Strategy is easy...execution is the tough part
I upgraded my AT&T Unverse account last month and received through the mail a notice that said I was eligible for a reward. Following the instruction on the letter I went to the rewards website and entered my account number only to find the endless spinning globe that said “checking information, please wait....” After doing this three times in two days I called the toll free number on the letter and wound up in an endless loop of a phone tree without any way to talk to a live person. I came this close to calling a competitor and asking them to replace my Internet connection. I finally and accidentally found a link that said I had a $20 gift check coming and had to click to redeem.
Next up Infiniti...Through a promotion they were
offering I received a $50 Visa gift card in the
mail. Now I don’t know about you but to me $50 is
still a lot of money and would easily treat my wife
and I to a nice dinner at our local brew pub. I
chose to validate the card online and in addition
to the card number and security code was asked for
a validation code. There was nothing in the letter
or website to suggest the location of the
validation code so I of course tried the phone.
Again the automated system asked me for the
validation code and again it was impossible to get
a real live person. In fact the system asked that I
contact the “issuer of the card” to resolve any
issues. I finally was able to validate the card but
it took awhile to determine exactly what the hell I
needed to do to get my $50.
Key
Lessons:
1. Don’t make it hard for your customers to get any
promotional reward. It’s liable to lead to customer
frustration and cause them to get angry at your
brand.
2. Test and validate all your programs to ensure
the experience is a pleasant one and do it as a
customer not an employee.
3. Simple is always better: Why not, for example,
allow me to take my $20 AT&T reward and apply
it towards my next bill?
4. Always look at the flow of contact with the
brand and ensure that customers can interact with
someone at the push of a button i.e. to talk to a
customer service representative anytime please hit
0.