Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Loyalty - What Keeps You Coming Back?

Last week, Carnival unveiled their new loyalty program, the VIFP Club.  The new levels and benefits of the "Very Important Fun Person" Club caused quite a bit of debate and uproar.

All this debate caused me to ponder why we loyal to certain brands.

Is it the comfort of knowing what to expect?  The vacation can be much more relaxing when you know how you will be treated and what the ship or resort has to offer.

Is it the overall value?  With today's economy, everyone is looking for the most bang for their buck.  This can also be tied back to the expectations too with being familiar with what the brand has done in the past.

Is it the status?  A lot of programs have unique identifiers for their most loyal.  For example, different colored room keys, etc.  This allows the staff to recognize the traveler as someone special.

Is it the perks and freebies?  Most loyalty programs offer some perks and benefits.  These can be anything from additional discounts to gifts and free services.  Everyone likes to get free things.  Also, going back to the value, it becomes a better value when there are extras or upgrades offered.

It would be great to think that a little bit of all these factors come in to play regarding loyalty.  What we also need to understand is that the companies offering these programs are businesses.  They too, are dealing with the economic issues that we as individuals are.  So, where do they make changes to improve the bottom line, but not affect their product?  Instead of increasing rates or cutting back staff, it would make sense to cut the "freebies" and little gadgets that a lot of people enjoy receiving, but really have no use for.

Hoping that as long as the company is continuing to put out the quality product that has come to be expected, the loyal will continue to be loyal.