Loyalty and Rewards Programs Editing and Proofreading Services

A loyalty programme is a promise about the future value of something the company can redefine. Members earn points on the basis of what they are worth today and redeem them at a rate the operator sets tomorrow, and every programme eventually devalues — because the liability grows, because the economics change, because someone models the balance sheet. The devaluation is not the problem. How it is announced is the problem, and it is announced badly with remarkable consistency.

We edit what loyalty programme operators produce — programme terms and conditions, earning and redemption rate explanations, tier qualification and retention rules, devaluation and programme change notices, expiry and inactivity policies, point transfer, pooling and gifting terms, partner earning and redemption documentation, promotional and bonus point offers, member communications and statements, tier benefit descriptions and their conditions, blackout and availability explanations, closure and wind-down communications, and member service and complaint correspondence. Our editors work on the notice members receive when the value changes.

The devaluation notice is where a programme keeps or loses its members' belief, and the standard version is engineered to be missed. It arrives as an email about programme enhancements, describes a new and simplified redemption structure, and requires a member to work out that their balance now buys forty per cent less. Members do work it out, publish the arithmetic, and the resulting coverage is worse than the change. We write these so the change is stated as a change in the first line, with the old and new rates side by side and a worked example on a typical balance; so the notice period is real, since a change announced with four weeks' notice is a change announced after most members can act; so what does not change is stated too, because members overestimate the damage; so the reason is given honestly rather than as enhancement, as members accept economics and do not accept being managed; and so anyone who earned points under the old terms is addressed directly. Programmes that announce this way lose fewer members than the arithmetic predicts.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including programme economics, member data and unannounced changes. We are editors rather than loyalty, legal or consumer protection advisers, and we offer no view on programme terms, notice requirements or consumer law. What we can do is make the terms clear and the difficult announcement honest.