The Loyal Treatment

"The foundation stones for a balanced success are honesty, character, integrity, faith, love and loyalty."

- "Zig" Ziglar 

I was 16 years old when a patron at a restaurant where I diligently waitressed recruited me to a small grocery store where he worked. 

The store was conveniently located to the residence that I shared with family, but I had shopped there for the occasional discounts that made me feel like a valued customer. 

After I was hired, I passed those occasional discounts on to some of my customers.

As time progressed, I learned that that local store wasn't unique in extending discounts to regular customers.

The property, with alleged Italian mafia ties, wasn't quite the "mom & pop" service station and saloon that my family owned and where they likely offered loyalty incentives.

It was neither the Jewish clothing manufacturer where my seasonal marketing efforts for quality control samples resulted in near Black Friday-like lines of regular customers or the destination on behalf of which I helped keep year-round lodging occupancies at around 87 percent or better.

Both furthered my start in public relations with a family-owned cruise ship company that hired me to help take their company to a level that expanded its loyal, cult-like clientele.

I had wanted to start with that company by spending a few months on a ship in much the same way that I actually lived at the destination that I promoted, but a small and distressed loyal dog needed my care and companionship.

So I began by developing a marketing plan that included letting the public know about existing niche cruise programs available to groups such as families and senior citizens.

Loyalty programs have since become increasingly common.

Done right, they can also be very successful. 

Chains, franchises and retail networks such as JCPenney, McDonald's, Wendy's and Sephora, for example, maintain formal programs whereby customers spend money to earn rewards points.

It is through purchases that they accumulate discounts.

Of course, discounts and loyalty programs aren't the appropriate model for every business or for every customer any more than working for or patronizing a business with mafia ties is.

German fashion buyers won't pay a penny for clothing that isn't made entirely of natural fabrics. Ultra-wealthy luxury travelers are likewise more apt to pay full price at a place such as the Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo to have some space away from crowds.

The Hotel de Paris, owned by the publicly traded Société des Bains de Mer and starting at $835 nightly for September through November and only slightly less through booking agents, is pretty much in a class of its own. . .  in Monte Carlo and in many other locales.

That doesn't mean that travelers booking flights to Monte Carlo on airlines such as British Airways can't benefit from loyalty incentives. 

Nor does it mean that the Hotel de Paris lacks customer service or class.

If a major earthquake interrupted a traveler's Hotel de Paris stay, the hotel regardless of its responsibility is likely to provide a complimentary return so as to separate traumatic memories of the act of God from those of the property and the French Riviera.