Overview

Rewards enable merchants to remunerate customers for their loyalty in the form of a cashback, and provide them with an incentive to repeat their business. Rewards can be redeemed either at the customer's discretion or subject to conditions, such as on specific products and/or at a specific time and place. Through rewards programs organizations can acquire data on individual customers to better understand their behaviour.  

Rewards at a glance

It's vital to have a basic understanding of some reward-related terminology and concepts before you start setting up rewards. 

Reward schemes & Reward offers

Reward Schemes

A reward scheme mirrors a loyalty program designed by a merchant to encourage customers to shop at, or use the services of the particular businesses. A scheme could have a marketing name, marketing information (such as a description and an image) and the Reward Offers which are part of the Reward scheme.

Reward schemes are used to group reward offers and keep track of eligible customers participating in each scheme. A reward scheme and can be owned by a specific merchant or be shared between merchants (partners). Once reward schemes are setup, reward offers and participants can be added to them.  

Reward Offers

Reward offers determine the reward amount to be awarded for customer events (e.g. a purchase), and specify the conditions for granting and spending (redeeming) the reward. Multiple reward offers can be created for a single reward scheme.

Reward participants

A reward participant within the context of CRM.COM is a customer (a contact that has a financial account), and who has accepted signing up to one or more of the available reward schemes. There are various sign-up options depending on the reward scheme configuration, varying from open to all participants, to controlled sign-up where the merchant can determine who is eligible to participate in the reward scheme and who isn't.   

Rewards participants have a financial account which is connected to a wallet. The wallet is used for financial transactions associated with rewards. 

Collect and redeem rewards

Awarded customer events can either take place beyond the scope of CRM.COM such a purchase from a shop, or can be associated to data maintained by CRM.COM such as participant's birthdays or name days. 

All types of events are evaluated against reward offers. Evaluation takes place either directly at the point of sale (where the purchase is registered) or through a subsequent batch process that handles multiple events and awards them in one go. Following a positive evaluation of an event an award transaction is created, which in turn generates a credit wallet transaction to add funds to the wallet of the participant. 

Participants can redeem their rewards by spending their wallet funds either at their own discretion, or subject to conditions (for example, for a designated product, at a specific shop and within a date range). In that respect a spend request customer event is logged in CRM.COM. If there are sufficient funds in the wallet of the participant then a spend transaction is created which in turn generates a debit wallet transaction to deduct the relevant funds from the wallet of the participant.

Awarded funds can also be subject to an expiration date. If this is the case, the funds are expired through a background recurring process that expires funds in one flow. An award expiration transaction is created, as well as a debit wallet transaction to deduct the funds from the wallet so that they can no longer be spent. 

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Universal Offer

A Universal Offer can be defined on the organisation level and can be awarded to customers when submitting (purchase) customer events either in addition to other reward offers, or if no other reward offers were awarded. The universal offer is not related to any reward scheme and does not have any award/spend conditions or valid duration, it is initially defined in Reward Resolution, Reduction & Processing Settings. 

The Universal Offer can also be setup via Rewards > Reward Board > scroll down to the Universal Offer section and View or Edit to make changes. 

The configuration of the Universal Offer is similar to Reward Offers with the exception of the 'Award on' Specific Business Units/Industries option (available only of the award is of type 'percentage') and allows you to define if the award should be provided only on specific (commercial) business units (that have an agreement) or industries.  

Select and add the relevant business units and/or industries to be awarded with the corresponding Percentage to be awarded. If you don't want to set up explicit awards, or if you want to have a default award percentage for any business units or industries not defined, then use the Default percentage to award Business Units / Industries with no explicit award set up to provide the percentage to be awarded.

Awarding participants with multiple offers

Since participants can sign-up to multiple rewards schemes, they could be eligible for awarding by more than one offer for the same event. This could either be in the form of multiple reward offers, or from the one yielding the highest reward. To configure the system regarding awards, refer to the Reward Resolution, Reduction & Processing Settings section. In addition to the usual reward offers, the merchant can also opt to award the Universal Offer on top of the already awarded offers. 

Real vs Alternative Currency

Real currency is simply a statutory currency such as EUR or GBP. Alternative (virtual) currency is a type of unregulated digital money (does not physically exist), that is issued and controlled by the scheme operator and is universally accepted and used by the members of the scheme. The alternative currency has an exchange rate against the system's default statutory currency, and the exchange rate can change at any point in time. Any fluctuations on the alternative currency rate has an immediate effect on all transactions that will be performed from that point onwards. For examples, if a merchant wishes to use points instead of a currency to award their customers, then it's possible to define an alternative (virtual) currency to represent a points system (e.g. €1 is equivalent to 2 points). To set the alternative currency navigate to Configuration > System Settings > Organisation Settings. Refer to Set up General Settings in the Platform manual for further information.  

Reward participating merchants

A Merchant is the entity (person or company) that is involved in a selling physical goods and/or services to a customer, and who also has a cooperation with an organisation that owns a rewards platform; offering their customers the ability to sign up and be awarded for their purchases and behavior actions. A merchant can be a standalone vendor (i.e. POS), to one that has a cooperation with a card processor. Merchants that have a partnership with the organisation that owns the reward platform, can participate in the provided reward schemes following specific award, spend and sign up rules. Such merchants contribute to the amount that is awarded to rewards participants, based on rules which are agreed and defined between the merchant and the organisation that owns the rewards platform. In this way multiple merchants can collaborate to share reward offers. 

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Setting Up Rewards 

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Reward Schemes

A reward scheme is a marketing campaign organised by a business to award customers based on events (such as purchases) performed by them. The awards are granted to participating customers through the reward offers which are part of the reward scheme. 

Multiple reward schemes can be created in CRM.COM, and can be configured to run concurrently. Select New to create a new reward scheme, define the business rules that will be applicable to the reward scheme, specify how customers will be allowed to participate in the reward scheme, and provide the marketing information to be displayed on mobile apps and portals.  

• Name: The name of the scheme which must be unique. 
• Code: The code for the scheme, if left blank then the system will provide a unique code. 
• Description: A brief description of the scheme. 
• Sign Up Settings 
  • Sign-up option - define how the customers can sign-up to the reward scheme. 
    • Auto Sign-up Customers: Every existing participant or new participant registered in the system will automatically be signed up to the reward scheme. 
    • Self Sign-up Customers (default): Customers can sign-up at will. Self sign up is applicable through mobile apps or web portals. 
    • Sign-up Customers in a Controlled Manner: It's possible to restrict a scheme from view and offer it only to selected customers for sign-up. Controlled sign-up is usually based on third-party identification (e.g. student identification number) or domain specific emails that are kept on the participant level. The sign-ups are controlled based on unique reference codes that are automatically generated, and provided (communicated) by the organisation only to the customers that meet the domain specific identification (e.g. have an email address with 'uni.com' domain). 
      • Reference code will be: How the reference code will be generated, either 'Through an External System' or 'Auto Generated' by CRM.COM. If a reference code is to be auto generated then it will be automatically created each time an e-mail address is provided and it's domain matches the scheme's 'Supported email domains'. 
      • Code length (inclusive): Length of the reference code that will be auto generated, length should be between 4 and 12 inclusive. 
      • Code format: Select the format of the auto generated code, choose from Alphabetic / Alphanumeric / Numeric.
      • Supported email domains: Specify the supported email domains separated by commas (e.g. uni.com, college.com). 
      • Scheme invitation via e-mail: This is the e-mail to be sent to the 'controlled sign-up' customers providing their reference code, and inviting them to signing-up to the scheme. You can use tags (text that is automatically replaced by values relevant to customer information) when creating the e-mail. Tags are available for selection by typing '#' or selecting them from the drop-down list in the email section. 

Marketing Information 

Specify the images and alternative text to be used for the specific reward scheme on various screens and third-party applications (i.e. mobile apps and portals).

• Image Files: Upload a large and small image file to represent the specific scheme. If the image files are to be used by the CRM.COM mobile application then they should be of PNG or JPG format.    
• Alternative text: The text that will be displayed in place of the image in cases where the internet browser cannot display the actual image.   
• Descriptions: Enter a short description, a long description and the terms & conditions relevant to the specific scheme and/or your business. 

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Reward Categories 

Reward categories are used to group reward offers and can subsequently be used by the business for reward analysis purposes. 

Use the +New option to create a category. Categories can be created using a hierarchical structure, if a category is a parent category then leave 'Parent' blank.  

Reward Tiers

Rewards Participants can be classified by tiers based on their purchase behaviour. A reward tier works at the participant level and across all reward schemes (from day one of a customer signing up to one of the available reward schemes). A rewards participant can advance to the next tier (automatically) based on the total value of purchases made in a specified length of time. For example a participant could be classed as belonging to the 'Silver' tier when their total purchases exceed €100 in the space of a week .

Tier Evaluation Settings 

• Customer event amount will be converted to tier value units based on the conversion of €1 equals to the value units X Value units - defines the factor on which the total amount from the customers events will be converted to tier value units (cannot be modified once the tier settings have been saved) for classification. E.G. Every €1 in purchases is equivalent to 100 value units.
• Tier evaluation will be based on customer's purchases that were performed in the past X Weeks/Months - defines how far in the past the tier evaluation should apply. E.G. Set the tier classification based on purchases during the last 12 months. 
• Tier evaluation will be performed every X Weeks/Months - defines how frequently the tier evaluation should be applied to customer events. E.G. Apply the tier evaluation process every week. 

Tier Classifications 

• Name: The tier name which must be unique. 
• Code: The tier code, if not provided then the system will provide one. 
• Description: A brief description of the tier classification. 
• Value units threshold (inclusive): The threshold number of value units (inclusive) that the participant should meet in order to belong to this tier.
• Tier marketing colour: The tier color that will be used for marketing purposes on various screens and third-party applications (i.e. mobile apps and portals).

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Reward Offers

Reward offers determine the amount awarded for an event, on multiple historical events, or based on the status and behavior of rewards participants. The classification of each reward offer determines the basic reward offer parameters. Once a reward offer has been created, it must be made available to participants by selecting Set as Effective from the Actions menu. For each reward offer you can define its specific characteristics, awards earned, conditions for being awarded, as well as conditions on how the awards can be spent. 

Some offers are real time offers meaning that customers are awarded the moment that the event takes place, usually in face to face (over the counter) circumstances, while others are data driven offers meaning that customers are awarded for events that took place over time. Data driven offers are evaluated and awarded to customers once the reward offers batch evaluation process has been run, this process is scheduled to run automatically every 30 minutes and is not configurable. 

To create a new reward offer click on New on the Reward Offers summary screen and select the classification which best describes the reward offer suited to your needs. There are various types of offers that can be used depending on your line of business or the marketing campaign you would like to launch. There are three main reward offer classifications with various reward offers belonging to each one.

• Awards based on purchases
• Awards based on achieved targets
• Free awards

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Award your customers based on their purchases

Based on a single event

For any purchase on various conditions (real time offer)

Utilise Free Capacity: Award customers for purchases made on specific dates/hours. The purchases might be associated with any product or with specific products. E.G. Award customers for any pizza purchase on Mondays between 15:00-18:00.

Based on customer's transactions (real time offer)

Increase Revenue, Transaction Based: Award customers based on the value of their purchase transactions. E.G., Award customers for spending €200.

Based on purchased products (real time offer)

Increase Revenue, Product Based: Award customers based on the value of their purchased products. E.G., Set up an offer where Londoners are awarded for purchases of a specific product totalling at least £200.

For the Xth transaction performed on a specific merchant (real time offer)

Xth transaction wins: Award customers that performed the Xth transaction on a specific merchant or a specific merchant shop. E.G. set up an offer where the 11th car wash is free at a specific car wash.  

Based on customer's activity behaviour

Based on amount of transactions (data driven offer)

Reward Loyalty, Transaction Amount Based: Award customers based on the value of the purchase transactions that they have performed within a specific period. E.G., Set up an offer where a customer is rewarded for spending €1,000 or more at a specific restaurant within the same month.

Based on number of visits (data driven offer)

Reward Loyalty, Transaction Number Based: Award participants based on the number of the purchase transactions that they have performed within a specific period. E.G., Reward customers with over 20 American Express transactions within the same month.

Award based on number of purchased products (data driven offer)

Reward Loyalty, Transaction Item Quantity Based: Award customers based the number of purchased products that they have performed within a specific period. E.G., For every 9 coffees bought within a week, the 10th is free.

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Award your customers based on achieved targets

Based on a single event

For specific achievements (real time offer)

Reward Achievement: Award customers who have accomplished a specific achievement, e.g. liking/sharing a post, reviewing or completing a questionnaire. Likewise, award participants for accomplishments of a financial nature. E.G., Award participants with a €10 bonus for topping up their Electron Card with a minimum of €100.

Based on customer's activity behaviour

New participants (data driven offer)

Reward Sign Ups: Award new participants. E.G. Attract customers by rewarding them once they join the program and complete their first transaction.

Referring new participants (data driven offer)

Reward Referrals: Award existing participants who have referred new customers. E.G. Motivate current participants to refer their friends to the program by rewarding them for each successful referral.

For completing their personal data (data driven offer)

Reward Personal Data Completeness: Award customers having a complete set of personal data information, such as an address or date of birth. E.G. Encourage customers to provide their email address by rewarding them with a free coffee.

For specific financial statement (data driven offer)

Reward Financial Statement: Award customers who have accomplished a specific Financial Achievement. E.G., Award customers who spend €10,000 or more within a year.

For being a loyal subscriber (data driven offer)

Reward Subscription Maturity: Award customers for being loyal subscribers. E.G. Award participants whose subscriptions were effective and uninterrupted for a specific period. 

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Give some free awards!

Based on customer's activity behaviour

Send a thank you award (data driven offer)

Just Money: Award customers based on common business characteristics determined by one or multiple segments. Improve ailing sales in a specific area within your vicinity by awarding local participants with a free meal redeemable during weekdays. E.G. Award participants with €5 to spend on the day of their birthday.   

Based on customer's activity behaviour or on a set of events

Create a participating draw (data driven offers)

Lottery: Award customers based on a set of conditions and generate a winner on a lottery basis. E.G. award a specific number of participants selected randomly by the system, given that they meet other specified criteria.

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Reward offer award settings

There are many similarities in setting up the various reward offers with minor additions for selective reward offer types. Below are explanations (separated into sections where necessary) for all the possible details required for setting up any of the reward offers. Reward offers are granted if they are valid and if their criteria are fulfilled. The actual awards and conditions for earning and spending rewards also needs to be defined.

General information  

• Name: The name of the reward offer (must be unique). 
• Code: The code of the reward offer, if one is not specified then the system will generate one automatically. 
• Category: The category that this reward offer is classified under. Choose one from the drop-down list. 
• Description: A brief description of the reward offer (not visible to the participants).
• Scheme: The reward scheme that the offer belongs to (dictates sign-up conditions).
• Offer Validity: Define the period of time that the reward offer will be available and applicable.
  • Valid from latest effective date onward: The latest date that the rewards offer become effective. This information is set or updated each time the life cycle state of the reward offer changes from 'Not Effective' to 'Effective'.
  • Valid for a specific period: Set the dates that this offer will be valid from (inclusive), to (inclusive). 
  • Valid during birthday period: Specify the number of days (inclusive) before the birthday and after the birthday that the offer will be valid for (0 denotes that the offer is valid only for the actual birthday day). 
  • Valid during name day period: Specify the number of days (inclusive) before the name day and after the name day that the offer will be valid for (0 denotes that the offer is valid only for the actual name day).
  • Valid during a recurring period: Ability to define multiple valid periods in the form of day/month. Add as many recurring periods as required.  

Awards 

Awards can be granted either as cashback or as points. If you would like to use a points system then you must setup an alternative currency (including the corresponding exchange rate between points and the default currency) via Configuration > Finance > Set up Financial Transaction Settings > Currencies.

The award is the amount that will be given to a customer in the form of a cashback when performing a customer event (e.g. purchases, achieve specific targets). The awarded amount can be a fixed amount or a percentage amount calculated against the customer event total amount (net amount and tax amount), and can be provided in the default currency of the organisation, in an alternative (virtual) currency, or can be converted automatically to an electronic voucher. Awards can be classified as conditional or unconditional. Conditional awards are provided to customers when specific conditions (e.g. award purchases that were performed on Mondays, award purchases with a total transaction amount greater than €500) are met, while unconditional awards are provided to customers without requiring any conditions to be met. In addition, an expiration date can be set on awards, which defines the latest date that an award can be consumed (spent), motivating customers to spend their award within that specific period.

Define how the reward offer will be awarded.  

Award Amount & Validity 

• Awards in: The system currency and alternative (virtual) currencies are supported.  
• Award will be based on:
  • Amount: A fixed amount.  
  • Percentage: A percentage amount based on the customer's transaction total. 
    • All Products - the percentage amount will be applied irrelevant of the products purchased. Specify the percentage amount. 
    • Specific Products - specify the products and the percentage amount to be awarded for each product individually. 
  • Percentage on awarded amount within X UOT - this option backtracks to the specified unit of time and rewards the percentage amount on eligible customer events.    
• Award will be - define when the award will be valid. 
  • Valid from the day of awarding - valid as soon as it is awarded.
  • Valid X days after awarding - valid on a specified number of days after it has being awarded. 
  • Valid from specific date - valid from a given date. 
• Award will - define when the award granted to the participant will expire. When the expiration process is executed, any unused, expired funds associated with the award will be deducted from the participant's wallet. Aside from awards that 'never expire', all the others have a time limit for redeeming.  
  • Never expires - no expiration date.
  • Expires X days after awarding - expires on a specified number of days after being awarded. 
  • Expires on a specific date - set the expiration date. 
  • Expires at the end of the month that the award was applied - expires on the last day of the month that the award was granted. 
  • Expires at the end of the year that the award was applied - expires on the last day of the year that the award was granted. 

Award Restrictions 

• Maximum award amount that can be provided by this offer: Define the maximum award amount that can be awarded by this offer. 
• Maximum number of awards that can be provided to a customer: Define the maximum number of times a participant can be awarded by this offer within a specified period. E.G. Set the maximum number of awards to '1' for birthday offers to stop customers cashing in on this offer more than once. 
• Award every Xth transaction(s): defines if the xth winning transaction should be evaluated per reward offer, group condition or unit condition. 
• Maximum number of awarded participants: The maximum number of participants that can be awarded within a specific period.

Customer Conditions 

The reward offer should be awarded if the specified customer conditions are met (therefore targeting certain customer groups) using segmentation. In the case of rewards, segmentation is used to create groups of participants based on common business characteristics. Participants from a specific segment can be eligible to be awarded or can be excluded. Segmentation must be defined before setting up reward offers. Choose the relevant segments from the drop-down list.  

Conditions  

Create the customer event conditions to be met in order for the award to be applicable. Click on +Customer event condition to create one or more. Below is a list of all possible conditions with explanations for all three reward offer categories. Use the conditions relevant to the award you would like to create.  

• Performed by business unit - specify the business unit and/or business unit category that the purchase should be performed by in order to be eligible for the reward. In the case of a multi-merchant environment, any business unit defined here participates in the related rewards offer.
• Performed on days - select the day(s) that the purchase should be performed on.  
• Performed on hours - specify during which hours (or combination of hours) the purchase should be performed.  
• Product - the purchase should include one of the following product combinations: specific product(s), or products of the specified type, family, brand or category and within the given purchase amount (min-max). 
• Purchased products - specify the purchased product conditions which must be met in order for the reward to be applicable. Ability to specify particular products, product types, product families, product brands and product categories which must be included in the purchase and whether the reward offer should 'Apply only if all the product conditions are met'.  
• Payment with medium brand - the payment should be performed using one or more of the specified payment medium brands (e.g VISA, Amex). 
• Payment with medium type -  the payment should be performed using one of the specified medium types (e.g. credit card, cash).
• Customer event classifications - select the customer event classification(s) that the purchase should belong to. 
• Transaction amount range (inclusive) - define the minimum and maximum transaction value that the purchase amount should be within.
• Transaction amount - specify the minimum purchase total amount performed within a specific period.
  • No period restriction - no time restriction will be applied. 
  • Specific period - specify the unit of time (e.g. within 1 month).
• Transactions number - define the number of purchase transactions to be performed either within a given period or without a period restriction.  
• Promotion campaign - if the reward is part of a promotional campaign, then provide the promotional code the customer event will be evaluated against. 
• Items quantity - specify the minimum quantity of items that should be purchased per period for the award offer to be applicable.     
• Personal data completeness condition - award customers if the specified personal data has been completed.  
• Measured KPIs - this is based on a financial statement customer event condition occurring. Define the KPI that will be evaluated against the financial statement, the product and the amount range which must be achieved during purchases.  Multiple conditions can be defined. 
• Subscription maturity conditions - define the multiple conditions for the reward to be awarded to loyal subscribers (e.g. owning a subscription that was effective for a period of time, excluding the maximum interruption period): 
  • Period range - participant owns a subscription effective for the specified period of time excluding the maximum interruption period. 
  • Subscription plan - for the specified subscription plan(s). 
  • Billing term scheme - for the specified billing term scheme(s). 
  • Number of consumed usage services - define the minimum number of usage services that the participant's effective subscription should have already consumed.  
  • Amount consumed by usage services - define the minimum total amount of usage services that the participant's effective subscription should have consumed.
• Lottery conditions - define the event to be evaluated and awarded. Click on +Condition to specify the award conditions to be met based on the type of event selected. 
  • Awarded offers - based on the award offer that was awarded to the participant. 
  • Purchase customer event - ability to select the specific type of purchase customer event that must have taken place. Define the respective award offer information. 
  • Achievement customer event - ability to select the specific type of achievement customer event that must have taken place. 
  • Referral customer event - define the type of referral customer event to be awarded. 
  • Rewards participant - use segmentation in order to select the applicable rewards participants. 

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Spending Awards 

Spending awards occurs when a customer is requesting to pay for a specific purchase (customer event) using their wallet funds. At the end of the process the respective awarded amount will be deducted from the customer's wallet. Awards can either be spent conditionally (e.g on specific products, times, days of the week, or places) or unconditionally. 

• Spend method - select how the awarded amount should be spent.
  • Spend on request - the customer can spend the reward at will. 
  • Spend instantly - the reward amount earned from the current purchase is deducted as an instant discount.
  • Spend instantly through voucher - the reward earned will be used to generate a voucher of the respective amount instead of crediting the participant's wallet. The participant will be able to redeem the voucher during future purchases. 
    • Voucher Type: The type of the e-voucher to be used to generate the voucher.
• Condition - specify the conditions for spending rewards, such as on a specific product, place or time.
  • Performed by business unit - specify the business unit and/or business unit category that the spend should be performed by. For rewards participants to meet the criteria and redeem awards, the unit of the spend request customer event must be included in the organisational conditions.
  • Performed on days - select the day(s) that the spend request should be performed.  
  • Performed on hours - specify during which hours (or combination of hours) the spend can be performed.  
  • Purchased products - specify the purchased product conditions which must be met in order for the spend to be permitted. Ability to specify particular products, product types, product families, product brands and product categories.

Marketing Information 

The images and information that will be used for the specific offer on various screens and third-party applications (i.e. mobile apps and portals).

• Image Files: Upload a large and small image file to represent the specific reward offer. If the image files are to be used by the CRM.COM mobile application then they should be of PNG or JPG format.    
• Alternative text: The text that will be displayed in place of the image, in cases where the internet browser cannot display the actual image.   
• Descriptions: Enter a short description, a long description and the terms & conditions relevant to the specific reward offer. 

Merchant Contributions 

This section is relevant to multi-merchant setup. A contribution determines the percentage of the awarded amount that should be provided by the rewards partner (organisational unit). Merchant contributions denote how financial transactions will be posted against the accounts of reward participating merchants, resulting in debiting or crediting a merchant account. The process takes into consideration the rewards awarded and redeemed by each merchant as well as their agreed reward percentage contribution.

 By default, the partner contribution is 100%. For more information on setting up contribution rules refer to Multi Merchant Reward Platform - Contribution Rules.

Select +Contribution setting to create a list of the business units (of participating merchants) and the contribution percentage for the specific reward offer.  

Security Information 

Specify which single business unit owns this reward offer.  

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Reward Resolution, Reduction & Processing Settings 

Define the default settings of how reward offers will award customers across all schemes that they participate, and how the amount to 'spend' will be reduced. Additional settings can be specified such as applying a Universal Offer on top of the reward offers, or if no other reward offer is provided. 

Reward offer resolution settings

Reward offer resolution defines how a merchant will provide the reward offer awards to customers based on their customer events. 

• Customers will be awarded from - in each case all the effective, eligible reward schemes that the customer participates in will be evaluated.
  • All matched offers: the customer will be awarded from all valid reward offers, from all eligible reward schemes (awards from multiple offers can be awarded).
  • Best Offer across all Reward Schemes: the customer will be awarded the single highest offer across all eligible reward schemes that the customer has signed-up to (awards from only one offer can be awarded - the highest).
  • Best Offer across every Reward Scheme: the customer will be awarded the highest offer from every single eligible reward scheme (awards from multiple offers can be awarded - the highest in each case). 

The following is an example of how a customer who has signed-up to 3 reward schemes will be awarded in each case. 

Reward Scheme	Reward Scheme 1		Reward Scheme 2		Reward Scheme 3
Reward Offer	Offer A	Offer B	Offer C		Offer D	Offer E	Offer F
Reward offer amount	€1.00	€0.50	€3		€0	€1.25	€0.90
All matched offers
Best offer across all reward schemes
Best offer across every reward scheme

• Enable Universal Offer across reward schemes: Select if the Universal Offer will be enabled and if so, then select if he Universal Offer will be applied 'On top of other reward offers' (i.e. in addition to other awards), or will be applied only if there are 'No other reward offers' (i.e. if the customer is not eligible for any awards). You can create the Universal Offer once you have enabled it via the Actions option on the same screen. Thereon, to amend the Universal Offer navigate to Rewards > Rewards Board > scroll down to the 'Universal Offer' section and select Edit to amend.   

Reduction method settings

Spend amount will be reduced based on - reduction method defines how the amount for the 'spend' event requested by the customer will be deducted from the total amount that should be paid. Choose from two reduction methods:

• Front-end reduction - The reduction is done by a front-end system (e.g. POS) by reducing the amount of money that the consumer should actually pay. Typically this reduction is done as a discount before VAT.
• Back-end reduction - The reduction is done is by a back-end system (e.g. PayPal) whereby the customer pays for the full purchase amount, and then either their wallet is credited through a payment gateway system, or a refund voucher is generated offering them a discount on future purchases. If back-end reduction is selected then the default financial transaction settings for back-end reduction will also need to be defined: 
  • Credit note settings
    • Type - the type that will automatically be set on credit notes to be created as part of the back-end reduction.
    • Product - the product that will automatically be included in credit notes created as part of the back-end reduction.
    • Category - the category that will automatically be set on credit notes created as part of the back-end reduction.
    • Notes - the notes that will automatically be set for credit notes as part of the back-end reduction. 
  • Refund settings 
    • Type - the type to be automatically set on refunds that will be created as part of the back-end reduction.
    • Method - the method to be automatically set on refunds that will be created as part of the back-end reduction. The refund method should also be included in the list of supported refund methods. 
    • Category - the category that will automatically be set on refunds to be created as part of the back-end reduction.
    • Notes - the notes that will automatically be set for refunds as part of the back-end reduction. 

Automatic spend rules 

Automatic spending implies that the participant's available amount will be automatically spent on the next purchase without the customer explicitly requesting it.

• Allow automatic spend - defines if automatic award spending is allowed or not. If not allowed then the system will never apply any automatic spending and such settings cannot be overridden by merchants or customers. 
• Restrict automatic spend amount - enable if the automatic spend amount should be restricted. If enabled, then specifying the min and/or max spend amount will become mandatory, both or one of these amounts can be specified. If 'Restrict automatic spend amount' is not enabled, then an unrestricted min / max range can be requested for spending and the (actual) wallet balance can be spent. 
• Applicable purchase customer event classifications - the purchase customer event classifications that will be applicable for the rule.

Spend on request rules

This process is responsible for applying automation rules on purchase customer event creation in regards to requests for spending an existing awarded amount.

• Rule name - to create a new rule enter a rule name and click on +Add Rule. Select the rule name created and specify the following settings:
• Restrict amount on spend request - enable if the spend amount should be restricted. If enabled, then specifying the min and/or max spend amount will become mandatory, both or one of these amounts can be specified. If this option is not enabled, then an unrestricted min / max range can be requested for spending and the (actual) wallet balance can be spent. 
• Reject spend request if the requested spend amount is not covered - defines whether spending a requested amount that is not covered will be rejected (i.e. the wallet balance for the purchased products is less than the requested amount). The requested spend amount is either the total amount, or a specific amount less that the total amount, as requested from the purchase customer event. This setting takes precedence over 'Restrict Amount on Spend Request'.  
• Applicable purchase customer event classifications - the purchase customer event classifications that will be applicable for the rule.

Reward Merchant Agreements 

Define the reward merchant agreements between your business and the merchants who will be participating in the reward schemes. Only one reward merchant agreement can exist per merchant. 

• Merchant business unit - specify the business unit for which the reward agreement applies.
• Account - the reward agreement is created against the selected merchant account. 
• Description - a description of the agreement.

Reward schemes that the merchant can participate 

Define the schemes that the merchant can participate in and therefore provide awards / spends to customers who have signed up to the specified schemes.

• Click on +Reward Scheme to add a reward scheme for this merchant. 
• Scheme - Select the reward scheme that the merchant will be permitted to participate in.
• Merchant can sign up customers - define if the merchant can sign up participants to this reward scheme.

Merchant permission settings 

Define which actions the merchant is permitted to carry out. 

• Award customer for event performed by this merchant - if enabled then the merchant is allowed to award customers for customer events performed by the merchant (e.g purchases).
• Allow customers to spend their awards on this merchant - if enabled then the customers can spend their awards at this merchant. 

Reduction method settings

Spend amount will be reduced based on - select how the amount to be spent will be reduced, choose one of three options: 

• Inherit global reduction method settings - acquire the setting from Configuration > Rewards > Reward Resolution , Reduction & Processing Settings > Reduction method settings > Spend amount will be reduced based on ...
• Front-end reduction - the reduction is done by a front-end system (e.g. the merchant's POS) by reducing the amount of money that the consumer should actually pay. Typically this reduction is done as a discount before VAT.
• Back-end reduction - the reduction is performed by a back-end system (e.g. PayPal) whereby the customer pays for the full purchase amount, and then either their wallet is credited through a payment gateway system, or a refund voucher is generated. If back-end reduction is selected then the default financial transaction settings for back-end reduction will also need to be defined: 
  • Credit note settings
    • Type - the type that will automatically be set on credit notes to be created as part of the back-end reduction.
    • Product - the product that will automatically be included in credit notes created as part of the back-end reduction.
    • Category - the category that will automatically be set on credit notes created as part of the back-end reduction.
    • Notes - the notes that will automatically be set for credit notes as part of the back-end reduction. 
  • Refund settings 
    • Type - the type to be automatically set on refunds that will be created as part of the back-end reduction.
    • Method - the method to be automatically set on refunds that will be created as part of the back-end reduction. The refund method should also be included in the list of supported refund methods. 
    • Category - the category that will automatically be set on refunds to be created as part of the back-end reduction.
    • Notes - the notes that will automatically be set for refunds as part of the back-end reduction. 

Contribution settings 

Define the merchant's contributions for the specified reward schemes. 

• Default contribution for all offers - specify the default contribution percentage for all the offers in which the merchant participates. This is a mandatory setting and defaults to 100%. 
• Explicit contribution per offer classification and/or offer - specify explicit contribution percentages based on either the reward offer classification or the actual reward offer itself. Click on '+Contribution Setting' to create a contribution setting.
  • Offer classification - choose one of the (system defined) offer classifications, the contribution percentage will apply to all reward offers of such a classification. 
  • Offer - select the reward offer to which the contribution percentage will apply.  
  • Contribution percentage (%) - specify the contribution percentage to be applied either to the reward offer classification or to an explicit reward offer.  

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Merchant Settlement Settings 

Data driven offers (awarded for events that took place over time) are evaluated, and award customers once the reward evaluation run is executed. You can determine how often the offers should be evaluated to award customers. 

Define the settings (evaluation frequency and Financial Transaction information) that will be used by the settlement process when debiting / crediting the Merchant's Account based on their Reward Agreements.

Evaluation Settings 

• Settlement evaluation will be base on transactions that were performed in the last X months - specify how many months back the settlement process should check for transactions to be processed. The default setting is 12 months. 
• Settlement evaluation will be performed occurrence At time - define how often the settlement should be applied for all merchants. Supported values are: 
  • Once a day at a specific time - select the time that the settlement process should be applied.  
  • Once a week at a specific day and time - select the week day (Monday to Sunday), and the time that the settlement process should be applied.  
  • Once a month at a specific day and time - select 'Last day' (of the month), or the day of the month (1 to 28) and the time that the settlement process should be scheduled for.  

Settlement Settings 

Specify the financial transaction information to be used when debiting or crediting the merchant's account during the settlement process.  

• Invoice type / Product - the type of invoice and the product to be used on the invoice when debiting partner accounts.  
• Credit note type / Product - the type of credit note and the product to be used on the credit note when crediting partner accounts.    

Reward Transactions 

'Award', 'Spend' and 'Award Expiration' transactions are used to credit and debit the wallet of the participant. All transactions are generated by the system and are available to view through the Reward Transaction screen. 'Award', 'Spend' and 'Award Expiration' transactions cannot be created, modified or deleted by users, but they can be cancelled by users. Select the type of transaction you would like to view from the 'Type' drop-down list on the Reward Transactions screen > select 'Search' to apply your selection, then 'View' to see the transaction details. 

Award transactions: Award transactions are used to award participants with an amount from a reward offer, by creating a credit wallet transaction. They are generated by executing a rewards evaluation run or by submitting a customer event which can be instantly processed. 

Spend transactions: A Spend transaction results in a debit wallet transaction that will debit the wallet of the participant. Wallet funds may be the result of award transactions or other deposits made by the participant. Spend transactions are generated by executing a reward evaluation run or by submitting a spend request customer event.  

Award expiration transactions: Award expiration transactions debit the wallet of participants, expiring previously awarded amounts. Award validity settings of the offer define the period during which awards can be spent and their expiration date. Expired amounts can no longer be used. Award expiration transactions (related to an award transaction) are generated by a wallet balance expiration run (background process). To view the results of the wallet balance expiration run go to Configuration > System Settings > Process Management and Settings > for Module select 'Wallets', for Process select 'Execute wallet balance expiration runs' > Search.

Creating transactions instantly and through the evaluation run

'Award' and 'spend' transactions are generated by executing a rewards evaluation run or by performing events which can trigger real-time offers.

Award transactions are created instantly when the reward offer is a real time offer, whilst spend transactions can be created instantly upon instant discount or automatic spend.

Award expiration transactions that expire awarded credit are generated during a wallet balance expiration run.

Award and spend transactions which are not generated by real time reward offers, will be generated once the reward offer evaluation run is executed (every 30 minutes, not configurable). The run is a background process and does not need user interaction other than starting and stopping it. The run results are available via Configuration > System Settings > Process Management and Settings.

Cancelling transactions

Transactions can only be cancelled under these circumstances: 

• An award transaction can be cancelled in case the participant was rewarded by mistake. 
• A spend transaction can be cancelled if goods purchased by spending a reward have been returned. 
• An award expiration transaction can be cancelled to avoid removing funds from the wallet.

To cancel any type of transaction select to view the transaction from the Reward Transaction screen, click on Cancel and confirm your choice. In any case, the system reverts the reward transaction process accordingly, debiting the wallet in the case of a cancelled award transaction, and crediting it in the case of a cancelled spend, or a cancelled award expiration transaction.

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Using Rewards

Once you have setup schemes and reward offers you are ready to start rewarding your customers. In order for customers to be rewarded they must be registered in CRM.COM as reward participants (Contacts with Accounts). Once registered any participant actions associated to reward offers can be awarded through award transactions which will be generated by the system, and which will in turn credit the participant's wallet. The participant can then choose to redeem wallet funds (points or cash) in which case the system will generate spend transactions which will in turn deduct funds from the wallet.

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Manage your rewards programs through the Reward Board

It is possible to handle your rewards through the reward board instead of using the configuration setup screens. The difference between the two (reward board and configuration screens) is that when creating various entries by using the reward board, those are specific to the selected scheme. When the reward board is displayed you are automatically shown the statistics of a certain reward scheme (the name appears in the top left-hand corner of the screen). 

Other visible reward scheme information summarised on the dashboard includes: 

• Scheme participants - the number of participants signed-up to the scheme. 
• Reward offers - how many currently running reward offers are part of the scheme. 
• Total awards - the total awards that have been awarded to participants of the scheme. 
• Total spends - the total of the awarded amount that has been spent by participants. 

Selecting a scheme

The dashboard is particularly helpful when you have multiple schemes, as you can switch between the various schemes to view information while creating new offers, participant communications etc. all within the same screen. Click on Change Scheme and select the applicable scheme, the information on the screen will change to reflect the selected scheme. 

Monitoring performance using charts

Also visible on the same screen are two chart areas where the user can select to view specific information related to the reward scheme in the form of a chart (graph).  You can select from a list of charts using the Add Chart button, it's possible to view up to two different charts simultaneously. Possible chart options include: 

• Participant sign-ups per month 
• 5 highest awarded offers last month
• Awarded amount not spent 
• Awarded amount per month 
• Amount spent per day of week 
• Spent amount per month 

Other useful rewards related functionality 

On the rewards dashboard the user also has access to Communication plans, Event-based communications and Segments which can all be used to setup communication with the participants. Click on View all to access the relevant screen and view a complete list of definitions.  

The Universal offer is also accessible here, this is initially created during configuration under the Reward Resolution, Reduction & Processing Settings option. The Universal offer can either be applied on top of other offers or when no other offer is applicable. For set up refer to Universal Offer. 

Scheme's Offers - a list of all the effective and ineffective scheme offers is available to view or edit. 

Scheme's Participants - select to display a list of all the participants who have signed-up to the particular reward scheme, view or edit accordingly. 

Actions menu options

The reward board can also be used to perform the following actions:

For a selected scheme:  

• View reward scheme - manage the actual reward scheme settings. 
• Create a reward offer - create a reward offer belonging to the selected scheme.

For all rewards: 

• Create a segment - create segments for selecting participants to be used in reward schemes. 
• Create a communication plan - to communicate with participants of a scheme.
• Create a Contact (person) - create an new person contact, create a related account, and sign them up to a reward scheme. 
• Create a Contact (company) - create an new company contact, create a related account, and sign them up to a reward scheme. 
• Import Accounts for rewards - setup and import contact accounts through a batch process, automatically assigning them to a reward scheme. Refer to Utilities Import manual for the complete procedure. (link) 
• Create a reward scheme - create a new reward scheme.
• Create a reward merchant agreement - create a reward merchant agreement between your business and a merchant who will be participating in specific reward schemes.

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Managing Reward Participants

Selecting and creating rewards participants

To create a new rewards participant, create a corresponding account and sign them up to a rewards scheme:

• From the Rewards Board select the Actions option at the top of the screen.
• Select For all rewards > Create a Contact (person). 
• Enter the contact's details.
• Select Save and Create > Account (to create the contact's account).
• Navigate to the Rewards section in  middle of the accounts screen > scroll down to the 'Sign-up Information' section and assign the customer to the required reward schemes providing the necessary information. Note that if the contact's account and rewards are not assigned during this process, then there is no other way of signing-up rewards participants from within CRM.COM, aside from using the utility to import rewards participants, or the participants signing-up to the reward scheme themselves (based on configuration). For importing rewards participants refer the the Utility manual for further information. (link)
• Save.

Rewards participants must be related to an account (wallet) through which the financial transactions as well as awards and spends will be handled. 

There are additional options available from the Actions menu option on the reward participant account screen but the only one relevant to rewards is Terminate account - an account can be terminated while in 'Active' or 'Suspended' state. Once a customer account has been terminated, then the account owner is no longer considered a customer of the company so no further transactions are allowed to be performed. A terminated accounts cannot be modified again. Refer to Terminating a reward participant account for further details.

Granting access to the system for rewards participants

Signing-up to a rewards scheme

If a participant has already been signed-up to a rewards scheme, then additional reward schemes can also be added manually by following this procedure:

• Navigate to the Reward Board and select the reward scheme that the participant is already a member of. 
• Locate the participant from the Scheme's Participants section, select Edit to edit their account information.
• Select to view the Rewards section in the middle of the accounts screen > scroll down to the 'Sign-up Information' section.
• Click on +Reward Scheme to sign-up the participant to another reward scheme, providing the necessary information. 
• Save.

In cases where you would like to make reward schemes available for participants to join themselves, then the Self sign-up customers option must be enabled on the reward scheme definition. In cases where you would like to restrict registration to a scheme for particular users then you can enable Sign-up customers in a controlled manner. The reference code is usually a 3rd party id (i.e. student identification number) which is saved on the Contact details and its authenticity can be validated by an external system. If enabled then a participant won't be allowed to sign up the scheme unless a valid reference code is provided.  For more information refer to Reward Schemes.

Signing-off from a rewards scheme 

To sign off a participant from a reward scheme:

• Select and edit the participants account information (see signing-up to a rewards scheme procedure).
• View the participant's Rewards.
• Remove the reward schemes to be signed-off from by clicking on X next to the reward scheme name.
• Save.

Blocking and unblocking reward participants from spending wallet funds

Participants can be stopped from spending wallet funds either temporarily (e.g., if they are under investigation) or permanently (e.g., if they committed an act of fraud) by either enabling or disabling Block customer from spending any awarded amount. This is located on the the Rewards section of the account information screen. 

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Spending the wallet amount during a purchase transaction without a spend request

Reward participants can pre-authorise the use of wallet funds for purchases. In cases where a merchant does not allow this, then an explicit request is necessary (i.e., wallet funds are not automatically spent). To set up the system to support instant spending:   

1. At the organisational level, in the spend behaviour settings (Configuration > Rewards > Reward Resolution, Reduction & Processing Settings > scroll down to 'Automatic Spend Rules') enable Allow automatic spend. There is also the option to apply a restriction on the 'spend amount' (min & max). 

   OR

2. At the Rewards Participants level (Rewards > Reward Board > select the scheme > from the 'Scheme's Participants' section, select to 'Edit' the participant > select the 'Rewards' section > Automatic Spend Preferences) set Enable Automatic Spending 'ON'.

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Terminating reward participant account Terminating reward participant account

Terminating a reward participant account

This is the same as terminating a contact account. Rewards participants can choose to terminate their account at any time, terminated reward participants can no longer submit customer events, be awarded or spend awarded amounts.

If the participant account is being terminated due to duplication (i.e. two rewards participants (Contacts) have been registered for the same physical person), you can define the participant by whom they will be replaced and optionally, transfer the wallet balance and any customer identification medium to the other participant. To terminate an account:

• Select an existing rewards participant from a reward scheme.
• Actions > Terminate Account.
• Confirm your choice of action. 
• Account life cycle state is changed to 'Terminated'. 

Reward participant accounts can also be terminated through the WEB API.

Importing participants

The fastest way to create rewards participants is by importing an Excel or CSV file (Foundation > Utilities > Imports) which will automatically create the rewards participants, this is especially useful if the rewards participants are already available on a third party system. Templates in three different formats are available to download in order to prepare the file to be imported. Please refer to the relevant Foundation documentation for more information. 

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Additional Processes and Automations for Rewards 

Awarding customers through promotional campaigns

Awards from specific offers can target participants based on marketing/promotional campaigns. For example, you can set up a promotional campaign for a particular product where customers of a specific group will be awarded if they purchase it.

To do this you can create a promotional campaign through which you will identify your target group and send them a promo code. At the same time you can set up a reward offer, using the promotional campaign as an award condition.

The participants of the campaign will be eligible to the award set up in the offer once they make a purchase providing the promo code. 

To setup a promotion campaign:

1. Generate promo codes through Finance > Products & Pricing > Manage promotion campaigns. 
2. Create a reward offer. In the 'Purchase customer event conditions' section add a customer event condition and select Promotion campaign specifying the promotion code to be used.   

To award:

1. The customer event must include the promotion code. Refer to the Finance manual, Manage promotion campaigns section (link) for full details.  

Previewing awards on purchase customer events  

Awards to be granted through a purchase customer event can be previewed through the WEB API (exclusively) before they are executed. The following information is available through the Preview function:

• Amount to be awarded.
• Amount to 'spend instantly'.
• Additional amount that can be spent on a purchase customer event (depending on availability in the loyalty account of the customer).