{"id":7532,"date":"2014-07-23T13:09:36","date_gmt":"2014-07-23T17:09:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=7532"},"modified":"2014-08-06T05:35:48","modified_gmt":"2014-08-06T09:35:48","slug":"front-porch-perspective-customer-service-vii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/front-porch-perspective-customer-service-vii\/","title":{"rendered":"FRONT PORCH PERSPECTIVE: Customer Service VII"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Stephen Somerville<\/strong><\/p>\n

Back in March 2012, I again wrote about a subject that had been of increasing concern to me \u2013 the lack of adequate customer service in our society.
\nThat column certainly struck a chord with a number of readers judging by the amount of e-mails and letters that I received.
\nAlthough it has been over two years since I last wrote about this topic, recent international and local experiences have compelled me to do so again.
\nCorporate loyalty programs are proudly trumpeted by organizations as a great way to recognize and financially reward long term customers.
\nYou might ask, \u201cWhat does this actually have to do with customer service?\u201d
\nI include loyalty programs as part of the entire \u201cbuying experience\u201d which includes how I am treated in the store, what happens when I have a problem with the product or service and what will draw me back to potentially purchase that good or service again.
\nIn my view, there are some organizations that, based on the dollar value size of the purchase by customers, should have some type of loyalty program in place.
\nA good example is Disney.
\nAt certain times of the year they do offer Free Dining Plans for those who come and stay at one of their resorts at either DisneyWorld in Florida or at DisneyLand in California.
\nHowever, these programs are offered to any one time purchaser.
\nDisney also offers a Vacation Club Program that allows people to purchase time that can be used at a number of their resorts.
\nI am thinking about a program for those people, like my family, who travel to their resorts a few times. Disney should be offering some discount or other incentive based on the number of times and the amount of money that has been spent over the last few years.
\nAs they are a very well run and highly profitable company, I am surprised that Disney does not have any such loyalty program. Maybe their research has shown that they do not need it.
\nI now present two local companies \u2013 one with a fa\u00e7ade of a loyalty program and one with a real and straight forward program.
\nA certain retailer in town of golf equipment has what is known as a \u201cLeaders Board\u201d. Every time that I purchase something in the store the cashier asks for my phone number to input this information into their system and also asks if I am a member of this club.
\nI faithfully say \u201cyes\u201d that I am a member of the \u201cLeaders Board\u201d and provide my phone number.
\nI don\u2019t get any discounts off my purchases but I do receive \u2013 via e-mail \u2013 their flyer showing new sales.
\nThe last couple of times in the store when I have been purchasing something I have asked that cashier to pass on some information to their management.
\nI tell her that my family and I have purchased a lot in the store over the last couple of years \u2013 clubs and bags for all of us \u2013 and you continually ask us for our phone number but we have not received any discount for being members of this club.
\nOn the opposite side of the coin is Omar\u2019s Shoes in the south part of Aurora. We have been purchasing shoes for our son here for years as we really like their selection and their customer service.
\nTheir loyalty program is a simple one. You have a card and every time you buy something they sign it. On your tenth purchase you receive a \u201cfree\u201d pair of shoes. (They take the average price of your previous nine purchases, so you will most likely not get the shoes for free, but the cost will be, in most cases, very minimal.)
\nJulie and I very much appreciate this program.
\nWhat would be even better is if they had this information stored on their system and when we came in for our tenth purchase, they would be the ones to tell us that the shoes were \u201cfree\u201d!
\nPlease remember, a happy customer means a customer that will be coming back.<\/p>\n

Stephen can be contacted at stephengsomerville@yahoo.com<\/em><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Stephen Somerville Back in March 2012, I again wrote about a subject that had been of increasing concern to me \u2013 the lack of adequate customer service in our society. That column certainly struck a chord with a number of readers judging by the amount of e-mails and letters that I received. Although it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1Xu","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-24 23:04:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7532\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}