Beefeater Reward Scheme â another mobile misfireâ¦

I had the joy of (another!) visit to Legoland last weekend. We went with friends: it was their fist visit and we acted as guides, to give them a more efficient first experience (there will be more!!) by helping them through the queues and geography of the park. The hail helped reduce the queues, but I digress.

To get a head start on our visit, we stayed at a local hotel the night be fore (discount package sourced via online offers. Marvellous). Attached to the hotel was a Beefeater, which acted as the restaurant/ bar for the hotel. And when it came time to pay for the hearty, foot-slogging prep breakfast, I was presented with the chance to join the organisation’s loyalty scheme.

We’ve been getting involved in a couple of these for other clients at work recently, and it’s been awhile since I joined a new one... so I succumbed (300 free points!).

And in this newly (?) inter-connected world, I was interested to see what would happen next.
Very humdrum – filled out (in pen!) the basic membership details, detached it at the perforations and gave it to the guy taking my money. Took the actual plastic card off the thick paper and swiped it (yup: good old mag-stripe) before taking my money.

Points would be added when I “activated” my card.

Now, not to get overly picky, but:
a) why do I need to activate it, when I’ve just handed in my details on a form? In pen!
b) we are providing services that allow people to join a scheme and have it immediately active via your mobile (either a web form, or in an app). This is all very 1998.

I then left (forgot!) it for a few days. This morning I saw the form again, and thought.. oh yeah, What happens when I ‘activate’ the card. Again, a disappointment. All that ‘data’ I’d handed in to the restaurant in Bracknell? Had to re-type it into the web form online.

*** ASIDE: The FAQs are hilarious, by the way.. on a web form, asking (and answering) questions such as

Q: I haven’t got internet access or an email account. Can I still join The Beefeater Grill Reward Club?

How am I supposed to know with without internet access…. ??? Genius. ***

And, on the back of the card, as well as the mag-stripe, is a QR code (and a URL: beefeatergrill.co.uk/rewardclub). I scanned the QR code.. knowing, with a sinking feeling, what was about to happen.

When people (marketers) put QR codes on their advertising or promotional materials, how do they think these are going to be scanned? Am I going to get my laptop out of my bag, hold it up, activate the webcam… find a bit of software in Google that I can load onto the laptop and then scan the code???

No.. I use my phone, with the very handy little app that took about 20 seconds to find and load onto my phone within days of first getting it. One of those tools, like email and your sports team’s information stream that is a “must download”.

So, of course, having clicked the link, I go to the rewards section of the Beefeater website. Is it optimised for mobile? What do you think, dear reader?

If anyone considering a loyalty scheme, or with one already in place, wants to discuss the simple fixes for this sort of customer experience, please do get in touch with us…