Why hands-off systems fall short — and what clubs need instead

There’s a growing promise in the market: set up your loyalty program once, and let the system take care of the rest. Copy written. Segments chosen. Messages sent on schedule. It sounds efficient. It sounds modern. But it misses the point.

Loyalty in Australia is no longer a given—it’s on trial. Members expect more than points and tiered benefits; they demand trust, transparency and genuine connection. When status rules change without clear perks, when AI operates behind a curtain of mystery, and when the loyalty market swells past US $1.2 billion, the brands that thrive will be those that evolve from transactional to relational.

You don’t have to be an airline to know this: a data breach is more than a technical failure—it’s a jolt to customer confidence. When Qantas revealed on July 2, 2025, that 5.7 million customer records were exposed via a third-party call-centre hack, it wasn’t just names and emails on the line. It was the bedrock of loyalty: trust.