Shopping at a lifestyle store recently, I was dismayed to be told that several hundred points I had accumulated as a member of their loyalty programme had lapsed.

They had discontinued the process of telling me at every sale and as I had not shopped there for a while, I forgot to keep tabs on my points. They claim to have emailed me. They did not have my mobile number; I thought they were quite content with my old landline number.

And this was one loyalty programme that I really believed in. It was not like others that seem to vanish into a bottomless pit once you become a member. With smaller establishments such as restaurants, it seems to be more lip service anyway. We have filled innumerable feedback forms with details of birthdays and wedding anniversaries – when have they yielded so much as a simple greeting?

Very often, the shopping one does is not commensurate with the ‘rewards’. Byomkesh Sharma (name changed), an IT professional based in Chennai, used to own a debit card attached to a loyalty programme. “It's a complete farce. It took me about five years worth of transactions to accumulate points that were worth about ₹1,500.” If you were to buy something you needed, you wouldn't wait that long to buy it, especially if it’s priced in the lower ranges, he says.

These programmes only exploit the gullible public, rails Sharma. “The more you spend, the more points you get (or so you think). And once you redeem those points, you can be part of the vicious circle all over again and resume the spending process. Count me out, for all it’s worth!”

Chennai-based Latika Gill (name changed), a media professional, is all praise for some schemes she is a part of, which make redemption pain-free and offer price-offs on some really useful devices such as blood pressure monitors, laptop tables and emergency lamps. However, the loyalty card a local restaurant chain promised would be delivered in a week after she enrolled in April is yet to arrive. “No one on the phone seems to know enough about the programme to help,” she complains. And a lifestyle store reneged on its promise of two- or three-day holidays, saying the rules had changed and that one had to notch up several more points to get such a freebie. It would not take much for these loyalty schemes to make customers disloyal, would it?

Here are some pointers from Girish Khare, Director – Marketing, Grass Roots India, a WPP firm which provides employee, customer and channel engagement solutions. Khare has over 25 years of experience in this field.

1. Don’t join a programme that expects you to pay a joining fee. Good programmes must be offered free.

2. Don’t agree to allow your personal information to be used by any third party. Read the fine print.

3. If you are looking to collect points to purchase, remember you can only earn a maximum of 0.75 per cent. In other words, to earn ₹75 you will have to spend ₹1,000!

“Never end up paying to join a loyalty programme because such promoters are cheapskates who expect you to contribute towards the programme’s running costs. In the final analysis you join to one day be able to buy more than your money’s worth, but what you don’t realise is you are actually buying/purchasing points over a long period of time. Each point is very costly and often one ends up buying for the sake of buying. When there are levels like Silver, Gold, Platinum, it becomes a prestige issue,” points out Khare, adding that large and well-established retail loyalty programmes have matured and can provide some good value.

Vitamin C is a weekly dose of consumer empowerment.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW