in suggesting that the Marks and Spencer Sparks card is the worst loyalty scheme ever

[JackandDiane]

1. YOu have to activate offers - requires WAY too much thought and planning
2. I just want money off things I buy fgs
3. that fucking ' have you swiped your sparks card' is surely mitigation for murder?

Yes as do sainsburys.

My mil is 80 and she's on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (or Instagran as she hashtags!).

She banks via her iPhone, shops online and Facetunes her photos!

ALL the over 70s I know are online

Initially disappointed

Then ... But only 10%

Another one whose fed up with the insessant "have you swiped your sparks card" it must send the poor shop workers absolutely bonkers!

I did use the sparkles card for about 3 weeks then got completely fed up with the faff of it.

Not as bonkers as the post office style checkout calling system in Boots. That made me feel murderous after just 5 minutes queuing.

Useless. They must be saving themselves a fortune as surely nobody is using it? All of my offers seem to be food related and I rarely buy M&S food.
The paltry % offers usually exclude school uniform too, which is mostly what I buy from there and would actually use.
So, if 'tailored offers' mean ones that they know I will never take them up on, it's a winner for them and a pointless extra bit of plastic for me.

Don't get me started on Waitrose. What is the point of it? I never get offers, discounts ..... Anything at all and I must spend about £300 a month there.

i have binned Waitrose too = CBA to log on and fanny about, its a fucking supermarket

I don't use either now , and i am TOTALLY their target customer

I'd say the number of older (say 65 and up) folk I know who aren't online is greater than the number who are. I know that's just anecdotal -would be interested to see any stats

Can't do stats, just anecdote, but there are 70+ women in my WI, ages ranging from 40 - 80+. Majority are 60 - 75.
Only two women don't have an email account and one of those is the one who's 80+

waitrose give me ££s off at Christmas and Easter

I shop there at.....Christmas. And Easter

apart from that the card is bobbins

I have no idea what it's for

I love a stat. From the office of national statistics (2015).

(I also think Sparks card is rubbish.)

oooh nice stats there marzipants

so part of their prob is the Grey People in the infographic

the rest of their prob is that, even if all the grey people were red and blue noone would bother with the sparks card anyhoo bc it is shit complicated and the rewards are crap apart from the sandwiches

My 95yo gran Skype's my aunt in the states

Had to love Waitrose, this afternoon. got a £6 off £40 voucher, last week - I'm only an occasional customer as i only go to newcastle a couple of times a month and there's none closer to home. Stocked up before going home, today and saw just over £39 on the screen. I said if I'd known I'd get so close I'd have picked up more expensive wine. She scanned a £1 magazine for me then said the offer discounts hadn't even come off, yet, so I ended up saving £5 on a £33 shop!

75yo MIL is online, uses Amazon, emails etc. She had to restrict late FIL's usage, though (he was 7 years older) because he had a habit of downloading things to "improve" his computer and buying shite!

Very apt thread as I deactivated my Sparks account this week. Too many emails and fluff but no real offers, unless you enjoy being frustrated to the point of disbelief. How can something so easy be made to be so bloody complicated?

Tesco, Boots & Nectar have it spot on. Easy to use and understand, lots of regular offers and flexibility in the case of Nectar which I use in Argos. Currently saving up points towards a new digital bridge camera.

NannyOgg, I am just talking from my experience and about three quarters of 70 plus year olds that I know are not online.

No, I wasn't; and "amazing"? Really?! I wasn't offered chocolate or wine. My choices include 20% off eggs, and discounted chutney if I spend £5 on cheese

toxicity you obviously know a very different group of 70*s than I do - they are busy working, shopping, booking holidays and theatre tickets etc etc online.

I've liberated myself from any reward card and it's a great pleasure. I did have one great moment where I paid for a huge pile of Christmas presents with the points proceeds of Dh's daily meal deal at Boots, but it's frightening to think about how much that moment cost.

For me, M&S USP should be their customer service, that's what it always used to be and that's what they should focus on. Once upon a time it was about the only big shop where you got treated like a valued person - where did that go? The managers could be on the shopfloor for at least 2 hours every working day helping people to find what they want, refining the layout, range, stocking, buying and service and earwigging on customer conversations.

Instead they appear to have designed their loyalty card scheme from the starting point of 'how can we flog more womenswear' as opposed to 'how do we get our customers feeling like they want to come back' which is surely the point of a loyalty card.

polyhymnia I think it depends very much on education and background. I know 70+ year olds who are tech savvy and those who aren't.

The ones who aren't tend to be from poor backgrounds where education wasn't valued. These people ended up doing unskilled manual jobs and have never worked in an office or had much intellectual stimulation, let alone switched a computer on.

The older people I know who are internet savvy have been well educated and had professional or skilled jobs and understand how useful being online is. OH's uncle is in his 80s and goes online all the time. Before alzheimers set in MIL (87) always maintained that she never needed to know how a computer worked and that she had got through life without one and wasn't going to learn now. Uncle had had a better education than MIL who left school at 14.

I guess I know people from more varied backgrounds and walks of life.

Glad I've seen this thread, thought I was having an extra dose of stupid when i was reading the website and couldn't work it all out.

Polyhumnia, I feel sorry for your 70 year old friends/relatives that are still working (unless they are happy still working of course!)

Nicknameused - I think you have it spot on, it does depend on education and the type of job that people did and whether they ever used computers. I have some uncles/aunts who have happily embraced the internet but have others who have childen who do it all for them and these uncle/aunts seem happy to not be online! I am also thinking of neighbours I have whose children do all their flight booking and any other bits and bobs online for them.

Just been in M and S and told the woman at the Sparks desk that it is the most pointless and user unfriendly "loyalty" card around. I wasn't rude. I just asked her to relay this back to the management. I also told her that there were loads of online forums saying the same. She told me I wasn't the first to say this.

NicknameUsed I've come across this from M&S the other day, I was buying some underwear (probably the best place to buy them) and the sales advisor asked me if I've got a Sparks Card, I must have grimaced as she replied with 'sorry we have to ask it as it comes up on their system' but she doesn't like it either...

If you can't even win your own staff around, what chance have you got on winning your customers around? I think they either need to admit defeat or revamp it to customers' criticisms!