When Loyalty Programs Fail to Deliver

Customer loyalty programs can backfire on you if you’re not careful. Case in point:

I received an email from National Car Rental offering me a free upgrade for being a member of their Emerald Club. I frequently travel to Colorado to visit our call center in Loveland and have faithfully used National for my car rentals. With an upcoming trip looming, I followed the link to reserve a car and get my free upgrade (a convertible would be nice!).

As it turned out, National had no cars available for my arrival date. None! Nada! So I called their reservation line thinking that maybe they had a few cars in reserve.

I spoke with a National rep who informed me that they were indeed sold out of cars but she could arrange a rental through their partner, Enterprise. We took care of the rental and I asked if the upgrade National offered could be used at Enterprise. The rep was unsure but suggested I bring a printout of the National offer and ask when I checked in at Enterprise.

Well when I arrived at the Enterprise counter at the Denver airport I was wowed by the service received. The agent behind the counter introduced herself (Jerusha was her name), shook my hand, and welcomed me to Enterprise. She handled the rental arrangement efficiently and when asked about the upgrade, she winked at me and said “no problem” without even asking to see proof.

She then directed me to the door and met me there to personally walk me out to the lot to pick my car. It was brutally hot that day so she jumped into the car I selected to start it and turn the air conditioning up full blast. She then popped the trunk and loaded my bag for me. We then inspected the car together, she had me sign the paperwork, gave me directions on how to exit the lot and present my paperwork, and I was on my way.

And the real kicker? I got a midsize car, same as what I usually get at National for half the cost.

Emerald Club status from National basically gives me the privilege of skipping the rental car counter. I would just exit the bus, and pick a car from the lot. But for the personalized service I got from Jerusha and Enterprise along with the same car for half price, do you think I’ll be back to National? I don’t think so.

When you offer a loyalty program for your customers, make sure you have the basics cover to ensure success of the program. The fastest route to losing that loyalty program customer for good is failure to live up to the rewards promised. Exceptions are sometimes unavoidable so make sure you’ve empowered your employees to do whatever it takes to honor your commitment to the most important group of customers you have.

Otherwise, the last view of those customers will be from the rear view mirror!