People who know me well understand my overriding sense of fairness, and that I am unlikely to keep quiet if I think something is unfair. Recently I have again become very aware of the ‘rewards for disloyalty’ programme that seems to be in operation from some of the better known online supermarkets. Over the last 5 years I have actively shopped with 3 providers and if I ever lapsed for a few months there was always attempts at regaining my business via £10 off vouchers, free delivery etc…

I have now been loyal to one for well over 12 months. I use them a minimum of twice a month, usually 3 or 4 times. So for arguments sake say 50 times in the past year; approx shop value of £90 = £4500. The question I have been asking is – where is the reward for my loyalty? Surely it is common sense that if you get in early with the reward to say thank you, this would reduce the need to chase down lapsed customers….and we all know it is cheaper to keep a customer than find a new one! I even went so far as to drop an email to them making a suggestion along these lines – got no response (unless you count the automated ‘thank you for your message blah blah)

So, the trigger for this post: a friend of mine strayed from said provider (was wooed by a £10 voucher from another party) for about a month. She returned to the original supermarket as felt they offered a better service and get this…. GOT A FREE BOTTLE OF WINE to say thank you for coming back.

I was utterly dismayed at this when…an email dropped into my inbox today entitled: Saving £5 at XXXXX is as easy as 1-2-3. Oh at last I thought: some reward for me. But you tell me – is this easy as 1-2-3? Is it convenient? Is it worth it to me?

Here are the instructions:

Place an order for delivery between Tuesday 25th January and Thursday 27th January 2011.*

We’ll send you an email containing a £5 off voucher on Monday 31st January 2011.

Use the voucher to get £5 off your next XXXXX order for delivery between Tuesday 1st February and Thursday 3rd February 2011.
(*minimum spend £75)

So as a loyal customer I CAN get £5 off; but only IF I order twice in a 10 day period, enter a code at checkout and spend a minimum of £75.
Suffice to say I was quite disappointed. Am thinking of trying someone else but am not sure anybody has got it right. Pity.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 25th, 2011 at 12:09 am and is filed under chitchat. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.