Tag: Loyalty

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Rewards program in the neighborhood?

Santana Row Online Concierge Service and Rewards Program.

When we first moved to the bay area from Colorado five years ago, we lived at Santana Row for a few years. We definitely took advantage of the experience and utilized the convenience of dining and shopping at Santana Row for those few years. My husband and I had discussed on many an occasion that SR needed a loyalty program for dining and shopping at Santana Row…and now, 3 years later, Santana Row’s Rewards Program has been implemented. Following is a summary of my online chat with the concierge service.

You are now chatting with ‘Concierge1’

Concierge1: Good Afternoon, welcome to the Santana Row Rewards site, is there something I can help you with today?‬

you: Hello, I just signed up for the rewards program online. If I bring my receipts in for today, when I pick up my card, they will be credited to my card that I signed up for correct? Thank you, Tiffany

Concierge1: Yes, absolutely, so you will want to bring in all your original receipts and we will be able to add those points towards your account. Our office is open Mon-Sat from 10am-9pm and Sunday from 11am-7pm.‬

Concierge1: We are always more than happy to help with any with questions or concerns that you may have with Santana Row, and are very excited to be able to have this program up and running for our loyal members! ‬

you: yes, we used to live at SR above SINO for 2 years and it was so much fun…now we live in a house but we still come to SR all the time…we had talked about SR needing a loyalty rewards program when we lived there…and FINALLY you guys got it. Too bad you didn’t have when we lived there, we spent a fortune on food and retail living there for 2 years! 🙂

you: Thanks for your help

you: I appreciate your quick response and helpfulness.

you: Sincerely, Tiffany Tuell

Concierge1: Oh wow! Too bad it wasn’t up then, it definitely would have been very beneficial! Well we hope that you will continue to come out and support our events, it’s because of you we get to continue to have such things here at Santana! ‬

Concierge1: Your very welcome! We hope to see you soon! ‬

Concierge1: My name is Katelyn, and if you ever have any questions or looking for some event information you can always contact myself or any of the concierge members and we would be glad to help! ‬

you: Katelyn, you are awesome, thanks and have a great day. Thank you very much. I will definitely work directly with you.

you: yes of course we will always be fans of SR and support events and will be patrons. You made my experience today for sure! Otherwise, this is just another program. Having a person to connect with made my experience great

Concierge1: Well I look forward to meeting you all in the near future, Hope that you enjoy the rest of this beautiful afternoon as well! Yes that is awesome, and I appreciate it very much that means a lot to me, I do love me job very much, and I enjoy helping customers like yourself! ‬

 

Katelyn, is a wonderful spokesperson and representative for Santana Row, for the new Santana Row Reward program and for the SR Concierge Service. She was personable, helpful, humble, a good listener, upbeat and gave relevant and helpful information about access for me to get credit for my receipts (points) and encouraged engagement with SR into the future for repeat business. Her tone and communication style exude customer focus. I will work directly with her for any future SR engagement because she engaged me into a conversation and invited me to keep connected.   The SR rewards program in and of itself has a lot of opportunity to grow (not all establishments are participating in offering a reward, some are ‘light’ rewards (discount etc.) and there are much more creative rewards to be had…) That said, as a spokesperson for the new program, Katelyn is a star and she made my day!

 

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2,000,000 actual flight miles later, & he appreciates upgrades

I have a colleague in our industry who flies an insane amount for his consulting business.  Besides making your head spin tracking his updates on Foursquare, he also shares some wise observations on customer service in the transportation http://www.public-domain-image.com (public domain image)industry.  The fact is, some airlines can and do still surprise and delight someone who has well over 2M actual flight miles. In this case it was Delta. Probably the folks at SkyMiles and Affinion Loyalty Group have ongoing debates about the merits of changes to the program to balance Delta customer loyalty benefits versus flight load and profits. Given all the stresses on airline profitability, lately the balance seems to have tipped in the direction of the carrier and their immediate profits. Still, it’s clear Delta check in agents are empowered to make customers surprised and delighted with unexpected upgrades.  Kudos to Delta for the staff empowerment and the training to back it up.

On the other hand, I have to say I’m surprised and disappointed that Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts www.fourseasons.com don’t have a club membership.  Their properties are beautiful and their service is at extremely high level. But it feels like each resort is an island unto itself and there is no reward for being a valued customer of the chain. I have been very fortunate to stay at their properties (primarily for business) in: Jackson Hole, Maui, Bali/Sayan, Toronto, Punta Mita, Budapest, Santa Barbara, Miami, NYC, Chicago, Scottsdale, Washington DC, Atlanta and Whistler. It’s never acknowledged that you have been a customer at another location and really there are no benefits except for emails from the places you stayed with offers for subsequent stays. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have a well crafted program that entices you to new places (Maldives, Africa, Marrakech)?  Once I asked a hotel director and they responded “our clientele is not really about collecting points and discount vouchers” which I can understand.  But I didn’t ask for a “points” club, I asked about tracking and communicating with frequent customers in a different way. Possibly inviting these customers to exclusive previews of new properties, etc.  I think it’s a missed opportunity for Four Seasons.

What do you think?P1000862