Loyalty Lab Blog

David Rosen | Senior Vice President

Last week I registered for the Transportation Safety Administration’s “Clear Registered Travel Program” – or simply, “The Clear.”

While not a loyalty program per se, its concept and execution are very much in line with the best practices that we espouse for retail, hospitality/travel and consumer loyalty. Here’s how it works:

o Travelers register online with Clear by providing certain personal identifying data points (SSN, address, employer, passport and drivers license)

o Either at a participating airport (there are about a dozen including SFO, JFK, MCO, CVG, EWR, SJC and more to come) or at selected city locations, the applicant completes his or her application by providing finger prints, a photograph and a retinal scan

o The application is processed, and assuming no red flags, a membership card is mailed to the member

o Then, at participating airports, all the Clear member must do is arrive at the Clear kiosk, scan his or her finger and retina and head directly to baggage scan (he or she still must go through the same check, but bypasses the entire labyrinth of lines

It’s the classic relationship of “give-to-get” which defines the core element of a loyalty program. I as a business traveler, am willing to give my personal information in order to get a much faster, streamlined experience while I’m traveling.

Applying the program to Loyalty Lab’s “Best Practice Score Card” I’d grade the program a sold “A.”

Easy to Understand: Extremely, get the card, go through the line. The way we travel has changed dramatically over the past six years. This program addresses those changes head-on.

Worth-It Factor: For about 45 minutes and $99, for most frequent travelers the value proposition is crisp.

Speaks Uniquely to the Targeted Segment: Clearly not intended for twice-a-year travelers. This is for the road warrior. The program itself is presented professionally and at the expected level that any business traveler would expect.

Has a Unique and Defensible Hook: At this point, the only game in town, but I have to wonder how they will keep the lines down once the membership grows.

Significantly Increases Customer Insights: Well here is where the Clear departs from loyalty programs. According to its privacy promise, while personal information is collected, it is not transferred to the airport when you go through security. Nor are the airports into and out of you travel tracked. I think I’ll give them a pass on this one!

But beyond the privacy differences, the similarities are pretty striking. The Clear has forged marketing partnerships with several leading travel programs and even offers a Refer-a-Friend program where the referring member gets a free month for every member he or she enrolls.

Go TSA!

This entry was posted on Friday, September 28th, 2007 at 5:13 pm and is filed under Current News, Travel Loyalty. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.