—.Oh, my dear, look at that! What a lovely company Walmart is!
— And why is everything fine with them?
“Oh, I see they are giving out cards to their customers.”
— So let’s do the same!
But this doesn’t yield any results. A discount card offering 1, 2, or 3 percent doesn’t provide anything for the retailer. Simply copying the external features of a loyalty program doesn’t offer the benefits that a true loyalty program provides. For example, I have a card from the Karavan supermarket. I’ve had it for several years. It’s clear when and what I buy. It’s obvious that I’ve stopped going there as often as I used to. This means that I’m about to stop shopping at this supermarket and might switch to Megamarket or Silpo.
But no one does anything that could be called “customer analytics.” They could have offered me something, say, a simple gift if I shop at Karavan in the next week. And it’s not just about Karavan. It’s the same with all these discount cards created for the sake of a cargo cult, rather than for retaining customers with something more than just a measly discount on _already_ made purchases. Oh, and they also send spam that is completely irrelevant, which completely ruins communication. They could be recognizing consumer needs more effectively and sending relevant spam. Bought diapers a year ago? Here’s a quality offer for a children’s bicycle.
But apparently, there won’t be any common children between a marketer and an IT specialist in our country. 🙁