Last year, a friend of mine and fellow consultant lost her everything in a fire. Her insurance company required her to itemize and price everything that needed replacing.
What she discovered was that there is a huge discrepancy among retailers' ability and willingness to help with past purchase records. While nearly all of them have some membership program, some really didn't seem to know my friend at all. Others were amazing.
The leaders: Best Buy, Amazon, World Markets. Honorable Mention for Staples.
At the top of the list are the retailers with membership programs who can produce a list rather quickly – Best Buy, Amazon (really nice for both past purchases & current purchases), possibly World Markets (has not delivered, but seems to be working on it) · Staples has a membership program, but still had difficulty creating a list. However, they get an honorable mention for the exceptional customer service
Ann Taylor recently started a membership program, so my friend didn't have a formal history with them, although she had been a loyal customer for many years. She wished she had though because it was hard to recreate her history.
The laggards: CVS/Savon, Costco, Target, Brookstone, Crate & Barrel, Bed Bath & Beyond and most furniture and department stores.
My friend was disappointed and surprised by chains with membership programs who failed to produce a list (or even transactions) without specific information about the transaction, including CVS/ Savon, Costco ·
What is especially surprising is that several major retailers still don't have membership program – Target, Brookstone, furniture stores, department stores, Crate & Barrel, and Bed, Bath & Beyond – This was perplexing, given that most of these chains have affinity credit cards. The card statements, unfortunately, proved useless to my friend because they don’t say exactly what was purchased on an item by item basis.
Implication
The technology is here and consumer demand is here. We are living in an economy where membership is key–it enables companies to provide superior service and to market more effectively to their customers. Companies who don't build ongoing relationships with their customers are letting down their customers, and risk being left behind.
And word to the wise…videotape all of your belongings, keep all receipts someplace safe (not in your home) and try to do most of your shopping at places with strong membership programs.
