Our thoughts on how the Fisker Rewards Program could be improved based on our recent use of it.
Today, we’re going to take a look at the Fisker Rewards Program. The company launched its rewards program some time ago back in summer 2020. We’re going to share our experience with the program. Then, we’re going to provide some suggestions to improve or refresh the program now that the company has over 58,000 reservations for the Fisker Ocean.
If you didn’t know, Fisker launched the Rewards Program to incentivize people to refer friends and family to reserve the Fisker Ocean. We remember Henrik posting about it on Twitter a long while ago. He wanted to make the referral process fun. Kind of like a game.
If you have reserved or preordered a Fisker Ocean, then you are a part of the Fisker Rewards Program. You’ve been issued a referral code, which you may or may not know about. When people reserve a Fisker Ocean or PEAR, they can input your referral code. As a result, your referrals earn reward points to unlock free Fisker merchandise. One referral is equivalent to one reward point.
Currently, Fisker offers several reward milestones. When you refer people to reserve a Fisker Ocean or PEAR, the reward points you earn unlock specific reward milestones. Reward milestones include a water bottle and baseball cap (2 points), t-shirt (10 points), and sweatshirt (20 points).
We love Fisker’s strategy around gamifying their referral program. However, the rewards programs has never really appealed to us, because you can actually purchase all the rewards within the Fisker Store. We think the program could be improved upon and will share some thoughts in a minute.
The Backstory
We reserved our first Fisker Ocean back in September 2020. It wasn’t until a couple months ago we decided to use our referral code for the very first time.
We never wanted to use the Fisker Reward Program and our referral code, especially here on the site. We verbally refer a lot of people to Fisker and using a referral code offline doesn’t work so well. However, at the end of June we gave it a go right here on the site.
Giving it a go
Here is the backstory… A few months ago, we reached out to Fisker to share some merchandise (e.g., t-shirts, sweatshirts, etc.). We wanted to check the quality and write a review about it. We wanted to see what the products felt like as well as the craftsmanship. After we were done, we were going to give the merchandise to our readers. If you didn’t know, some of the products sold in the Fisker Store use recycled or sustainable materials just like the Fisker Ocean vegan interior.
Well, guess what, we never heard back from Fisker about this request to send some merchandise to review. We thought, OK, we’ll play the Fisker referral game and will add our Fisker referral code to the Fiskerati site. Maybe someone will use it? That way we can get the free water bottle, baseball cap, t-shirt, and sweatshirt. Then we can take a closer look at the quality including materials and craftsmanship.
We added our referral code to the bottom of the Fiskerati site back on June 30th, 2022. It took minutes to add and has been on the site for under two months. We thought, any referrals we get would be a byproduct of writing news articles and stories about Fisker. Remarkably, our referral code has been used 260 times. If you used our referral code, thank you from the bottom of our heart. ❤️
Product Quality
As part of the Rewards Program, the company sent us the items described on their site, aside from the baseball cap.
It is quite something that the t-shirt and sweatshirt are made with recycled materials like the Fisker Ocean interior. The t-shirt is extra soft. It uses recovered plastic water bottles woven into yarn. The sweatshirt may be the thickest one we’ve ever owned. It will be perfect for the chilly winter here in Southern California!
It goes to show you can create nice quality products using recycled or sustainable materials. Everything we received is well-built, looks, and feels nice. The t-shirt is comfortable to wear too.
Improving the Fisker Rewards Program
First off, it’s cool that Fisker even offers a rewards program. Not all car companies do. Also, kudos to them for making the referral process fun and rewarding. However, it’s probably time for the referral program to be refreshed. It hasn’t changed much in over two years. We have some ideas to improve the Fisker Rewards Program.
Reward points
For starters, it should only take one reward point to earn something even if it is small. Reward points should be earned for reservations, pre-orders, and purchases. Each action could offer a different reward point value. How about deducting reward points if referrals cancel a reservation or pre-order?
Shrink the gaps between reward points and add more rewards, preferably ones that can’t be purchased directly from the Fisker Store. That is the main reason the program hasn’t appealed to us. (More on that later.) By lowering the points needed to earn a reward, it will entice more people to use their referral codes. That might be a good thing as the Fisker Ocean already has so many reservations, unlike the Fisker PEAR.
The messaging on the Rewards page should be fun, and well, exciting! Messaging should never show a negative number, “Refer -240 more friends to earn your next reward.” You receive a negative number once you exceed 20 reward points. Try encouraging customers to keep using their referral code after achieving the last milestone. Should there even be a “last” milestone?
How about adding a leaderboard to actually make it a competition? (e.g., by country, state, city) How about notifying customers by email when rewards points are earned to re-engage them or when new exclusive rewards are up for grabs? Some basic things, but in our opinion they will make the program better, maybe even more meaningful.
Rewards
New rewards may reinvigorate the program. In our opinion, experiences make the best rewards (e.g., visit to Fisker HQ to meet Henrik, tour the Magna factory or PEAR factory, FaceTime w/ Henrik, special events, etc.).
As an example, Disney Movie Rewards does an excellent job with their rewards program. You can redeem rewards for a private tour of Walt Disney Studios and bring some friends. Pretty exciting, right!?
Experiences aren’t available for purchase in the Fisker Store — offer experiences! Experiences are memorable and people will talk about them for years to come.
Ideas from our readers
Our readers have some reward ideas that we wanted to share.
- Create statuses after milestones or point levels are achieved (e.g., gold, silver, platinum).
- Offer private events for people that have achieved various statuses.
- Progressive discounts on future car or toward OTA upgrades/accessories.
- Free premium connectivity for period of time.
- Signed vehicle from Henrik.
- Signed copy of original Ocean sketch.
- Hand drawn sketch from Henrik.
- Receive shares in Fisker stock.
- An option to select a reward such as a car discount, shares, or art (choose what’s best for you).
- Provide option to gift family members your reward points if there is a cap on rewards earned.
- Access to low volume special editions, like Porsche and Ferrari, or open up limited edition paint colors.
- Priority ordering / delivery for PEAR or Ronin (customer choice).
- Pre-launch test drive for PEAR/Ronin.
- Free floor mats, extra key fob, etc. when Fisker vehicle is delivered.
- Free charging for every referral, pre-order, or purchase.
What are your thoughts?
In the comments below, please share your thoughts on how you would improve the Fisker Reward Program. Have you ever shared your referral code? Do you still do it? If not, why did you stop? How can the program be reinvigorated or refreshed? Please let us know your ideas on what would make the best possible rewards program.
Reserve Your Fisker Ocean
Reserve your Fisker Ocean or PEAR at https://fiskerinc.com/reserve using referral code DDK87H.
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When I tried getting free gear with my max reward points through the app or online, it doesn’t do anything. Any idea how to fix this aside from contacting Fisker themselves? Thank you
Never heard of that issue before Collin. Typically, Fisker will reach out to you as you achieve each milestone. If you haven’t heard from them yet, take a screenshot of your account and what you see and email them ([email protected]).
Fisker Ocean power, price and design appear better than what is currently on the market, hence, I have a reservation for the Ocean Ultra. Fisker is partnered with Magna?, but has plans for a US plant to build the Pear (currently a 30K EV) which may also qualify for the 7500 credit – Time will tell if Fisker actually achieves the milestones for production. As for the rewards, Fisker could use several ideas in the article which state the obvious.
Thank you Christian, we hope Fisker bolsters their rewards program to help add fuel to reservation numbers. In our opinion, it’s the best marketing spend they can do.