I Tried It - Promotions and loyalty engine Talon.One
Hi there, I’m Loretta – a Senior Strategy Consultant with Ragnarok. I work with teams to help their brands get found by the people who will absolutely love them…and share them. That’s why I couldn’t resist the opportunity to try out Talon.One’s enterprise loyalty and promotions platform. So, stick around as I give you my honest take on it all!
Loretta Doria
First off, what is Talon.One?
Talon.One provides enterprises with the infrastructure to create and efficiently manage loyalty and promotions campaigns, no matter how innovative, complex or intensive.
It’s touted as a flexible, headless promotion and loyalty engine for enterprises, providing best-in-class technology to power rich, automated customer promotion experiences — online, offline, in-store, or on mobile.
Talon.One works with global clients, including a few of my favorite brands like Adidas, Live Nation, Carlsberg, Reebok, Eddie Bauer, and Afterpay to build smarter and more scalable promotions.
How it works:
Talon.One is an API-based promotion tool that allows you to integrate easily, scale your promotions quickly and build personalized & engaging campaigns in four steps:
1. Connect your backend
Talon.One is a headless solution that you can integrate with your tech stack. It is a key plank in your backend that works seamlessly with your commerce platform, payment gateway, CDP, etc.
2. Configure your rules
Talon.One’s Rule Builder has a simple and intuitive UI that makes creating rich, automated and omnichannel promotions easy for business users.
3. Send transaction data
When a user is eligible for an offer, your backend or your CDP calls Talon.One, sending information including recipient name, location, coupon code, phone number, etc.
4. Receive effects
This triggers a webhook to Talon.One, indicating that the Rule Engine should update a custom attribute and give the relevant reward to the customer.
My first impression…
This was my first time using a headless promotion and loyalty engine, as I’ve previously relied on numerous “out of the box” loyalty providers. Unfortunately, I found those to be quite limiting when it came to supporting the specific experiences I wanted to deliver to my clients, whether it was messaging or promotions.
However, when I started working with Talon.One’s Rule Builder and Campaign Manager, it was quite different. The ease of use and flexibility quickly boosted my confidence. I realized that I could easily customize personalized and unique campaigns at scale using simple rules.
One thing that really impressed me about Talon.One is that promotions don’t have to revolve solely around points. This was a limitation I often encountered with other loyalty providers. I mean, who wants to do mental math to give a customer a discount, right? Talon.One understands this and offers a more flexible approach to promotions, allowing you to provide discounts and incentives without the need for complex calculations.
The ability to create promotions that align with my client’s preferences and needs, without any hassle, was truly refreshing.
Digging in
These are some of my key observations that you can bear in mind when working with this software:
Key features:
Talon.One offers a wide range of features that can give you full control over loyalty and promotions. You can create and manage loyalty programs with tiers, points, and subledgers. The ability to generate various types of coupons, such as random codes and gift cards, is a valuable tool. Additionally, Talon.One’s newly-released Pricing Engine consolidates pricing and promotion workflows in one simple interface and acts as a source of truth for strikethrough pricing.
Ease of connectivity:
One thing that caught my attention was Talon.One’s connections with other software providers. Talon.One’s partnership with platforms like Braze and mParticle makes integration and data extraction from Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) and Customer Engagement Platforms (CEPs) easier. This could mean less hassle during implementation and improved efficiency overall.
Easy loyalty campaign set-up:
Talon.One makes creating loyalty campaigns fun and easy, especially for non-technical team members. With a simple if-this, then-that logic, I was able to create a loyalty campaign based on what actions a user took and combine that with what we already know about the user. Then adding on the incentive, like a coupon, gift card, or adding loyalty points was as simple as choosing from an unlimited menu of options.
Personalization at scale:
With Talon.One, you can create highly targeted customer segments using personalized attributes and data segmentation. This can help you to deliver more personalized experiences to a larger customer base or audience.
When evaluating the product, it is important to consider its current limitations in terms of promotion recommendations. While clients have the ability to implement their own acquisition and retention strategies, the system lacks an advanced mechanism for automatically suggesting appropriate incentives based on specific situations. However, this could be possible by integrating with a third party like Peak.ai.
The ideal Talon.One customer?
Talon.One is an ideal solution for very digitally mature companies where teams are able to use other API-based tools. However, it’s not the right choice for small businesses or companies without sufficient experience in integrating with a SaaS provider.
It’s important to understand that the product, designed for marketers and with a focus on technical complexity and flexibility, may not be suitable for those seeking a fully self-serving solution. It requires a certain level of technical expertise and hands-on involvement. However, for marketers who are comfortable with this approach, Talon.One does in fact offer valuable features and functionalities to support their needs and leverage their expertise.
Keep in mind, it’s not an out-of-the-box solution; nor is it the best option if you’re using Shopify. Instead, Talon.One is ideal for enterprise clients with global operations as it can easily scale up to meet their loyalty and promotions demands.
Final thoughts
In conclusion, my initial experience with Talon.One’s headless promotion and loyalty engine has been nothing short of impressive. It has the tools I need to deliver outstanding experiences to my clients, without fewer limitations. If you’re looking to take your promotions to the next level, I highly recommend giving Talon.One a try. You won’t be disappointed!
Ready to learn more?
Feel free to get in touch with their team here for more information.
Loretta Doria
Senior Strategist at Ragnarok
