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The following project was designed implement a Loyalty Scheme Database for a small group of Petrol Service Stations so as to improve customer loyalty and keep up with the group's large multi-national competitors. At the out sight it was my intention to design a logical database, implement it in Microsoft Access and add a Visual Basic front end to allow for ease of use. Before beginning the design of the database I decided that I needed to research the subject in detail and find out what the advantages of implementing a Loyalty Scheme would be. As there are many such schemes currently in operation a lot of the research had already been done. I found that a feasibility study was vaguely necessary as the project was obviously feasible. I decided to use the structured Software Systems Design methodology to structure the project. I used some of the existing schemes as benchmarks and began to decide on the most suitable options available for the particular needs of this group of garages. As loyalty schemes are essentially a marketing tool I decided that I needed to do some market research. I designed and distributed a number of surveys the results of which can be seen in appendices D - E. I also used some statistical tools to establish the relevance of the results. As can be seen in the Conclusions at the end of the project I have decided that the final project should be implemented on one of the branches to evaluate it's working value. A number of recommendations on how the project should progress in time were also made. The outcome of the project is more or less as I envisioned it from the outset but I have discovered a much broader knowledge on the implementation of Loyalty Schemes. The project has also served to increase my knowledge of databases in general as well as Access and in particular of Visual Basic.
