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 Back to Rewards Main Page 

Excerpt
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Understand the usage of Rewards within CRM.COM

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Table of Contents

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What are Rewards?

The Rewards module provides to Merchants numerous Reward Offer options to award their loyal customers. Awards can be directly converted into cash value which can be consumed on specific Products or Units and at specific times, or with no conditions at the customer's discretion.

Through the Rewards module:

  • Business specific Reward Offers can be set up
  • Rewards Participants can be created
  • Reward Participating Merchants can be created with Reward Offers of their own
  • Participants can be awarded instantly or later via batch runs
  • Transactions associated with Rewards can be managed.

Rewards Glossary

TermDescription
Reward Offers

Reward Offers are used to:

  • Define a financial amount to be awarded to Rewards Participants, based on their actions.
  • Define the conditions for an Award to be given.
  • Define the conditions that should be met for the awarded amount to be spent.
Rewards Participants

The customers who have signed up for Rewards or have been automatically selected to participate.

Rewards Participating Merchants

Status
colourGreen
titleAvailable from CRM.COM R10.0.0
 

Rewards Participating Merchants are merchants that have a partnership with the business that owns the Rewards platform and can participate in the provided Reward Schemes.
Reward Participating Merchants contribute to the amount awarded to Rewards Participants, based on rules which are agreed and defined between the Merchant and the business.
Rewards Participating Merchant Groups
Status
colourGreen
titleAvailable from CRM.COM R10.0.0
 
Rewards Participating Merchant Groups are Groups of Rewards Participating Merchants that can share identical business characteristics.
Contribution
Status
colourGreen
titleAvailable from CRM.COM R10.0.0
 
The cash value that must be contributed by the Rewards Participating Merchant to the business that owns the Reward Platform, defined as a percentage of the total amount of Awards offered to Rewards Participants by the specific Merchant.
Reward SchemesReward Schemes group together Reward Offers and are used to define which Reward Offers will be applicable to which Rewards Participants. 
There can be multiple Schemes with different Reward Offers.  The participation of Rewards Participants in Schemes can be selected when signing them up.
Award Transactions

Award Transactions are used to award a Rewards Participant, by crediting their Wallet with a specific amount of cash value provided by the Reward Offer.

Refer to Managing Award Transactions for more information.

Spend Transactions

Spend Transactions are used to consume a specific amount of money, that was awarded by Reward Offers, by debiting the Rewards Participants Wallet.

Refer to Managing Spend Transactions for more information.

Award Expiration Transactions

Award Expiration Transactions are used to expire an amount awarded to a Rewards Participant by debiting the Rewards Participant's Wallet. Award Expiration Transactions are generated as awarded amounts expire, when past their Reward Award Offer Validity period.

Refer to Managing Award Expiration Transactions & Using Award Expiration Run Definitions for  for more information.

Note

As of CRM.COM R10 Award Expiration Transactions will be handled/generated by Wallet Balance Expiration Run Definitions, if the Wallet credit amount which is expired is related to an Award Transaction.


 

Reward Settlements

Reward Settlement is a batch process that is responsible for evaluating Customer Events and Spend Transactions to debit or credit the Merchant's accounts, based on the Awards provided or redeemed, using Contribution Rules defined for each Merchant.
Customer Events

Customer Events are financial, and marketing events performed by customers and are registered within CRM.COM to be rewarded or additionally processed by other CRM.COM functions.

Access TokensAccess Tokens are used to identify a Rewards Participant that can access CRM.COM and authenticate them while accessing the System.

Rewards Key Processes and Concepts

Processes / ConceptDescription
Rewards Scheme Participation

A participant can start participating in a Rewards Scheme to start receiving awards by its participating Reward Offers. Once the participant signs off from the Rewards Scheme, then he can no longer enjoy awards from its Reward Offers.

Addition and removal of a participant to a Rewards Scheme can take place by adding and removing the Scheme from the Rewards Participant Data Entry page.

Awarding Loyal Participants

The CRM.COM Rewards Platform makes it possible to award loyal customers for other actions as well as for money spent, to assist in promotion and marketing.

  • Customers are awarded based on the value of their purchased Products, by using: Increase Revenue, Product Based
  • Customers are awarded based on the value of their Transactions, by using: Increase Revenue, Transaction Based
  • Status
    colourGreen
    titleAvailable from CRM.COM R10.0.0
    Customers are awarded based on specific Financial Achievements( user defined) who they have accomplished in general or within a period for a specific amount or any amount, by using: Reward Financial Achievement
  • Customers are awarded based on specific Achievements (user defined) who they have accomplished in general or within a period for a specific amount or any amount, by using: Reward Achievement
  • Customers are awarded based on the value of the purchase transactions they have performed within a specific period, by using: Reward Loyalty, Transaction Amount Based (The offer is accumulative)
  • Customers are awarded based on the amount of the purchase transactions they have performed within a specific period, by using: Reward Loyalty, Transaction Number Based(The offer is accumulative)
  • Customers are awarded based on purchases made on specific dates / hours associated with any or specific Products by using: Utilise Free Capacity
  • Status
    colourYellow
    titleAvailable from CRM.COM R11.0.0
    Customers are awarded for reaching specific key business objectives as measured through Financial Statement Customer Events, by using: Reward Financial Statement
  • Customers are awarded based on common business characteristics which can be determined by one or multiple Segments /wiki/spaces/V4Manual/pages/9831192 by using: Just Money
  • Customers are awarded for liking a Facebook business page or for visiting the business website by using: Reward Behaviour
  • Customers are awarded on their birthday by using: Reward Birthdays
  • Customers are awarded on their name-day by using: Reward On Name-day
  • Customers are awarded for providing their personal details, such as email addresses, telephone, addresses, etc. by using: Reward Personal Data Completeness
  • Customers are awarded for referring friends: Reward Referrals
  • Customers are awarded on signing up to the Rewards Platform by using: Reward Sign Ups
  • Customers are awarded for being loyal subscribers, with no deactivation periods throughout their Subscription by using: Reward Subscription Maturity

 

Evaluating Customer Events

While some Reward Offers to be awarded can be derived from data registered in the System such as name-days, birthdays and subscription maturity, most of the Reward Offers require the creation and evaluation of Customer Events to be awarded. Customer Events of the following types are used and evaluated by the Rewards Engine:

  • Purchase

  • Referral

  • Web

  • Social Media

  • Achievement

  • Financial Achievement

    Status
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    titleAvailable from CRM.COM R10.0.0

  • Financial Statement
    Status
    colourYellow
    titleAvailable from CRM.COM R11.0.0

Note

For more information on Customer Events, visit Understanding Customer Events.

Evaluating Spend Request Customer EventsCustomer Events are used to evaluate whether a customer should be awarded or allowed to spend a specific amount of money. Evaluation of Spend Request Customer Events is applied on Customer Events of the following type:
  • Spend Request
Batch Process Reward Offer Evaluation versus Batch Process & Interactively 

Customer Events can be awarded in two ways:

  • Interactively: At the time that the Event occurs
    This happens if the Customer Event-related with the Reward Offer has the "Process Immediately" flag checked.
  • Batch: At a later stage when the Reward process is executed to evaluate and award all Events. This will happen when a Rewards Run is executed, and there exist unprocessed Customer Events related with the Reward Offers included in the run. 
    These are Customer Events that have the "Process Immediately" flag unchecked.

Status
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titleAvailable from CRM.COM R10.0.0
When creating a Reward Offer, there is the option to define whether Customer Events (with the "Process Immediately" flag checked) are processed immediately, evaluating related the Reward Offer and providing the Reward Award Transaction directly, or whether they can only be processed and evaluated during the Rewards Run.

The option to allow both Batch and Interactive processing is only available for the following Reward Offer Types:

  • Utilise Free Capacity
  • Increase Revenue, Transaction based
  • Increase Revenue, Product based
  • Reward Behaviour

 

Note

For the remaining Reward Offer Types, the evaluation can only take place in Batch mode, using the  Rewards Run.

Awarding Reward Offers only for specific Periods

Once a Reward Offer is created and set as effective, Reward Participants are eligible to get awarded by the Offer as long as it belongs to a Scheme they participate.
However, you have the option to define specific periods during which the Reward Offers will be used for awarding Reward Participants, even if they are effective. The following options are available:

  • Always Valid from Effective Date onward
  • Specific Period: Make a Reward Offer available for a specific period
    Status
    colourYellow
    titleAvailable from CRM.COM R11.1.0
  • During Birthday Period: Make a Reward Offer available on a Participant's birthday
  • During Name-day Period: Make a Reward Offer available on a Participant's name-day
  • During a recurring Period: Make a Reward Offer available during a specific period of the year, every year, such as Christmas Season Offers.
Note

Check the Offer Validity setting available in each Reward Offer for more information.

Defining validity on the Awards

Awards are added to a Rewards Participant's Wallet and can either be spent conditionally (on specific products, at specific times and days of the week, or at specific places) or unconditionally.
The business can also set an expiration to the Awards, encouraging the customer to spend them within a specific period. On the expiration date, the participant's Wallet is debited, and the awarded money ceases to be available.

To set a Validity Date on the Awards, the Reward Award Validity attribute must be set on the Reward Offer at the time of setup, and the Expiration Process must be executed to identify expired Awards.

Note
In addition to the Award Expiration function, the System can also be set to allow participants to redeem their Awards after a period has passed.

This is defined by the Allow Spending Only After a period Since the Award Was Offered field available at the Spend Conditions of the Reward Offer.

Anchor
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Instant Spent based on Reward Offer
Status
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titleAvailable from CRM.COM R10.0.0
 

There are two models the user can choose from with regards to the exchange of the customer's Awards.

Model 1 - Instant Spent

Status
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titleAvailable from CRM.COM R10.0.0

Awards can be exchanged and spent instantly.

When making a purchase related to an Award, the Award value can be automatically deducted from the Invoice, like an instant discount.

Note

The Instant Spent option can be set on the Reward Offer. This model is only applicable for the following offer types:

Model 2 - Spend on Request

Awards are added to the loyalty account and can be spent at a later stage upon the customer's request.

Instant Spent Authorisation based on Rewards Participant
Status
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titleAvailable from CRM.COM R11.0.0
 

Rewards Participants have the option to define whether they wish to enable Instant Spent; this means that awards can be exchanged and spent instantly, i.e. when making a purchase related to an award, the award/money can be automatically deducted from the invoice, like an instant discount.

The Instant Spent Authorisation, is done regardless of the Instant Spent setting on the Reward Offer and it is only applicable for the following offer types:

Apply Only Reward Offer, Offering the Best Award
Status
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titleAvailable from CRM.COM R10.1.0
 

If many Reward Offers are set up in the System, then an event may be awarded multiple times, that is, whenever the Reward process is executed. 
The option is available to only award an event once, with the Award from the Reward Offer that gives the highest awarded amount, every time the Reward Process is executed.

The "Best Award" decision process can take place either when the user works with an Interactive Rewards Model or a Batch Rewards Model.

Providing Awards either on the whole amount or per product sold on transaction based Reward Offers
Status
colourGreen
titleAvailable from CRM.COM R10.0.0
 

The amount or percentage to be Awarded is set on the Reward Offer. In general, when a transaction is completed, if the Award Conditions are met then the Award is provided on the whole amount.

Another option is to provide the Award per item sold within a transaction. If there are 5 five different or identical products in a transaction, then the Award will be provided once for every product.

Note

The option to set the Award, per transaction item, is only applicable for the following offer types:

Temporarily Block 'Spending of Awards' from Particular Rewards Participants

Status
colourGreen
titleAvailable from CRM.COM R10.1.0

It is possible to block Participants from spending their Awards, in case of a dispute or a suspicion of fraud. In the same way, blocked Participants can be unblocked and resume spending their Awards.
Refer to Managing Rewards Participants for more information. 
Previewing Awards on Purchase Customer Events
 
Status
colourGreen
titleAvailable from CRM.COM R10.0.0

Many CRM.COM Reward Offers are directly related to Purchase Customer Event. These Awards will be granted based on a Purchase Customer Event, provided that the offer conditions are met.

An option is available (via WEB API) to preview awarded amount information before the Purchase Customer Event is submitted. Using the Preview function the following information is available:

  • Amount to be awarded
  • Amount to be spent instantly
  • Additional amount that can be spent on a Purchase Customer Event (depending on what is available in the customer's loyalty account).
Rewards Participating Merchants Contributions
 
Status
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titleAvailable from CRM.COM R10.0.0
 

Merchants that have a partnership with the Rewards Platform business can participate in the Reward Schemes. Through the Rewards Participating Merchants module, Awards can be granted for events occurring via the particular Merchants. Merchants can, for example, set up a Reward Offer that will be applicable only when Rewards Participants buy a good from their store.

Additionally, the Merchants can also be required to pay the Rewards Platform business for the Awards that were provided via its own Reward Offers. This is referred to as Contribution and is calculated in the System on a percentage basis (%). 
Amount owed to the business = Contribution % * Awarded Amount.

Refer to Managing Rewards Participating Merchants and Managing Rewards Participating Merchant Groups for more information on setting up business rules related to Contribution.

Crediting and Debiting Participating Merchant's Accounts Based on the Awards and Redemption of Awards

 

There is the option to debit or credit Merchants' accounts, based on the Awards provided through their Reward Offers, and the spending of Awards done via their Units.  For example:

  • When an Award is handed via a Customer Event that was created by Unit A, then Unit's A account will be debited with the Award amount.
  • When a Spend Request Customer Event is created by Unit A, then Unit's A account will be credited with the spent amount.

Refer to Using Reward Settlement Run Definitions for more information.

Status
colourGreen
titleAvailable from CRM.COM R10.0.0

For the calculation of the amount with which, the Merchant's account will be debited or credited, the System will take into account the Contribution Rules set up at the Rewards Participating Merchants.
Refer to Applying Rewards Participating Merchant Rules for more information. 

Crediting the Accounts Receivable of Rewards Participants
Status
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titleAvailable from CRM.COM R11.0.0
 

In the case, that the POS of your Reward's Platform Participating Merchant cannot be changed so that it fully integrates with CRM.COM, in order for redemption of awards to be done through Participant's Wallet, the System allows you to credit the Accounts Receivable of the Participant with the amount of money that should be paid to the merchant through the redemption of the participant's awards.

When Rewards Participants, wish to redeem their awards (i.e. Create Spend Request Customer Events) the System apart from debiting the Wallet of the Participant, so that a correct balance is maintained, it also automatically credits the Accounts Receivable of the Rewards Participant, with the amount it should be redeemed.

For example, if the customer wants to buy something worth €115.00 of which €15.00 is the redemption of awards, the customer will pay the full amount to the merchant, and the System will credit the Account Receivable with €15.00.

Note

It is up to you to set up a custom procedure where you will pay back your customers with their awarded redemption.
i.e. extract the money owed to the customer and credit their bank accounts.

The option to credit the Accounts Receivable is optional, and it can be set up on the Rewards Participating Merchants. To help you identify the Accounts that should be handled a Report is available in the System: Rewards Participating Merchant Credits Report

Terminating Rewards Participants

Status
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titleAvailable from CRM.COM R12.0.0

Rewards Participants can choose to end their participation in a Rewards program or you can decide to terminate participants in your program due to duplicity. In such case, you can easily transfer the participant's existing rewarded balance and Access Tokens to the participant which will be used to replace the terminated one.

 

Rewards Access & Viewing Controls

Business Network Characteristics define the level of access for each record, i.e. Whether it will be available for selection, for viewing or editing, etc.

EntityNetwork CharacteristicsDescription

Reward Offer Types

A Reward Offer Type can be selected when creating a Rewards Offer, provided the user adding the Type belongs to one of the Allowed Organisational Units defined in the Reward Offer Type, or a collaboration exists between their Unit and the AOU of the Type, or is a Super User.
Rewards OffersRewards Offer records can be accessed viewed and modified by non-Super Users defined as members of the offer's Owned By Group, by non-Super Users that belong to a Group that collaborates with the Owned By Group, or by Super Users.
Rewards SchemesA Rewards Scheme can be selected when creating a Rewards Offer, provided the user adding the Scheme belongs to one of the Allowed Organisational Units defined in the Rewards Scheme, or a collaboration exists between their Unit and the AOU of the Scheme, or is a Super User.
Award TransactionsAward Transaction records can be accessed viewed and modified by non-Super Users that belong to the Group defined at the Owned By Group of the Accounts Receivable of Rewards Participant or that belong to a Group that collaborates with the specified Group or by Super Users.
Spend TransactionsSpend Transaction records can be accessed viewed and modified by non-Super Users that belong to the Group defined at the Owned By Group of the Accounts Receivable of Rewards Participant or that belong to a Group that collaborates with the specified Group or by Super Users.

Award Expiration Transactions

Award Expiration Transaction records can be accessed viewed and modified by non-Super Users that belong to the Group defined at the Owned By Group of the Accounts Receivable of Rewards Participant or that belong to a Group that collaborates with the specified Group or by Super Users.

Rewards Related Modules

Interaction EntityHow
Access TokensCan be used to identify and authorise a Rewards Participant.
Customer EventsA majority of the Awards are based on Customer Events. An event is responsible for triggering the awarding of a participant.
Wallets

Wallets serve as the customer's loyalty accounts. Awards and Spend Transactions trigger the creation of Wallet Transactions that will either debit or credit the Wallet.

Products
Products can be used to award or spend rewards
Accounts Receivable
Rewards Participants can only be created against an Accounts Receivable.
CommunicationsCommunications can be sent to customer related to their Rewards Participants, Award Spend and Expiration Transactions.

Rewards - Business Examples

The following section provides business examples to help you understand how the CRM.COM Rewards module is used.

Note

View Understanding Customer Events for more business examples related to Reward Offers and Customer Events.

Set up a Reward Offer for liking the company's Facebook page

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titleAward Participants for Liking Facebook Page

Business Requirement

Company ZX would like to set up a Reward Offer for liking their Facebook page.


CRM.COM Solution

  • Configuration
  1. Verify that a Reward Scheme exists in the system (e.g.,. Marketing Reward Scheme) and that there are Rewards Participants participating in this Scheme.
  2. Set up a Reward Offer Type that can be used only for Facebook Likes.
    1. Name: Reward Behaviour Facebook
    2. Classification: Reward Behaviour
  3. Set up a Reward Offer so that participants can be awarded €1 for Liking your Facebook page.
    1. Name: €1 on Liking Facebook Page
    2. Scheme: Marketing
    3. Type: Reward Behaviour Facebook
    4. Award Amount: €1
    5. Award Conditions:
      1. Facebook likes
      2. Enter Facebook page
      3. Specify any segments or Organisational Units that need to be included
    6. Click on SAVE


Note

More Information on Rewards configuration can be found at Rewards - The Admin Stuff

Provide Instant Discount on an item basis - 
Status
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titleAvailable from CRM.COM R10.0.0

Panel
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titleInstant Discount on Transaction Item Amount

Business Requirement

Company ZX would like to provide a 10% discount on each Product sold of Type " accessories" at the time of the purchase


CRM.COM Solution

  • Configuration
  1. Create a new Utilise Free Capacity Reward Offer with the following setup
    1. Award: 10%
    2. Award Scope: Apply Award Per Transaction Item
    3. Spend Method: Instant Spend
    4. Award Conditions: product Type is Accessories
  • User Process
    Every time a new Purchase Customer Event is created for an accessory item, the system will make 10% discount for each one of them.


Provide Instant Discount on a complete transaction - 
Status
colourGreen
titleAvailable from CRM.COM R10.0.0

Panel
nameblue
titleInstant Discount on Transaction Amount

Business Requirement

Company ZX would like to make €10 discount on the total amount on any purchases made on Hardware.


CRM.COM Solution

  • Configuration
  1. Create a new Utilise Free Capacity Reward Offer with the following setup
    1. Award: €10
    2. Award Scope: Apply Award Per Transaction
    3. Spend Method: Instant Spend
    4. Award Conditions: product Type is Hardware
  • User Process
    Every time a new Purchase Customer Event is created including Hardware, the system will provide a 10% discount on the total amount of the Invoice/Customer Event.

Award Loyal Subscribers for Rewards Participation

Panel
nameblue
titleAward loyal subscribers

Business Requirement

Company ZX would like to award with €5 the Rewards Participants who have been subscribers for a continuous year and participate in marketing Schemes.


CRM.COM Solution

  • Configuration
  • Set up a Reward Offer Type
    1. Classification: Reward Subscription Maturity 
  • Set up a Reward Offer 
    • Type: with the above type
    • Scheme: Marketing
    • Category: Marketing
    • Amount:  5
    • Conditions:
      • Uninterrupted Subscription Period: 1 year
      • Segment Conditions:
        • Included Segments: Effective Subscribers

  • Create a new Reward Run Definition
    1. Name: Award Mature Subscribers once a year
    2. Reward Offer Type: select the type previously created, Award Mature Subscribers once a year
    3. Under Criteria: specify all the criteria that will retrieve the subscribers that have a continuous subscription for the last year:
      1. Reward Schemes: Marketing
      2. Reward Offer Types: Reward Subscription Maturity
    4. Under Scheduling

      1. Schedule the definition to be executed on a specific date and time

      2. Schedule the recurrence to be each year


  • User Process
  • Execute Run Definition
    • Look at the run results
    • Navigate to Award Transactions: Transactions have been created for all participants that match the criteria
    • Navigate to the participant's Wallet: 5 Euros have been credited to participants that match the criteria

Note

More Information on Rewards Offers configuration can be found at Reward Subscription Maturity.

Configure and Execute an Award Expiration Transactions Run Definition 
Status
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titleApplicable up to CRM.COM R9.0.0

Panel
nameblue
titleExpiration of Awards

Business Requirement

Company ZX would like its Reward Participants to spend their Awards within a month from the time they are awarded.


CRM.COM Solution

  • Configuration
  1. The Awards Validity for Reward Offers should be defined, displaying the expiration date of the Awards Transactions.
  2. Wallet Definitions must define Financial Transactions to be created when:
    1. Causes Debiting Wallets: On Award Expiration Transactions
    2. Causes Voiding Wallets: On Cancelling as Award Expiration Transaction
  3. Set up the Award Expiration Run Definition which will be executed each month to produce Award Expiration Transactions and cancel the Awards that have been Expired.
    1. Specify the following:
      1. Award Transaction expired X days ago: 1 day
      2. Reward Offers
      3. Segments to be Included or Excluded from the Run.

  4. Each month after the Run is executed, the Award Expiration Transactions will be created to expire awarded amounts by debiting the Rewards Participant's Wallet. Award Expiration Transactions trigger the generation of Debit Wallet Transactions which deduct the remaining (unspent) awarded amount. 
Note

More Information on Award Expiration Transactions Run Definition can be found at Using Award Expiration Run Definitions.

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