Total CX

Reward Programs--Give Me Low Prices and Free Stuff

In a rewards program scenario, customers’ moments of truth/showstoppers (A Moment of Truth in a Customer Scenario is the point at which the customer will give up, walk away, or be very disappointed and frustrated) include the following:

IT IS TOO DIFFICULT TO SIGN UP. Most customers want it to be extremely easy, if not completely transparent, to sign up for rewards. They want to sign up in one step via one touchpoint (and want to be able to do it via ANY valid touchpoint). For example, they don’t want to be on the phone with customer service and be told to go to the Web site to sign up. Or if they are at the store (or restaurant, or hotel, or airplane), they want to fill out the card and drop it off right there—not have to snail mail it in, make a call, or log onto the site. No matter whether they call, go online, or visit the physical store, the sign up process is available and it’s the same. The latter should be true even if the rewards program isn’t for the venue where you picked up the form. For example, if I get a discount program offer for a visit to a Six Flags theme park at my local Burger King restaurant, I don’t want to have to mail it in. I want Burger King to have a collection box where I leave the form, and they forward it to Six Flags.

Don’t make the customer sign up more than once! Many frequent flyer and hotel loyalty programs require that customers who want to take advantage of limited time offers and discounts must register specifically for those offers. For someone who is already a member of the loyalty program, signing up again to take advantage of a special promotion is an annoyance. For example, the typical promotional program for a hotel or airline is something like: "book your vacation before the end of July to receive extra points, or a free night stay." That’s a reasonable offer that might propel someone to firm up their vacation plans sooner than later. But asking the
customer to "register" for this special promotion is a showstopper. It annoys members and probably results in lower conversions. From the customer’s point of view, they are thinking, "Great, I’ll get an extra bonus, how nice!" But when you then say, "click here and register" to sign up for this offer, customers feel that the extra step is an imposition. "Why can’t they track the fact that I’m already a member of the program, and I’m booking within the deadline, or with the appropriate credit card (if it’s a credit card specific offer), and just give me the bonus?"

So make sure that any rewards program you offer is very easy to take advantage of, no matter how the customer gets to it.

Loyalty Program Customer Scenarios

Working with one of our clients, I recently turned my attention to loyalty programs, trying to identify programs that worked and ones that were less successful. This, of course, led me to think about two very different customer scenarios that so-called loyalty programs address:

• I want to get discounts/free stuff: "rewards"
• I want to feel special and valued: "preferred customer"

Although there are many similarities among the two scenarios, ultimately, what customers want to achieve, how they want to achieve it, and what matters most in each case are different.

Also different are the loyalty results that each type of scenario fosters.

In my next posts, I will look at the two different scenarios and how they impact loyalty.

Luxury Care Can Charge Luxury Prices, but Should It?

Recently, I went to one of the final breakfast brunches at Aujourd'hui, the luxury restaurant at the Four Seasons Boston, which closed its door at the end of last month (June 2009). According to the HotelChatter Web site, "Apparently, entree dishes—like Assiette of Rabbit and Gulf of Maine Hake—went for around $40 each, and the fancypants factor wasn't enough to lure diners into the place to shell out that kind of dough. Sigh. Guess all anyone wants are sliders and big french fries with fancy dips."

I don't usually go for this type of high-end fare—the brunch buffet includes lobster, sushi, peking duck, carving stations, patés, pasta dishes, salads, and desserts, along with "typical" breakfast fare like eggs benedict, bacon, crepes, etc. And only $68 per person! But it was a dear friend's birthday, and, for many years (before her young children were born), we would breakfast (off a defunct a la carte menu) at Aujourd'hui to celebrate. Now, with the restaurant closing, we came for the last hurrah.

What my friend Anne loved about Aujourd'hui is the service. "I just love how they pamper me." Indeed, she found the eggs on the buffet too underdone, so they cooked up about six eggs worth of firm scamble just for her, with just a little cheese inside (at her request). The water, juice, and coffee were refilled before you even realized you wanted it. The wait staff was not only efficient and professional, but also personable, engaging with us (when we made it clear we would enjoy that), but keeping a distance from the people who preferred that servers be seen and not heard.

Can You Overdo Customer Communication?

I recently switched online prescription providers, and, so far, I've been pretty happy with Express Scripts. Other than the fact that it’s difficult to find a contact phone number online, once I was able to talk to someone, the CSRs were great at giving me the info I needed and at setting me up within their system. I was also absolutely delighted when I received a recorded phone message from Express Scripts telling me that the prescription I had requested had been received from my physician and would be processed. The message went on to say that I didn't have to do anything else; everything was taken care of. Wonderful peace of mind! But then, the next day, I got the same message about another prescription, and the next day, another. It seems that the prescriptions had been received or processed on different days, so I got different calls. And the only way I knew they were different prescriptions is because the phone messages mentioned the dates the prescriptions were received.

These weren't the only phone messages; I also was notified when each day's prescriptions were about to be shipped and then again when they had been shipped. Enough already!

Further, the phone calls came in at 8:30 a.m. This is not a problem during the week, but on Saturday, I sometimes like to sleep in…my family and friends know that 8:30 is too early to call on a Saturday, but Express Scripts doesn't. I am going to have to tell them.

So what's the point here? Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. I used to believe that customers should be proactively told EVERYTHING that concerned them. I've significantly modified that opinion. I believe that we (customers) should have access to all information concerning us, but not necessarily be notified. I now believe that customers should be proactively notified about things that are unexpected or outside the norm. Let me know when there is a problem and how to solve it. You really don’t have to tell me that everything is going swimmingly! At least not on the phone at 8:30 a.m.

How to Make an Unpleasant Experience Better

My car was towed recently (street cleaning…who knew?). Although I can't say the experience was good, empathetic people providing customer service helped ease the pain of paying lots of money to get my own car.

At first, I thought the car was stolen, so I called my local police. The officer was very nice, but gave me the number for the "tow line" to check first before I truly panicked. "But I parked legally," I explained. He sympathetically replied, "You’d be surprised at the reasons that cars are towed, and at least you’ll get it back in good condition."

The tow line answered quickly and I got my answer within a few seconds. Yes, my car had been towed, and I was given the number for Stadium Towing (www.stadiumauto.com) who had my car. The young man who answered at Stadium was great. He told me exactly what I had to do to pick up the car, explaining that I could pay with a credit card, but if I had someone else pick it up, they would have to pay cash. "I know, it's strange, but that’s the policy." He let me know that if I picked it up by a certain time, it wouldn’t be subject to any more fees for storage, "but if you think you might be a few minutes late, give us a call and we'll try to waive the extra storage fee because we know you're on your way." He reassured me that my car was safely locked inside the garage, not in some big public lot where it might be subject to damage. His concern and empathy made me feel much better.

I picked up the car, as instructed, and it went off without a hitch. And I felt a warmth towards a towing company! That’s unusual.