When we headed out from home, we were just going out somewhere and didn't carry the card. On the way, we started planning where we'd go and then it dawned on wifey that the barista loyalty card was missing. Voila! a small burst of disappointment later, she came back like a free bird. 'Today we don't have the card, so lets go somewhere else'.... what?? It was a little shocking for me, and I am still wondering. Do Loyalty cards create an artificial short term increase in loyalty to service industry companies? are people essentially tied by the 'points' rather than good service topped up with loyalty points?
Either case, one thing is very clear. Effectiveness of a loyalty program is not an easy thing to measure, and is not something that corporate honcho's should ignore.
Better luck to Barista, and its other competitors.
AX
ps. Barista is a cafe chain in India, the first home grown one. It is now owned by Lavaza of Italy.
Interesting point. Seems to concur with the basic idea of Loyalty cards which are supposed to bring in loyalty of customers. When we are given a loyalty card by a store or restaurant with a promise of few points on every use we seldom realize the hidden costs. The customers are pulled to the same store with virtue of earning few points or a few drink after X purchases. Reminds me of the example from "Predictably Irrational" where it is probably just important to get a customer to enter and buy at your store specially if a cafe or restaurant for a few times. After a while the customer gets accustomed to it and forgets what was the reasoning of becoming the customer of that store the first few times. In this it could even be a Loyalty card. Points in some way are just maybe a few %age off on purchase like 5 points on 100 bucks purchase is just 5%. or 1 free coffee for 10 purchases is 10% off. but what it essentially does it to get the customer tied down to same store chain and in many cases move to another bracket of purchase. Like a 100 bucks coffee instead of 50 bucks one at competing cafe. Interestingly there is no central loyalty card for all the stores which could make life easier for a customer who needs to carry around 10-20 such cards. But if there were just 1 card, wont that beat the whole purpose? Where will loyalty go? Since it is about loyalty and not about getting points on purchase. I guess thats probably the reason i-mint has not been very successful.
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