Tell Me About It

As I was finalizing my purchase at Office Max last week, the assistant manager came over, extended his hand, and introduced himself. "Hi, I'm Brian, the assistant manager. I see that you are a Max Perks member."

I mumbled an affirmative.

"We are making a point to talk to all Max Perks members," he continued. "Do you have any questions?"

My standard response of "No" slid out of my mouth, and I turned toward the door. "Wait a minute," I thought. "What do I mean that I don't have any questions? Yes, I do. A couple of days ago I was wondering how Max Perks worked."

Turning back, I caught Brian's attention. "On second thought, I do have a question. Just how do Max Perks work?"

"For every dollar that you spend, you accumulate points. Those points are dollars that you may apply toward your purchase. The points are only available for ninety days, and then they disappear, so you need to use them fast."

"I never understood that."

"We discovered that many Max Perks members are in the same boat. That's why as managers we are making a point to meet every Max Perk member and answer questions. The other day we had a member who had ninety dollars in points. He was glad to understand the program and use the points because they were about to expire."

"Wow! I bet he was happy! Talking to customers is a good idea. As a marketer, I applaud that you are taking this step to teach your customers about your program."

Like most customers, I had been offered to sign up for the Max Perks program one day when I was checking out at Office Max. Every checkout person had been taught to ask, "Want to sign up for our Max Perks program? It'll save you money."

In a situation such as that, I find the easy answer to be "Sure."

Therefore, I was signed up, told to go online, and instructed to register there. Of course, as soon as I left the store I forgot all about doing that or, for that matter, the Max Perks program until the next time that I checked out at Office Max. "Are you a Max Perks member?" the checkout person inquired.

"Oh, yeah," I stumbled, "but I don't have my card with me."

"That's okay," replied the checkout person, "just give me your phone number, and I will apply this purchase to your Max Perks account."

Every purchase since, my conversation with the checkout person has been identical.

This is a classic case of creating a customer rewards program, working out every detail, printing the materials, setting up the online access, promoting it through the checkouts, and forgetting to tell the customer about it. It's easy to get a customer to sign up for a program which supposedly saves the customer money. However, it's difficult to get a customer to take time to learn more about a program which seems like it has more in it for the business than for the customer. People are just too busy to take the time. In addition, many of us, myself included, are somewhat inundated with customer programs, all of which have a purpose of increased customer frequency and most of which seem to want more business without first asking the customer what would encourage him or her to do more business with that company. Not only are we not told about the program, we are not asked about it in advance, either.

If you have a customer rewards program or are thinking of implementing one, first ask your customers what they want in a rewards program. Compile your findings and use them when creating and launching the program. Then tell your customers about the program so that they understand it. When you do, your program will be much more successful. Best of all, your customer will understand what’s in it for him or her and actively use the program.

That will accomplish your goal of increased customer frequency.