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Agenda & Speakers

Conversational Loyalty: Bridging the Gap between Agentic Vision & Member Experience

Wednesday, May 13, 2026 - 11:45 AM - 12:25 PM
Your loyalty program is about to start talking—are you ready?

Every loyalty program aims to create emotional connection and lasting meaning with its members. But decades of mass-personalized, one-way, “do-not-reply” marketing and loyalty experiences have trained consumers to tune out—making it harder than ever for brands to drive true connection and influence behavior.

Conversational Loyalty, powered by Generative AI, enables marketers and program operators to deliver meaningful, “unique-to-me” interactions at the moments that matter most - transforming static touchpoints into dynamic conversations that drive engagement, loyalty, and measurable outcomes for both brands and their members. And the next wave of GenAI innovation won’t live in chatbots alone - it will show up in the channels customers already live in every day: Email, SMS, WhatsApp, and beyond.

In this session, Salesforce will show what Conversational Loyalty looks like in practice and guide attendees through a hands-on exercise to identify key moments across the member lifecycle (Enrollment, Earn, Redeem, and Retention) where conversational experiences can be introduced and scaled. You’ll walk away with a practical framework for designing authentic, behavior-driving interactions, along with a tangible work product and maturity model to bring back to your team and accelerate your own innovation.

Key Outcomes:
  • Build a clear understanding of Conversational Loyalty across both digital and human touchpoints
  • Create a hands-on lifecycle map identifying high-impact conversational moments and content across channels
  • Learn how a leading Salesforce customer is approaching Conversational Loyalty in practice
  • Leave with a practical maturity model and framework to guide real-world implementation

Speakers

Michael Puffer, GTM Lead & Senior Director of Loyalty Business Consulting, Salesforce

Michael Puffer is a 15-year loyalty strategy veteran and Director of Loyalty Consulting at
Salesforce. He has worked with more than 100 brands to design, launch, and evolve loyalty
programs across retail, consumer goods, travel, hospitality, and other industries. He specializes
in sustainable program design, gamification, member engagement, and multi-brand design
systems, helping brands create differentiated experiences that move beyond transactions to
build deeper, more durable customer relationships.

Prior to joining Salesforce, Michael was a leader in loyalty and CRM consultant for Merkle,
HelloWorld, and Cheetah Digital.

Russ Adams, Senior Director of Product Management, Salesforce

Russ Adams is a Senior Director of Product Management at Salesforce, leading the outbound
US Product team for the Loyalty Management product line, which includes Loyalty
Management, Referral Marketing, and Real Time Offer Management (RTOM). With over 11
years at Salesforce and decades of overall experience, Russell was instrumental in the design
and launch of the Loyalty Management platform over six years ago. He is a veteran in
developing, designing, and selling Loyalty and Incentive Management solutions across Travel,
Transportation & Hospitality, Retail & Consumer Goods, Automotive, Manufacturing, and High
Tech & Communications industries.

Russell holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and
Computer Information Systems and resides in Boulder, CO, where he is an avid weight lifter and coaches many sports centered around his 3 kids.

Teddy Sergesketter, Lead Loyalty Solution Engineer, Salesforce

Teddy Sergesketter is a Lead Loyalty Solution Engineer at Salesforce, where he leads Loyalty
strategy & technology transformations for Travel & Hospitality, Manufacturing & Auto, and
Comms & Media companies. Since Salesforce launched its Loyalty platform 6 years ago, Teddy
has served as its leading pre-sales subject matter expert, supporting experience evolutions for
programs with over 500M combined members. He is noted for customer-centric innovation in
conversational loyalty, agentic program operations, fraud detection/mitigation, & gamification.
Prior to joining Salesforce, Teddy worked in aerospace, where he earned multiple patents for
software applications used in manufacturing design systems.

Teddy holds Bachelors & Masters degrees in Mechanical/Industrial Engineering and resides in
Indianapolis, Indiana, where he also serves as a Project Manager for Servants at Work, a
non-profit organization that builds wooden wheelchair ramps for Hoosiers with disabilities.

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