Should a customer loyalty program come with fine print and what basically amounts to “black out dates”? You know, the program that offers you points or discounts by coming back, but you can only get those rewards on certain days. Or sometimes the rewards aren’t eligible during other promotions. Is this fair to your loyal customers? Here’s a better question - is it smart? Fe...

Customer loyalty for a small business is as much about brand perception as it is about brand behavior. Your loyalty efforts can go a long way towards bringing people back into your store, but you can’t expect their return alone to bring profits. For that you need to continue driving value, service and incentive, sometimes all at the same time. The Wall Street Journal does a good job in this ...

A new research report from Forrester Research shows that an increasing number of people are cashing in their airline and hotel rewards points for other types of merchandise. The report indicates that due to the struggling economy, people aren’t interested in flying away or staying at a nice hotel, but they will certainly take the points to get a discount on a magazine subscription, for example. ...