Loyalty Truth

The consummation of loyalty love is found in the passion of redemption. Too bad that I have heard from far too many people that as hard as they try, they can’t reach this pinnacle of loyalty emotion. “I’ve got a bazillion points and just can’t seem to redeem them” goes the self pitying refrain.

Finding satisfaction in loyalty point redemption has never been a problem for me. My ease of arriving at the intersection of point availability and interesting reward results from a blend of determination, creativity, and unique travel patterns.

Just this past week the mixer was filled with hotel reward points and a rebate gift card to blend up an impromptu weekend away. My intentions for the weekend were simple and partially motivated by the ability to pull it off “for free”. The reality of cashing in the rewards was another story and an instructive one for any program sponsor.

The plan was to drive a short distance from home to partake in a bike race while my spouse enjoyed a lazy morning in the hotel free of daily demands. Checking into the hotel, I asked if I could have a first floor room. Noticing the parking lot mostly empty, I thought this would be a slam dunk to accommodate. After some time spent grimacing at the green screen, the desk clerk groaned and relayed that “my reservation would not permit a change”.

Without saying it directly, I gathered that a “rewards” reservation had some limitations. Like water on a duck’s back, the comment rolled off and we proceeded to the third floor to find our room……next to the elevator. Now I was convicted with the feeling that reward reservations come with an asterisk indicating “place reward guest in least desirable room even if hotel is empty…under no circumstances make an exception”.

Not letting this impact our mood, we ventured out and enjoyed a meal at an attractive local restaurant. When the time came to pay the bill, I tendered my gift card with instruction to the waitress to “run it as credit”. I had read my card carrier conditions and thought this would make things easier on the staff. Incredibly, our server returned to the table moments later, sheepishly telling us that she tried the card twice and it would not authorize. I have always felt that a card decline is bad karma. In this moment, the value of that gift card went directly south.

The next day I called the toll free number on the back of the plastic and was told that Hurricane Ike had knocked out power to the area providing support for the card. Hundreds of customers had called with similar complaints and, given the magnitude of the storm, I was not about to whine further. I was assured that systems would be up within the hour.

On my way to the bike race, I ran into a local CVS to purchase bottled water. The well trained cashier asked for my CVS number and the receipt generated was as sparse as one would expect given the total purchase was less than $2.00. Why then, when I returned home and bought “lunch” consisting of bottled water and a Clif Bar at a CVS near my office, was I rewarded with a 33 inch receipt including offers for 4 products that I have never bought before and probably will never buy?

When CVS calculates its funding rate for the ExtraCare program, do you think they include the cost of the tremendous volume of paper spewed from their POS terminals? More importantly, I am desperately interested to learn the construct of their algorithms which generate product offers. The concept is cutting edge, but the execution is off target. I scan their receipts with great enthusiasm (I’m a loyalty geek) and am consistently disappointed by the lack of product offer relevancy to my purchase history.

Back to the “free” weekend away. Upon our return, we once again dined out and hoped to use the $100 gift card to pick up a free meal. When I noticed the bill was $89, I sensed a problem. Most restaurant card acceptance devices preauthorize for the check amount plus 20% to allow for a tip. I had been warned of this in the card carrier and sure enough the waiter returned with the same sheepish look as the night before. (I wonder if the two were related?) The gentleman listened to my explanation and attempted to authorize the card for only the check amount, but it was not to be. Once again, I paid for dinner from my own pocket.

Despite the loyalty redemption snafus, we had a great weekend. The sun was shining, the bike race was nearly epic, and there was no one around asking us to put gas in his/her car! At the same time, we returned home with something of a bad loyalty aftertaste. Sleeping next to the elevator is always undesirable and the gift card now resides on the kitchen counter waiting for its next, maybe last, opportunity for redemption.

Loyalty program sponsors cannot afford to become complacent with details of program execution. It is not enough to assemble the catalog and enable web based selection of a reward. The customer experience which ensues must also be managed. Reward redemption is the climax of the loyalty relationship, and faking it just doesn’t work.

Bill Hanifin