Interesting perspective on perspective in a blog entry called “10 Frequent Flyer Tips You Need to Know” at TravelGuideline.net. From Tip #6.
As a frequent flyer, you’ll want to get the most from your accumulated rewards. Unfortunately, similar to getting chips in a casino, your mind might not equate frequent flyer rewards with currency, which can cause you to make poor decisions when it comes to how you use them. Therefore, think of your rewards as cash — this may help you make wiser decisions.
My first reaction is that I wish i could use the words “cash” and “wiser decisions” in my own life a little more often. My second is to ask, How do your members view your rewards currency? As spendable cash, as the blogger suggests? As convertible assets being aggregated and grown? As steps in a ladder toward greater benefit or recognition? Or, at an odd but apparently real extreme, as a way of keeping score in some sort of tallying game, as in the movie Up in the Air?
Or, on a more philosophical level implied by Tip #6, customers properly equate your rewards currency with its immediate or potential value? A survey, a focus group, a few conversations with best customers–all might help you understand customer perceptions of your currency, your offer, and your underlying value proposition. Understanding such perceptions may help you tailor the wording of communications and offers–if not the offers themeselves. Or it may help you work to change the perception to match the value of what you offer.
