Product Owner (Retention & Loyalty)

The Product Owner – Retention & Loyalty is responsible for designing and executing strategies that increase customer retention, engagement, and lifetime value (CLV).
This role owns retention-focused product initiatives across CRM, loyalty programs, personalization engines, incentives, customer lifecycle journeys, and repeat-booking funnels.

The PO collaborates closely with data, marketing, engineering, UX, payments, customer support, and commercial teams to build a retention engine that drives long-term customer loyalty and sustainable revenue.

🔑 Key Responsibilities

1. Retention Strategy & Customer Lifecycle

• Develop a clear retention strategy aligned with business goals.
• Build end-to-end lifecycle journeys: onboarding, activation, engagement, conversion, and re-activation.
• Segment customer cohorts and define tailored retention tactics for each segment.
• Identify high-churn risk segments and create interventions to prevent drop-off.

2. Product Roadmap & Backlog Ownership

• Own the roadmap for retention, loyalty features, CRM, and personalization tools.
• Create user stories, acceptance criteria, and prioritize initiatives based on expected retention uplift.
• Drive continuous delivery through agile ceremonies (grooming, planning, reviews)..

3.Loyalty Program Ownership

• Design and enhance loyalty programs (points, tiers, rewards, perks, vouchers).
• Manage the earn & burn engine, redemption rules, and partner integrations.
• Benchmark loyalty programs from global players (Airlines, Hotels, E-commerce).
• Improve loyalty enrollment rate, engagement frequency, and redemption experience.

4. CRM, Personalization & Engagement Tools

• Own CRM journeys across email, SMS, push notifications, in-app messages, and remarketing tools.
• Create personalized promotions and dynamic content based on user behavior, booking history, and preferences.
• Manage triggers such as abandoned search, abandoned booking, destination reminders, price drop alerts, etc.
• Optimize communication frequency to avoid fatigue and unsubscribe spikes.

5. Data-Driven Optimization

• Use cohort analysis, funnel performance, RFM segmentation, churn prediction models, and CLV analytics to guide decisions.
• Monitor customer engagement dashboards and identify areas of leakage.
• Run A/B tests on journeys, messaging, incentives, and recommendation algorithms.
• Use insights to continuously refine retention strategies.

6. Incentives, Offers & Pricing Levers

• Design incentive mechanics that improve repeat bookings (promo codes, cashback, credits, bundles).
• Work with finance & revenue teams to align incentive budget with ROI.
• Ensure fraud-free and abuse-controlled incentive systems.

7. Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with marketing on CRM campaigns, promotions, and audience segmentation.
• Collaborate with engineering & data teams to build recommendation systems and personalization engines.
• Work with customer care to identify root causes affecting retention (refund delays, UX issues, pricing complaints).
• Align with UX to improve repeat booking flows and increase session frequency.

Requirements:
• 4–7 years of experience in product, growth, CRM, or retention roles in OTA/e-commerce.
• Strong knowledge of customer lifecycle marketing, loyalty programs, and segmentation.
• Experience with CRM platforms (Braze, WebEngage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Clevertap, Iterable).
• Strong analytical mindset with experience in A/B testing and cohort analysis.
• Familiarity with personalization engines and recommendation systems.
• Ability to translate data insights into product features.
• Excellent planning, communication, and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience working in Agile environments.

Key Success Metrics (KPIs)

• Retention Rate (D30 / D60 / D90).
• Repeat Booking Rate.
• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).
• Churn reduction %.
• Loyalty enrollment & redemption rates.
• Open rate, click-through rate, conversion rate for CRM channels.
• Activation-to-Repeat funnel improvements.
• Reduced cost per retained customer.