Verizon is reframing loyalty as listening first
Forbes reports that Berland is helping lead a broader transformation at Verizon built around becoming more customer-centric and “customer-obsessed.” In her framing, that does not mean a brand deciding what it wants people to value and then dressing it up as a perk. It means asking what customers want, what frustrates them, what they want more of, and what they want the company to stop doing.
That distinction matters because many loyalty programs, including many Web3-flavored ones, still begin from the brand’s side of the table. We see the same pattern again and again: a company designs around internal goals, partner inventory, margins, breakage or technical novelty, then hopes customers will accept the maze. The result may look innovative, but the journey feels old.
For related context, see Token and altcoin analysis, prices and reviews.
For related context, see NFT marketplaces, buying, selling and trading.
Verizon’s reported process started with a critical look at customer experience. Berland told Forbes the company took a major step back, reviewed its offerings, studied customer frustrations and looked at where the broader wireless industry may have drifted away from customers’ actual needs. That is not glamorous work, but it is the work loyalty teams often skip when they rush to launch a membership layer, NFT pass or exclusive access product.
For brand teams in our corner of the market, the takeaway is practical: before you tokenize anything, map the pain. If the customer’s biggest frustration is cost, confusion or lack of flexibility, a digital collectible alone will not solve it. It may even add another layer of effort.
Choice, flexibility and simplicity are the actual product
According to Forbes, Verizon’s new loyalty platform is built around choice, flexibility and simplicity. Reported elements include customers being able to opt into loyalty, the removal of device upgrade and activation fees, and the introduction of Verizon Dollars, positioned as rewards tied to actual spending. Forbes also describes Verizon Shine as a way to offer distinctive experiences through the company’s partnerships in sports and entertainment.
There is a useful membership lesson here. The emotional part of loyalty rarely comes from the mechanics alone. Points, credits and rewards currencies can support the relationship, but they do not create affinity if customers feel boxed in. Experiences can create a stronger bond, but only if the baseline journey is not full of small irritations.
That is why the removal of fees is worth noticing alongside the more expressive experience layer. In loyalty design, we often separate “utility” and “delight” as if they live in different rooms. Customers do not. A frictionless upgrade, a clearer reward, and a memorable access moment all land in the same emotional account: does this brand make my life easier, and does it make me feel seen?
For NFT membership builders, this is the part to underline. A token-gated event, digital pass or collectible badge can be valuable, but only when the customer understands what it unlocks and why it is worth holding. If access is buried in fine print, if redemption is confusing, or if the reward feels unrelated to actual behavior, the technology becomes decoration.
Treat launch day as the beginning, not the victory lap
Forbes says Verizon views the launch as “day one,” with a commitment to keep learning and adapting based on customer engagement. That is the healthiest way to think about modern loyalty: not as a finished program, but as a living customer relationship.
This is especially important for brands experimenting with on-chain memberships or digital access passes. The temptation is to over-engineer the launch moment: the campaign film, the drop, the scarcity language, the partner reveal. But loyalty is earned in the quieter moments after launch, when customers ask: Can I use this easily? Does it keep getting better? Is the brand paying attention to what we actually do?
There is also a wider context. ET BrandEquity has recently pointed to omnichannel marketing as a route to stronger customer loyalty. We should be careful not to overstate from a headline alone, but the direction fits the same customer truth: people do not experience brands in one neat channel. They move between app, store, email, event, service call and community space. A strong loyalty strategy has to travel with them.
So the action item for marketing teams is simple and demanding: audit your loyalty journey from the customer’s side. Find the fees, delays, unclear rules and irrelevant rewards before you add another layer of access. Then ask whether your membership tools — tokenized or not — increase choice, reduce friction and make the value exchange easier to understand. That is where loyalty starts to feel less like a program, and more like a reason to stay.