LoyaltyProgram
- Chapter I: Introduction to LoyaltyProgram
- Chapter II: A Comprehensive Overview of your Loyalty Programs
- Chapter III: Membership-centric Loyalty at its Best
- Chapter IV: The Potential to Utilize a Variety of Payment Cards
- Chapter V: Set Custom and Calibrated Earned Values
- Chapter VI: Create and Import Chains to Automate Loyalty
- Chapter VII: Define Earn Schemes and Rules to Incentivize and Reward
- Chapter VIII: Define Burn Schemes and Rules to Maximize Loyalty
- Chapter IX: Gather Zero-Party Customer Data
- Chapter X: Stay in the loop via the Loyalty Program Master View
Introduction to LoyaltyProgram
The Loyalty module is a flexible automated and personalized loyalty marketing experience for large and complex customer bases: customizable to any industry and loyalty program type.
The complex — but not complicated — tools to design or import a fully configurable loyalty program are centralized for ease of use. This empowers loyalty program administrators to focus on content by eliminating the nuisance of navigating through countless windows and clunky interfaces.
Tasks such as creating complex earn-and-burn rules and configuring associated triggers and rule-dependent events and accelerators have been simplified. A straightforward interface promotes high user acceptance and centers the spotlight back on what is most important: the deployment of an innovative loyalty program that promotes customer retention and new customer engagement.
The first of the four Loyalty submodules is the LoyaltyProgram submodule, depicting a live 360-degree view of programs. Ascertaining or modifying the status of loyalty programs and filtering through active, inactive, approved, pending, or rejected programs is a breeze via the all-in-one interface.
A Comprehensive Overview of your Loyalty Programs
Launching a loyalty program and setting its parameters has been simplified, without the need to tab out or view references. Administrators define the details of their programs in the Profile section, which can be used to instantly search or filter any number of programs.
For full administrative control, restrictions can be defined to limit editing of features such as manual adjustments, individual terms, and reward shop orders by unauthorized individuals within an organization.
The Profile section is the first step in creating a comprehensive loyalty program; setting the basis for creating or linking program pre-processing rules, earn-and-burn schemes, priority resolutions, earned values, memberships, and tiers.
Membership-centric Loyalty at its Best
Loyal customers, both present and future, are at the heart of any loyalty program. A fully configurable membership levels creation permits administrators to set custom membership plans for customers.
To streamline the merging of internal and external systems, membership parameters can be created or imported. The name, description, start, and end dates of memberships are fully customizable. There are no boundaries to the number of memberships created and level upgrades and downgrades can be set using rules, which again, can either be created or imported.
Why Membership Matters: Brand, Lifestyle, and Influencer Communities
An elevated level of personalization includes customer and membership–centricity, both essential to a successful loyalty program.
The creation of brand and influencer communities provides a unique opportunity to build brand awareness and launch effective brand activation strategies. Their importance in fostering customer loyalty is unparalleled by customers’ emotional bonds to brands, which then provides user-generated content and valuable insights into current customer trends and expectations.
For example, products or services that are marketed towards lifestyles that favor eco-friendly activities can be rewarded via a loyalty program. This creates an attractive opportunity for like-minded individuals to bond with each other, and more importantly, bond with a brand they can identify with.
Communities bring customers together. Loyalty programs keep them coming back.
The Potential to Utilize a Variety of Payment Cards
Clear and concise settings enable the creation of or import of payment cards that allow customers to pay for products and services. This includes the potential to integrate payment cards, such as Visa and Mastercard, among others. Structuring of payment cards is simpler than ever via external or internal reference identification, enabling loyalty program creators to search and organize with ease.
Loyalty programs can be associated with certain payment cards to customize products and services and link them to specific cards with set rules.
Multiple Rewards from Multiple Vendors using Payment Cards
Payment cards are used around the world, from air travel to hotels, to small businesses comprising bustling malls. Their applications are almost limitless – even more reason that these brands and industries should come together to redeem rewards earned from payment cards.
This not only presents an opportunity for collaboration in loyalty programs across industries, but it also provides relevant and measurable customer experiences with more ways to redeem points and multiple merchants offers on board.
There has been remarkable success in working together when sharing common ground, particularly when costs and management responsibilities can be jointly shared.
Set Custom and Calibrated Earned Values
The configuration of a loyalty program’s earned value, whether it is in the form of FIAT, points, or miles is fully customizable via creation or import.
There are multiple selections that can fine tune the monetary or token value of available rewards to tailor fit any loyalty program. This includes full customization of the earned values, including specifics such as rounding rules, earned value units, currency types, external references, groups, fiat base values, earned value costs, and earn-and-burn schemes in detail.
The values that are earned and accrued on a member account can be easily referenced and named after the definitive “currency” of the earned value is defined. This earned value can then be linked to a burn scheme, which incentivizes the use of earned value on a member account and triggers the burn fulfilment.
This can be in the form of conversion, program vouchers, or cash-credits on a payment account. The same financing terms can also be related to burn schemes, which are explored in-depth below.
The Value in Earned Value: Integration with Existing Ecosystems
Earned value can come in many forms. Selecting the most appropriate form for a loyalty program boosts audience reach and brand awareness. For example, a loyalty program that already has brand reach in cryptocurrency communities can incorporate a cryptocurrency earned value into their program, thereby increasing daily trade volume, and promoting a healthy ecosystem.
Earned value is more than just a check mark on a loyalty program creation list: it can be a mutually beneficial relationship that reaches the appropriate audience through its own merits.
Create and Import Chains to Automate Loyalty
Chains determine how loyalty programs function through the creation or import of pre-processing rules. Parameters including name and description identify rules, and specifics such as sub programs and KPI templates ensure that searching for chains in the future is an effortless task. Rules can fall into many categories, from pre-processing, earn-and-burn schemes, priority solution, earned value, membership, to tiers and more.
Most importantly, they enable administrators to automate loyalty, generate push and pull requests that can be triggered by a batch action or a real-time input, and set schedulers. Data can be validated and used to influence metrics and determine customer preferences.
Chains enable the combination of a variety of automated and batch requests, but as earn schemes are the most common approach to loyalty, they will be explored in-depth below.
Define Earn Schemes and Rules to Incentivize and Reward
Earn schemes can be imported or created in the LoyaltyProgram submodule, enabling administrators to create unique schemes to maximize loyalty benefits. These schemes can be linked to specific loyalty programs, whilst remaining easily identifiable via instant search using name, description, status, type, or sub-type.
Earned value is the basis of loyalty programs and is often generated via the aptly named earn schemes, excepting instant rewards. Earn schemes can either be a permanent part of a loyalty program or temporary through promotions and campaigns, with priority given according to imported or newly created priority resolution rules. This enables the application of earn schemes that are impacted by individual earn terms and prevents overlaps and conflicts. The “best offer” principle will always prevail.
Earn to Burn
Parameters such as qualification rules, which include financial transactions and events, set the basis for earning points. Earned points can then be redeemed or automatically burned via expiration or instant rewards.
Earn scheme models are only limited by the data that is available: which presents creative earning possibilities, such as via transactions in shops, web stores, and apps, and rewards for singular events, such as birthdays or holidays.
Customers could potentially purchase points. Earning related rules can pull data from transactions, events, members and memberships, merchant data, and more. For full customizability of complex industries, data can be stored either within the program itself or pulled for use by external source systems.
Game and Earn: Playing to Win
There is no doubt that the loyalty industry benefits from gamification. The human drive to compete and achieve results aligns with incentives such as badges, tiers, and memberships in loyalty.
This valuable data can be seamlessly integrated into earn scheme principles, driving brand loyalty and incentivizing others to join. For example, enticing customers to interact with an app or a website via a game with corresponding earned points has the potential to not only push loyal customers to participate, but to incentivize new customers to join.
Simple and fun games can turn mundane into magic – and one-time customers into regulars.
Define Burn Schemes and Rules to Maximize Loyalty
Similar to earn schemes, burn schemes can be created or imported, enabling the support of nearly any burn scheme. Intergration of schemes with any industry is limited only by available data but can also be seamlessly enhanced and adapted on a case-by-case basis.
Just as earn schemes, burn schemes can be linked to loyalty programs and readily identified via instant search using name, description, status, type, or sub-type. Instant rewards, such as through program vouchers or gift cards, and the import of externally burned earned value are supported. Manual adjustments or real time burning such as at a point of sale can be smoothly implemented – as well as, most importantly – flexibly automated.
This converts the earned value, or loyalty currency, into the burned value, or target currency. There are no limitations on whether the latter is a FIAT or non-FIAT currency, which provides additional flexibility to loyalty programs.
Critically and beyond pure burning of earned value, the LoyaltyProgram submodule is capable of supporting hybrid payments over multiple means, including FIAT, open and/or closed loop payment cards, vouchers, earned value, and more.
Burn to Earn
Earning rewards is satisfying; and countless options can also make it exciting. This is where creative marketing and rewards come into play to incentivize customers. The conversion of the earned value via a burn can be integrated with any industry, and scales seamlessly even in the most complex environments.
Loyalty program administrators can select the option that suits their business best, such as burning via reward shops, cash back programs, or working under an umbrella program that rewards travel miles and hotel vouchers. These can be mixed and matched to any industry and can target specifics such as discounts for purchasing clothes from a clothing brand to broad applications such as donations to participating charities.
Where Challenges meet Creativity
Combinations of rules and algorithms that encompass burn schemes present limitless creative options – as well as challenges. In those cases, it could be beneficial to employ a hybrid loyalty program model, enabling the combination of multiple earn-and-burn rules to create the most efficient loyalty system.
For example, including the earn-and-burn models as a base concept, while also employing the benefits of gamification can create a unique and incentivizing experience for customers who want more from a rewards program, while not alienating those who are happy with the status quo of a typical earn-and-burn reward.
Gather Zero-Party Customer Data
Data provided by Customers can be imported or created and set to the exact specifications required of any industry’s loyalty program. Zero-party data such as name, email, phone, and geographic information can be compiled and accessed with ease via instant search. This enables the segmentation and targeting of demographic groups with full efficacy.
Stay in the loop via the Loyalty Program Master View
Loyalty programs are readily available via the loyalty program master view, which includes all programs and readily displays their name and status.
Expanding this view will reveal key information such as membership, earn-and-burn schemes, related eligibility and dates, currency balance, value of the last statement balance, and total recent points earned-and-burned. Full editing, cloning, and other management capabilities are available in this section, as well as the ability to add and view linked memberships. Additionally, tasks such as automation and scheduling can be defined, including single or recurring events, and with parameters such as start and end dates and times.
The all-in-one interface enables administrators to update and view programs in real time, providing valuable insight into the success of loyalty programs via measurable key performance indicators. The widget functionality enables administrators to select and display essential information with full customizability.