Managing Customer Expectations via Email with John Lewis

my John Lewis Card Registration Email

Recently John Lewis opened a new store near me. Having made a couple of purchases there, it was obvious that there was a general push on the my John Lewis card.

For those of you who haven't come across the card, it is , in their words ' a membership card that helps us get to know more about you every time you shop, so that we can give you the rewards that are just right for you.'

Of course it's very similar in its approach to the my Waitrose card where the unique proposition is the free coffee and daily paper. my John Lewis offers free coffee and cake. ( Of course I now drive to Waitrose for my free coffee and paper en route to claiming my coffee and cake at John Lewis.)

Anyway, setting aside the arguments about the whole point of  membership/loyalty cards or whether or not they end up attracting the wrong sort of customers ( interesting piece from the Telegraph where Waitrose shoppers are complaining about Tesco customers just coming in for the free coffee), they handled it all rather well.

At the point of purchase I was offered a card. I was given a temporary card and was asked only for my email address as they scanned the bardcode. By the time I had left the store ( admittedly that did involve some coffee and cake time) I had an email in my inbox thanking me for starting the registration

Of course at this point they didn't have my name so Dear Customer is excused. What I really liked was the way in which they very simply explained what I needed to do to complete my registration. Simple as 1 2 3 really.

They covered all bases in terms of having a John Lewis account or not as well. And I checked, the membership number on the email matched my temporary one!

The experience reminded me of when I signed up top the SpaceNK membership programme and highlights the ever increasing multi-channel approach being taken by retailers especially where they have both a digital and physical presence

Full registration was confirmed with an email from John Lewis. Great looking email with lots of opportunities to drive me back to the John Lewis. Although I'm not quite sure how they managed to make the footer look so ugly and out of kilter!