Purpose

In managing hierarchical loyalty programs (HLP), firms often use a reward point expiration and status demotion policy to reduce financial liability and to encourage repeat purchases. This study aims to examine how point expiration and status demotion policies affect customer patronage, the role of extension strategies in mitigating the negative effects of these policies on customers and the moderating role of status endowment in the effect of point expiration on customers patronage following status demotion experience.

Design/methodology/approach

Three experiments were conducted using the hotel industry as the context. The hypothesized relationships were tested using ANOVA and a serial moderated mediation analysis using SPSS PROCESS Macro.

Findings

Customers subjected to reward point expiration exhibited a higher level of anger and perceived severity of the problem than those subjected to status demotion in HLP. Consequently, when customers experienced both point expiration and status demotion, the point extension strategy rather than the status extension strategy was found to be a more effective remedy for reducing perceived unfairness, although there was no change in the level of patronage reduction between the two extension strategies. Importantly, the effect of point expiration on patronage reduction was stronger among endowed-status customers than earned-status customers, serially driven by heightened feelings of embarrassment and perceived unfairness.

Originality/value

The study adds to the existing literature on HLP by comparing the effects of point expiration and status demotion on customer patronage with practical insights for HLP managers.

中文翻译：

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使用它或失去它：积分到期和状态降级

目的

在管理等级忠诚度计划 (HLP) 时，公司通常使用奖励积分到期和状态降级政策来减少财务责任并鼓励重复购买。本研究旨在研究积分到期和状态降级政策如何影响客户光顾，扩展策略在减轻这些政策对客户的负面影响中的作用以及状态禀赋在积分到期对状态降级后客户光顾的影响中的调节作用经验。

设计/方法/方法

以酒店业为背景进行了三个实验。假设关系使用方差分析和使用 SPSS PROCESS Macro 的连续调解分析进行测试。

发现

与在 HLP 中被降级的客户相比，奖励积分到期的客户表现出更高的愤怒程度和对问题严重性的感知。因此，当客户同时经历积分到期和状态降级时，发现积分扩展策略而不是状态扩展策略是减少感知不公平的更有效补救措施，尽管两次扩展之间的惠顾减少水平没有变化策略。重要的是，积分到期对减少光顾的影响在捐赠状态客户中比获得状态客户更强，这是由尴尬感和感知不公平感的加剧所驱动的。

原创性/价值

该研究通过比较积分到期和状态降级对客户惠顾的影响与 HLP 经理的实用见解，增加了现有的 HLP 文献。