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I guess I and Phil did not address Al's complaint that, as a certain dollar level customer based on past spending, he should get preferential pricing.
One such model would be sort of like the airlines and hotel industry, where you don't get a discount for repeat but instead get points towards free stuff. This is better than a discount because it (credits towards merchandise) makes you buy even mroe stuff rather than reduce their bottom line.
OTOH, another model says that as a repeat customer, you must like what they're selling and or the service and or the prices so maybe they should charge you more... obviuosly that won't fly so they compromise and still charge you the same.
I personally take the simple approach and suspect that these businesses that don't take the effort to track loyalty points using frequent flyer cards ( I also seem to have loyalty cards with Office depot, Ace hardware, office max, Krogers, etc) don't do so because it takes mroe effort that they are willing to invest for return, or they simply lazy (have the info and can't mine it). It does take some effort to identify on-line purchases by the same user and group them and is mistake prone (on-line purchase by the same user can have more than one shipping address, more than one credit card, etc) unless they do the loyalty account deal where they give you a specific ID to use.
And to go back to the idea that if you shop there frequently already, perhaps you don't need more incentive. Its already convenient, cheap, satisfying or easy, why do they need more effort( Rhetorical question)?
One such model would be sort of like the airlines and hotel industry, where you don't get a discount for repeat but instead get points towards free stuff. This is better than a discount because it (credits towards merchandise) makes you buy even mroe stuff rather than reduce their bottom line.
OTOH, another model says that as a repeat customer, you must like what they're selling and or the service and or the prices so maybe they should charge you more... obviuosly that won't fly so they compromise and still charge you the same.
I personally take the simple approach and suspect that these businesses that don't take the effort to track loyalty points using frequent flyer cards ( I also seem to have loyalty cards with Office depot, Ace hardware, office max, Krogers, etc) don't do so because it takes mroe effort that they are willing to invest for return, or they simply lazy (have the info and can't mine it). It does take some effort to identify on-line purchases by the same user and group them and is mistake prone (on-line purchase by the same user can have more than one shipping address, more than one credit card, etc) unless they do the loyalty account deal where they give you a specific ID to use.
And to go back to the idea that if you shop there frequently already, perhaps you don't need more incentive. Its already convenient, cheap, satisfying or easy, why do they need more effort( Rhetorical question)?
Loring in Katy, TX USA
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