As anyone who follows me on Twitter knows, I travel for business. A LOT. To date in 2018 I’ve traveled internationally twice, and to various cities in the US over a dozen times.
As a frequent business traveler, I have my preferences. And a lot of those preferences are driven not by the experience I get with the service I receive, but instead the perks I get through the various loyalty programs.
Loyalty programs are, at their core, a form of gamification. You get “points” for “playing” the corporations’ (program) rules. You can use these points to redeem things – usually free rooms or travel.
But many of the companies providing these loyalty programs are beginning to screw up. Badly. And turning off their customers.
Case in Point #1: Marriott. I used to stay at Marriott all the time, and then they (gradually) started raising the number of points required to get free nights. Eventually you had to stay so many nights to get one free night I decided to stop staying at Marriott.
Here’s a good #UX rule of thumb re: loyalty programs – people “absorb” the rules, even if they can’t quote a points-to-dollars conversion rate directly. They remember what that is, and when the rules change – well, change is never well received – especially if it impacts YOU.
Imagine you were playing Monopoly, and the rules change mid-game. The player you were playing with (who was also the banker) decides, after building out what he owned, that it now costs a lot more to build houses on Red, Green and Blue properties – the exact same ones you have. THAT is how Marriott (and other companies) make their customers feel when they change their loyalty programs.
Loyal customers feel cheated.
At a certain point, someone at Marriott HQ decided to reduce costs, and increase profits. Fine. That’s capitalism. But loyalty programs are about a key feature. LOYALTY. As the old saying goes, it takes a tremendous amount of effort to get a new customer. It takes a lot less to keep an existing one. Loyalty programs should retain loyal customers. Simple, right?
And yet companies like Marriott look at royalty programs as a burden, instead of an opportunity. An opportunity to MAXIMIZE customer spend. By changing the rules they alienate customers who were loyal to the brand. And lose them to a competitive landscape (Something that IMO the Disney Parks folks are at risk of doing).
Case Study #2: Delta. I booked a trip with Delta a month ago, using SkyMiles. She Who Must Be Obeyed and I were going to Orlando for a weekend. I do not have the status with Delta I used to, I’m now “only” Gold, where at one point in the past five years I was Diamond.
If you are Diamond with Delta, they will bend over backwards to support you. I know this for a fact, because at one point I traveled with a Delta accountant, and he said as much – “If you are Diamond, and you need to be somewhere, they will kick someone off a plane to accommodate you.”
Well, I had some business travel that came up that prevented me from taking my
personal trip. I had to cancel the trip, and discovered that I had to pay Delta a $300 fee to get my 30,000 SkyMiles back. Of course, I had never had to pay such a fee before, because last year I was Platinum. Now, being “only” Gold, I was less important to @Delta that I was before. Which… when you think about it, is nonsense.
It shows the whole “tiering” system of loyalty programs is ridiculous. I’m “less valuable” as a customer to @Delta now that I’m Gold versus last year, when I was Platinum? Again, inane. I’m still me, whatever arbitrary “tier” a corporation sets for me. Even worse, when I canceled the airfare there was no option on the UI for me to “lose’ the points and NOT pay the $300 fee. Because @Delta, clearly, just wanted that cash.
Called Delta customer service to discuss this “new-to-me” fee, and the CSR was pretty much “That’s the rules, deal with it.” Umm… I’m a close to million-miler customer, and this is the reaction? Another impact of having a one-dimensional loyalty program based (almost solely on) recent spend.
Yes, I know this is all #FirstWorldProblems stuff, and I TOTALLY understand that, but I am #UX designer. Bad experiences rub me the wrong way, and I see how companies are changing things re: loyalty programs and it is so wrong.
As one of my favorite individuals, ever, once stated… “I am not a number. I am a person.” Loyalty programs should be centered around the PERSON, not the numbers. And have at least a little bit of memory.
Summing up, if you have a loyalty program, keep in mind that you shouldn’t change the rules. If you change the rules, do it to the BENEFIT of the customer, not the detriment. And if you have a long-term customer, keep the whole history of his/her relationship with you in mind… not just the last six months. Next year they may have to travel every week – and they may choose to do that with someone other than you.