Online retailers have a uniquely difficult challenge in building relationships and creating customer loyalty. Without a store-front to rely upon, most online retailers lead with product selection and price to attract first time buyers.

This leaves many to rely on ad words and keyword search as their only acquisition funnel. Generating repeat business, building trusted relationships, and retaining valuable customers? Those three goals can become esoteric concepts to the marketing department as they  continually focus resources on acquisition for fear of muffling the principal sales driver that works.

The first wave of internet business placed the hurdle for marketing very low. Building traffic and gathering eyeballs was all that mattered and it seemed that selling this portfolio of traffic was more the goal than creating a business model on fundamental business principles.

Web 2.0 is different. The online stores that are working operate like a traditional retailer in the sense that they have to provide product choice, quality, and good service as a minimum to succeed. The business models adopted are generally sound and the achilles heel for those single channel, pure online, retailers remains price. Price as in LOW price.

Hammer Nutrition is one pure online retailer that caught my eye. The company caters to a well defined passionate customer group, endurance athletes. But they are not allowed the privilege to compete in a vacuum as many of their supplement and fueling products (electrolyte drinks, energy bars, joint formulas) are sold by larger, heavily branded, and more widely marketed companies from GNC to Power Bar (owned by Nestle) and Clif Bar (distributed through major grocery chains, Costco, and specialty shops).

How does Hammer Nutrition compete? It stays true to the values of its founder, Brian Frank. Brian grew up in California in a progressively-minded household and caught the action sport bug early on, riding bikes, skateboards, swimming, and racing BMX and motocross bikes to the point where he won Montana State Motocross Championships in the late 90’s. Frustrated by the sparsity of quality, naturally formulated products to meet the needs of endurance athletes, he founded Hammer Nutrition during the 80’s.

His mantra from those days has survived the passage of time:  Deliver naturally formulated quality products and cement customers for life with product knowledge and trust.

A little guerrilla marketing was at the core of the Hammer strategy: provide “Race Bags” at events around the country as a cost effective way to meet the core audience for Hammer products at their moment of highest interest. If you’ve participated in any organized athletic event from a local 5K walk to an Ironman, one of the “bennies” received for your entry fee is the race day bag. The bag itself carries branding on the outside and is kind of like the athlete’s version of an Easter basket – lots of product samples and surprises inside. When I spoke with Brian a few months ago, he told me that the program now distributes over 750,000 bags across 2,200 events in North America. That’s some powerful grass roots marketing – Word of Mouth advertising at its best before the term was coined.

The impressive part of the marketing strategy at Hammer Nutrition is its constant flow of educational and product information materials, part of an overall communication stream designed to build engagement and increase customer retention. A first order will usually trigger sending of the “Little Red Book” (product descriptions and usage instructions) and a “Welcome to the Family” letter signed by Brian Frank or one of his guru partners Steve Born or Dr. William Misner.

Triggered by an array of qualifying metrics, new customers receive monthly product-focused brochures, quarterly Endurance News magazines with articles highlighting athletes of all types who have competed successfully using Hammer products, and reminder post cards with previous orders outlined to facilitate easy reorder. Invitation to join the Autoship program is packed with benefits and discounts and the Referral program has a dual benefit feature where both existing and new customer earn a discount.

An open call to any athlete to use Hammer products is made via the HammerBuck$ program which challenges customers to “Turn race day into Payday”. Over $36,000 in cash and credit was awarded to 36 winners during 2009. The program is simple, race in Hammer gear, place highly in your race, and win some cash or credits for future purchase. Talk about crowdsourcing, just think about motivating gobs of your best customers who fit your ideal profile to wear your logo on race day and give it their all to stand on the podium at the end of the day!

Granted that I may have lost some of you who hate to run, or for whom the idea of an open water swim, adventure race or ultra-marathon is greeted with a wry smile while muttering “they’re nuts!”

Look past the issue of endurance sports and you will see a sophisticated, if not home grown, communication stream that delivers on the company’s brand promise while driving business goals. There are lots of good lessons for any pure online retailer to take away from a visit to the Hammer Nutrition web site.

Now and then, it’s good to know you’re ahead of the game.

A few months ago, I had written about CVS ExtraCare and, along with an overview of their program, made note that I had measured one receipt in excess of 36″. If receipts were as much fun to catch as Tarpon and Bonefish, this one would have been a World Record.

Yesterday’s front page article in the Wall Street Journal, has brought the subject of the increasing size of retailer receipts front and center. Supporting this WSJ story is another take from MSNBC that you might want to read.

From my point of view, messaging on purchase receipts should be evaluated on the relevancy of the message. In CVS, there are a series of specific product offers as well as CVS ExtraCare Bucks offered to consumers. The “Bucks” are always welcome and drive bounce back to the store.

The accompanying product offers are relevant in theory, though as I noted previously, CVS has some distance to travel before it connects purchase behavior with offer. To date, I receive offers for products that I have not purchased previously and would never be on my list. In short, my hope is that CVS will do better with its data in the future.

In another example in the WSJ story, Home Depot was chided for devoting 4″ at the bottom of their receipts for survey invitation. The Home Depot spokesperson quoted said that 500,000 responses are received each month and that this medium drew much higher response rates than in-store customer comment cards used in the past.

If customers want their voices heard, I am not sure why they complain about being asked for their opinion. Yes, there is a paper-waste issue, but at least Home Depot cares enough to ask and is willing to put a $5,000 gift card on the line for participants each month.

There are two issues at work here: store operations and customer identification. I would encourage the operations people at all retailers to review the layout of their receipts and do their best to minimize the footprint. The customer identification issue is an old one that has plagued many retailers and can be addressed in large part by a customer loyalty program.

Whether you like points, miles or widgets, you should understand that by introducing any form of membership club with benefits allows the retailer to identify customers and lay the foundation for more personalized and relevant communications. If Home Depot knew who I was, they might not have to print their survey offer on my receipt, but could send me an invitation by email instead.

By using customer data in a positive and proactive manner, there is cost savings, environmental impact, and better customer experience at the register. In the longer run, there is the opportunity for delivery of relevant offers that will lead to higher share of wallet and incremental profitability.

Have you ever had a retail experience that starts with a bang and ends with a thud?

That’s what happened to me recently at Wachovia Bank, and I share it as it illustrates a core practice of Customer Satisfaction surveys that needs re-engineering.

I had occasion to open an account at Wachovia and the experience was the best I have had in retail banking for many years. It was influenced by two key factors:

• To my good fortune, the branch was in a small community and oriented to personal service
• The staff were all old school bankers who take time to know their customers and listen to their needs

The very next day, I received a call at home (yes, it was at dinner time) as a follow up to my visit to the branch. Impressed with the quick follow up, I agreed to participate in a live survey that was to take “3-5 minutes“. The questions were general and asked for rating on a 1-7 scale.  I made a mental note that many questions were repetitive and, like many Customer Satisfaction surveys, seemed to be crafted to elicit as many “7’s” as possible.

When we wrapped up, the operator asked me if I would be willing to participate in an additional “3-5 minute” survey that would hone in on branch specific questions. I agreed as I wanted to give props to the branch personnel. As the automated survey devolved into no more than a digital repetition of the first survey and did not provide me an opportunity to recognize the people who provided such good service in the branch, I disconnected.

Just like on Gilligan’s Island, when they started out for a “3 hour tour, a 3 hour tour”, I felt that I had been invited to spend 3-5 minutes and then duped into a 12-15 minute experience that was artificial and frustrating.

I really do not understand how corporate executives continue to be lulled into attaching importance to Customer Satisfaction surveys. Most surveys are prefaced by indicating that “only a 10 or 7 will indicate full satisfaction” and the questions are too generic to allow any real insight to be collected. When consumers are lulled to sleep with too many questions and too little discernible differences, responses become less and less meaningful. Face it, in that circumstance, consumers just want to wrap it up and could care less what number rating is offered up.

This is one more item of evidence that cements my conviction that Customer Satisfaction surveys are not reliable indicators of future customer loyalty or intent to repurchase. The survey I would like to conduct would be to gauge the level of skepticism associated with Consumer Satisfaction awards, the ones you often see as part of automobile advertisements. Given the customer experience I had with survey execution,  why should we really think that one of those trophies means that the car next to it is worth our hard earned money?

It is time to rethink, restructure, and rewrite how these surveys are executed if they are to continue to have relevance in the market.

Speedbumps are everywhere.

They’re in my neighborhood, at the mall and also on the internet.  If you’re in new environs, speedbumps can by definition be mileposts of learning. Ever fly down the street in an unfamiliar area only to discover speedbumps the hard way? It’s not pleasant for you or your passengers and can do damage to your vehicle depending on your velocity at impact.

Web 1.0 had its share of speedbumps, coming in the form of viruses, phishing schemes, and deals that seemed too good to be true from deposed Nigerian princes. Web 2.0 has a different set of annoyances and the more comfortable we get with building virtual networks and storing data in the cloud, the more vulnerable we will be to connectivity outages.

My modest goal in joining the social media landrush is twofold:

• Understand how to best incorporate the social media tool-set to communicate with customer loyalty program and frequent shopping club members
• Reach the Millennial generation in an effective way to build brand loyalty

If you are paying attention to the space, you will understand when I say that there are an inordinate number of social media “experts” and others who claim to be able to build brand awareness and increase customer engagement, all leading to greater customer loyalty for profit. If you’re not involved but observing from the sidelines, trust me on this one – they are ubiquitous to say the least.

In my book the “experts” you want to associate yourself with, and trust your future online loyalty marketing efforts to, are the ones who have been playing the game, taking some lumps, and learning by doing. I’ve been at it long enough to hit a few bumps and thought it was time to share a short list of cautions to consider as you build a corporate or personal social media marketing strategy:

• Concerning your blog, Facebook, and Twitter, add value with everything you post. The criticism that Twitter is a waste of time because all people do is update about their last meal shouldn’t bother you because you won’t be posting this sort of garbage (will you?).

• Remember that everything digital has a life similar to a cockroach, i.e. longer than most of us will live. Be ever so cautious about posting anything that you might regret later. My SM muse told me at the outset to write,read, proofread, and do it again, before pressing the update button. You’ll sleep better and won’t get fired when your legal department reads your Facebook page.

• Reveal personal information with the same care you take with your wallet. Would you let strangers look through your billfold while checking out at Walmart? Didn’t think so. Why then would you post highly personal information online in the interest of being more “human”? There are others ways to accomplish this goal.

• Speaking of being human, do attempt to create conversations, don’t just blast information at the ether and expect people to respond positively. If you equate SM with digital public relations, you are missing out on better tools for that purpose, and are inviting attrition from your fans, followers and customers.

• Balance openness and immediacy with common sense. You are fully within your rights to moderate comments on any blog you are responsible for, and the practice is highly sensible. You are not obligated to approve comments that have only tangential relationship to the topic or are little more than personal rants.

This list is equally applicable if you are building a personal brand, establishing yourself as a subject matter expert for your firm, or are the corporate officer responsible for setting social media policy across your associate base.

Some brands have adopted the viewpoint that they will hold-fire on their social media marketing strategy until they have it all figured out. Surely this approach will mean that they will have less scars than yours truly, but I’ll also be willing to be that they will be so late to the game that they will wish they had started earlier.

Be cautious, use common sense, and learn from others. If you do this, you’ll achieve your objectives with social media and also be able to recognize a true expert when you see one.

On April 1, Borders Group CEO Ron Marshall and CFO Mark Bierley held their 4th quarter earnings call for the investment community. I give them credit as they displayed courage, confidence, or both in having the call on April Fools day! Transcript of the call can be found by visiting the Seeking Alpha web site.

Acknowledging a weak fourth quarter where Borders Superstores saw same-store sales decline by 11.7%, the executives mapped out details of their 4 key priorities for the business. The second item on the list was “Reengaging with our customers ….. reclaiming our status as the book seller for serious readers ….. and further leveraging our Borders Rewards Loyalty program”.

On giving customer centric marketing a priority, Mr. Marshall explained “For the last couple of years our outreach has primarily been directed at our best customers. The nearly 32 million members of our Borders Rewards loyalty program increasingly we have relied on discount offers to entice them to shop and over time these offers have lost effectiveness. We are focused now on improving gross margins through being smarter and controlling promotional offers and in-store discounts.”

Realizing that the value of short term promotions and discounting was eroding, Borders experimented last year.  Mr Marshall continued “we did a test late last year removing many of the ongoing in-store discounts in a control group of stores. Customers didn’t miss these discounts and we saw an appreciable up-tick in margin. Now we’ve rolled this out to all stores and are pleased with the results.”

The Borders Rewards program is interesting in structure and starkly different than Barnes & Noble Membership, a retention strategy put forth by the competing chain.

Borders Rewards members join at no charge and earn 5 Borders Bucks for every $150 spent in store. That averages to a 3.3% return for members. During 2008, the company has been inviting members who register online to take advantage of Borders Rewards Perks, an online mall program extension.

Barnes & Noble Membership requires a $25 annual membership fee and in return offers savings of 40% on hardcover bestsellers, 20% on adult hardcovers, and 10% on “everything else”. Depending on the mix of items purchased, B&N Membership would appear to return at a higher rate, though the annual fee is an enrollment hurdle for many customers.

In the Q&A segment of the call, Mark Bierley explained that the Rewards program would continue to play an important role in the marketing mix “It really is all about the next significant investment that we’ve made in terms of promotional discounting which is our Rewards program.” He continued “We have 18 segments and we want to get to being able to communicate more on the content side, talk about authors that they may like as well as other value or content messages versus just a discount. I would say that that is probably the single largest next opportunity that we’re focused on.”

This commentary serves to illustrate two lessons of Loyalty Truth:

1. Untargeted product based discounting is an ineffective marketing strategy that yields poor results. Borders has evolved to this understanding as Ron Marshall said “promotional spending and discounting is important but you need to do it with a plan.”
2. Companies that understand the importance of their loyalty program data and actually leverage it to match customer preferences with product offers are on a path to success.

In the very near future, Hanifin Loyalty LLC will publish the results of a year long study of how industry leaders use email to communicate with their Loyalty Program members. I’ll preview some results with you as they pertain to Borders. As the principal, if not the only, communication channel for Borders Rewards members, the company is a prolific emailer, averaging approximately 14 per member per month.

Of the total, roughly 75% were blasting discounts (40% off coupons) and promotional offers (special one day sales, author highlights) while 22% were promoting Borders Rewards Perks.

Over 67% of all mail was sent in mid-week (Tues, Wed, Thurs) and over 73% were sent while we slept (between hours of 11pm – 8am).  Across the board, Borders initiated about 1 survey per quarter.

The weighting of emails towards discounts has to be seen as lost opportunity for Borders as these untargeted mails are essentially a digitized version of newspaper coupons that have lost favor over the years. One can only imagine that if Borders changed the make-up of its surveys and constructed offers with tangible links to survey responses, that the membership would be energized.

The company might also want to sharpen the language in its Borders Reward Perks promos, adding context to their message that members have enjoyed benefits from “592 merchants and savings of $212.32 per active member per quarter”. The problem with mythical savings numbers is that consumers don’t understand their origin. Are they based on MSRP which noone pays and the difference is counted as “savings”? Or is the number similar to the “savings” figure on grocery receipts?

This bird’s eye view into plans for “reengaging customers” spotlights how smart marketers work. Messrs. Marshall and Bierley didn’t blame lack of results on Borders Rewards and kill the program. Instead, they are planning key improvements to the program that should yield tangible and measurable results. Combined with a renewed emphasis to have booksellers improve customer service standards, I can’t wait to read the next chapter they are writing in the story of Borders Rewards!

In my opinion, The Loyalty Effect remains the definitive book written on Loyalty Marketing. Authored by Frederick Reichheld of Bain & Company in 1996, it was required reading for the team at Frequency Marketing as we completed our Loyalty Marketing “basic training”.

Reichheld postulated that in order for a business to create loyalty related shareholder value, it must tackle initiatives in three areas: customer loyalty, employee loyalty, and investor loyalty. Translated to consulting-speak, his mandate directed companies to embrace loyalty on an enterprise level.

By permeating the organization with a loyalty based culture, interactions with employees, suppliers, and  investors could be optimized. Results would be manifested in Improved employee retention, more favorable supplier relationships, and financial gain for investors. From the customer perspective, the loyalty driven enterprise would represent a value proposition that would hold attention and become the tie-breaker in commoditized industries. In short, the loyalty based business should be more profitable.

As the US recession marches on, I can’t help but notice the stark contrast between the key points of advice in Reichheld’s book and the manner in which companies have governed themselves over recent years. Events of the past 6 months provide good examples of how corporate America is flunking the enterprise loyalty test:

1. Numerous brokerage houses and banks fall prey to the real estate bubble and subprime lending practices to find themselves being recapitalized through mergers, acquisitions, and government bail-out. In nearly every case, executives prospered and select bondholders were protected while suppliers and holders of common stock were wiped out.
2. John Thain is forced out as Merrill Lynch CEO following perceived mismanagement of communications surrounding a $15.31 billion 2008 Q4 loss. Prior to his leaving, Mr. Thain had accelerated executive bonus payouts at the firm and had lobbied for his own enormous bonus until the embarrassing greed was exposed in the press. Shares of Merrill Lynch steadily declined to a near vanishing point during Mr. Thain’s 15 month reign as CEO.
3. Card issuers including Citigroup, American Express, and others have diluted the value of their card reward program benefits over recent weeks, citing the need to reduce expenses in the current economic downturn. In a Jan. 13 article, the Wall Street Journal documented how changes to program rules, additional fees, and adjusted reward values combine to impact the value proposition.

It is said that adversity reveals the true character of a man. It is not a stretch to apply this logic to corporations.  Investing in consumer loyalty programs when times are good and cash is flowing is viewed as smart strategy. When tough times cause these programs to unwind or be diluted, the intent and sincerity of the entire effort is put in question.

Companies invested in customer loyalty should stay the course in the down economic cycle if they hope to emerge on the other end with brand equity in tact. Those that use the down cycle as an excuse to cut costs and retreat from a customer-centric orientation are inviting consumer skepticism and damaging confidence in their business.

Sometime soon, the economic doldrums will be a memory and consumers will spend again. At that time, the companies aligning themselves with Reichheld’s business model will see their shareholder equity outpacing the competition.

My earlier post, “Finding a cure to digital myopia” offered the thought that while people are consumed with keeping the pace with the introduction of new applications synonymous with Web 2.0, we stand in danger of missing the bigger picture.

The offline version of the same story started in the late 70’s when during the first gas crisis in the US, consumers learned how to pump their own fuel. In the name of cost and time savings, consumers embarked on an era of self-service that continues today.

Low cost delivery of customer support services was first made possible by automated voice response systems (IVR) and got better with web based applications. In the midst of all this “progress”, consumers nearly lost the ability to speak to a human being if that was their preference. That alone has to hurt Customer Loyalty. Try finding the “cancel account” contact information on web based services like Vonage for instance and you’ll see what I mean. Like it or not, you’re forced to go on a digital treasure hunt that does not pay off consistently.

Over the past few years, we’ve also learned to swipe a credit card, enter a pin, and check out our own groceries, office supplies and home improvement goodies. It seems that every step of progress we take to save time and move more quickly through a line comes with a learning curve.

George Carlin captured out plight in one of his NEW RULES FOR 2008 “I’m not the cashier!  By the time I look up from sliding my card, entering My PIN number, pressing  ‘Enter,’ verifying the amount, deciding, no, I don’t want Cash back, and pressing ‘Enter’ again, the kid who is supposed to be ringing me up is standing there eating my Almond Joy.”  I would only add, “Why do I have to pay full price when I am doing part of your work?”

Flying on JetBlue recently, the announcement was made that the airline had gone to a “cashless cabin” meaning that only plastic could be used to pay for drinks and sandwiches. We were also encouraged to participate in cleaning up cabin trash as a means to “keep air fares as low as possible.” Interesting how the airline has reduced consumer choice and shifted responsibility while spinning it like a step towards air travel nirvana.

How far our new self service society will progress is up for debate. I have been used to helping myself around most big box stores for a while as store associates are not only scarce but lightly trained. I can tell you that I don’t want to make my own sub at Quiznos or have to start checking stock on shoes at Sports Authority.

Owners of businesses that are high touch and offer personalized service should be encouraged. The more retailers shift their daily chores to customers, the greater the backlash by those hungering to be treated with some TLC.

The 64 dollar question is what motivates this trend in the first place. Retailers are pressed by operating costs and plagued by high employee turnover. Shifting tasks essential to the shopping experience to the customer helps with both issues, but does it serve consumer needs? A by-product of the new paradigm will be less need for trained associates while the ones that remain are, by definition, less valued by the retailer. Bottom line: the longer this trend continues, the more frustrating the shopping experience will become.

Businesses that craft their in-store experience based on what consumers want will increasingly stand out from the crowd. Personal service is always in style and knowledgeable staff makes the shopping visit something to remember.

Consumers should step back from their silent acceptance of this self-service avalanche and ask themselves if they like the purchase experience better today or 5 years ago. Businesses should have a finely tuned ear poised to capture the responses and make changes in their front lines to recognize what consumers really want. The good listeners will benefit from higher store traffic, more sales, and highly satisfied customers. >>>> Bill Hanifin

Ever since man has been on earth, we’ve been running. In the beginning, our motivation was the need for food, shelter, and survival. By the mid-twentieth century, pursuit of fitness through sweaty activities had become the domain of oddballs. Given the outlaw nature of adult fitness only 50 years ago, the origins of the 70’s running boom are remarkable.

Bill Bowerman, the one-of-a-kind University of Oregon Track & Field Coach, is most well known as the guy who shaped Steve Prefontaine’s front-running style into record breaking performances, and for having a hand in the founding of Nike. Few know that his chance trip to New Zealand in 1962 would lead to the jogging craze that swept America in the early 70’s.

Ask most people about running and they have an opinion – usually resolute and often diametrically opposed. The phenomena is so pervasive that New Balance has adopted it as the theme of its “Love and Hate” advertising campaign. Since I’ve logged about 35 years of pavement pounding, I can attest to man’s Cybill-like relationship with the sport. Some days the endorphins kick in and feet seem to float across the pavement. Other days, it just plain hurts.

In my experience, the most reliable anesthesia to dull running agony is to think. Allowing my mind to wander may have contributed to slower race times, but that’s another story. Through it all I’ve found that a good long run will clear the mind, spawn new ideas, and root out the solution for the problem of the day.

Soldiering through a 10K run the other day, I pondered the many ways in which independent retailers strive to breed loyalty and combat big box merchants. Punch cards and cash back discounts are the most common tactics used today. Listening to one merchant talk about his program recently, I realized that it was purely tactical, without strategic foundation, and absent specific objectives except for the hope that “more sales” would result.

As the ten kilometers that add up to the 6.2 mile run passed by, I assembled a list of ten questions that every retailer should ask when seeking to improve repeat purchase behavior and increase customer loyalty. The answers can be blended with a bit of “secret sauce” in order to give their Customer Strategy new meaning.

The 10 K’s of Retail Loyalty:

1. Who do you really think is your competition?
2. What does your Brand stand for?
3. How are you identifying customers today?
4. What are you doing with any data collected?
5. What are the objectives of your marketing efforts?
6. Are your offers coordinated to meet these objectives?
7. How are you communicating with customers?
8. How do you measure results?
9. Are employees trained to understand and promote the program?
10. What are you going to do next?

Marketing resources are scarce and, in a tough economy, every penny counts. Working through these ten questions will lead to a simple, yet effective strategy that any independent retailer can employ to improve their business.

It’s no sweat!

Bill Hanifin

As customer centric strategies are given more attention by global brands, efforts to place a value on the customers themselves will evolve. There is recurring talk of building a customer equity model that could be factored into evaluation of a public company’s stock price. After all, customer value is the baseline from which incremental value can be measured and the success of the customer strategy evaluated.

Flying Southwest Airlines recently, I learned a lot about my perceived value to the airline.

Arriving in Tampa on time despite blanketing fog, I realized that I could catch an earlier connecting flight and, in doing so, cut my waiting time in half and possibly avoid a weather delay. I approached the check-in counter and inquired if I could get a seat. “Not if you’re on a restricted fare” was the bland response from the gate agent. Barely containing my sarcasm, I commented that my $500+ round trip fare was not likely to be restricted in any way. “Oh no sir, the agent replied, you have a full fare on the return but not on the way out. If you want to get on board, it will cost $258.”

Not giving up, I tried another approach. I suggested that the airline would not lose anything by putting me in a seat that would otherwise depart empty. The gate agent’s response cut me to the quick.

“We make more money on freight and mail…we’d send the plane out empty if we had to.”

So, there you have it – while Southwest may go through sophisticated mathematical calculations to determine customer value, I was instantly made aware of my perceived value to Southwest – somewhere south of a piece of mail or pallet of fillet knives.

Customer Loyalty is the derived result of blending multiple factors. Quality, convenience, service and price are 4 commonly cited ingredients. Enduring Southwest’s open boarding process, paying a fare equivalent to a legacy carrier, and then harshly learning my value to the airline left me wondering just how good Rapid Rewards would have to be to influence my choice of air carrier in the future.

Remember that even a well constructed loyalty program cannot always outweigh negative aspects of 4 factors mentioned. Based on this customer experience, I am inclined to view any rewards received from this program as closer to combat pay than an aspirational reward.