Content from the Loyalty Academy’s CLMP™ Community

What data do you routinely share with frontline staff to empower decision making? When you fail your customers, do you have plans in place to create recoveries that further your members’ loyalty and emotional brand attachment?

Let me share a personal story with you. This June, after a workout in the pool, I decided to treat myself to lunch at a “nationally known” sandwich chain to pick up on my way home from the gym to eat before my afternoon meetings began.  I used their app to place my order. And like clockwork, it was ready and waiting for me when I arrived at the store (as promised). I then drove 15 minutes home.

Not surprising to anyone who knows me, I’m a member of this company’s loyalty program.  I’ve been a member for over 3 years. This year alone, by June, I had already visited 10 times.  I have participated in games posted in the app. Based on my purchase behavior, one would think that I’m likely in their top 25% of members – or even higher. This estimate based on the assumption that 10 visits in 12 weeks represents higher than average frequency.

When I opened the sealed bag (sealed for quality assurance purposes?) and unwrapped the sandwich I discovered that the sandwich in the bag was not what I ordered. It was not even close.

I called the store, and they said “yea, we realized after you left, that we switched two sandwiches.  If you want to come back to the store, we will replace it for you or give you a refund.”

Rather than driving 15 minutes back to the store (time I no longer had), I asked them to deliver the sandwich I ordered to me instead. I’ve ordered delivery from them several times and know that this is a chain offering. 

I was told, “That was against store policy.”  Huh?

I ended up taking the refund – and then sent a message/complaint via their website. As I’m writing this article, now in October, I have not received a single outreach from anyone in the organization in response to my complaint.  No one at the head office or the franchise owner cared to reply to my comment about my dissatisfaction. And for the record, I have not been back to this chain since the service failure.

As a data-driven loyalty marketer and a consumer – this experience is frustrating. The chain had several options to turn failure into a bold customer recovery with little to no cost to the brand:

• They could have said, We’re sorry that we dropped the ball – and here’s what we are going to do to make it right….
• They could have comped my next sandwich. “We will load a free sandwich on your account to use for your next lunch” (heck, they could have made it only available for 14 days….)
• They could have loaded bonus points onto my account. This would have made me feel better about the time wasted – going to their store, and then needing to arrange another lunch on a very quick turn……
• They could have delivered what I ordered.

But in passing up these opportunities they have decided that my future spending was not worth the expense to make it right.

When brands talk about emotional loyalty, this is an example. It’s just a sandwich.  But it feels like so much more. I’ve really enjoyed their products in the past, and I would have continued to offer my patronage to them for years to come.  Not only did their product fail, but in response to my questioning, they did little to make me feel valued, and that’s when that emotional connection was broken. 

As you can see from my examples above, the compensation needed to restore the relationship is not unreasonable. I’m looking for the brand to acknowledge that they were wrong, and simply offering a refund for the sandwich does not compensate me for the complete loss.  My time has value. Everyone’s does.

In addition to sandwiches, they do a lot of good community work, and I’ve gone out of my way to purchase from them on charity drive days.  Why? Because I had a connection to the bigger picture. I bought into their mission and wanted to support it.

The most frustrating part about this is seeing how decoupled the operations team is from the brand. This brand boasts a large loyalty program. And based on my experience and expertise, I’m willing to bet their loyalty members visit more frequently than non-members.  Making them more valuable customers. The fact that they have developed policies that ignore customer value tells me just how far off their program is to becoming part of the organization’s fabric. It’s still likely a “marketing initiative”.

Loyalty programs can only do so much to help motivate members into coming in more often. Operations needs to execute the menu properly, and when they don’t, they need to have empowered frontline staff ready to make it right.  How much would it have cost them – in real dollars for them to retain me? $2? Seems silly to let a valued customer walk out the door to never return over a trivial amount.

If you’re a brand that needs help fixing these kinds of issues, let me know.  I’m happy to help!  Creating meaningful and impactful rewards programs is what I do!

About the Author

Christina Hurley, CLMP^™ is a restaurant loyalty expert with 20+ years of experience crafting, growing, and evolving rewards programs. As a data-driven strategist, Christina takes a practical approach to measuring impact and leveraging learnings, attaining the highest level of success. She blends the need for data with an eye towards authenticity, ensuring the strategy is aligned with the brand’s positioning. She is the Owner of CMH Strategy, LLC. You can reach Christina here.