventually kill you. Our previous actions had radically altered the focus of the company and sent our core customers fleeing. From a technical standpoint, we didn't ...