Loyalty marketing needs to go back to basics. I had two short experiences this week that demonstrated the power of customer service –and the lack thereof. It revealed a big gap in marketing designed more to target, than to retain customers. First stop, New York Times Square. Picking up some touristy items from a sidewalk vendor, I was amazed at how much time the seller took to find out exactly what I was looking for. Notwithstanding NYC’s reputation for impatience (yes, those ever-swearing cab drivers) this was a polite, no-pressure interaction.

This is a guy who probably doesn’t need to think about repeat purchases, brand image and loyalty programs. The way he conducted his transaction made me feel this could easily have been an experience one has at Macy’s or Banana Republic that trains people to follow certain steps in ‘delighting’ the customer and all that. His ‘store’ may move several times a week. His brand may not be tied to the traditional things like logos and url’s, and yet, this one individual left an indellible mark on what good marketing is all about: customer relationships.

By comparison, I accompanied my lawyer friend to a T-Mobile store in New Jersey to report the loss of a cellphone, get a new SIM card and see what he could do in the interim. Before that, a call to customer service was terribly unhelpful, because of a simple thing like a personal identification number. The person at the other end of the line could NOT (or would not) tell him if there had been any outgoing calls from his phone nless he remembered his PIN. (He had never used it and forgotten what it was).

The alternative was to log into T-Mobile’s site, create a password and check the phone activity online. Sounds nice in theory, in this everything-ought-to-be-online world. But there was a tiny problem. Logging in would generate a password that would be sent back to the customer on his phone. Never mind that it was lost! We tried several work arounds but the basic fact was this: the customer service person was not empowered to circumvent the guidelines. The only recourse was to drive down to the mall and get help at the store.

So what do you do with ‘customer care’ when the second part of that word is taken off the equation? l am a loyal T-Mobile customer, and truly like their offering. But it makes me wonder, what use is all the expensive branding, stores, and advertising, if the people who work for the organization, who are front and center of that brand identity, cannot do what a street vendor does? My friend’s ‘loyalty’ is certainly up for grabs. And don’t even get me started about the discounted price of phones that existing customers don’t get in most companies…