Loyalty Programs allow you to award your customers Loyalty Points, which they can cash in for specials and discounts. It's a great way to generate repeat business. You can follow the Step-by-Step Instructions below for detailed instructions on setting up your Loyalty Program.
Step 1: Creating Loyalty Points (See Picture Below for Example)
- Start by going to Admin>Order Config>Loyalty and Credit Types. Click "Add New".
- In the "Internal Code Name" field, the most typical entry is "loyalty_points", though you can enter in something else if you like. This field will be used to generate a Merge Field that can be used to show a customer's Balance of this Point Type. The format of the Merge Field will be "[points_balance:(Internal Code Name)]", so, for example, "[points_balance:loyalty_points]".
- In the "Display Name" field, the most typical entry is "Loyalty Points". Whatever you type in here will display to your customers when you tell them their Point Balance, etc.
- Leave "Active" set to "Yes" unless you'd like to disable your Loyalty Points from being used. Setting "Active" to "No" will disable these Points from being used. However, any customers who already had a Point Balance before you set "Active" to "No" will still retain their Point Balance; they just won't be able to use them.
- In the "Expiration Interval" field, type in how long you would like these Points to last. The field supports entries in hours, days, weeks, months, or years. If you'd like these Points to last months or years, it's best to format your entries in months or years, not days. For example, if you'd like these Points to last for 1 year, you'd type in "1 year", not "365 days", as, if you format the entry in days, leap years will throw off the expiration date, since there are 366 days in a leap year, not 365.
- Leave "Expiration Extends" set to "No". When "Expiration Extends" is set to "Yes," the number of Points assigned multiplies by the "Expiration Interval" to determine how long the Points will be valid for. So, for example, if my Loyalty Points last 1 year and I set "Expiration Extends" to "Yes", then if a customer receives 10 Loyalty Points, they'll last for 10 years.
- Make sure to click "Submit" to save your changes!
Step 2: Creating a Coupon(s) to Use Loyalty Points (See Picture Below for Example)
- Navigate to Admin>Order Config>Coupons. Click "Add New".
- Fill out the "Name", "Coupon Code", and "Discount" fields; all other fields except "Point Cost" are optional (more on "Point Cost" below). Feel free to consult the Coupons tutorial for more information on Coupons and what other fields you may want to use.
- In the "Point Cost" field, choose your Loyalty Points, or whatever you called them in Step 1, from the first dropdown menu. Type in the number of Points you'd like this Coupon to cost into the text field. Leave the second dropdown set to "Redeem", rather than "Verify". This makes sure the Points are deducted from the customer's Point Balance when they use this Coupon Code.
- Make sure to click "Submit" or "Save" to save your changes!
Step 3: Setting Up Your Inventory to Assign Loyalty Points (See Picture Below for Example)
- Navigate to Admin>Products>Items. Choose "Spreadsheet Mode" from the dropdown menu to the right of the top of the page. PRO TIP: Spreadsheet Mode saves you time by enabling you to make edits straight from the menu. You can use it anywhere in the "Admin" area of your folder.
- If you don't see the "Award Points" field, click on "customize", check the "Award Points" box, uncheck any boxes for fields you don't need to see at the moment, and click "Update". PRO TIP: the "customize" button can be used anywhere in the back end/Control Panel in the "Admin" area to see only the fields you need to see at that moment.
- You may find it helpful to click on the heading for the "Category" field, which will group your Items together by Category, thus helping to organize your workflow.
- Click into the "Award Points" field for each Item you'd like to set up to assign Loyalty Points for your customers. Choose the Points you created in Step 1 from the dropdown, then enter in how many Points you'd like the Item to assign to your customers. Each Item of that type rented will assign that many Points, so, for example, if each 20 yard can awards 1 Loyalty Point and someone rents 3 of them, the cans will assign them 60 Loyalty Points. Click "Save" once you've completed this for the Item, then move on to the next Item until you've filled out this field for all your Items you'd like to assign Points.
- You can go back into Browse Mode if you like by choosing "Browse Mode" from the same dropdown you used to go into Spreadsheet Mode. Browse Mode is typically the better way to look at things and make edits to one or two entries in a given area, whereas Spreadsheet Mode is best for making mass edits to many entries.
Step 4: Adding Merge Fields to Emails and Other Documents (See Picture Below for Example)
- You can put Merge Fields into various Documents so as to communicate with your customers about your Loyalty Program. For example, you can add Merge Fields to your Receipt Document (Admin>Documents>General Documents>Receipt) that will tell your customers how many Points they earned for their order, their overall Point Balance, and what Coupons they qualify for based on their Point Balance. You may reach out to Tech Support for assistance with the formatting of the document if you like.
- The Merge Fields related to Points are as follows:
- [points_balance:(Internal Code Name for the Point Type)], so, for example:
[points_balance:loyalty_points]
. This Merge Field tells the customer their overall Point Balance for the Point Type, not including what they've earned for the current order. [points_balance:all]
tells your customer their Point Balance, not including what they've earned for the current order, for ALL Point Types (you can have multiple different Point Types in your ERS folder, though Loyalty Points are the most commonly used).[points_balance:earned]
tells your customer how many Points they earned for the current order.[points_balance:eligible_coupons]
tells your customer what Coupons they're eligible for based on their current Point Balance.
- [points_balance:(Internal Code Name for the Point Type)], so, for example:
- You can also add Merge Fields to Automatic Messages and any other customer-facing Documents. For example, you may want to add them to the Rental Reminder Letter.
That's it for setting up your Loyalty Program, unless you'd like to add more information about your Loyalty Program on your website! By default, on the Customer Information Page, the Coupon Code field will display a field that tells your customers how many Points they already have (their Current Point Balance), how many Points they'll be earning for the current order, and based on their Current Point Balance, what Coupons they qualify for. However, as mentioned above, you can add additional language informing your customer about your Loyalty Program on other parts of your website, before the Customer Information Page. For example, you can add some information about your Loyalty Program to the Price Rule Text in your folder, and/or on your Homepage. You can add a Customer Login feature if you'd like (reach out to Tech Support and ask them if you'd like to add this feature, or just to learn more about it if you'd like).
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