Someone help me. I’m being bullied by Southwest Airlines.

Actually, a better set of descriptive terms would be pestered, annoyed, or amused, depending on the day.

The source of my discontent is my mailbox. Southwest has sent me a solicitation for its frequent flyer cobrand credit card at least once per month for probably the past 2 years. The mailers are varied in style, size, and color, and each are of high quality. I know the airline is spending significant money on each piece. What’s your guess as a direct marketer? $1? $3?

Whatever the price, it’s all being wasted on me and if they continue to send these mailings, I am going to dig out a receipt for the shredder I recently purchased and send it to them for reimbursement. Their mailers being a big contributor to shortening the lifespan of my shredder, it only seems fair.

In all seriousness, I spend a lot of my time sorting through customer transaction data to create Customer Strategy. When we begin to address how to translate strategy into visible campaigns, we focus on a number of tactical elements, forming a program blueprint for operations. The communications strategy is one key step in the process and I am sincere in attempting to help clients manage their finite marketing budgets to their best advantage. The first step to managing resource allocation is to decide “who” to mail and “what” we should mail to them. There are always value thresholds that trigger certain mailings as well as limits to how much we advise to invest in a specific group of clients.

For instance, if we see a segment of customers attractive to the business on any number of metrics, we’ll test various mailings across the group and measure results. I am pretty doggone sure that if I noticed a segment that I had mailed consistently for more than 1-2 years with no response, I would drop them from the list, at least for a while.

None of what I have just written will surprise an experienced direct marketer. Why then does Southwest continue to mail and mail and mail?

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve come to like the airline and its in-flight experience. And their recently re-launched Rapid Rewards program was extremely well communicated via email and print mail.

Southwest is doing some things well, but inexplicably is impacting my impression of its brand with these non-stop credit card solicitations. Maybe the answer is that their bank partner is driving the mailings, and the partner’s desire for new cards outweighs any concerns about customer experience.

Cobrand relationships carry inherent conflict of interest and must be carefully managed. The bank’s desire for new cards can negatively impact customer impressions of the airline itself. Most consumers will only notice the Southwest branding all over the envelope. The bank’s name is relegated to fine print inside the envelope.

Given this scenario, who do you think stands to gain most from mailing me to death, and who is really taking the risk from a branding perspective? Personally, I would like to be removed from their list and have Southwest award me Rapid Rewards points in exchange for all the money they will save on me.

As Paul Harvey says “now you know the rest of the story”.

What do you do when you have a solution in your hand in search of a problem?

If you’re the creator of the solution, you sell, sell, sell, crafting magnificent stories describing the power of your solution to change lives and create profits. That approach is mandated by fiduciary responsibility to those investors who brought your solution to market. The effort and persistence are admirable, but in time the substance of your solution will come clear, as will the reality of market demand for that which you are selling.

There are lots of examples of solutions seeking problems to solve. At the moment, contactless payment, many online reward applications, and almost every piece of exercise equipment sold through infomercials come to mind. One exception in the exercise category is TRX, which I’ve used and think is worth every penny.

I’m also thinking of QR codes.

I’ve written about QR codes before, highlighting the digital curiosity they can create and some practical uses they can provide to connect local merchants to their customers and enhance the value of print media at a time when it is teetering on the edge of destruction.

American Airlines seems to agree with my take, as the envelope I received this month with my AAdvantage frequent flyer status inside carried a big fat QR code on the back. If you own a smartphone and have just a wee bit of marketing curiosity in your blood, I don’t know how you could not click through the code.

I did and it took me to a landing page online which featured special fares and offers that American Airlines is promoting at this time. It took me all of 30 seconds to look at the offers and, while it wasn’t for me this time, I would check back for future offers if presented in the same way.

American’s use of the QR code is a practical example of how to create customer engagement and how to reap a little better return out of every piece of direct mail stuffed in the box. After all, there was nothing but white space on the envelope before this QR experiment, and the ROI calculation must be astronomical as the denominator (cost) is minuscule.

While solution sellers carry on with big promises, brands and marketers are wise to sit back and determine how they can put new technologies to use to meet their own needs. Often the answer is not the one being sold by the creator of the solution.

Some new technologies won’t survive your next brainstorming session. Others, like the QR code, can be selectively used to create customer engagement and help create incremental revenues.

Everyone knows that the air travel experience isn’t what is used to be. My recent trip around the world in 5 days served to accentuate the contrast of today’s reality with more elegant days past, while reminding me of solutions that remain untapped by the airlines to improve their standing with frequent flyers.

Some aspects of the air travel experience are so egregious that even the most generous frequent flyer program can’t overcome the problems. My opinion is that the airlines must embrace change, or risk permanently relegating their valued frequent flyer programs (FFP) to a commodity status.

The issue of airline profitability has to be front and center in this discussion. Since the bottom of the most recent airline industry economic cycle, the airlines have continued to homogenize their fleets, moving to more efficient airframes. Schedules have been set to meet demand with a thin margin of error, meaning that nearly every flight one takes these days is fully loaded. Labor agreements have been renegotiated by the majors, and lower cost entrants started out with more advantageous compensation models. Mergers have taken place with collapsing hubs wringing new efficiencies out of the network. Fuel remains a variable expense that is difficult to control, but whose impact on profitability is smartly managed by airline managers with forward purchases and hedged contracts.

The sum impact of the profitability discussion should mean that if the current generation of airline managers are truly competent, then the core issues of profitability should be accounted for and it should not be pilots, flight attendants, customers, and FFP’s themselves that are penalized each time the airline misses its financial projections.

Some ready examples of how the flying experience has degraded include:

1. The in-flight experience has been deconstructed in search of “ancillary revenue” at multiple touch points, most of the changes coming at the expense of the customer. Baggage charges, early check-in fees, “extra leg room” seat charges, and the near elimination of free food and beverage are familiar pain points to those who fly often.
2. Changes to the management of the “standby list” at airports have resulted in irrational policies that frustrates flyers. During an exhausting trip to Malaysia and back, I was denied boarding on two flights that would have saved me 5-6 hours of travel time, all because my FFP status with the airline didn’t merit this “privilege”. Both flights left with over 30 empty seats.
3. The need to implement Enterprise Engagement Strategy across major US airlines is clear. Somehow, the financial struggles of the airlines has trickled down to cabin crews such that these otherwise kind people approach cabin service in a near-adversarial manner. On code-shared flights from Miami – Kuala Lumpur and return, the legs operated by the foreign carrier partners were full of smiles, great service, and helpful attitudes. Sadly, the legs operated on US airlines were characterized by a generally surly atmosphere.

There is a corresponding list of solutions that are easily within grasp of the airlines to execute:

1. If the airlines would use their data, as complete a customer data set as any industry outside of banking, to link lifetime value and previous FFP status to customer records, it could support customer service decisioning and create the opportunity for customer delight. Lifetime FFP miles, an indication of past patronage, are known and previous tier achievements can be remembered (Gold, Platinum, etc.). Airlines could use these simple indicators to make occasional exceptions to care for valuable business flyers, regardless of their current status. As we all know, the flow of business drives who and where we fly, and a person can become more valuable upon signing of the next long term client contract.
2. Avoid the temptation to monetize every step of the flight experience. Just like financial people who can ruin points-based loyalty programs by falling too much in love with breakage, fees, and by tinkering with redemption levels, airline managers must return to a more bundled experience. Give a little, earn a lot.
3. Include cabin and ground crews in the magic of creating a memorable flying experience. Give counter and flight attendants a reason to smile, and help all associates remember that the people in the seats really are paying the bills. This might be the most powerful suggestion in this list, and successful achievement of the objective is more a matter of will than anything else.

I’m not an airline basher by nature. I spent 10 years as a supplier of components to commercial airlines and have family members with entire careers piloting passengers around the world. I am pulling for the airlines to “up their game” by recalibrating their interest in ancillary revenue and cost-cutting with the in-flight experience.

There is a happier balance that can be struck for all parties. If that balance can be achieved, then FFP’s can be better used to truly influence airline choice.

The practice of Loyalty Accounting has become increasingly important as programs have matured and the value of deferred financial liability on corporate balance sheets has grown.

The key offset to the balance sheet liability is breakage. It is the word used to describe the value of the accumulated points that go by the wayside and is controlled through published Terms and Conditions, the fine print that accompanies each program. The better executed programs explicitly share the rules of the game, i.e. how often you must shop, fly, or swipe to keep your points alive and available.

Every organization that operates a loyalty program should know by now that it is in the best interest of the customer and the brand to not only disclose the rules, but to provide ample warning of points reaching expiry. Explanation of the actions required to protect point value must be shared in an easy to understand manner.

Two recent personal examples illustrate the contrast in how brands handle breakage. You will see from the examples that there is also a contrasting impact on customer satisfaction and future disposition to repurchase.

I received an email from JetBlue advising me that:

“Your TrueBlue points won’t expire as long as you fly at least once a year. Unfortunately, it’s almost been a year since you’ve flown with us. To make sure you get to keep the points you’ve already earned, just fly with us again in the next 30 days.”

I knew that I had flown with JetBlue on several occasions during the year, but that I wasn’t receiving credit for my mileage due to the disconnect between the naming of my TrueBlue account and the new TSA requirements for passenger identification. I have written about this before and feel strongly that airlines have a golden opportunity to assist their valued frequent flyers in making this transition to TSA compliancy.

Knowing that the process is not easy and that the time needed to request, validate, and receive credit for past flights with reservations in different names would be a poor use of my time, I was resigned to sending an email to customer service.

To my surprise, I received a response within 24 hours informing me that past flights were being credited to me and that my expiration date was extended accordingly. In addition the email made clear how to get my account in sync with TSA requirements and to avoid future discrepancies.

This was a fantastic result and one that renewed my allegiance to the JetBlue brand.

Next, I received an email notice that my ATT wireless bill was due. Visiting the account online to pay the bill, I checked to make sure the recent changes to my wireless plan had been made and that the bill was correct. In a box shown as part of the billing statement I saw this:

Previous Rollover Balance – 10,592
Current Rollover Balance – 1,400
Bonus and Adjusted Rollover Minutes (10,157)

Translated, this was telling me that, in the process of making changes to my account, I forfeited 10,157 rollover minutes. I have been made aware of these rules in the past, but the reality of losing these minutes was never mentioned in my call to customer service to make changes to my account, nor was any gesture of value offered to me for *gasp* trying to adjust my plan to a more sensible and economical setup.

I would say that this transaction lessened my affinity for the ATT brand, but since they trade only on a contractual basis, I suppose it doesn’t matter. What ATT and the other carriers are missing is a huge opportunity to create goodwill across their customer base.

Treating the rollover balance like a rewards currency and proactively offering me something, anything, for losing this truck-load of minutes would have been a wonderful surprise.  Instead, the carrier reinforced my predisposed opinion that I am being held captive by my wireless carrier and, as a prisoner, my rights are non-existent.

Two approaches to breakage and two distinct outcomes on brand affinity, customer loyalty, and future disposition to purchase.

Can you hear me now?

Every day I play on the seesaw.

It seems like I have one call with a person who expresses doubt about the efficacy of traditionally structured loyalty programs, and then turn around and inadvertently encounter a new program to add to my growing list that I have catalogued and reviewed.

Every seesaw has a balance point.

In this case, the criticism is usually based on impressions formed by poorly conceived programs, meaning I can take it with a grain of salt. On the other hand, the programs I am finding these days tend to lack imagination and justify the loyalty skeptics I meet.

Today I went to freeconference.com to organize a call and was greeted with an invitation to join their newly launched “Loyalty Rewards Program” (yes, they really called it that). The program is simple, earn one airline mile for every dollar spent on premium call services. Participating airlines include American, Delta, and United.

I’m always interested in customer earning velocity as a measure of loyalty program success. From a consumer point-of-view, if you can’t gather enough equity in short order to cash-in for a meaningful reward, the program will be perceived a waste of time.

Free Conference has two key premium services, unlimited recording and storage for $9/month and unlimited desktop sharing for $14.95/month. Imagine if a customer engages both services and spends $288/year. That equates to 288 frequent flyer miles. Let’s be generous and say a premium customer spends about $200/month or $2,400 per year. At that rate, it would take 12.5 years to earn a round trip domestic ticket given a “cost” of 30,000 miles.

Even though the program is free to join, the enrollment form requests credit card information right off the bat, increasing the likelihood of customer disconnect at that juncture.

I spoke with a potential client today who told me his company tried a similar approach to loyalty a few years back and that the slow earning rate turned out to be a club that customers would beat him with on a regular basis. After collecting for a period of time and realizing that the point total was not enough for a $5 gift card, many customers rebelled and the “loyalty” program became a negative from an overall marketing perspective.

There is a truism that I have believed in for some time in this business “loyalty programs are easy to launch, but more challenging to make successful”.  Just about anyone can arrive at a simple construct for a rewards program and to generalize, the more simple the offer, the worse it might end up for the customer.

The old automotive tagline “pay me now or pay me later” comes to mind. It’s worth an investment in program planning and a commitment to execution to make the programs work. Much too often, “do it yourself” only results in customers who go their own way.

I’m sensing a tipping point in how customers relate to loyalty program rewards, and my thinking goes like this: when customers choose which company to do business with, rewards just don’t matter like they used to.

My take is that the classic loyalty reward scheme—earning points toward “hard” rewards for repeatedly doing business with a company—has been trumped by the customer experience. In other words, today’s customer is more likely to opt for a better experience today, than accept a lesser experience that pays dividends down the road.

Lets start with a personal example. I recently cleaned out my wallet of old business and program membership cards. There, I found reward cards for both Borders and Barnes & Noble. Now, I know I have points in both of these programs, but I haven’t engaged with either brand for years. Why? I’ve given all my business to Amazon, which for me offers a better customer experience.

A recent blog by marketing guru Seth Godin points anecdotally to a similar trend toward “experience over rewards” happening in the airline industry. Godin believes that the greater the risk involved with getting a reward—one we have to save for and may never use—the less we value it.

He writes:

Frequent flyer miles, for example, began with the promise that if you flew an airline regularly for months (or even years) you’d get a free flight. The airlines oversold the miles and undelivered on the free flights, though, so the reward started to lose its perceived value—too much risk that you wouldn’t get the prize you wanted. Many of the frequent flyers I know have ceased to ’save up’ and now use their miles for upgrades, moving the benefit closer in time.

Godin’s point is backed up by a recent article in the Miami Herald titled: “Are loyalty programs worth it?” Travel writer Christopher Elliott cites several real-life examples of customers leaving airline programs, because the rewards are just too hard to earn. He points to a recent stat that seat requests for USAir reward flights had an availability rate of 10% and muses, no wonder “there are several trillion unredeemed miles floating around out there”.

In another sign of the sea change, several companies are now offering customers “loyalty rewards” with no points, or long-term loyalty, needed. Take the telecomm space, where both Verizon and Optimum have recently launched reward programs with merchant discounts, special promotions and exclusive content—with no strings attached. Prove you’re a customer and you’re in.

Why is the trend moving toward more automatic and instantaneous recognition of customers? Godin attributes the change to the Internet, stating “one of the many things the web is changing is our focus on now”. I see his point. Now more than ever, today’s consumer wants things at the speed of the Internet, whether it’s information, customer service—or a perk for being a customer.

Is this the beginning of the end of long-term loyalty rewards?

The floor is open. What do you think?

Patrick Sojka knows credit cards, travel rewards cards in Canada to be precise. As CEO & Founder of Rewards Canada, he’s been cataloging and ranking the myriad of offers in the Canadian market to help consumers find the best deals for their wallets and their loyalty points banks since 2001.

If you think Americans are reward-crazy, our Canadian friends are just a bit out in front.  You’ve probably read the oft-quoted finding from Colloquy that the average American household is a member of 14 loyalty programs, but active in only 6. RewardsCanada.ca, considered to be Canada’s premier frequent flyer and travel rewards resource, has chimed in to share that “more Canadians per capita participate in loyalty programs then any other country and a large portion of the loyalty market is comprised of travel rewards credit cards”.

No matter the numbers, it’s clear that consumers in both markets have almost too many choices, and are seeking clear and unbiased advice to make the right selection to meet their needs.

To help consumers fight their way through the noise, Rewards Canada just announced a new tool, the Travel Rewards Credit Card Flow Chart. “When used with our other credit card features, the flow chart guides the consumer to narrowing down the choice for a new travel rewards credit card” added Patrick.

The flow chart is the latest in a string of articles and charts aimed at helping Canadian consumers choose the right travel rewards credit card for them, including a newly released list of Canada’s Top Travel Rewards Cards for 2010. You can find the rest of the resources, updated on a daily basis, along with news, articles, program information and bonus offers for over 80 travel reward programs at the RewardsCanada.ca website.

Listening to execs sharing insights into key airline marketing and business issues at The Mega Event 2010, I put together an airline loyalty marketing  IQ test just for you.

The questions were raised and answered through a compilation of remarks from the following companies including, but not limited to: Aeroplan, American Express, Emirates Airways, Kobie Marketing, Millenium Aviation, Peppers & Rogers, Qantas, Sapient Nitro.

Here’s a Mega Quiz for you:

1. Name a line of business in the airline industry that is barely 2 years old and now accounts for $14Billion annually.
2. Name one aspect of air travel that is getting more attention from the Department of Transportation than helmet on helmet hits are getting from the NFL?
3. Name the second air carrier in the world to spin off its frequent flyer program (FFP) after Air Canada spun off Aeroplan?
4. Name the two most significant sources of profit for Qantas, the largest airline in Australia and the second oldest in the world?
5. According to Google Chief Economist Hal Varian, what will be the sexiest  corporate job over the next 10 years?
6. We have Twitterati, Datarati, and soon will have Loyalarati. Who are these people?
7. What percentage of Twitter conversations will be handled through automated means by corporate tweeters in the next 2 years?
8. What are 3 synonyms for loyalty program “liability”?
9. How important will Privacy issues be to business in the next 10 years?
10. What is considered to be the growth industry of the next decade?

Answers:

1. Ancillary Revenue a/k/a a conscious un-bundling of the air travel experience that generates profits but has potential to undermine customer satisfaction
2. Ancillary Revenue (The DOT is considering implementing new standards for fee disclosures as part of a broad rule-making proceeding)
3. TAM, the Brazilian carrier
4. Profit from its FFP and operation of its low-cost carrier JetStar
5. Statistician
6. Datarati are those companies who make a commitment to using their hard fought customer data to drive business results, while the emerging Loyalarati will be those enterprises which deliver their respective brand promise with a unwavering commitment to customer engagement and enterprise loyalty which honors customers, vendors, shareholders, and partners to create unshakable competitive advantage.
7. 20% minimum
8. a) Deferred discounts (they only get cashed in when points/miles are redeemed); b) Current Asset (If the company has reserved cash to account for some or all of the value of unredeemed points/miles, there should be a stockpile of cash that can be used to drive innovation and business results); c) A “darn good thing” because liability is an outcome of customer purchase behavior and an indicator of the health of customer engagement across the business.
9. What’s privacy? That dies just a little more each day as Millennials share more information and leading social networks leak personal data
10. Loyalty Marketing!

The Mega Event wrapped up last week in Montreal with the first annual presentation of the Mega Awards honoring the best in airline frequent flyer programs (FFP) and a second day of presentations that covered social media, coalition marketing, and a keynote which unveiled the term “Trustability” from Don Peppers.

Mega Awards were conceived to recognize marketing campaign and product development excellence in the airline industry covering Loyalty, Social Media, and Ancillary Revenue.Freddie Laker hosted the awards evening. A founder of Sapient Nitro and son of legendary airline innovator Sir Freddie Laker, he was so entertaining that an ESPY hosting gig might be in his future.

You’ll have to visit the Mega Awards web site for all the details, but here are three highlights that stood out for me:

Best Merchandising Product
Wessco International won top honors here for creating a co-branded offer that bundled a $10 off $30 coupon for Bed Bath and Beyond with a blanket and neck pillow package sold on board American Airlines. With airlines fracturing the flight experience and turning each piece into a revenue opportunity, passengers need a little incentive to play the game. American Airlines trialed the BBB coupon on its flights and sold over 200,000 units in 6 months, creating ancillary revenue for AA while giving travelers more coupon value than the cost of the blanket and neck pillow kit.

Best in Airline Social Media
Air New Zealand created its AirPoints Fairy as a flighty persona that listens to customers and often grant their wishes – all through the AirPoint Fairy’s Twitter account. There was lots of innovation in this category with Lufthansa’s MySkyStatus allowing people to stay connected within their networks during travel and Volaris and airBaltic using Facebook pages to deliver messages about special fares and generate big chunks of incremental revenue. ANZ leveraged its program to set it apart from competition and illustrated how social media could be used to drive tangible results.

Best in Airline Loyalty
A tough category to judge with many worthy entrants, Velocity, the loyalty program of Virgin Blue, came out a winner. Locked in a dog-fight with rival Qantas, Virgin Blue had 60 days to create and execute a campaign to protect its frequent flyer base in light of market changes impacting how banks would allow consumers to use their credit card rewards points.

The promotion was multi-faceted and included an immediate 25% bonus point award to transfer points to Velocity as well as the chance to win 25 million points – the biggest rewards based prize ever offered in Australia. 25 million points equated to a chance to go into space on the highly publicised Virgin Galactic space ship.

Using the creative premise that Velocity was offering ‘average Joes’ the chance to go into space the campaign told the story from the “civilian” side and that of a disgruntled astronaut. The fictitious astronaut, Sgt Major Scott Petersen, protested in a YouTube video that “space is not for amateurs” and circulated petitions via Facebook pleading for support against “this crazy Velocity promotion that will let mere amateurs go into space”.

The promotion achieved the overall goal of shifting a key segment of bank card point collectors to the Velocity program and notched a 1605% increase in points transfers compared to a non-campaign period.  Points transferred per day increased by over 850% compared to a non-campaign period and approximately 400,000 visitors were attracted to the micro-website.

All costs accounted for, the promotion returned an outstanding 10:1 ROI, enough maybe to even pacify that angry astronaut.

I don’t usually include conference reports as posts in Loyalty Truth, but the quality of content shared by key persons in the airline / banking / loyalty industries during the first day of the Mega Event was so strong that I make an exception.

Rupert Duchesne, President Groupe Aeroplan kicked off the day by talking about – what else ? – The Future of Loyalty.  He noted 3 key trends that in his opinion, will define the business going forward:

1. Duchesne borrowed from an article written earlier this year by Google Chief Economist Hal Varian and stated that the Rise of the “Datarati” would define the winners among operators of frequent flyer programs (FFP). In simple terms, he made clear that the companies which use the data they have collected effectively to drive marketing efforts will come out on top. We agree here in Loyalty Truth.
2. Credit card rewards programs will continue to be under pressure. With the passage of CardAct 2009, the Code of Conduct in Canada, and the looming Durbin Amendment, life as a credit card marketer will continue to be challenging in 2011 and beyond.
3. There will be an Evolution of how Best Customers are defined. Companies will go beyond the typical Recency, Frequency, Monetary Value equation and add Social Influence (using things like a Klout score). Duchesne cited ShopKick and Social Rewards as examples of outfits that are bringing this idea to market.

Lance Blockley, Managing Director Edgar Dunn & Company contrasted Co-branded credit card offers linking “direct” to FFP programs and those credit card offers that consolidate multiple travel awards rather than linking with just one airline, offering up some insightful distinctions between the two models.

The panel discussing “Lessons from the recession” was a pleasure for me to moderate as we had 4 stellar panelists with Air Jamaica and Virgin America represented. Dr. Ricardo Pilon explained how airlines need to refocus their objectives and think about the holistic nature of customer loyalty to meet future challenges. Brett Billick, Virgin America emphasized that airlines should keep the focus on the product, not on the loyalty program itself. Angela Brissett-Martin, Air Jamaica offered a great case study of how the airline reached out to their highest tier flyers to make sure they stayed “on board” during the recent merger with Caribbean Air. Jef Harris added that airlines have to balance their ancillary revenue strategies with overall loyalty strategy.

A panel discussing the new IFRIC 13 standards for managing liability from FFP’s brought new perspective to a subject many would prefer to avoid. Instead of thinking of the value of unredeemed mileage as “liability”, Mikund Srinivasan from Emirates / Skywards suggested that we consider the money socked away to be a current asset that can be used to fund program improvements. Mike Hemsey, President Kobie Marketing, preferred the term “deferred revenue” and reminded delegates that high redemption equates to strong engagement and strong incremental revenue growth.

The day wrapped up with Simon Hickey, CEO Qantas FFP, who talked about how the airline formed its coalition style program and the results it has generated. Earlier in the day, Duchesne had stated that Loyalty was important as Qantas had registered all of its profit last year from two sources: its FFP and low cost carrier, so you knew that Hickey’s story would be a good one.

During the presentation, Hickey announced the airline’s new iPhone app and emphasized that Customer Engagement was key to future success. He wrapped up by predicting that Loyalty would be “the growth industry of the next decade”.

I think I have to agree!