ThinkGeek.com's Shane Peterman on Loyalty Programs

Whether its customers walk into a coffee shop in Anywhere, U.S.A. and want to be able to simply look down at their chests to know if the building has wireless Internet service or those consumers want to exhibit a professional laser light show at home, ThinkGeek.com says it has the products they need. Plus, both the $29.99 Wi-Fi Detector Shirt and the $1,999.99 ProLaserFX Showcube purchases can earn them free gadgets, courtesy of the Geek Points loyalty program.

Shane Peterman, spokesman for the Fairfax, Va.-based company started in 1999 for techies by techies, explains the loyalty program that proudly labels its customers "geeks." ThinkGeek.com, owned by Mountain View, Calif.-based open-source software company SourceForge Inc., lets its customers determine how they want to throw off the point curve. With the 550 points resulting from the battery-powered T-shirt purchase, or the 10,000 points collected on the Showcube buy, the "smart masses" who frequent ThinkGeek.com can get freebies ranging from Shower Shock Caffeinated Soap to a cubicle playset - ideal for cubicle desktop silliness.

Target Marketing: What do you consider your loyalty program? You seem to have several: the rewards program, Geek Points, the ThinkGeek Bounty Program that pays customers for T-shirt ideas, the Submit Your Techie Haiku program and the Action Shot Winner reward.  
Shane Peterman: I think it's a little bit of all of the above. It's obviously mostly the Geek Points program, just because that's something that regular customers will sign up for.

TM: How is Geek Points different from other loyalty programs?
SP: We do try to change the rewards out fairly often. So I think that's something that kind of makes it a bit different, because I know a lot of times you'll see certain Web sites that have reward programs that it's always the same things that you can get for free; whereas, we try to keep it fresh and move things in and out of the reward program from time to time.

TM: Can people use Geek Points for a portion of a purchase, then supplement with cash?
SP: Say somebody wanted to get one of the rewards that we have available, like a Micro Spy Remote, and they were ordering something else, as well ... if their order was $15 or more, then they could use the Geek Points and get the Micro Spy Remote for free.

TM: What sort of retention rates are you seeing?
SP: It's going really, really well. I mean, we've constantly got people that are asking about the Geek Points program. ... I'd say, probably, nine times out of 10 on orders, you're going to see that they are getting the Geek Points. I think a majority of people that we've got coming to our site are return customers, and I'd like to think that the Geek Points have something to do with that.   

TM: You have $4.99 to $2,100 items. But right now, the most expensive thing you can earn with Geek Points is $80. Customers need to redeem 7,000 Geek Points for that. Do you stick to low-priced items so people can be rewarded more often?
SP: That's basically it. The [Green Laser Pointer II] is the highest [priced] item right now. ... We don't want to throw anything too high-valued in there, because it almost makes it unattainable. You know what I mean? So yeah, it is something where we'd like people to be able to redeem the points as often as possible. As the program name itself implies, we like to give people these points and rewards for continuing to support us.

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