Melanie Parker, CLMP

Strategy and Brand Director

We caught up with Melanie to find out what a normal week looks like for her, what her role in the business entails, and to ask her some random personal questions!

Melanie Parker

I am a co-founder of Stream Loyalty and work closely with both Mark Maclure and Laura Lloyd on the strategy and brand positioning of the business. Laura and I have designed the LoyaltyStream software based on years of experience and working with Jo Hacker on bringing that to life is definitely one of my favourite tasks. I love nothing more than thinking, designing and creating. I am constantly busy but with never ending energy and I genuinely absolutely love what I do, I love a good meeting, especially when that is with new clients talking about the possibilities of loyalty.

Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn, drop me an email or just give me a call on 01844 208180.

Melanies Favourites

Favourite Drink

This one is easy. Coffee, Coffee, Coffee. Even my children would know this one in an instant. Don't get me wrong, I love a prosecco or a fruity cider on a summer day, but I couldn't live without coffee. I am setting myself a challenge to see if I can go without coffee for a month (but I haven't quite committed to which month that will be yet!).

Favourite Travel Destination

I love travel. Prior to loyalty I worked in event management and got to see some fantastic destinations and hotels from Rio to Budapest to South Africa to Italy. Some of my favourite memories are walking around Rome finding little bars and cafes all day, landing at the Monaco Grand Prix in a helicopter and eating at a proper Brazilian steakhouse in Rio.

Favourite TV Show

I love a Netflix documentary and particularly sporting ones. I don't mind whether they are about climbing, dance, F1, football or running. There have been a few boxsets which we have binge watched - The Blacklist, 24, Lost, Designated Survivor. I would love to go back to the start of 24 and watch it all again.

Favourite Hobby

Reading is my absolute favourite thing to do. I read every day for at last half an hour a day. I will read anything from easy reading, summer beach style fiction, to biographies or business books. Some of my favourite books recently have been Shoe Dog and The Rise of the Ultra Runner which did make me consider trying ultra-running but I will save that for another year! I love getting completely lost in a book.

Favourite Podcast

I have only just got into podcasts (I know probably showing my age!). I took up running a few years ago and with that and now the dog walking I have a lot more time to listen to them. My drive to work is short so I don't fit many into that time. My two podcasts are The Loyalty Podcast by New World Loyalty and Absolute Dogs. I have a NBN (naughty but nice) dog so I need all the help I can get with training and positivity!

Idols/ Heroes

To be honest I wouldn't know one celebrity from another so this is a bit hard for me to answer. The people who inspire me are normally people with traits that I wish I had more of or people who have overcome adversity. My family and friends inspire me on a daily basis. For my celebrity dinner we would host Ryan Reynolds, Sandra Bullock, Michelle Obama, Adharand Finn, Sanni McCandless and Steven Gerrard.

A Typical Week

I am married to Bob and mum to Mia (10 years old) and Max (7 years old). We have one cat (Alfie) and a crazy dog (Rusty). A typical week for me is rushing from here to there trying to keep all the plates spinning. To be honest I wouldn't want it any other way.

The day starts either with taking Rusty for a walk or getting the kids ready for school. Fortunately for us the school is about 10 metres from our front door, so it is a quick hop across the road to drop the kids off and then I'm ready to work.

I am going into the office three days a week at the moment and then the other two are either spent working from home or at meetings. It is a beautiful 15 minute drive through the Buckinghamshire countryside so I use the time to listen to podcasts or music.

At work my day is really varied depending on who is in the office. On a Monday it is just the directors, so we normally talk sales, marketing, finance, budgets and strategy. I get to talk lots about strategy, what's working, what isn't and what we can improve. As a leadership team we really do complement each other very well and working with Mark and Laura is a pleasure. If it isn't a Monday then I am either involved in product development, client conversations or marketing and content creation. I love the mix of home and office working and I think as a business we have got it right, the people who want to be in the office working and collaborating with colleagues can do so and those who find it easier to focus on work at home are able to. .

I love learning so a key part of my week is about learning something new, whether that is for personal hobbies (becoming a better dog trainer, or learning new exercises to improve my running) or for business improvement (taking part in webinars, courses and reading books on loyalty, marketing and strategy for the business).

Once the day is finished, I go home, have dinner with the family and put the kids to bed (that seems to take about 2 hours). After that I either carry on working or go to Scent class training, join a running group, go out for a drink with friends or relax in the lounge (whilst mindlessly scrolling through social media - another thing I must stop this year!)

I probably get about 6.5 hours sleep and then start all over again the next day.

What gets you out of bed?

Apart from the kids and the dog, I really love my job and always have. I am a worker and I love getting stuck in to any challenge. There have been some moments in our history that have really stood out as key achievements that make all the hard work worth it though:

The first award we won - best loyalty scheme for one of our clients in the dental sector.

The first client we confirmed - back in 2009 when Mark and I used to drive up to Norwich for client meetings and always come back full of ideas and things to work on.

When I completed my CLMP. 2020 was a tough year but it also gave us a time to reflect on the business and space to learn and grow professionally and personally.

When we took Dentsply Rewards to the global market and it launched without issue and with a migration of all its points and users with huge success.

What keeps you up at night?

Normally the many things I have forgotten to do that I start doing at about 23:45 when I suddenly remember, like paying bills, family diary planning, amazon shopping (that happens all the time!) and anything else that crops into my head.

From a business perspective the things that keep me awake is the constant juggle that exists in any business to keep all the team happy and motivated and the business working effectively. It is a fine balance and with larger companies bringing in 4 day working weeks, unlimited holidays, work from anywhere, free lunches, breakfasts, games rooms, home offices etc etc. The list goes on and that filters down to medium and smaller businesses who have to figure out different ways to provide value to the team. It's a challenge that I enjoy and I do find it fascinating how much the working world has changed since I first started.

The flexibility and work life balance is so much better than it used to be. We offer an intelligent working policy in that we trust our team to know what they need to do, when they need to do it.

An Interview with the International Loyalty Awards:

Annich McIntosh from the International Loyalty Awards interviewed me about stream Loyalty, our brand position and why we have chosen to focus mainly on B2B over B2C. Annish has a lot of years experience in the industry so it was great to chat through all things loyalty both past, present and future.

Read more here

A Selection of Melanie's Articles

How to build customer loyalty in B2B

The B2B customer relationship with is much more complex than in the B2C market but it has the ability to be much stronger and more powerful.

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Building B2B loyalty whilst selling through the channel

In today’s fast moving global marketplace customer retention and loyalty is key; particularly in the B2B market.

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How many people does it take to run a loyalty programme

With most of us time poor and under resourced, you need to be sure you have enough people to deliver a loyalty programme effectively.

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How businesses are using loyalty to drive brand stretch

Loyalty promotions are one simple way to drive brand stretch, but to activate an effective campaign that also empowers your sales team requires a visualisation of the gaps in product purchasing.

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Securing market share at the top of the loyalty ladder

The loyalty ladder allows you to define the different stages of your customer relationship. The loyalty ladder focuses on how you progress your customers relationship with the business.

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Customers are looking for more from rewards

With so much choice available, finding the rewards that are really going to grab your audiences attention can be hard. Read our tips on how to switch up your reward programme.

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