Ethics and Loyalty [Cards]

Rye · Post by **Rye** » 2006-01-02 06:45pm

This is a dilemma I'm having with work at the moment:

In a successful, nationwide company, they often use store cards or loyalty cards that people put points on to later gain money off future items. Now, not everyone, hell, it's pretty unlikely that a majority will have such a card when they buy from you, and I'm sure many people just can't be bothered buying them.

Now imagine the store you're working in is the leading store for net income for the company in your country, but simultaneously, it is one of the worst stores for loyalty card usage in your country. You get told from head office that your store MUST increase it's loyalty.

Now, when you're at the tills, you always ask the customer if they have a loyalty/store card, if they don't, is it ethical to have a loyalty card, say, belonging to your brother, on hand to swipe when the customer doesn't care about getting the loyalty points themselves?

Bear in mind the following:

Your brother will be able to get credit off future purchases from the loyalty points that would've otherwise been squandered.

The store's overall view in the eyes of the ignorant head office will go up. These people flat out refuse to accept that when a store as busy as yours has to deal with so many customers, there isn't really the time or effort to expend on people that don't care about whether they have a loyalty card or not.

Your store's poor loyalty stats are likely down to the sheer amount of custom from people without loyalty that do not want it/do not care about it, and the other stores already cheat like you're considering, skewing the results.

Increasing your personal loyalty sales through the till may get you a reward at the end of the month.

Ask yourself: What does anyone really lose?

You, the store, and your brother gain stuff. Customers that could've got the credit that's going to your brother do not care about it. The larger company isn't really losing money, because the credit that goes to your brother was set aside to be put into the loyalty system in the first place, and they made unreasonable and ignorant demands for it's allocation.

So, do you cheat? Or do you stay honest?

Kwizard · Post by **Kwizard** » 2006-01-02 08:20pm

In this case 'being honest' would really be allying yourself with the cheaters - the ones in the company that decided this ridiculous loyalty point system.

HOWEVER, remind yourself that if your manager finds out that you're swiping your brother's card - and the manager cares about it - you could be in for some mildly deep shit. Just a consideration.

Aside from that... "do what must be done, do not hesitate, show no mercy."

The Aliens · Post by **The Aliens** » 2006-01-02 10:38pm

You're essentially stealing loyalty points for your brother, by giving them to him on products he didn't buy. If he didn't earn them, he shouldn't get them- and if he does, it's theft.

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2006-01-03 12:29am

The issue is not the swindling of the upper management, but rather that your brother is getting loyalty points without having to pay for products, which is unfair to other customers who may care about loyalty points.

bilateralrope · Post by **bilateralrope** » 2006-01-03 02:24am

wolveraptor wrote:The issue is not the swindling of the upper management, but rather that your brother is getting loyalty points without having to pay for products, which is unfair to other customers who may care about loyalty points.

I think that Rye is saying that he will only swipe his brothers card when the customer does not have a card themself. If that is the case then I can see no ethical problem with it providing the store management is okay with doing it to please head office.

However I only see it as ethical if you only do enough to please head office, not every purchase, since it is still theft.

The most ethical solution I see is for you to swip a loyalty card, but have no-one ever redeem the points from that card.

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2006-01-03 03:50am

Yes but his brother is still getting free loyalty points when customers who have cards have to make purchases to get them. He gets an advantage over them.

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2006-01-03 04:36am

Nice setup, the brother gets the points and the higher up in the foodchain sees an increase in loyality card use.

Everyone should be happy.

Rye · Post by **Rye** » 2006-01-03 08:50am

wolveraptor wrote:The issue is not the swindling of the upper management, but rather that your brother is getting loyalty points without having to pay for products, which is unfair to other customers who may care about loyalty points.

It's "unfair" to them, perhaps, but they don't lose anything.

There is a means of putting it on a loyalty card that doesn't exist: for instance, when it asks for loyalty, if you scan in, say, the sims 2, it is recognised as a loyalty card. But then, it's like the points are just being squandered, and I hate things going to waste.

salixfire · Post by **salixfire** » 2006-01-03 09:59am

When I was working in a store that had loyalty cards we were told that if a customer didn't have a loyalty card you could ask them if they minded if someone else could have the points. Usually this resulted in a "yeah, sure, I don't care" very very few actually said no. This was the same for a voucher scheme (such as the Computers for Schools run by Tescos) where if a person didn't collect them I was allowed to ask if they minded someone else having them.

Jew · Post by **Jew** » 2006-01-03 10:16am

Rye wrote:Ask yourself: What does anyone really lose?

You, the store, and your brother gain stuff. Customers that could've got the credit that's going to your brother do not care about it.

The corporation that owns the store loses. Why do you suppose they instituted the loyalty card programs in the first place? To track purchases. Tracking a shopper's habits lets them identify trends and adjust their advertising, displays, prices, and stock to take advantage of customers' habits. If you scan everything to one card, there is no longer any genuine trend to analyze. You've just destroyed the integrity of the data. Probably the analysis software will just throw out the data for that one card, but you're still earning points on the card and giving the corporation nothing (not even valid data) in return.

CmdrWilkens · Post by **CmdrWilkens** » 2006-01-03 11:54am

The simple fact of the matter is that it is fraud.

Your borhter's card is recieving points for which he did not pay for products or services. In turn those points can be used for discounts and other monetary gains on your brother's part. Thus you, in conspiracy with your brother, are defrauding the company of the financial gain on the part of your brother.

The system is designed to reward individuals for purchases they make and you are defrauding the system. In other words you'd be committing a crime and it would be unethical. The fact that the company would willingly give those points to another customer is beside the point because those customers did in fact purchase the products and thus the designed recipients of the points.

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2006-01-03 01:16pm

Unless the head office says something like "bump up loyalty card points 50% or we're firing you", it ain't worth doing. Having 100 reward points spread out among 20 customers is not the same thing as putting all of them on one card. In first case, half the customers aren't coming back anyway and a bunch of them will forget they even have reward points, the net result being only a small percentage of the points given out actually get redeemed. That's what the company expects when they put in a rewards program, it's just there to give a reason for customers to return, and they only count on 10-20% of the points given out to get cashed in. When you stick'em all on one card for you brother, he can come in and cash them out big time. Head office is going to start wondering what the hell is going on, you've made the points quota but the redemption rate is now way too high.

Now in terms of ethics, the head office is being retarded. However you are directly costing the store money. That's fraud. If you were to put the points on a dummy card that'll never be redeemed, that's fine. You're "saving" the "wasted" points to make quota without costing the store anything.

Yogi · Post by **Yogi** » 2006-01-03 02:12pm

You could create a "dummy" loyalty card and use that. That way no one gets an unfair advantage, since the points on the dummy card don't get used.

The Aliens · Post by **The Aliens** » 2006-01-03 05:36pm

Yogi wrote:You could create a "dummy" loyalty card and use that. That way no one gets an unfair advantage, since the points on the dummy card don't get used.

This is still fraudulent- the company isn't getting any usable data on shopping habits or trends, which is the reason for the loyalty cards in the first place. In this situation, nobody wins, and the big company still loses.

drachefly · Post by **drachefly** » 2006-01-04 12:26pm

It's no worse than them not getting the data, since the analysts would dump out that data point...

I'd suggest to the higher-ups to make the card a discount card rather than a bonus points card. Discount cards are easy to use; bonus point cards are awkward for the customer and thus discourage use. If they want to track the users, give them a real incentive.

Pezzoni · Post by **Pezzoni** » 2006-01-04 03:06pm

I see no objective harm in it, although your managers may see differenetly.

Mad · Post by **Mad** » 2006-01-04 07:27pm

drachefly wrote:It's no worse than them not getting the data, since the analysts would dump out that data point...

If they're smart enough, they may investigate that data point, though, to see why it was off.

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2006-01-04 09:45pm

Admittedly, the effects of the fraud on the company are laughably insignificant, but nonetheless, the principle of the matter is that it is unethical.

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Ethics and Loyalty [Cards]

Ethics and Loyalty [Cards]

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