

Herd - nate
http://ninjasandrobots.com/herd

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hjay
If you show an employee you value them, and not just the replaceable work that
they do, they will _probably_ be more loyal.

If you show a customer you value them, and not just their wallet, they will
_probably_ be more loyal too.

People want to feel valued, and once they have that, it's smooth sailing. On
the contrary, if you make them feel under-appreciated, you will soon be in
trouble.

~~~
shawndumas
A lot of people know the cost of everything and the value of nothing...

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blaabjerg
This is quite possibly the least informative/descriptive post title I've ever
seen. I don't have the vaguest idea what the post is about before clicking the
link.

~~~
Paul_D_Santana
I completely agree.

In an effort to help others, here is a summary of the article as I understood
it:

Loyalty cards from supermarkets and other merchants do nothing to instill
loyalty. _Doing things that provide value to others is how you build loyalty._
For example, Zappos linking their customers to their competitors when out of
stock of a desired shoe, or the author providing his users with a data export
feature from his application.

Hope that helps. If it did, feel free to give a quick upvote.

~~~
5555624
This. Most people I know, myself included, have loyalty cards only because you
get something in return. With supermarket loyalty cards, it's the only way to
get the sale prices each week.

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exit
"- that, instead of handing out prizes to customers, gave customers the
ability to award prizes to employees who treated them well..."

that's how we ended up with the patronising bullshit called tipping.

~~~
choult
For some people, tipping isn't patronizing but part of their minimum wage.

For others, it's an indication that their service was appreciated.

For yet others (NYC I'm looking at you!) it's considered a right: "Would you
like change?"

Personally, I tip 10% as a rule. But if the service I receive is appalling,
I'll withold it. And if the service is excellent, I'll tip more. And I'll only
ever tip by card if I can't make it in cash - I trust leaving cash on the
table for my server to be a lot more likely to go specifically to them than
any house "pool" system...

~~~
EvanKelly
Just FYI, if you tip 10% in restaurants in a major American city you will
probably be perceived as under tipping.

In my short career of patronizing eating establishments, the accepted baseline
tip has moved from 15% to 18% and now I believe it's at 20%.

It's your prerogative to tip as you see fit, but as it is a social norm, it's
useful to be aware of what the "norm" is.

Maybe I've lived in exceedingly generous cities, so I'd be happy to hear back
if 20% is not the "norm" for tipping a waiter at dinner.

~~~
argonaut
I live in the US, and as far as I know the standard is still 18%. 20% is
generous.

But 10% is definitely undertipping.

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hammock
As an insider I can tell you that many companies have tried and/or are
considering every one of these suggestions. That's not to take away from OP's
point; the suggestions given are definitely out there for the average brand,
and would set them apart.

Some examples:

KLM Surprise. "When passengers check in at KLM’s Foursquare locations, the KLM
Surprise team finds out information about the passenger, then uses this to
come up with a personalized gift to surprise the passenger with."
<http://surprise.klm.com/>

Citi ThankYou Points. "Through a Facebook application, ThankYou members can
combine points to make a charitable donations or choose from rewards. Citi
says this gives members a chance to help their friends get a bigger reward or
support a common cause." [http://www.lowcards.com/share-citi-thankyou-rewards-
with-fri...](http://www.lowcards.com/share-citi-thankyou-rewards-with-friends-
or-donate-to-charity-through-facebook-app-2390)

~~~
qeorge
But those examples are not going far enough to be truly remarkable. They're
still not putting the customer's interests ahead of their own.

With Citi, how about instead of making giving your rewards to charity an
option, make it _the only_ option? That would be remarkable.

What if KLM instead emailed me saying "we found a cheaper/more pleasant flight
than the one you've already booked with us. Click here and we'll automatically
change your reservation and refund you the difference, no fees." That would be
remarkable.

~~~
saraid216
> With Citi, how about instead of making giving your rewards to charity an
> option, make it the only option? That would be remarkable.

I don't see how this is "putting the customer's interests ahead of their own".

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bluedino
> Imagine a loyalty program in which customers could band > together and
> accumulate points together, in return for > group-based rewards

Nice idea, but it doesn't really work. I'll buy 6 sandwiches to get the 7th
one free, but for some reason if you told all the customers if they bought
10,000 sandwiches they'd get one free, it doesn't pan out.

I'm not sure if it's the sharing of the reward or distrust in others to not
contribute, or what. Maybe it's just the achievement is removed.

Groups are very powerful in other situations - look at the results you can get
from an online fundraiser. People visit the page from all over to donate.

~~~
ScottWhigham
I think your analogy is a bit flawed. The local Boy Scout troop would love to
have such a promotion if the rewards were achievable. 10,000 sandwiches to
earn one free sandwich is obviously ludicrous but if it was more like "When
the group buys 100 sandwiches, Subway will cater your next pack meeting", then
the kids/parents would be all over that.

~~~
simcop2387
Pizza Hutt used to do something similar with school programs back in the South
East US. Kids that participated in a reading program got a free personal
pizza. I forget all of the details since i was in 2nd or 3rd grade at the
time, but along with bringing more people in for the free part, it also got a
lot of people in just because they were supporting a program like that.

~~~
jaredsohn
You're probably thinking of Book It (<http://www.bookitprogram.com/faq/>). I
don't think it is South East USA specific (we had it in the midwest and the
website doesn't indicate that it doesn't apply nationally.)

~~~
simcop2387
That looks like it, I didn't realize it was still going on, or that it was
that big across the nation.

~~~
bluedino
Pizza Hut was getting a lot of pressure to cancel that program, accused of
bribing kids with food and pizza marketing.

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dobbsbob
I thought this was about GNU Hurd and was disappointed it's just some schlocky
rewards fluff. If you want to reward your loyal customers make your punted
junk cheaper nobody cares about points

~~~
dkuntz2
The implication that people care about GNU Hurd amuses me. I have nothing
against it, but at this point, it's fairly clear that Hurd lost the kernel
battle.

And I thought the same thing (about it being Hurd).

~~~
_sh
"The kernel battle"? Oh please. Why must everything be cast in terms of
winners and losers?

If you insist: the absence of a microkernel implementation, regardless of its
technical feasibility, means we are all losers of "the kernel battle".

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bambax
At the end of the post I clicked to see what Draft was. Then I clicked on "Try
Draft" but that lead to a screen where I have to create an account.

Why would one need to create an account just to "try" a product? That doesn't
happen in the real world.

Looks pretty herdish to me.

