Postcards from Perkistan

It’s estimated that there are over 8,500 restaurants and cafes offering a loyalty card in Australia^[1]. With an average of 2,500 customers using each of those cards that turns in to some 21 million memberships. This presents a problem to both consumer and environment - too much cardboard!

Coffee-style punch cards are being replaced, slowly but surely, by mobile apps. Seemingly there is a new app each week allowing your free coffee redemption by QR code. A good move I say, but what do you think:

Do you use a coffee loyalty app instead of the paper card? Let me know in the comments below!

If this is the first you’ve heard about it, check out some of these apps:

eCoffeeCard
Piazza d’Oro
Perx
Wealie

Of course, if you’re looking to tie your whole loyalty and rewards experience together, you can always rely on the Perkler app

Cheers,
Graham

[1]: Smart Phones Set to Punch Out Cafe Coupon Cards

The Lucky Charm
For those of you who were unlucky enough to be tied to your computers throughout the Christmas break you would already know that you were lucky enough to receive one of our first great offers from our new client, The Lucky Charm Newsagents. Missed it? Not to worry, there will be many great offers from The Lucky Charm throughout the year to look forward to. Register to receive Perkler newsletters

Perkler for Android
Dreaming of electric sheep that shop for you? We do. That’s why we’re counting down the days until you can have the Perkler app on your fandangled devices. Perkler for Android - Coming to the Android Market late February 2012.

Consumer Loyalty Product Search
We had a vision. One that allowed you to search for a product and, automagically, you’ll know. You’re entitled to a discount. How? Lasoo.com.au Why? Because you love to get it for less!
Late in 2011 Perkler partnered with Australia’s premier online pre-shop website allowing consumers to find loyalty perks that are available on specific products. Deeper integration will come throughout the year, and we’re open to your thoughts. Got an idea about how you’d like to use our partnership? Get in touch.

Happy New Year!

Cheers,
Graham

Perklers love our new mobile app and you should too. Over two thirds of all visits to the app are users coming back for more more more perks. Don’t have it? Stop reading and GET IT NOW

Some numbers for the retail readers:

The average Perkler mobile user views more than 18 pages each visit to the app, resulting in more than 5 perk views per user. Maybe that’s not all you want to know though. Perhaps you’re wondering whether it’s ok to simply have a loyalty program? Over 53% of people who have been offered to exclude viewing programs that don’t currently have a perk on offer have chosen to do so. Perks. Consumers want ‘em. When do they want ‘em? Now!

Perkler is the perfect platform for keeping active in your loyalty program. Users search for you at home and then take you shopping. Put your perks on the Perkler platform and into people’s pockets in minutes. Get in touch to find out how.

Android Coming Early 2012

Cheers,
Graham

What’s the go?

Velocity families can now funnel all their points and status credits in to a single Velocity Frequent Flyer account with the introduction of family pooling. Velocity have allowed up to 6 family members to participate in the pool, up to two adults aged 18 years or over and up to four children aged under 18.

Pooling builds on the already offered transfer of points by adding the ability to share status credits. Members can choose to share just points, or both points and status credits. There is not currently an option to share status credits only.

Manual Points Transfer

Velocity allows the transfer of points up to four times per year to a valid family member’s Velocity Frequent Flyer account. This comes with the limitation of at least 5,000 points and a maximum of 100,000 points being transferred each time. If you want to complete the transfer online then there is no fee associated, but a $20 fee will apply if using the contact centre.

How About Qantas?

Qantas does not currently provide an automatic transfer service. They do, however, offer the ability to transfer your points to an eligible family member. The same general limitations apply with a minimum of 5,000 points and a maximum of 100,000 points being transferred at a time. However, points can only be transferred to an eligible family member once every 12 months. Once again it is free to transfer the points online, but if you’re looking to get some help by phone it’ll cost $35 for the transfer.

Velocity has definitely been on the rise lately, do you think Velocity Frequent Flyer has surpassed Qantas Frequent Flyer in terms of value?

Cheers,
Graham

As marketers are exposed to the most information they’ve ever had we should be expecting more and more from a loyalty program. A recent survey highlights that expectations of marketer’s abilities to use this information aren’t exactly on the high side.

Just 55% of surveyed consumers expected access to exclusive events or exclusive offers and 54% expecting improved customer service.

FlyBuys and Everyday Rewards have been touting tailored offers recently. Although through personal experience their tailoring ability still have a long way to go before reaching a fully valuable proposition, the core offering is in place. Unsurprisingly only 49% of those surveyed expected to receive tailored offers.

Interestingly the most expected benefit of a loyalty program was simply product discounts, with 71% of respondents expecting such an offer. This isn’t the same as the exclusive offers mentioned above, but is simply notification that there are discounts available to everyone in store. Not the right message to be sending to loyal members.

Those statistics paint a sorry picture for the state of loyalty programs at the moment, what do you expect in exchange for your personal information and shopping habits?

Cheers,
Graham

Frequent flyer and credit card programs have been doing points + pay for a while, and it generally doesn’t represent any kind of difference in the value of the points you are redeeming. The option appears to be there to speed up your redemption.

This week CiNE BUZZ have launched a limited time points + pay option that not only allows you to redeem for rewards faster, but it also increases the value of your points significantly. Without promotions a CiNE BUZZ member receives 10 points for each movie they see. Redeem 100 points for a free adult ticket to a standard screening. Equating to a 10% discount it’s ok and the simplicity of the program is always a plus. The new deal allows members a points + pay option that requires 30 points and $8 for a standard adult screening.

Initially I thought it was just another gimmick based on my previous encounters with frequent flyer points + pay options. However, a little maths reveals that not only does the CiNE BUZZ offer allow you to redeem your points faster, it also increases the value of the points redeemed:

Redemption of CiNE BUZZ points

So, what do you think: More of it or A waste of time? Let me know in the comments below.

Cheers,
Graham

Continuing on with our data drive we’ve added the ability to browse over 300 of Australia’s premier shopping destinations with the click of a button.

Simply head on over to Perkler, enter your destination suburb and browse away. Can’t find your local mall? Get in touch through @perkler, on facebook, or by the web

The Figures:
12,109 unique perks currently available from 11,865 outlets for 832 of Australia’s leading retailers across 335 shopping malls. Nice!

Cheers,
Graham

This week at Perkler HQ we’ve been bizayyy! The number of retailers offering a loyalty program in Australia keeps on growing and there are a few new beauties out there. Over the past week we’ve added over 40 new loyalty programs to Perkler including leading brands such as ROXY, IKEA, Subway, Autobarn and more.

To find out the great new perks that are available simply head over to Perkler and browse for yourself. Still can’t find the program you love? Get in touch through @perkler or facebook.com/perkler and we’ll do the rest!

Cheers,
Graham

FlyBuys continue to have the momentum in the ongoing loyalty program battle with Woolworths Everyday Rewards. Today they have launched exclusive, targeted offers that require activation, one of the few features the Everyday Rewards program had that FlyBuys did not.

What do you think: Is there really any reason to choose either loyalty program over the other?

Cheers,
Graham

FlyBuys have launched targeted offers that require activation

1st Choice Liquor Superstore has come on board with Flybuys at the start of August. The core component of the hookup is an ongoing earn option where every $5 spent in-store will earn 2 FlyBuys points. Given other options in the FlyBuys earning stable, this is about average.

With over a week already gone since the launch of the partnership it seems clear that 1st Choice will be using the program to consumers’ liking… by having regular bonus point offers! On launch there was approximately 5 offers on the go, but after the excitement died down there appears to be an ongoing weekly bonus point offer structure.

Current offers are a bonus 900 FlyBuys points for purchasing a carton of George Wyndham Red wines and a bonus 150 FlyBuys points for purchasing a single bottle of the same range.

A little while back we did a quick survey on our Facebook page asking members about their relationship with FlyBuys and Everyday Rewards. 86% had FlyBuys and 50% had Everyday Rewards, there was a group of 36% that had both cards. I imagine the activity within the FlyBuys membership group will increase given the new hookup, and surely it is only a matter of time until Woolworths organise an Everyday Rewards hookup with Dan Murphy’s.

Browse all the deals available to you with Perkler for iPhone

Cheers,
Graham