The Best Loyalty Program Costs Nothing

I spent years building and running a loyalty program.

Points structures. Redemption catalogues. Breakage calculations. Vendor relationships. System integrations. It was complex, creative, and genuinely one of my favourite stretches of my career.

But the whole time, there was a question I couldn't quite get away from: are loyalty programs solving the right problem? Or are they a workaround for something more fundamental?

Then I found an honest mechanic. And he answered it for me.

This week's post is about the loyalty program that costs nothing, and generates more word-of-mouth than any structured program I've ever seen.