02 Nov

Realize How To Reap Rewards

Posted in News, Synergy Suggestions on 02.11.11 by John Meloche

In yesterday’s blog, we addressed the topic of loyalty rewards programs and how important taking advantage of them during the holiday shopping season can be. On Moneyville.ca this past weekend, Patrick Sojka – CEO of The Frequent Flyer Bonuses Group – discussed how many rewards programs aren’t ideally used by customers, so they miss out many freebies.

Loyalty programs, however, are extremely popular throughout Canada, with the majority of shoppers earning points through an average of four different programs. With the holiday shopping season practically underway, this is the most important time of year for shoppers to be taking advantage of their rewards points.

Sojka offers up a number of suggestions that will help you to do so. “Cash in your points,” he says, practically stating the obvious. “The industry term for unclaimed points or miles is called breakage,” he writes, “All loyalty programs count on some portion going unused. The value worldwide of miles and points expiring each year is in the millions of dollars.”

Millions of dollars! We’d all love to get a million dollars worth of free stuff! So why aren’t we taking advantage of our rewards points? Sojka reveals that about 25 per cent of points from retail programs go unclaimed. For frequent flyer programs, it’s closer to 10 per cent. Of course, this favours the company who doesn’t have to spend money by having its customers redeem the points they’ve earned.

Be sure to check into your programs’ policies to see if there are expiration dates. After reading yesterday’s blog, one of our Synergy reps decided to call Air Miles to check up on his point total. A member of the program since 2003, our co-worker had not yet redeemed any points and wanted to make sure they still existed.

“Thankfully they haven’t gone anywhere,” he informed us, “My point total is what I expected it to be. Honestly, if they were gone, I’d be really upset.” According to Sojka, Air Miles points don’t expire unless your card is inactive for two years. Not all rewards plans are created equal, however. For Aeroplan, points disappear after one year of inactivity.

Finally, avoid seductive checkout pitches, says Sojka. Unless you are a frequent shopper at a particular store, don’t get caught up in signing up for a loyalty program that you aren’t likely to take advantage of. Educate yourself on the programs that you are involved in and learn how to make the most of your rewards. Happy shopping!

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01 Nov

Learn Not To Lose Out On Loyalty Programs

Posted in News, Synergy Suggestions on 01.11.11 by John Meloche

It’s the day after Halloween. And you know what that means! The holiday season is basically upon us. Practically overnight, store fronts are trading their black and orange decorations for red and green ones. It’s almost as if Halloween and Christmas are just a day apart! Of course, Christmas is just under two months away, but the time to cash in on the season is here.

As always, it’s important for business owners to take advantage of the holidays by offering their customers new and exciting reasons to enter their stores. Naturally, decorating the store so that it is both festive and welcoming is one way to drive in more traffic. But offering customers significant discounts and special sales is always a surefire way to raise their levels of interest in your company.

Many companies offer loyalty programs to keep their customers coming back. Allowing customers to collect points that may be put towards future purchases is a great way to encourage sales. These programs help customers to feel as if they are getting something for free – a reward for shopping at your place of business.

It is important for customers to know how to properly take advantage of these programs, however. This past weekend, The Frequent Flyer Bonuses Group CEO, Patrick Sojka published an article on Moneyville.ca that commented upon the common use – or misuse – of loyalty programs in Canada. Consumers, we writes, often lose track of the rewards available to them and miss out on many freebies.

With the holiday shopping season about to kick off, we’d like to remind our loyal readers that perhaps, now is the time to take advantage of your loyalty programs. Sojka writes that “more than 90 per cent of adults belong to at least one loyalty program and the average person has at least four cards in his or her wallet.”

To avoid missing out on freebies, however, Sojka offers up a few tips. Beware of double bonus offers, he writes. Sometimes, companies offer double points on particular items. However, often with these deals, the price being paid to earn the extra points is higher than it would normally be, “so there isn’t much of a deal”.

Sojka recommends that you shop around and seek out the best deal before committing to any purchase. This is especially true if you plan on traveling for the holidays. He notes that many travel rewards plans offer only a small discrepancy in point differential between economy and first class tickets.

“The best value for people who collect miles for air travel is redeeming for a ticket in business or first class,” writes Sojak, “The reason is that redeeming business or first class typically costs 1.5 times the points of economy, versus up to 10 times the difference if you pay cash.” We will explore this topic a bit further in tomorrow’s blog.

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