Customer Loyalty Schemes

Walk into any retailer and you would find them trying to sell loyalty cards, whether it is 'Club West' from Westside or the 'Green Card' of Pantaloons, or 'First Citizen' from Shoppers Stop or Landmark's Fellowship Card...... the list is a long one even without getting into the offers made by service industry, be it airlines, or clubs...

The idea behind these loyalty cards is that you are able to retain your customers and make them buy more and more from your shop and so on ............

But does this happen in reality...

I doubt, and most of us in India would agree based on our experiences especially with the new organized retailers,

I will relate my personal experince ........

I buy books at Landmark and last year was given a landmark fellowship card, and was promised many things.... so as a loyal customer kept clocking my loyalty points on the card and as I would buy many books, the people there also agreed to give a small additional discount over and above the points on the loyalty card....

Then suddenly one day I am told that the loyalty programme has changed or rather improved and there would be a new card issued to me. I asked whether the earlier schemes were still on, the answer at the desk was no no... they have been improved.

But then when I went to the counter with my books, the response was that if you take your regular discount (very small amount) you will not be able to get your points added to the loyalty card, and when asked why, he says orders from top.....

About details of the advantages of new schemes some lame explanation that additional points for a purchase of certain quantity and so on....

I felt that the company could have communicated to me in detail , they have my personal email id and they do send communication on certain events which happen but ....... the feeling that the company was designing new schemes to prevent a regular customer from getting any additional benefit..

Now some of you might feel that I am asking for more, but If I were to go to my regular book shop (old shop) and buy books from him , he would gladly give me three times the discount Landmark gives me, but then at times variety and new arrivals are better at landmark....

My point is that now when I walk into Landmark I am dissatisfied customer because of their botched up loyalty programme...waiting for Crosswords to come to town or start ordering books from the old book shop.....

Loyalty programmes can work as double edged sword for a marketer, if used wisely can result in customer retention, otherwise would make an otherwise loyal customer into a dissatisfied one...