Dave’s Soda and Pet City Launches LOC Card, Strives to Keeps Loyalty Simple

Think about how many different rewards cards or loyalty programs you juggle.  Do you have 5 or 10?  Are cards stuffed in one place in your wallet, or do you have apps galore?  Do you even know the answers to these questions?

Let’s face it: You, as a customer, may have reached your saturation point for signing up for rewards and loyalty programs.  There is an opportunity for the customer experience to be optimized in an overarching way, so that the customer can still reap rewards, and companies can still connect in meaningful ways to drive business.

Dave Ratner, owner and CEO of Dave’s Soda and Pet City, has recognized this and acted on it.

“Consumers hate carrying so many cards,” Ratner said.

Dave’s Soda and Pet City, a leading pet store chain in Massachusetts and Connecticut, is the first merchant to sign on to use LOC Card. LOC Card is the universal loyalty developed by LOC Enterprises that allows customers to sign up for multiple loyalty programs—all through one system that houses customer information and shares it with desired brands and programs.

LOC Card was introduced in January 2013, born out of conversations with customers who were complaining about the challenge of balancing too many loyalty programs.

“The LOC card is different from any other loyalty mechanism out there,” Jack Kennamer, President and CEO of LOC Enterprises, told Loyalty360. “When we developed LOC we talked to thousands of consumers and asked them about loyalty programs – all the things they hated and loved about them.  We distilled all that down and what we created is an engagement platform, where as a consumer I can go to one place and have a dashboard that shows all the programs I belong to.”

According to Kennamer, the point is not for the LOC Card to get in between the brand and the customer. The aim is to simplify the experience, making it easier for the customer to do business with all the brands that they want to and reap the benefits. There is the question of how LOC Card affects the overall branded experience, but Kennamer says customers receive the same branded messages via the LOC dashboard.

Kennamer also explains that there is a real opportunity for merchants to enroll occasional shoppers who might not otherwise fully commit to a loyalty program. “It’s easy to get your core customer to join the loyalty program –but we want the occasional shopper,” he said. “The core is just a small slice, but the infrequent shopper provides a real opportunity to convert them to a core shopper. We eliminate every barrier a consumer has, except one: if they just don’t want to join.”

Recent research by LOC supports Kennamer’s optimistic vision of a universal card: 87% of consumers surveyed say they would use the LOC Card if a merchant offered it, and 46% said they would shop their retailers more frequently.

Ratner at Dave’s Soda and Pet City is hoping these numbers hold true. According to Kennamer, Ratner’s East Coast pet shop has already seen double enrollment in his loyalty program since he launched with LOC Card on August 29th.

"While we may be the first in the area to launch, we easily recognize the tremendous benefit the community will experience as more merchants join in," Ratner said. "It all comes down to simplifying the shopping experience so consumers can focus more on their loyalty to their favorite merchants, and less on giving out the same personal information over and over."

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