Many people are enticed by loyalty programmes, but not many understand the schemes, which often prove to be clever marketing.

Free plane trips feel like a big reward, but airlines can give away unsold berths at little cost because the jet would fly whether filled or not.

Loyalty programmes at coffee joints encourage customers to pay for their daily dose of coffee by pre-loading apps with cash. This allows the firms to harvest data on their patrons, such as what they drink, at which outlet and at what time of the day. Such information can be used to target members with individual offers.

Other retailers collect data on their customers' shopping habits in a similar way, and customers may not realise how valuable the data collected is to the firms.

Many advances in loyalty programmes are driven by mobile technology. Firms use a customer's location to send him targeted real-time offers, and being able to store loyalty cards digitally encourages shoppers to use them.

Some eateries offer loyalty points to customers who post photos of their meals or check in to the eatery's location on Facebook, without customers realising the privacy risk.

The Consumers Association of Singapore should do more to educate consumers, as many are naive enough to believe that customer loyalty is reciprocated by the businesses.

Cheng Choon Fei