• by Aaron Baar , March 16, 2011

Many Americans may be signing up for loyalty programs, but that doesn't mean they're particularly happy about them.  

According to a survey of more than 1,000 consumers from ACI Worldwide, more than 40% of them have had a negative experience with their loyalty programs. Complaints run from getting rewards they didn't want (27%), getting rewards that were too small to take seriously (44%) or a lack of communication from their programs (85% said they hadn't heard anything from their programs since signing up).

"Retailers have an opportunity to build loyalty with their customers," Rob Seward, senior industry marketing manager at ACI Worldwide, tells Marketing Daily. "This [research] highlights the lack of focus on those programs as a customer service opportunity as opposed to increasing incremental sales and increasing the average ticket or basket size."

According to the study, about three-quarters of Americans are members in at least one retail loyalty card program. The majority of those who are enrolled said they did so to get discounts on the things they buy most. However, only about a third (36%) received a reward or promotion that brought them back into the store. A quarter (27%) said they received a promotion for something they would never buy.

"Consumers want a reward for something they're going to purchase," Seward says. "Instead of trying to move products or cross-sell products, [retailers ought] to focus on the things that drive loyalty."

At the same time, most consumers said they don't completely understand their loyalty programs, and many are not even able to answer the basics such as "What benefits do I get and when do I get them?" Eighty-one percent of the survey respondents said they didn't know the details of their programs or how to claim rewards.