I played hooky yesterday. I probably should do it more often, but in the process of building a business I’ve sacrificed lots of personal and family time towards the bigger goal. Anyway, it was only a morning and there was plenty of time to catch up on email later in the day.
Through some connections with my local triathlon club, I was able to do an hour ocean swim and 40 mile bike ride led by top pro triathlete Chris Lieto. Chris is a holder of many race titles and is in contention for the Ironman World Championship each year. He’s also started a foundation, More Than Sport, that he hopes will change the world.
Chasing him down A1A at 30 mph, I thought about how this morning’s fun would have been the best reward redemption I could have ever asked for. For you, it might be taking batting practice with Derek Jeter, hitting a bucket of balls with Tiger Woods, or listening to a motivational speech from Coach K. Or, it might be that guitar tips from Slash or a voice lesson with Celine Dion are more to your taste.
The point is that “we” are all different and what gets me out of bed early in the morning might bore you to tears. That is all at once the challenge and the opportunity of loyalty marketing programs. We talk about how to use customer data to personalize communications and rewards but fall down too often in practice.
Neiman Marcus and American Express have done well offering experiential rewards to enhance their customer experience, though the way AmEx executes is more what I had in mind today. They bring cardholders together for exclusive concert events which are fun and give the cardholder a sense a privilege. Neiman Marcus on the other hand seems to position over-the-top rewards in its catalog that are essentially unattainable by all but the most elite customers.
Did I mention that my wife responded with “Who?” when I told her about Chris Lieto? Well, it really doesn’t matter as she might have jumped for joy to meet George Clooney or Hillary Clinton.
Did I mention that we’re all different? The new wave of Social Loyalty programs have the means to reach people on an individual basis like never before and we need to dust off our whiteboards to change the way we deliver rewards. Adding Chris Lieto (or fill in the blank with your preference) might be a start.