Introducing the Best Buy Penalty Zone program
Readers of my blog have long followed my ups and downs with Best Buy. Apparently it's time for another downswing.
I may be old school but I've always thought the idea behind a business was to wow your customers. Go above and beyond or get lumped in with everyone else.
Which is why I am dumbfounded at a recent call I received from Best Buy explaining some changes to the Best Buy Reward Zone program. Lucky for me (and perhaps for you) I didn't have my cell phone on me at the time so it went to voice mail. The voice mail, in its entirety, is included on the audio player below. Have a listen.
Note: If you can not see the audio player above, please go to the original blog post on the Noobie web site.
So let me get this straight. I'm supposed to get excited about a call I receive on my cell phone that tells me the reward program I have been using for years will now be making the following changes:
- Reward certificates will only be available by logging on to myrewardzone.com
- Reward certificates will no longer be transferrable
- Reward certificates will be cashed out at the $5 level (don't spend EXACTLY $5 and you forfeit part of your reward)
- You need to provide email address or no longer be eligible to participate in the program
- Points no longer roll over from year to year
- You need to make at least one purchase every 12 months to remain in the program
Looks like Best Buy only missed one important change. That being changing the program name from Reward Zone to Penalty Zone.
3 comments for this blog post so far...
July 02, 2009 at 7:13 am
asudduth
Most of these changes are acceptable, and good. (although I haven’t received this phone call yet… or perhaps they emailed me and I havent read it yet)
Anyways -
- I already only get my certificates online. (get them quicker than thru mail)
- They were transferable? (not sure what this means… don’t know how I’d transfer them… and they were mine, so I’d be the one using them… so confused by this)
- $5 level. This doesn’t seem to be a problem. I had mine set to send me $10 rewards not $5 - but either is fine… and I always treated it like a coupon. Didn’t know if I spent $4.50 I’d still have $0.50—however how often does one really buy things at best buy that is under $5?
- again this is a good thing, email is more efficient than snail-mail (sorry USPS)
Now here is where we get into a negative thing.
- Point no longer roll over… so when does the year start? does everyone get wiped back to 0 at the same time? or 1 year from sign up? (again if there is an option I’ll certainly want $5 rewards not $10 rewards, as I want to lose as few points as possible) - you’re right that this is “penalty zone”
- purchase every 12 months, I don’t think this is a horrible thing… I’d think most people who are earning any rewards at least visit best buy that frequently.
So, for me there is really only one big deal… The rest make sense (and in some case is how I thought the program already worked) - maybe I’m alone in this.
and for the record yes, customer service should be the goal of a business and some business do fall short at fail to “give em the pickle” - although long ago I learned best buy usually doesn’t have exactly what you went to get (although they seem to be better now than they used to be) and I typically try to avoid interaction with their employees. (I’ll dart through isles to get where I need to be to buy the item I need without making any eye contact with a person in a blue shirt)
Guess what I’m saying is I must have different tolerance levels for customer service based on where I am… or maybe even depending on the item I’m buying… so maybe this announcement doesn’t bother me because it sounds like best buy…
July 02, 2009 at 9:29 am
Patric Welch
@asudduth: Your comments are are always well thought out and I appreciate that you take the time to leave a comment on my blog. Thank you!
I guess the point I was trying to make is why send me a broadcast message that doesn’t have a lick of “good news” in it? Sure, you can make the argument that electronic coupons are greener but that’s not a benefit to me directly (although one could probably make that argument as well).
I’ve been reading a lot of Seth Godin lately. Where’s the purple cow in this? Why not end the call with something like, “To thank you for remaining a loyal Reward Zone customer, we are randomly giving away 10 reward zone coupons worth $10,000 in the next twelve months. To find out if you are a winner, just redeem any of your Reward Zone points. You may be instantly notified that you are a winner!”
At least this would be give me some motivation to welcome the changes they are making.
July 02, 2009 at 9:37 am
asudduth
@patric Point taken & you are correct. You should always “Give em the pickle” even if it is a change due to security or policy that may be negative.
I like your suggestion.. any token to say we appreciate you as a customer.
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