This is Part 2 of my what I’m calling my “Loyalty Program Series.” A comment I received on Part 1 from a friend provoked inspired this next set of thinking. Below, read her comment and then my thoughts.
I was just thinking about loyalty programs this morning when I found out my favorite coffee shop and office-away-from-the-office has stopped letting customers like me use a tab system to pay for coffee. I’ve been going to this play at least six times a month for more than a year. It’s the place where the owners greet me by name and don’t even have to ask what I want. I even got to the place where I could sit down and start chatting with my interview source and they’d just bring me my cup o’ joe.
But when the owner told me that they weren’t going to keep doing the tabs for regulars, I was kinda heartbroken. I felt like I suddenly wasn’t so special to them any more. The tab is what had kept me coming there instead of the dozens of other shops on my way to work. Their coffee is good, but not the best I’ve had. Parking kinda sucks, too. I’m afraid that them getting rid of the tab (he said it’s because there are more people working there and it’s hard to maintain with more workers and more customers using it) is going to result in me taking my meetings elsewhere.
Very interesting. Poor strategy I say on their part. If this small business understood “social media” at all, they would understand that the tables have turned business-wise: users are in control now. Or at least they should be. Their business lost A REGULAR, read: loyal CUSTOMER – this is a huge loss to their bottom line! Forget hiring extra employees. Them telling you that you’re not good enough to remember the name pretty much allows you to take your business, money and loyalty to another place.
This is not to say that social media has completely replaced other forms of marketing: advertising, CRM, email, in-store handouts, flyers, menus, etc. BUT it is to say, in terms of loyalty, this company had a good thing going (tabs for regulars) and then, sorry, the fact that our company is growing means more than your regular/loyal $$. What would you do?
