Smart loyalty programs have evolved beyond simply awarding points for purchases only. Current best practice strategies recommend interesting and innovative ways to incentivize customers for engaging with the brand as well as continuing to stay motivated through the lifecycle of the loyalty program. Advanced point earning rules not only provide flexibility in the loyalty system but also put brands in the driver’s seat when it comes to creating targeted experiences for their audiences. The latest release of the point earning rules help marketers create a loyalty program that resonates with their customer base as well as mitigates the risk of fraud.

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Advanced Tier Management

Tiers are now commonly used by loyalty programs to increase customer engagement. Prior to Annex Cloud’s latest release, tiers could only be set up based on points. Categorizing customers based on other criteria besides purchasing behavior is important. This can be done by using multiple factors like using customer type, demographic data, or customer interactions.
Annex Cloud advanced loyalty solutions allow for saving multiple fields on the Loyalty Cloud. These fields are set up in the loyalty system as extended attributes. The latest release ensures that tiers can be set up based on action series or extended attributes of the customer. The advanced tier management system also allows setting up sequential or non-sequential tiers depending on the business needs. Sequential tiers are set up for brands that want to create a progressive tiered program ensuring that a customer can only advance one tier at a time. Adjusting point expiration for each tier is also an option available in the latest release of the advanced tier management.

Benefits:

  • It allows flexibility when creating tiers that can be used to better target customer groups based on customer behavior or engagement.
  • In the case of specific industries, the sequential nature of tiers is beneficial to ensure previous tier achievement before progressing to the next.

Advanced Points Expiration

Points earned by customers in a loyalty program are considered as a liability on the client’s accounting side since every point has a currency value associated with it. In order to reduce the liability, it is recommended to define point expiration rules in the loyalty program. Points for action are set within the Annex Cloud loyalty solution, to expire after a certain period of time. The advanced points expiration feature grants the provision to set point expiration rules based on rolling time-frame (i.e. 365 days from today) or calendar time-frame (i.e. once every month).

Benefits:

  • Recommended best practice to reduce liability on the client accounting books
  • When expiration is set based on calendar time-frames, it’s easier to remember and understand for customers rather than remembering exact dates.
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Advanced Earning Limitation Rule

In an effort to reduce the risk of fraud, it is always recommended to add checks and balances on the point-earning events referred to as actions in the Annex Cloud loyalty solution. This is done by setting limits on the number of points earned within a given time frame. In the latest upgrade, action limits can be set based on both a rolling time-period (i.e 10 days from date of the first event) as well as true calendar limits (weekly, monthly, yearly). By providing this flexibility, marketers are able to define custom rules for every action. Another best practice to mitigate fraud is to add limits to the duration between two consecutive actions. This ensures that users cannot try to complete all the actions at once and gain the benefit.

Benefits:

  • Fraud limiting mechanism that is recommended as a best practice to clients.
  • Flexibility available to marketers to set up actions varying by action limits.

Points Moderation Report

Points Limit allows restricting the number of points earned against a single action within a given time period. Have you wondered what happens when a user completes more actions than the limit set for it? Previously, those actions would be ignored and customers would earn points defined by the action limit. The points moderation feature gives the power to marketers to track and approve or deny the actions completed beyond the action limit. This guarantees more engagement and less dissatisfied customers. The points moderation configuration can also be set for approval for every action set up in the Annex Cloud loyalty solution.

Benefits:

  • Brands can continue to incentivize and motivate bloggers and macro-influencers to engage with the program beyond the action set limits.
  • Brands can also mitigate fraud by rejecting actions that may be invalid or fraudulent.
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