I am a newly minted Gold member of the Starbucks Rewards program as I chronicled in this post. I earned Gold status by earning 30 stars. A star is earned for each transaction regardless of the dollar amount which makes it a pretty easy way to amass stars.
This morning I received an email from Starbucks asking if I would like to participate in a survey regarding the Starbucks Rewards program. Right away they inferred that they’re testing ideas on changing the Starbucks Rewards program.
Changes coming to the Starbucks Rewards program?
It’s apparent from the wording on some of the questions that they’re testing the idea of changing the way you earn stars from how much you spend rather than the number of purchases. This question was asked numerous times in different ways.
Changing of the Stars?
They then gave different scenarios involving which earning style would be most beneficial.
Pick your poison
It was also interesting that there were quite a few questions asking if there should be no membership levels so that it would be equitable to all. That seems to defeat the purpose of a loyalty program, to have higher status and therefore bragging rights?
In my survey I chose all of the options that included stars based on purchases rather than dollar amount but it seems almost inevitable that Starbucks will eventually change their Reward program to be less lucrative.
The silver lining in taking the survey was that I was given a $5 egift card for finishing it so if you received the survey in your emails, make sure and take it.
Free $5 – score!
On positive side I always thought it made little sense when you bought say 2-3 drinks and food items to only get one star while buying a $2 coffee earned the same number of stars. I don’t think changing to dollars is a huge negative except for those who only get a plain coffee.
Any chance this survey is public?
@Josh – my survey appears to be a targeted link and not public. It didn’t ask me to enter in my email address or anything during the survey.