How much is a $10 gift card worth to you? Are you willing to risk losing a customer—and the customer’s positive word-of-mouth—to defend the strictures of your loyalty rewards program?
What follows is a recent experience I had, one that involved sharing many details with a customer support rep for a recognized apparel retailer. This is the email I originally sent to the retailer on a Friday morning:
Earlier this week, I made a transaction at Store 0059, Register 004, for $197.
The customer service rep, upon conclusion of the transaction, apologized to me and said she had forgotten to ask if I wanted to sign up for the rewards program. Because the store was closing (it was shortly after 6 p.m.), she said I should forward the transaction number to you and ask that the transaction amount be applied to my rewards program.
I contacted customer support about the rewards program and they instructed me to contact
this email address. The transaction number is 4743 and was completed 6/14/16 at 6:07 p.m.
Another wrinkle in this story: Because the store clerk failed to sign me up on the spot for the store’s rewards program, she advised me to register for it online, which I did the morning of June 20, and to explain the circumstances to the customer support representative.
The rep then asked for a scanned copy of what was a roughly 2-foot-long receipt that included a number of items and validated my email. I obliged.
Loyalty will determine whether you become indispensable to your customers or are just another robotic transaction.
After sending the above email, I received a response late Friday night:
Thank you for contacting [retailer’s name].
We appreciate your response. … We were able to locate one account using your first and last name; however, this account was created on 6/17/16. According to your photo, your purchase was made on 6/14/16. If you have another account that was created before 6/14/16, please respond with the correct email address, as well as with a picture of the entire receipt. You are welcome to take up to 3 clear pictures of the receipt and send those to us. We look forward to your reply.
If you have additional questions, please visit our online customer service section. Again,
thank you for contacting us.
Sincerely,
The Customer Service Team
When I reiterated the circumstances, I received basically the same response. The bottom line: They took the legalistic view that because I didn’t open the rewards program at the time of purchase—for reasons explained in my first email—they refused to credit my new rewards program with the purchase.
What’s wrong with this picture? Several things.
First, the customer support representative never provided me with his or her name. While the rep started each communication with “Dear Mitch,” I have no idea whether the support rep was a man or a woman, old or young. Was the rep even a human being? (I presume so, but I have no way of knowing.)
Second, the rep never offered me the option to call and have a human-to-human conversation. The entire episode played out via email.
Third, the support rep failed to acknowledge that while my purchase occurred days before I officially registered for the rewards program, the reason was not my fault but that of the sales
clerk. Nor did the rep recognize that the clerk subsequently recommended I register online
over the next couple of days and explain to customer support what had happened.
What did the retailer risk by accommodating my grievance? For 200 points ($200), a customer receives a $10 gift card. I accrued 197 points for the $197 spent. And the store clerk told me customers receive 50 points upon registering for the rewards program.
Yep, a whopping 10 bucks.
So why did I engage in what seems a frivolous, fruitless exercise that started Friday at 10:18 a.m. and concluded Sunday at 10:07 a.m.? Because loyalty, both experiential and programmatic, is the new king. Loyalty will determine whether you become indispensable in the lives of your customers or just another robotic transaction.
Am I overreacting? As the retailer, how would you handle my complaint? Let me know, and if you’d like, we’ll publish your comments online with the column.
Mitch Morrison is vice president and director of Winsight’s Retail Executive Team. Reach him at mmorrison@winsightmedia.com.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.