Getting Started with Loyalty Programs

Loyalty programs let customers store points on digital cards. These points are earned by meeting program rules. Besides managing loyalty cards and program rules, Voucherify provides a rewards catalog and an omnichannel notifications system to provide a fully gamified experience to your customers.

This article will guide you through key concepts and definitions of loyalty campaigns in Voucherify. 

Contents

1. Glossary
2. Loyalty Workflow
3. Loyalty Points Expiration
4. Earning Rules
5. Rewards
6. Cockpits
7. Tiers
8. Notifications
9. Metadata
10. Maintenance & tracking
11. Useful Resources

Before continuing you can also watch our Loyalty Masterclass video and learn how Voucherify can support your loyalty program.

Glossary

Here are the key definitions you need to grasp to understand how loyalty campaigns work.

Loyalty card 

A digital card with a unique code that works as a digital wallet for customer's points. 

Earning rule 

Earning rule defines an action(s) that result in assigning a particular number of loyalty points to a customer's loyalty card. There is no limit on the number of earning rules in a single loyalty campaign. Each earning rule has a timeframe that defines when it's active.

Loyalty tier 

Tiers are different levels of membership in your loyalty program. Tier is defined by a minimum and maximum amount of points on a customer's loyalty card. You can map different rewards and earning rules to each tier. 

Reward 

A digital or material incentive that your customer can get in exchange for their loyalty points.

Notification 

A  message sent from Voucherify to an end-customer or 3rd party application via which you can send loyalty cards and inform about collected points or redeemed rewards.

Customer cockpit 

An individual customer space presenting the number of loyalty points, rewards, assigned referral codes, and owned incentives like discounts or gift cards. You can copy and share links to fully-branded cockpits and enable your customers to exchange loyalty points for rewards independently.

Reward redemption

The action of exchanging points for a chosen reward. Reward redemption results in redeeming points and updating the balance on a loyalty card.

Loyalty card publication 

The action of assigning a unique card to a particular customer. Loyalty cards need to be published before customers start collecting points. 

Loyalty points expiration

Loyalty points accumulated on a loyalty card can expire in a pre-defined time frame. Points expirations can be defined on the campaign level. Points are accrued with no expiration date when no expiration rule is defined in the campaign.

Auto-join campaign 

Optional campaign mode ensuring that when a customer meets at least one earning rule, he/she will automatically get a loyalty card published (assigned) to his/her profile with an updated points balance. 

Join-once campaign 

By default the setting for this feature is turned on in the Dashboard. This mode ensures that each customer can own only one loyalty card from the campaign. You cannot toggle this on/off in the Dashboard.

Auto-update campaign 

Optional campaign mode ensuring the application will automatically generate new loyalty cards when the initial batch runs out.

Sign-up landing page 

A landing page with a customizable subscribe form to share loyalty cards with your customers. Landing pages are automatically connected to your account and publish loyalty cards to each customer who successfully fills out the form.

Loyalty workflow

Voucherify supports you in every step of your loyalty program. First, it lets you build your program conditions, set up rewards, and automate notifications.

Next, you need to assign (publish) loyalty card codes to particular customers, so they can collect points for specific reward actions. Voucherify continuously monitors their behavior and updates their loyalty score. Using customer cockpits, you can let customers track their score and redeem points for loyalty rewards on their own. 

If you decide to use non-material rewards such as discounts, gift cards, or pay-with-points rewards, Voucherify will support you with validating and redeeming rewards in your store. Finally, Voucherify helps you understand what works and what doesn’t with real-time tracking of your loyalty campaigns and performance reports.

Let's take a closer look at the key concepts.

Loyalty Points

Loyalty points accumulated on a loyalty card can expire in a pre-defined time frame.

Expiration period

Points expiration can be defined in months and are always based on the activity date (e.g., order date). For example, if you set a 12 months expiration period and points are accrued for an order on 15.04.2022, then the expiration date will be set to 15.04.2023. 

The points expiration date is the last date when the points can be spent. So, in the above example, an expiration date set to 15.04.2023 means that the customer can use the points until the end of 15.04.2023, and from 16.04.2023, the points will be treated as expired and cannot be used any longer. 

Expiration date rounding

Besides the option to set the points expiration period in months, there is also an option to round up an expiration date to a specific date, such as:

• End of the month,
• End of the quarter,
• End of the half-year,
• End of the year,
• End of the particular month (e.g., end of February).

With the above options, it is possible to define that points expiration will occur not every day in the year but only on particular days. The expiration rules can work on a:

• Monthly basis - at the end of each month,
• Quarterly basis - at the end of March, June, September, and December,
• Half-year basis - at the end of June and December,
• Annual basis - at the end of the calendar year (end of December) or at the end of any other particular month (e.g., end of February, May, etc.).

Points redemption and transfers

Here are some guidelines regarding points redemptions and transfers.

• It is not possible to use any points with a past expiration date. 
• If the card contains points that expire on different dates, then redemptions consume the points that expire sooner.
• When you transfer points from one card to another, then the expiration date is reset for the transferred points on the day of the transfer. For example, if the transfer occurs on 21.04.2022 and the expiration is set to 1 month, then the points will now expire on 21.05.2022 after the transfer.

Points returned during redemption rollback

Points are returned to the card, but the expiration date is reset to a new date. For example, if the rollback occurred on 21.04.2022 and the expiration is set to 1 month, then after the rollback, the points are credited back to the card, but now expire on 21.05.2022.

Exporting points expiration periods

You can create a CSV file of all your points expirations for a given campaign. Simply navigate to your campaign, choose the Points Expiration tab and click on the Export tool.  View this article for more information on exporting points expirations.

You can also track points expirations; explained in detail here.  

Add or remove points manually

There is a possibility to add or remove points via the Voucherify Dashboard. In the Customer view, click on the Wallet tab > Loyalty Cards, find the loyalty card that you are interested in and click on the loyalty card code. You will be redirected to the loyalty card view. Here in the upper right hand corner, click on the icon that resembles a card. 

A popup window will allow you manually modify the points. To add points, enter a positive number, choose one of the three expiration date options and click Add. Points added manually can either inherit the expiration date defined in the campaign, have a custom expiration date, or not expire at all.

To remove points, enter a minus sign followed by the number of points and click Subtract. If the card contains points that expire on different dates, then the removal of points will consume the points that expire sooner.

Earning Rules

Earning rules define actions that customers must take to receive loyalty points and, as a result, redeem points for loyalty rewards. You can create 8 types of earning rules in Voucherify: 

• customer segments, 
• paid orders, 
• and custom events that customers perform in your application/website,
• customer joins the loyalty tier structure,
• customer leaves the loyalty tier structure,
• customer's loyalty tier is upgraded,
• customer's loyalty tier is downgraded,
• customer's loyalty tier is prolonged.

Moreover, you can extend each earning rule with metadata and with additional constraints using validation rules.

Each earning rule can have its own time frame that defines when the rule is active. If you don't define the start and expiration date for an earning rule, it'll inherit the campaign time frame (start and expiration date). All time-related limits are optional and described precisely in this guide.

Timeframe options include:

• Start date & time
• End date & time (expiration)
• Valid in this timeframe only (recurring)
• Valid on particular days only

You can disable and enable earning rules in the campaign dashboard > earning rules.

Creating an earning rule is a four-step process:

1. [Required] Define the earning rule details such as name and the timeframe when it will be valid (timeframe is optional).  All time-related limits are described precisely in this guide.
   
2. [Required] Assign a points value.
   

   

3. [Optional] Add custom attributes to the earning rule using metadata by defining key/value pairs. Please read our guide on how to start with metadata to learn more.

   

4. [Optional] Add validation rules that limit earning rule usage to the predefined circumstances.

   

Order has been paid

Points are added to the loyalty card when a new order changes its status to PAID. 

You can assign a fixed number of points or reward customers proportionally to a spent amount or a metadata value. 

If you choose to calculate the points proportionally, then for every predefined value in the selected metadata or spent amount, the customer will get a defined number of points. There are seven standard options to choose from based on amount spent, quantity of items in cart, and customer or order metadata. 

The metadata must be a number type defined earlier in the Project Settings > Metadata Schema. Please read our guide on how to start with metadata to learn more.

Fixed

Awards a fixed number of points for paying an order.

Proportional

• Pre-discount order amount - Awards customers X points for every Y spent excluding discounts (order total amount counted before the discounts were applied).
  
  
• Total order amount - Awards customers X points for every Y spent including discount (order total amount counted after the discounts were applied).
  
  
• Pre-discount amount spent on items - Awards customers X points for every Y spent on items excluding discounts (total amount spent on particular product or product collection counted before the discounts were applied).
  
  
• Amount spent on items - Awards customers X points for every Y spent on items including discounts (total amount spent on particular product or product collection counted after the discounts were applied).
  
  
• Quantity of items in the cart - Awards customers X points for every Y items excluding free items (quantity of a particular product or items from a selected product collection, including products added for free).
  
  
• Order Metadata - Awards customers X points for every Y in metadata attribute. The metadata must be defined in the Order schema and must be a Number.

  

• Customer Metadata - Awards customers for every Y in metadata attribute. The metadata must be defined in the Customer schema and must be a Number.

  

You can also add custom attributes to the earning rule by defining metadata key/value pairs. Using validation rules, you can attach additional requirements that customers need to meet to earn points. Rules can define cart structure and volume, customer attributes, or specify qualified customer segments. Go here to learn more about validation rules.

Earning rules examples:

• 1 point for each $0.01 spent if the total order amount is less than $50.
• 1 point for each $0.1 spent if the total order amount is more than $50.
• 20 points for every item from “Kitchen” collection 
• 1 point for every $ spent on collection with SALE items
• Multiply by 3 value of customer metadata “age” to get points value
• Multiply by 2 value of order metadata “priority” to get points value
• 2 points for each $1 spent if a customer is in the Premium Customers segment.
• 20 points if the order is paid and the payment method is Visa.
• 50 points if a customer had MacBook in their cart.

Custom Events

Custom events are actions taken by your customers that you track in your application or website and pass to Voucherify using our API. Using events in earning rules enables you to reward customers for custom activities of your choice, e.g., leaving a review, tagging your brand on social media, attending an event, and more. 

First, define your events in the Event Schema in the Project Settings. 

The Schema gathers definitions of all events that you can later pass to Voucherify and use in your loyalty campaigns. 

The customer gets points every time he/she performs the required action (custom event is sent to and received by Voucherify). You can assign a fixed number of points or reward customers proportionally to a metadata value. 

If you choose to calculate the points proportionally, then for every value in the selected customer or event metadata, the customer will get a defined number of points. The metadata must be added to the Metadata Schema in your Project Settings.

• Customer Metadata - Awards customers for every Y in metadata attribute. The metadata must be defined in the Customer schema and must be a Number. Read more in our guide on how to start with metadata.

  

• Custom Event Metadata - Awards customers for every Y in metadata attribute. The metadata must be defined as a property of the event chosen in the first step (Details). This is defined in the Event Schema and must be a Number. Read more in our guide on how to start with event schemas.
  
  

You can also add custom attributes to the earning rule by defining metadata key/value pairs. 

In the last step, validation rules enable you to limit the event-based earning rules.

When a custom event defined in the earning rule is sent to and received by Voucherify, the application checks if a customer linked to the event matches the segment, customer metadata, and/or custom event metadata rules. 

Earning rules examples:

• 100 points if a customer subscribes to a newsletter.
• 50 points if a customer leaves a review.
• 200 points if a customer registers to a paying plan.
• Points equal to the volume number of the newsletters that the customer subscribed to
• Points equal to the customer metadata attribute customer_life_time_value

Entered segment

Points are added to the loyalty card when a customer enters the segment. You can assign a fixed number of points or reward customers proportionally to a metadata value. The metadata must be defined in the Customer schema and must be a Number. Read more in our guide on how to start with metadata. 

You can also add custom attributes to the earning rule by defining metadata key/value pairs. Validation rules define additional segments that a customer needs to belong to and segments excluded from getting the points. You can also extend the criteria for customers and define required customer's metadata. Use the advanced rule builder to define customer’s metadata rules.

Earning rules examples:

• 10 points if a customer enters the New Customer segment (criteria: Profile created less than 1 day ago). 
• 250 points if a customer enters a segment Premium (criteria: Total order count more than 5 or spent more than $500).
• Customer enters “Loyal customers” segment and the number of added points is equal to the number of his/her subscription days (metadata attribute).
• 50 points if a customer enters the Active Mobile App Users segment (criteria: metadata attribute mobile_app is true and last purchase less than 30 days ago)

When you confirm the earning rule with Save, the list will show you all added earning rules and assigned numbers of loyalty points. 

Joined tiers structure

Tiers are different levels of membership in your loyalty program. Tier is defined by a minimum and maximum amount of points on a customer's loyalty card. You can map different rewards and earning rules to each tier. Tier-based earning rules ensure that points are assigned only if all tier related event conditions are met. 

To build a rule, you need to select one of your existing tiers created in the Tiers section beforehand.

Points are added to the loyalty card when a customer joins the tier structure. You can assign a fixed number of points or reward customers proportionally to a metadata value. The metadata must be defined in the Customer schema and must be a Number. Read more in our guide on how to start with metadata. 

You can also add custom attributes to the earning rule by defining metadata key/value pairs. Validation rules define additional segments that a customer needs to belong to and segments excluded from getting the points. You can also extend the criteria for customers and define required customer's metadata. Use the advanced rule builder to define a customer’s metadata rules and custom event metadata.

Left tiers structure

Tiers are different levels of membership in your loyalty program. Tier is defined by a minimum and maximum amount of points on a customer's loyalty card. You can map different rewards and earning rules to each tier. Tier-based earning rules ensure that points are assigned only if all tier related event conditions are met. 

To build a rule, you need to select one of your existing tiers created in the Tiers section beforehand.

Points are added to the loyalty card when a customer leaves the tier structure. You can assign a fixed number of points or reward customers proportionally to a metadata value. The metadata must be defined in the Customer schema and must be a Number. Read more in our guide on how to start with metadata. 

You can also add custom attributes to the earning rule by defining metadata key/value pairs. Validation rules define additional segments that a customer needs to belong to and segments excluded from getting the points. You can also extend the criteria for customers and define required customer's metadata. Use the advanced rule builder to define a customer’s metadata rules and custom event metadata.

Tier upgraded

Tiers are different levels of membership in your loyalty program. Tier is defined by a minimum and maximum amount of points on a customer's loyalty card. You can map different rewards and earning rules to each tier. Tier-based earning rules ensure that points are assigned only if all tier related event conditions are met. 

To build a rule, you need to select one of your existing tiers created in the Tiers section beforehand.

Points are added to the loyalty card when a customer's tier is upgraded. You can assign a fixed number of points or reward customers proportionally to a metadata value. The metadata must be defined in the Customer schema and must be a Number. Read more in our guide on how to start with metadata. 

You can also add custom attributes to the earning rule by defining metadata key/value pairs. Validation rules define additional segments that a customer needs to belong to and segments excluded from getting the points. You can also extend the criteria for customers and define required customer's metadata. Use the advanced rule builder to define a customer’s metadata rules and custom event metadata.

Tier downgraded

Tiers are different levels of membership in your loyalty program. Tier is defined by a minimum and maximum amount of points on a customer's loyalty card. You can map different rewards and earning rules to each tier. Tier-based earning rules ensure that points are assigned only if all tier related event conditions are met. 

To build a rule, you need to select one of your existing tiers created in the Tiers section beforehand.

Points are added to the loyalty card when a customer's tier is downgraded. You can assign a fixed number of points or reward customers proportionally to a metadata value. The metadata must be defined in the Customer schema and must be a Number. Read more in our guide on how to start with metadata. 

You can also add custom attributes to the earning rule by defining metadata key/value pairs. Validation rules define additional segments that a customer needs to belong to and segments excluded from getting the points. You can also extend the criteria for customers and define required customer's metadata. Use the advanced rule builder to define a customer’s metadata rules and custom event metadata.

Tier prolonged

Tiers are different levels of membership in your loyalty program. Tier is defined by a minimum and maximum amount of points on a customer's loyalty card. You can map different rewards and earning rules to each tier. Tier-based earning rules ensure that points are assigned only if all tier related event conditions are met. 

To build a rule, you need to select one of your existing tiers created in the Tiers section beforehand.

Points are added to the loyalty card when a customer's tier is extended. You can assign a fixed number of points or reward customers proportionally to a metadata value. The metadata must be defined in the Customer schema and must be a Number. Read more in our guide on how to start with metadata. 

You can also add custom attributes to the earning rule by defining metadata key/value pairs. Validation rules define additional segments that a customer needs to belong to and segments excluded from getting the points. You can also extend the criteria for customers and define required customer's metadata. Use the advanced rule builder to define a customer’s metadata rules and custom event metadata.

When you confirm the earning rule with Save, the list will show you all added earning rules and assigned numbers of loyalty points. 

Rewards Catalog

The rewards catalog collects all rewards that your customers can exchange points for. To define your catalog, prepare rewards beforehand in the Rewards dashboard section or add new rewards on the spot while creating a loyalty campaign.

Follow this guide to learn what rewards you can create using Voucherify. Remember to map each reward to the points value and confirm the reward with Save button. Added Rewards will be listed in the Rewards catalog.

When a customer collects enough points, the reward will be active in his/her cockpit. Exchanging points for reward invokes reward redemption and updating the customer's loyalty points balance. You can track these changes in real-time by monitoring the campaign dashboard. 

Customer cockpit

Voucherify automatically creates an individual customer cockpit for every customer synced/added to your account. Cockpits work like digital wallets with all loyalty rewards that are activated according to the current customer's points balance.

Tiers

The tiering functionality allows you to create different levels of membership in your loyalty program. 

There are two options for customers to qualify for a tier. One is points based and one is time based.

Points Balance

In the first option, customers qualify for the tier if their points balance is in the points range of the tier. This means that they fall out of a tier if their point balance is out of the defined range and enter a tier if they reach the minimum required to be in that tier. You can customize this further by defining when the tier will expire for a customer. By default, this happens when the customer falls out of the points range.

By using the Custom option, you can define a time period that the tier is valid for even though the customer falls out of the points range. The expiration date counter starts at the moment when the customer reaches the minimum required points that are required to be in the tier. You can define the expiration period in months and also choose to round the expiration date to some period (e.g. end of the month, quarter, year, etc).

Points collected in a period

In the second option, customers can qualify for the tier if they collected enough points in a given time period. So, in addition to the customer having to reach a points range, they also need to have collected the points within a set time period. The time period can either be a month, quarter, half-year, or year.

Here are how tier start and expiration dates are defined:

Besides a points range, each tier has its own rewards and earning rules mapping. It means that the same earning rules and rewards can be assigned to a different points value:

• Earning rules mapping defines points multipliers that increase or decrease the number of earned points per rule;

  

• Rewards mapping defines multipliers that set new reward price values for the tier members. It means that customers from different tiers may need more or fewer points to get the reward. A reward can be turned off for a tier with the Not available option. 

  

Notifications

Voucherify supports many types of automatic notifications that communicate with your end-customers or 3rd party applications throughout the loyalty journey. While creating a loyalty campaign, you can set up the following communication workflows:

1. Send loyalty cards – publication (assigning) a card to a customer triggers a message. First, publish loyalty cards using the dashboard or API (more in this guide). Then, schedule notifications with the loyalty card code variable. As a result, each owner of a loyalty card gets a message with their digital card. 
2. Notify about new points – new points on the loyalty card trigger a message. Voucherify tracks all changes in points balance and sends messages automatically.
3. Notify about reward redemption and updated points balance – the message gets to the customer when he/she redeems their reward. Voucherify tracks all redemptions and sends messages automatically.

Each notifications type can send messages to the end-customers (SMS, emails) or 3rd party applications (webhooks and built-in integrations with MailChimp, Braze, ActiveCampaign, Intercom). Notifications scheduled while creating a loyalty program will be visible in the Distributions tab in the dashboard. Read more about setting up distributions in this guide. 

Metadata

Metadata extends your loyalty workflow with custom attributes. You can use metadata attributes on many levels:

• create validation rules with customer, order, or product metadata and assign them to your earning rules;
• Assign different metadata attributes to each tier.

  

• Add new metadata fields for campaign attributes to improve tracking and reporting. Added attributes can be assigned to the program metadata only or inherited by all loyalty cards created within the loyalty campaign. 

Please read our guide on how to start with metadata.

Tracking results

You can track the real-time performance of your loyalty program on many levels. Using the dashboard and API, you can monitor and analyze the campaign metrics and each participant's activity individually. 

Loyalty Program Performance

Click on the loyalty program name to visit the campaign dashboard. You can see the following campaign metrics:

• Active distributions and sent messages (they can deliver rewards, inform about added points, send loyalty cards, and more).
• Top earning rules and top rewards.
• A sum of points gained by your customers sorted by date.
• Conversion rate chart that shows the total number of redeemed points sorted by date.
• Recent program changes and customer's actions.

Customer Activity

Voucherify enables you to track end-customers activity in particular loyalty campaigns. Click on the customer's name to visit his/her profile and go to the Activity tab. Using filters, you can choose a particular loyalty campaign or list activities coming from all your loyalty programs. Moreover, you can filter out customer's activities performed within the given timeframe.

Read more about Loyalty Maintenance and Tracking.

Transactions

Transactions are point movements on the loyalty card and can be viewed and exported by navigating to the particular loyalty card and clicking on the Transactions tab.