Recognize and reward your customers for their support

To get my child to join me at the dog park in the mornings, I've resorted to bribing him with a stop at Starbucks. With my "mom" hat on, it's proven to be an effective enticement. As a frequent customer and loyalty practitioner, I cannot help but question why it's so much work (on my part) to reap my deserved recognition and rewards.

We've all talked about how Starbucks has changed us. We now talk in terms of grande, venti, and frappuccino. But now, as a "loyal" customer Starbucks is changing my behavior further. 

When I consult on loyalty strategy and program design and development, I've always lived by KIS (keep it simple). As part of that, I advise brands to "ensure your program is where your customer is, surprise and delight, and don't make your customer jump through hoops to participate, earn and redeem." Well, I've learned Starbucks has again flown in the face of the traditional best practices. The question is, will it work in loyalty?