In the club… for a price
December 1st, 2006
This weekend, a friend of mine received a notice from Macy’s about his credit account: In order to maintain his membership level, he has to spend $370 by Dec. 30th.
Okay, Macy’s… this one’s for you:
Ultimatums and spending requirements are a lousy way to foster loyalty. Positive reinforcement or a little “we miss you” goes a lot further than “you’d better, or else.” Do the occasional 20% off coupons warrant a mad dash to December 30th? Will they really leave a big enough hole to inspire a spending spree at the drop of a pre-paid envelope? Or maybe, rather than demanding, you could coax loyalty… cultivate loyalty…. Talk with me. Work with me. Make me feel appreciated.
I don’t really think I have to say much more about that.
Here endeth the lesson.
Gezuar (that’s ‘Cheers’ in Albanian)
Other posts by Jennifer.
JR says:
While I generally agree with your premise, I think that sometimes it is OK for brands to create special clubs for “special” customers. I mean, so what if you gotta do X to receive Y? That seems honest to me.
The point is, if everyone is special no one is special.
The language could’ve been better, but I think the message is legit.
December 1st, 2006 at 12:26 pmStephen Denny says:
I never thought I’d say this, but the airline industry does this a lot better than many — you don’t fly enough in 12 months to keep that “Platinum” level exclusivity? Well, that just means you start to trail off their top service levels and get to board with the rest of us in cattle class.
You can do this well and you can do this poorly. Macy’s has illustrated the latter.
December 2nd, 2006 at 10:23 amVince says:
Well, what is he getting out of the deal by maintaining that membership level?
December 2nd, 2006 at 10:38 amKare Anderson says:
Compounding these bad feelings in us customers, Macy’s often sends out duplicate promotions ( I got three this month) plus, while they give commissiosn to staff to get people to sign up for ther credit card, they make it difficult to cancel the card.
December 2nd, 2006 at 2:16 pm- another fan of Brains on Fire
Kare, SavvyHer.com
Michelle says:
Yea, sounds like Macy’s is getting the good end of the deal on that one. If it had come over the internet I’d be suspicious, I don’t know how many emails have come from Amazon, Pay Pal, or Ebay saying if I didn’t “update” my account info they’d close my account. It’s a scam of course, I don’t even have that email listed with those companies. How stupid do they think I am?
December 3rd, 2006 at 2:35 pmgianandrea facchini says:
definitely a poor execution of a legitimate message.
December 4th, 2006 at 1:19 amthey should have push him to spend the money taking him by hand with special offer starting few weeks ago.
Mr. Steve says:
Ya know, I think I’m with Jennifer on this one. Sure, it’s fine to have membership levels on credit cards and everything, but unless he signed on to spend $370 for holiday shopping, they shouldn’t be giving him an ultimatum. Now, if this were January 1, and he had only spend $150, then I could see Macy’s sending a “Is everything all right; did you get fired; did our local store dissatisfy you; don’t you have any friends?” letter. And THEN, you could inform him that he needs to spend more to keep the perks of his membership level. But this sounds a little too arbitrary and kinda like bullying. We are all big fans of treating your regulars a little better, but not the way Vegas does. I mean, this letter really implies that if he doesn’t do this, then all the years of shopping at Macy’s is forgotten, and this customer is only as important as his last purchase.
That’s a REALLY bad message to send. Boo Macy’s. Get it right next time.
December 4th, 2006 at 6:33 amJennifer says:
I agree, JR… and many of you. Obviously, many great brand relationships are built on special benefits. The question then becomes how best to encourage people to continue to participate once they’ve achieved special status. And I think we can all agree… ultimatums ain’t the way. Many a great message has been lost in poor wording. I guess it’s a reminder to think before you speak to your customers. What you mean and what you say… they’d better match!
December 4th, 2006 at 1:07 pmVeeDub says:
I just got one from Banana Republic telling me that in the new year I’ll lose all of the points I accumulated towards being a “luxe” member so I’d better hurry. I haven’t spend a dime with them in 6 months, so you’d think they might be more focused on making themselves relevant!
December 6th, 2006 at 5:23 pm