Preferred Customers Two restaurants start a program to rewards their regular customers.Restaurant #1 They make a card about the size of a business card with 5 boxes. Each time you get a lunch special they initial a box. Present a full card and your lunch special is free! The lunch specials are not only a great price, but include drink, appetizer, main dish and dessert. The cards are well made because they have the name of the place so you can show it off to your friends and give the restaurant a free promotion beyond just the special! Restaurant #2 One day they ask you to write your name and address on a small piece of paper. You provide the information without thinking much about it except wondering how much junk mail you'll get. Months later, after having visited the restaurant maybe 75 times since you gave them your address, you're surprised because the check some with your name imprinted on it and a preferred customer discount! Wow! I guess it just took some time for them to start their program. However, the next time you go in no discount. No personalized check. Nothing. The next time you ask about it and are told oh yeah that's our preferred customer program, just give your name when asking for the check to receive it. No so bad, I guess. But it misses all the promotional appear of what restaurant #1 does. But it gets worse. The next several times it took 20-30 minutes to get a check because of difficulty finding my name in the cash register. The last time I was there, almost a year ago, after 20 or 30 minutes of waiting they finally said my name was lost and they had to do the check by hand. It wasn't only my name, but my business that was lost! Three times a week times 52 weeks equals a lot of lost business because of a very poor implementation of a preferred customer program. | 
