It was revealed recently that more people in the UK have a Tesco Clubcard than own the nation's most popular credit card.

Barclaycard has 11.7 million holders and Tesco says it has 16 million active loyalty card users. That's over a quarter of the entire population of the UK, and nearly a third of all adults.

Loyalty schemes are on the increase in the kbb industry too. Suppliers have always had rewards and competitions for their customers, but until now they've been more about first-past-the-post rather than whoever-gets-past-the-post.

BCG has launched a scheme that gets you Airmiles if you hit certain sales targets, BSH is doing a cashback deal, Moores is running a reward programme for Four Seasons and Shades that can bag a car for anyone who sells a certain amount  - and the list goes on.

But while they're not in the same league, there's one thing all these schemes have in common with Tesco and that's that they work on a system of rewarding loyalty with tangible benefits.

The continuing woes surrounding the KBSA have provoked plenty of harsh words about the organisation and its inability to gain the support of its membership when it comes to its administration. Out of 277 retail members it could only get 23 to turn up at its AGM when it needed 25 to vote on resolutions - exactly the same problem it faced at the 2008 meeting.

The KBSA is trying desperately to change its own rules to mean that it doesn't need to find 25 members every time it needs to vote but, while that needs to be done urgently, it does sort of miss the wider point. Changing the rules doesn't address the fundamental problem of a lack of support from its members - hmm, why on earth don't they want to drive across the country to sit in a meeting voting on resolutions and going through the association's accounts?

Loyalty programmes like the hugely successful Tesco Clubcard are all about making involvement worthwhile, giving something extra to make sure they do more - they're called incentive schemes, not obligation schemes. And that's the KBSA's problem, they're looking for people to attend meetings and get involved more in the organisation out of obligation - they want members to support them when they're actually looking at the complete opposite, they're paying their subscriptions to be supported. Look at how many member complaints start with 'no one from the KBSA has been to see us'.

But it's not just the KBSA; this is the real problem any industry body will have in the kitchen and bathroom independent retail sector - the vast majority of retailers are, by their nature, apathetic. For all the best intentions other bodies that need to involve retailers, like the National Training Group, also struggle to get anywhere near the level of involvement necessary to truly make them a force for change and influence.

Bodies and initiatives are always looking for 'support' - and that makes it sound like an obligation without reward. Retailers need to feel that the value of leaving the showroom for a day is worth more than staying and at the moment they don't - they're certainly not apathetic about their own profits and quite right too.

Sometimes, as in the case of the KBSA AGM, they're right to stay away as from their business' point of view it would be a day wasted. But sometimes, equally, some very good schemes and initiatives, like the NTG training courses, can fall by the wayside not from lack of 'support' but from lack of people opening their eyes and ears long enough to realise they could really get some significant help and advice out of it - they simply haven't bothered to find out one way or the other if it's worth their while.

You should have no obligation to support industry initiatives, but what you do have is an obligation to help yourself by investigating whether any support that's offered to you is useful and acting on it if it is.

In fairness to the KBSA, it has said all along that it's more than happy if members just want to pay their subs, take advantage of all the benefits that go with it and have no involvement in how the organisation is run. That's fine, but that just highlights that there is no value for members in getting involved at that level. Before the AGM, regional chairman were phoning round cajoling, arm-twisting and guilting members into saying they would definitely be there - that's hardly promoting added value.

There are, genuinely, some very good benefits that go along with KBSA membership, and it has made real efforts to move away from the 'old boys club' image it had lumbered itself with, but unfortunately it's still left with the same small group of volunteers struggling to get those benefits approved and working because they can't find anyone else. I've heard a  couple of members call for the entire board to be replaced, but who with? Many of them have been trying to get themselves replaced for ages as they feel they've more than done their duty, and they'd be right.

Debates surrounding the upcoming kbb Birmingham show come under this topic too. We're media partners in the event and so it's difficult to say anything without it being filtered through that, however the discussion seems to have moved on from whether anyone will want to exhibit - the available list six months out from the show proves that's not the case - so now it's about 'will they get the support from the visitors?'

But, again, it's not about whether retailers and visitors should 'support' a show, it's about whether they've decided it's worth their while to go once they've investigated what will be there. Will they be better off after they've been than before?

For example, there were supposed to be two London shows this year, kbb London and our own kbbreview EXPO, but neither happened. The reason for this was a lack of exhibitors, not visitor interest. Pre-registered visitors on both shows were very high and for the kbbreview Expo it was up by over two-thirds on the previous show in 2007 when the market was still booming.

In other words, visitors were prepared to come because they thought it was worth the time out of the showroom to see new products. Exhibitors didn't think it was worth the financial outlay at a time when the market was really dreadful, so they didn't commit. Neither decisions were about  'support', but clear business decisions based on personal value and worth weighed against time and effort.

Isn't it about time that industry bodies and events stopped calling for 'support' and started offering more incentives and specific values? And likewise, isn't it about time retailers stopped thinking in such an insular way and started to investigate what is available to them?

These exhibitions, awards, training services, and everything else are there for your benefit, they're there to help you make more of your business and help to increase your profits, efficiency and operations and, as a result, the overall health of the industry.

So your only obligation is take the time to see what's on offer and decide whether it's of any value to you - if it's not, then don't do it, but if it is support yourself, your staff and your business by giving it a go.

Andrew Davies, editor, kbbreview

What do you think? Email me direct: andrew@kbbreview.com