What is V.Group’s Voyage Loyalty Program For Seafarers

V.Group’s Voyage Loyalty Program is a global, app-based loyalty scheme designed for seafarers.

It aims to enhance engagement, boost operational efficiency and help improve crew retention by offering benefits and recognising seafarers for their contributions, both during and outside of their ship voyages.

The program has a tier structure, wherein members earn points called “SeaStars” by completing activities like serving time at sea, completing readiness documentation, participating in professional development or training and demonstrating best safety practices.

SeaStars are credited to members’ digital wallets within 24 hours, and they can be redeemed for rewards like consumer goods, gift cards, and special offers through the program’s app.

It is open to seafarers of all nationalities, provided the owner contributes to the Voyage Loyalty program. Additionally, eligible seafarers must have completed at least one contract with V.Group and be either an Officer, an Oceanic Cook, or a Chief Cook. If these criteria are met, the seafarer should see the Voyage Loyalty icon in their V.Crew Connect App, which indicates eligibility to join.

1. What is the primary goal of the V.Crew Connect app, and how does it contribute to the overall betterment of seafarers?

The V.Crew Connect app is V.’s main channel for communicating with seafarers. It gives seafarers the opportunity to easily and efficiently complete mobilisation tasks, like uploading documents and updating availability for future assignments, from wherever they are in the world. This ensures that the administrative time that these tasks might normally take can instead be spent with family or recreationally, and also means that visits to the office are meaningful.

The app’s technology infrastructure has been purpose-built by V. with seafarers in mind. From multi-language support and integration with existing crew management systems to its user-friendly interface, the app is personalised, inclusive, accessible and data secure.

The V.Crew Connect app is also a key enabler of Voyage Loyalty, V.’s incentive-based loyalty programme for seafarers. Voyage Loyalty is accessed by seafarers through the V.Crew Connect app, allowing them to track their progress through the programme, including receiving notifications about new earning opportunities, accessing their digital reward wallet, and uploading relevant compliance documents.

2. How does Voyage Loyalty integrate with the V. Crew Connect app to cater to seafarers’ specific needs and enhance their experience?

A distinguishing point of Voyage Loyalty is its digital-first architecture and seamless integration with the V.Crew Connect app. The programme captures rich data on engagement patterns across vessel types and regions while tracking reward redemption trends. This data helps refine and enhance our members’ experience and maximise the positive outcomes for our ship owner customers.

The Voyage Loyalty programme is a fundamental enhancement to V.’s comprehensive benefits package for seafarers. With its distinctive tier structure and SeaStars as rewards, Voyage Loyalty ensures every aspect of a seafarer’s professional journey becomes an opportunity for recognition, helping address crew retention and engagement, and strengthening V.’s benefits package, creating value for members and their families. Members of Voyage Loyalty can also earn, redeem and access exclusive partner benefits via the app, thus enhancing V.Crew Connect’s value to our seafarers.

The programme’s digital approach ensures SeaStars, the Voyage Loyalty currency, are automatically allocated within 24 hours of activity completion, creating near real-time visibility of both points accrual for seafarers and their level of programme engagement for V. and shipowners. It also reduces administrative overhead by eliminating manual processes.

3. What data insights have been gathered through ShipSure, and how are they influencing the development of the programme?

ShipSure is V.’s primary source of data on operations, including for earning activities. We will increasingly delve into this data as we enhance the programme with additional activities related to the safe operation and management of our customers’ vessels.

ShipSure has also been an essential source of data to compare the behaviour of Voyage Loyalty members with the control group, where we observed that Voyage Loyalty members delivered improved operational outcomes for our customers.

The fact that V. developed ShipSure in-house has been a key enabler for Voyage Loyalty’s early success, as we have had the ability to access and incentivise activities for seafarers that we are already measuring. As we move forward, we are integrating with other V systems and are looking to encourage activities for customers based on data from their systems.

4. Can you share any success stories or feedback from seafarers who have benefited from the Voyage Loyalty programme?

Voyage Loyalty began as a pilot at the end of 2023 in the Philippines for Filipino officers and Oceanic cooks and demonstrated promising results from an early stage. The pilot saw an 85% registration rate among eligible seafarers and over hundreds of thousands of SeaStars rewarded to the crew.

This impressive uptake was beneficial for seafarers due to the rewards that they were able to earn, and to ship owners as well. The pilot saw a 47% increase in prompt assignment acceptance, a 19% improvement in on-time rejoining and a 4.6% increase in retention rates.

Voyage Loyalty helps to solve the increasing challenges of crew recruitment, engagement and retention. In this respect, the programme offers a clear competitive advantage for shipowners and operators, ensuring that they have a motivated workforce that is encouraged to stay on a vessel or with a particular deployment in the medium and long term.

5. What are the future plans for expanding or enhancing the programme to further support seafarers?

The success of the pilot proved the programme’s potential to engage and motivate crew members effectively, furthermore, it provided V. with a clear signal to expand the programme globally and offer the product to V.Ships customers.

Looking ahead, the programme’s roadmap includes several exciting enhancements, from gamification to enhance the user experience to more partner deals and enhanced tier benefits. Our aim is to offer a variety of rewards to ensure that they are attractive to all crew members and support their career progression.

The future of Voyage Loyalty is promising and bright. The global rollout marks just the first step in creating a truly inclusive rewards and recognition platform that addresses one of the shipping industry’s most persistent challenges while reinforcing V.’s position as an industry leader in crew management.

Conclusion

The Voyage Loyalty Program is beneficial for seafarers and their families as it provides privileges which extend beyond the workplace. It was initially piloted in 2023 for Filipino officers and chief cooks and showed a 47% increase in prompt assignment acceptance and a 5% increase in crew retention, not to forget the high engagement rates recorded among eligible members. Due to its early success, it has expanded globally.

The app-based interface makes it easy to track points, redeem awards and access meaningful benefits. There are planned enhancements, including gamification and more partner deals to further enhance the user experience.

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