question archive Many businesses such as fast food restaurants and coffee shops have Customer Loyalty Programs that reward you for purchasing their products or using their services
Many businesses such as fast food restaurants and coffee shops have Customer Loyalty Programs that reward you for purchasing their products or using their services
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Many businesses such as fast food restaurants and coffee shops have Customer Loyalty Programs that reward you for purchasing their products or using their services. These programs are based on operant conditioning. Below are four examples. For each example, name the schedule of reinforcement used. Your choices are A) Fixed Ratio; B) Variable Ratio; C) Fixed Interval; and D) Variable Interval schedules.
1) In pre-smartphone days, fast food restaurants and coffee shops used to give out punch cards. You got a punch for every purchase. After you filled your punch card, say after 10 visits, you got a free meal or beverage. This is an example of which schedule of reinforcement.
2) Most businesses now run their loyalty programs through apps. The app keeps track of your purchases, including what you purchase, how often, and when. The app can be programmed to dispense rewards according to different criteria. Say the app is programmed to give you a reward after a random number of purchases. You never know how many purchases you have to make to get a reward. This is an example of which schedule of reinforcement?
3) Your phone app is networked with the apps of all the other customers who have the app. You learn that a coffee shop chain will give a reward to the first person who makes an order through the app every hour on the hour. This is an example of which schedule of reinforcement?
4) The company decides to reward the first person who orders food through the app after a certain time period. So after a reward is dispensed, a certain time period has to pass before another reward is given. The first person to make a purchase on the app after the time period ends gets rewarded. The time period is not set but can vary randomly from one minute to eight hours. This is an example of which schedule of reinforcement
5) What is the key to distinguishing between ratio and interval schedules? Between fixed and random schedules?
6) Name some companies that have loyalty programs, especially ones run through their phone apps.
7) According to what we know about schedules of reinforcement, which of the schedules should lead to highest rate of purchases?
8) Do you think that companies take advantage of schedules of reinforcement to get people to purchase more through their customer loyalty programs? Explain your answer.
9) Do you think that you respond differently to different schedules of reinforcement in customer loyalty programs? Have you ever chosen to use a service or make a purchase because of a reward or incentive?
10) How easily are people's behavior, including our own, controlled by schedules or reinforcement?
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1. Fixed Ratio (after a set number of behaviors)
2. Variable Ratio (after a random number of behaviors)
3. Fixed Interval (after a set period of time, whoever is present gets reward)
4. Variable Interval (same as above but based on a randomized period of time)
5. The key difference between ratio and interval is whether the reward is given after a number of behaviors or after an amount of time. Ratio is always based on occurences of the behavior, whereas interval is always based on time. The key difference between fixed and variable is whether the reward cause is a set number or random. Fixed is always the same number, whereas variable is random or may change periodically.
6. Starbucks and Target both have loyalty programs and utilize apps, though Starbucks uses more of a true schedule of reinforcement.
7. Ratio schedules produce the highest rate of behaviors, and variable are more effective at producing consistent behaviors than fixed, so a variable ratio schedule should produce the highest behavior.
8. Yes. Many customer loyalty programs have rewards that expire, making customers both purchase more to get the rewards but also use their rewards within a certain window or lose it! Also the loyalty programs give perks that don't exist if you're not in them, but these are often based in schedules of reinforcement.
9. Yes. If a reinforcement is based on a certain window of time (a new discount every month, for example), then I may only engage with that business when I have the discount. However, if it's based on how much I shop or number of trips, I may alter my behaviors to trigger more rewards.
10. I think this varies person to person, but in general I do think this type of conditioning of behavior is very powerful. The more aware a person is about what is happening, this may impact its effectiveness or also may drive them to further engage to get the rewards. I think people enjoy being rewarded, so the right schedule of reinforcement can be very powerful.
Step-by-step explanation
Fixed RAtio - schedule where reward is given after a specific number of behaviors (every 10 trips, you get a reward)
Variable Ratio - schedule where reward is given after a number of behaviors, but the number required changes each time (First its a reward after first trip, sometimes its after 5 trips, sometimes its after 2 trips, and so on)
Fixed Interval - schedule where reward is given after specific amount of time (discount given once a month)
Variable Interval - schedule where reward is given after amount of time, and time period varies
