September 2009 Office Max Rewards Update

Earlier in July of this year I stopped into my local Office Max to purchase a few printing cartridges for my HP color laser jet printer. I knew Office Max offered a rewards program but I was hoping to see if the company had taken a few of my earlier suggestions to heart as to how to improve their offering. I was not surprised to find my input had fallen on deaf ears so here is the report on OfficeMax Rewards and how we can learn from their mistakes.

1. The first thing I noticed concerning the rewards program was a very expensive and high class package (shiny black envelope in Colorado) which is filled with 4 very heavy cardboard stock postcards explaining the program. Although this is very well done, there does not need to be near this type of expense involved (by any company) in order to explain their rewards program. Office Max would be much better served by eliminating this entire package (and expense) and instead make the program much simpler. As the program sits today, it is VERY CONFUSING, even the clerks could not explain the rules, or what products I would earn rewards on. Confusion and complication with a rewards program is (MISTAKE #1)
2. Inside this shiny black envelope is the OfficeMax rewards card which is not activated and does not record the current sale for rewards. Apparently, I need to take the card home, activate the card and then keep my receipt and enter the information for the amount to be tracked. I did this but I am still not sure if my purchase was tabulated. When I visited the store later, they did not have a record of the transaction which was over $100.00 in printing cartridges. (MISTAKE #2).

   I also noticed the sales clerk did NOT tell me about the program nor did they have signs or materials reminding me to ask about OfficeMax Rewards (MISTAKE #3). I had to take the initiative (very few customers will do this) after the sale was made in order to find out about the rewards program. I was told printer cartridges do NOT apply to rewards as it was not a ‘qualifying’ purchase MISTAKE #4). When I asked what was a ‘qualifying purchase’ there was confusion and a manager ended up telling me to go online to find out for sure (MISTAKE #5). This is a VERY COMMON mistake made by multiple big box retailers. Rewards should apply to EVERY purchase and should be instantaneous. Percentages can be easily altered for bigger dollar amounts, but the benefits of earning rewards should be applied to every purchase and ready for me to redeem the next day if I should return.

3. This leads to our next mistake. I was then told it would be 3-5 WEEKS before I received my welcome package in the mail. (MISTAKE #6). Their estimate was pretty close, I believe it took 5 weeks before I received my welcome package. The first thing I noticed when opening this package was a NEW CARD with a different account number than the card I registered! I am now not sure if the card included originally inside my shiny black envelope is still valid (MISTAKE #7). This welcome letter then goes on to explain all the new changes to their rewards program to make it much easier to earn rewards, but I did not see any of the issues inside this letter addressed. Maybe it’s easier now, but it’s still very difficult to understand what is taking place and still no confirmation of my earlier purchase.
4. I did see however a nice letter explaining how I earned rewards, here’s how it works. After I spend $500.00 (ON QUALIFIED PURCHASES ONLY) with no definition of what a qualified purchase might be, I earn a $25.00 in rewards! (MISTAKE #8 THIS IS WAY TOO LOW!) Each time I spend $500.00 in a year, I receive a $25.00 REWARDS CARD, not the card I have but a completely DIFFERENT one! (MISTAKE #9 not only is this way too low, it’s way too long way to long to wait for any type of gratification to my purchase! It’s now been over 8 months and I still don’t have a reward after 4 additional visits.)

   By the way, why all of these letters and coupons, I thought we had a rewards card? (MISTAKE #10 too much paper and expense with snail mailing of offers and updates when they could be loaded directly on the card) I even noticed inside my letter that if I have a Max Perks rewards card I can pick up my rewards online but I must PRINT the email and bring it in to the location, the rewards are not loaded on the card!

Well, that’s it for today folks, there might be a few other mistakes but we stop at 10 in honor of our David Letterman commitment. As you can see, we don’t need to be loyalty experts to figure out these obvious mistakes but many retailers who should know better continue to make them. We really can’t blame Office Max however, they are a pretty small company, have only been around for a few decades and don’t really have any competition taking money from them (say what Mr. Staples.) Their salaries for VP’s is less than 2 million dollars per year and it’s hard to find good help for less than 2 million per year, so please, give them some slack.