Loyalty To A Woodworking Tool Company

When I entered LoyaltyLab.com into Google search, I eventually read the following announcement on a press release on a site called InternetRetailer.com intitled "Rockler to Launch Best Customer Program on the Loyalty Lab Platform".

SAN FRANCISCO -- June 19, 2007 -- Loyalty Lab, Inc., the leading on-demand loyalty and customer relationship solution, today announced that " class="entrylink" TARGET="_blank">Rockler Woodworking and Hardware, the leading independent woodworking supplies retailer, has enlisted Loyalty Lab to host a best customer program.

Rockler, which operates 33 stores, a website and a " class="entrylink" TARGET="_blank">156-page catalog, will use Loyalty Lab’s web-based Customer Relationship Management platform to manage all aspects of its new retail loyalty and customer management initiative.

Our 53 years of steady growth is proof we have a loyal following that deserves our recognition and thanks, said Scott Ekman, Rockler’s Vice President of Marketing. Loyalty Lab is making that possible, sparing us the financial strain of a major software overhaul, and helping us get on the right path for best customer management.

In hosting the program, the Loyalty Lab platform will manage shopper enrollments, transaction processing, rewards and accruals. Loyalty Lab also enables integrated marketing and retail loyalty and campaign management, serving as the central core of email, web-based and POS communications drawing from a single database.

" class="entrylink" TARGET="_blank">Rockler is a leader in a very specialized niche and just the sort of mid-size retailer best able to benefit from an easy, cost-effective CRM platform like ours, said Mark H. Goldstein, CEO of Loyalty Lab. With our solution, Rockler can now offer the kind of smart, multi-channel retail loyalty program that will take them to the next level.

Just think of all the money Rockler must be paying Loyalty Lab just to have their loyal email recipients think they are receiving spam from an unknown sender. Afterall, Rocker I gave permission to send me email sales announcements, but Loyalty Lab was identified as the sender. Seems to me someone at Loyalty Lab needs to learn the basics about optin rules for sending email. Kind of messes up the concept of loyalty for Rocker.

Fortunate for Loyalty Lab, I did a search about them on the web, finding the forementioned press release from internetretailer.com that explained what was taking place. This is what I learned about About Loyalty Lab, Inc.

Loyalty Lab, based in San Francisco, is the leader in on-demand relationship and retention marketing solutions for consumer brands. Loyalty Lab’s flagship Customer Relationship Manager Suite provides retailers and service companies with integrated and on-demand loyalty program management, email, campaign management, and incentives from a single desktop. Clients include New York and Company, Brookstone, 1-800-Flowers.com, Bally Total Fitness and a number of other prominent retail and service companies. For more information visit www.loyaltylab.com.

InternetRetailer had this to say about " class="entrylink" TARGET="_blank">Rockler Companies, Inc., a woodworking supply company with whom I enjoy doing business.

Rockler Companies, based in Medina, Minn., began in 1954 as a mail order catalog called Minnesota Woodworkers Supply Company. The company now operates 33 retail locations, its catalog and a website as Rockler Woodworking and Hardware. The company offers thousands of mainstream and specialized products, including manufacturer’s exclusives, for professional and amateur woodworkers. For more information, visit " class="entrylink" TARGET="_blank">www.rockler.com.

Talk about backfiring on a new marketing program to create loyalty. I just about sent them to the spam file because the email came from loyaltylab.com rather than " class="entrylink" TARGET="_blank">rockler.com. Good thing I was already " class="entrylink" TARGET="_blank">loyal to Rocker. " target="_blank" class="entrylink">Click to see a favorite product or featured website: