1/18/2011

A perfect loyalty program

In today´s world we all belong to one or more loyalty programs. In exchange of personal and behavioral information we believe that there are numerous benefits to apply into the program.

I finished reading Youngme Moon´s excellent book "Different" not long time ago. In her classes she has asked students to think out-of-the-box to invent a perfect loyalty program. Since I am in daily basis working with loyalty programs this exercise sounded interesteing. And so so it did. Outcome was kinda interesting:


1st A perfect loyalty program dont keep score, dont keep track of points - instead it surprises customer with random acts of generosity

2st ... that, instead of handing out of prizes to customers,it gives customers ability to award prizes to employees who treated them well

3rd ... in which customers bond together and accumulate points together, in return group-based rewards

4th ... that, instead of making it harder for the customer to quit our service , made it easier for them to quit, without penalty

5th .. in which rewards were in the form of donations to the customer´s favorite charity.

Sound like utopia against my educational and expertise background. But, hey, why not. No one has tried anything like this ever. I dont say, it would work out.

After all, who would thought 15 years a go that we all love a web page with one input field and a submit button.