MSE News: After a John Lewis loyalty card? Free tea & cake is no longer guaranteed
Comments
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Come on John Lewis, if you want to encourage shoppers to use their card so you get their shopping data, get your till systems and staff training sorted out!
This is the thing, if you don't get any points, why would you swipe the JLP card at all? The Prize Draws?
If memory serves, the Tesco Clubcard Plus was one swipe and it's all done. The bill is paid, and you get the Club Card points. That was about 20 years ago. The Tesco Current Account debit card does the same thing, and you get 3% interest up to £3,000. I turn the points into air miles. So it all makes sense.
The JLP cake drags you into the store once a month, but why would you spend money? Because you are bored? It rewards showing up, not for buying stuff. Now they want to punish you for not spending money by taking the cookies jar away. It's a farce.0 -
This happened again last week in Kingston after I'd spent £200 on towels and the assistant said the only way she could get the card swiped would be to cancel the sale and re-do it. Then her colleague told her that she couldn't do that. It should be called a 'test of loyalty card'.
Agreed - the Kingston staff NEVER ask if you have the card - without the reminder its easy to forgot, plus when there's no obvious reward for swiping your card, why bother previously? From the statement JL have made they're being deliberately elusive as to which customers will receive the vouchers, why not just make a concrete decision and potentially get more custom (and give their customers more certainty)? It implies to me that frequent spenders may not get the offer "as they'll spend the money anyway".November GC: £50.55/£130. October GC: £72.60/£150
September GC: £131.27/£170. July GC: £62.48/£80. May GC: £135.00/£150
April GC: £201.91/£140. March GC: £194.98/£200. January GC: £111.41/£200.
December GC: £67.45/£80. Nov GC: £159.32/£220. October GC: £208.07/£250.0 -
I doubt this is as simple as JL giving the voucher to those who've spent money in their stores and not giving it to those who don't. The whole point of this exercise was always, presumably, to invite people into their stores with a freebie in the hope that they'd spend more money there than they otherwise would have.
No doubt they've used this free-for-all period to build up metrics on the kinds of people who are more likely to spend more money in their stores if invited for a free cup of tea and cake, and are now using that data to more accurately target the offer at the money-spenders and ignore the free loaders.
Frankly, I can't see why anyone would be surprised that a business is looking to make money.0 -
This is the thing, if you don't get any points, why would you swipe the JLP card at all? The Prize Draws?
If memory serves, the Tesco Clubcard Plus was one swipe and it's all done. The bill is paid, and you get the Club Card points. That was about 20 years ago. The Tesco Current Account debit card does the same thing, and you get 3% interest up to £3,000. I turn the points into air miles. So it all makes sense.
The JLP cake drags you into the store once a month, but why would you spend money? Because you are bored? It rewards showing up, not for buying stuff. Now they want to punish you for not spending money by taking the cookies jar away. It's a farce.
that's what I use it for, a bonus for a good day in Kingston.
Last week was awesome, sitting in the cafe with a Massive piece of cake and a huge lux choc drink, watching Sir Wiggins et all sweat it out across Kingston bridge just outside just 20 metres away. Like having a VIP ticket to the event.:p0 -
I doubt this is as simple as JL giving the voucher to those who've spent money in their stores and not giving it to those who don't. The whole point of this exercise was always, presumably, to invite people into their stores with a freebie in the hope that they'd spend more money there than they otherwise would have.
No doubt they've used this free-for-all period to build up metrics on the kinds of people who are more likely to spend more money in their stores if invited for a free cup of tea and cake, and are now using that data to more accurately target the offer at the money-spenders and ignore the free loaders.
Frankly, I can't see why anyone would be surprised that a business is looking to make money.
If that's the case, the project was seriously flawed. What they do know is where the vouchers went. What they don't know, though (because they didn't barcode them or require the production of a My John Lewis card), is which ones were actually used.
And because staff rarely ask if a customer has a card when purchases are made, their customer knowledge is even more limited. They'll pick up the online sales, where the card is automatically picked up, but not the store sales.
This smacks of something not terribly well handled (unusually) and likely to end up causing a degree of resentment with genuine customers.0 -
If that's the case, the project was seriously flawed. What they do know is where the vouchers went. What they don't know, though (because they didn't barcode them or require the production of a My John Lewis card), is which ones were actually used.
And because staff rarely ask if a customer has a card when purchases are made, their customer knowledge is even more limited. They'll pick up the online sales, where the card is automatically picked up, but not the store sales.
This smacks of something not terribly well handled (unusually) and likely to end up causing a degree of resentment with genuine customers.
While the vouchers did not include a bar code and the cafes do not accept the my JL cards, the card number is shown on the reverse of the voucher together with a QRC which presumably encodes that too.
However there have been some reports that staff may have been scrapping the vouchers rather than retaining them for scanning later. This may have varied from branch to branch.0 -
Certainly the case with the more recent vouchers, but the original ones bore no identifying marks at all. Struck me as odd at the time and always expected to be asked for the card in the early days, but never was, of course.anamenottaken wrote: »While the vouchers did not include a bar code and the cafes do not accept the my JL cards, the card number is shown on the reverse of the voucher together with a QRC which presumably encodes that too.
However there have been some reports that staff may have been scrapping the vouchers rather than retaining them for scanning later. This may have varied from branch to branch.0 -
Certainly the case with the more recent vouchers, but the original ones bore no identifying marks at all. Struck me as odd at the time and always expected to be asked for the card in the early days, but never was, of course.
The data has been on the reverse of the vouchers all the time AFAIK, certainly not just the most recent issue.
I think this is what prompted JLP to email what appeared to be an acknowledgement that I had used the first voucher a couple of days after I had used it (could have been a coincidence but at the time I thought there was a connection). I'm also aware that a lot of people didn't notice the data was printed there.0 -
i think stopping the cake n coffee vouchers will hit john lewis with bad publicity but cheer up the other biggies who are trying to claim that this is an illegal act ie unfair competition!! i assume tescos/asda etc0
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surfsister wrote: »i think stopping the cake n coffee vouchers will hit john lewis with bad publicity but cheer up the other biggies who are trying to claim that this is an illegal act ie unfair competition!! i assume tescos/asda etc
You assume wrong. (unless you have evidence to support your view?)
If anything, it was small businesses who took issue to it, as they simply couldn't compete. If Tesco or Asda really felt it would be beneficial to the business to give free tea & cake, then of course they would have done it.0
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