STC introduces loyalty programme |24 February 2014

Customers of the Seychelles Trading Company (STC), especially loyal ones, will be rewarded with beneficiary incentives whenever they shop in any STC outlet.

This follows the launch of the company’s loyalty programme in a ceremony that took place on Friday at the STC’s conference room on Latanier Road.
 
The loyalty programme, which consists basically of a discount card, was officially launched by the Minister for Finance, Trade & Investment Pierre Laporte and STC’s chief executive Veronique Laporte in the presence of several other government ministers, principal sectaries, chief executives, other high government officials, the business community, some STC customers and staff.
The aim of the loyalty card, a first for STC and indeed Seychelles, is to thank all customers, especially the loyal ones, for shopping at STC’s different outlets and for that STC is rewarding them with beneficiary incentives whenever they shop in any STC outlet. The different outlets are the STC super market in Victoria, the STC gift shop at Docklands, the Praslin super market and the Praslin gift shop and also the La Digue super market which will open soon.
The card will not be of use in any of STC’s duty free shops.

Speaking at the official launch, Ms Laporte said that the card will come with a 3% discount to start with and will rise in future in accordance with the performance of STC.

“This is a way of saying thank you to our customers, by sharing some of our profits to them. The card will also be a tool for us to gather information on what the young, families or old people are buying, their expectations and also what products are selling well and those that are not. It will also give us information on the number of people that shop at our outlets and anybody can subscribe for a loyalty card,” she said.
In a small presentation on the functions of the loyalty card, Patrick Thomas, general manager for Information System with STC, explained that the programme is a win-win situation for both STC and the customers.
To obtain an STC loyalty card a customer has to shop for a minimum of R800 and above at any one time in any of STC’s outlets, that is in any of its super markets or gift shops on Mahé, Praslin and La Digue. The customer will be given an application form to fill and will hand over the form to the customer care officer along with proof of the amount of his or her purchase.
The customer will choose where the card can be picked up from any of STC’s outlets.

The delivery of the card will take about three days for a customer on Mahé and about five days for a Praslin and La Digue customer.

The customer care officers and cashiers will also advise customers shopping for over R800 who maybe or might not be aware of the loyalty card programme.

With the loyalty card in hand, a customer can shop at any  of STC’s super markets or gift shops and he or she has to show the card to the cashier before the goods are scanned and points will be awarded automatically. A customer will gain one point for every rupee spent.
With a minimum of 3400 points or above a customer can redeem his or her points whenever he or she wants through purchase of level discounts or special offers being offered by STC. It means that you can pay for any goods with the card with the minimum amount of 3400 points and points will be deducted upon the purchase of goods while using the card.
If you pay with cash, points will be awarded. In other words, the money you spend will be the points you earn.

As part of other future initiatives, a customer will be able to use the loyalty card to buy services or goods from other sectors in business which has close collaboration partnership with STC. This will be announced in due course. The collaboration partners may include telecommunication firms, banks, hotels, restaurants, other businesses and even airlines.
Customers accumulating 5000 points and above will also be included in quarterly lottery draws and in as many other incentives, for more points or discounts.

According to Ms Laporte, STC’s next step is to in future turn the loyalty discount card into a  financial card that customers shopping overseas can earn points and even pay for goods with it. For that STC will be looking through close working collaboration with its partners.
Thanking guests for attending Friday’s event, Ms Laporte officially presented the first loyalty card to Minister Laporte and then to all other ministers present.

She also presented the loyalty card to STC board members while other guests were given a number which later went into a draw and ten lucky winners were awarded the card.