Customer Rewards
The first thing to do is set up system-wide rewards programs that can then be attached to customers.
To access the Customer Rewards parameter
Go To:
Tools >Parameters > Rewards
The first thing you will see in Rewards window is the code-description screen
All Customer Rewards codes and accompanying descriptions are listed.
Access an existing code:
- Highlight the row of the code you want to access.
- Press Enter.
- The Reward Properties screen for the selected code appears.
Create a new code:
- From the Menu Bar
- Select File > New > Parameter
- The Reward Properties window opens. This is where you will define the new reward.
Reward Properties window fields:
Code: here you designate the code for this particular Customer Reward.
- It can be alpha or numeric, or a combination.
- Just make sure that each Reward has a unique code.
Description: here you describe the Reward.
- e.g. if the Reward is for all Fiction books in your store, then the description might be "Fiction."
Beneath the Membership section of the window, there are a few fields. . . .
Fee: key in any fee (if applicable) that you will charge a customer to become a member of this Reward program.
- You can leave this as zero, if desired, and charge no Reward membership fee at all.
Days Valid: key in the number of days (from the issuing date) that the Reward membership will be active. If there is no expiration date, simply leave the field set to zero.
Service For Membership Fee: choose the service to attach to the membership fee.
- This service will be sent to the POS when adding or renewing a Reward membership that includes a fee.
- If the Reward membership has no fee, this field is not relevant, and can be left blank.
The fields listed in the Reward Calculation portion of the window are:
Award the Following Service: attach the Reward you are establishing to an existing service.
- When a customer meets the requirements for a Reward, the system will prompt for the issue of the Balance Card established here.
- The amount on the Balance Card is determined by the next fields.
For: is a two-part field.
- The field at the right dictates whether the Reward premium will be determined based on a percentage or based on a fixed dollar amount.
- Click on the pull down at the right of the field and select the choice you want ("Percent of Purchases" or "Fixed Dollar Amount."
- Then, in the left-hand field, key in either the fixed dollar amount to be rewarded, or the percentage of the purchases to be rewarded.
When Dollars Spent Reach and Or Items Bought Reach: determine the benchmark for issuing a Reward premium to a customer.
- You can key in a value for just one of the fields, or for both fields.
- If you key in a value for both, the Reward will be issued when the first of these values is met.
- If you leave either of these fields set to zero, they will not be active.
Rewards Rules
When the customer reaches a predetermined benchmark during a POS transaction, they will be awarded the Rewards premium based on that benchmark, anything over the benchmark will be tallied towards the next reward.
If the customer returns an item that had counted toward the Rewards premium, the accumulated totals for the premium are adjusted accordingly.
Customer Rewards are calculated at the POS during the tendering process.
Any sales or discounts will have already been calculated by the system.
The Customer Rewards premium will be based on the net value of the purchased items
- after sales and discounts have already been factored in.
Once you have determined how the Reward should be calculated, and what the benchmark will be, you need to determine what items in your store will apply to this particular Reward.
You can make one Reward good for everything in your store, or you can make it as specific as applying it only to Horror novels written by Dean Koontz.
iMerchant allows you to create as many Rewards as you want, providing you with the flexibility to establish broad Rewards as well as specific ones.
Program Behaviors
Multiple Premiums Allowed:
This is the standard / legacy reward program behavior.
A customer can be associated with multiple reward programs.
When a customer has multiple programs, POS will review the quantifying rules for each program in the order they appear on the Customer Reward Properties screen. Credit is assigned to the first program which the product qualifies.
POS issues the reward premium once the requirements are met. If there are extra qualifying items in the sale, the unused items are credited towards the next reward.
These programs can be associated with a membership.
Single Premium when earnings met:
The Single premium program is exclusive. A customer cannot belong to other reward programs.
Qualifying items are credited and retained for the customer until the reward requirements are met.
Once the reward requirements are met, POS will issue the reward and reset the earnings.
Any extra qualifying items are not carried forward toward the next reward.
Using a percentage of the sale amount allows credit for all qualifying items.
Only one reward will be issued per sale.
This program can be associated with a membership.
This type of program works well for a community “give back” donation program.
Membership Only:
The Membership Only program is exclusive. A customer cannot belong to other reward programs.
Reward premiums are not earned under this type of program. Only the membership dates and discount features are allowed.
Selection Rules
At the lower portion of the Reward Properties window you will find the Selection Rule section.
This is where you will determine which items in your store will apply to the Reward you are setting up.
To create a Selection Rule:
For All Items
- 1. Click on the Add to List button at the left of the Selection Rule portion of the Reward Properties window.
- A new row will appear, saying All Items
- If you wish for this Rewards premium to apply to everything in your store's inventory, you have nothing further to do.
- All Items encompasses all of your for-sale items.
- Assuming you have already established values in the fields discussed above, you can Close out of the window, being sure to Save your changes.
- The Reward is now created.
For Limited Items.
- Click on All Items
- The Rewards Rule window will open up.
- This is where you'll define which items in your store will apply to the Reward.
- You can either select an existing Rewards Rule or create a new one.
At the top of the Rewards Rule window, there are two options:
Filter By: allows you either to view rules only you created or rules everyone has created.
- A submenu will appear with the word "Me" on top and "All Users" underneath.
- Click on the one you want, and a black dot appears to the left of the selected choice.
- This is user-definable and up to you.
- Choose whichever makes the most sense.
- You can switch back and forth anytime you like, but the system will always default to the way you left it the last time you were in the Rewards Rule window.
Query: has three choices underneath: New, Delete, and Select.
- Choose New to create a new rule.
- A message box appears where you need to key in the name of the new rule.
- Click on OK when you are finished keying in the name, then set up the parameters for the new rule.
- If you want to view a rule already on the system
- Click on the arrow at the right of the field in the top left corner of the Rewards Rule window.
- All of the existing rules (or all of the existing rules only you created if you set the Filter By field to "Me") appear in a dropdown list.
- Click on the one you want. Its parameters display in the Rewards Rule window.
-
Delete a rule from the system:
- With the rule selected, choose Delete from the Query menu. The rule is deleted.
- Select a rule displayed in the Rewards Rule window and apply it to the Reward premium:
- Click on the Select button to the right of the field.
- Once you select a rule, you are returned to the Reward Properties window, and the selected rule is listed under the Selection Rule field.
Set Parameters for a Rule
As an example we will walk you through setting a rule for establish only mass market paperbacks be applied to a Reward.
To define the selection criteria for the new rule:
- Choose the category you want to define in the Select Field field by clicking on the down arrow at the right of the field.
- A pulldown list of categories appears.
- Click on the one you want.
- Once selected, it displays in the Select Field field.
- Select Bindings.
- In the Select Operation field, choose Like, equal to, greater than, less than, greater than or equal to, less than or equal to, or between.
- In the Choose Value field, choose the value or values that define the selection criteria.
- With the Bindings example, say you chose "equal to" in the Select Operation field. If you then select MM (Mass Market) in the Choose Value field, the rule will apply to all inventory in your store with a binding code of MM.
If you selected between in the Select Operation field, two fields will display under Choose Value.
In the top field, choose the start value.
In the bottom field, select the ending value.
If you choose Publication Date (or any other date category) in the Select Operation field
- a calendar will display if you click on the down arrow at the right of the Choose Value field.
Once you have set the fields the way you want
Click on the Add button at the right of the Reward Rule window.
The criteria you just set will display in the Selected Ranges box.
Repeat the above process as many times as you want to define the criteria for the rule.
Each time you establish a new set of criteria and click on the Add button, the new criteria will display in the Selected Ranges box.
The more sets of criteria you select, the more specific the parameters of the rule will be.
To Delete a set of criteria:
- In the Selected Ranges box, highlight the criteria you want removed and click on the Remove button.
- The selected criteria is removed from the template.
When you are through creating the rule, select it for the Reward premium by clicking on the Select button at the top of the Reward Rule window.
Back at the Reward Properties window, the rule you selected (if you selected one) in the Rewards Rule window now appears under the "Selection Rule" field.
If you click on the rule, you are taken back to the Rewards Rule window.
Within a single Reward premium, the rules are tiered.
If you set up two rules, the system will check an item against the parameters established in the first rule, then it will check against the parameters established in the second rule, and so on, if there are more than two rules.
If the item a customer is buying does not match the parameters in rule 1 but does match the parameters in rule 2, the Reward premium applies, and vice versa.
But if, after checking the parameters in each rule, the system discovers that the purchased item does not match any of the rules, then it will not be applied to the premium.
Delete a Rule
If you would like to delete a rule from the list of rules in the "Selection Rule" portion of the Reward Properties window,
Highlight the rule you wish to delete and click on the Remove from List button directly to the right of the Add to List button.
The rule will be deleted.
Once you have filled in all of the fields in the Reward Properties window, and have established the rules, click on the Close toolbar icon.
The system will prompt you to save your changes if you haven't.
Once you return to the general Rewards screen, where all Rewards are listed, the newly created code will now be there.
You can establish as many customer Rewards as you want.
You can also attach as many Rewards as you want to individual customers.