Overview

Customer events describe the interactional behavior between a customer and CRM.COM and can include actions such as a purchase from a shop, a referral to a rewards program, spending from a specific account etc. CRM.COM customer events can be registered in the system through the Web API or manually from the user interface.

There are several customer event types, each associated with one or more reward offer classifications.  

• Achievement Events track a form of success, e.g. being one of the first 100 customers in a new shop, or providing feedback for a rewards experience. 
• Financial Statement Events represent the customer's monthly financial status and performance, where such status/performance is measured using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Financial Statement Events can track events in relation to a key business objective, e.g. spending a predetermined amount of money within a specific period, or how well a product is being purchased by customers. 

• Purchase Events represent sales transactions submitted to CRM.COM by a third-party system (e.g. by an external POS) capturing the customer's purchased products, net amount, tax amount and total amount. A Spend Request defines whether a spend (redeeming wallet funds) will be performed as part of the purchase customer event, and tracks the spending of awards.  

• Referral Events are created when existing customers introduce your business to new customers, resulting in new customers signing up (participating) to one of the available reward schemes, and an award for your existing customers.    

Setting Up Customer Events

Before you start using Customer Events you must set up the system to reflect your own business needs.

Classifications

Classifications are used to classify Customer Events that can be used by various business processes for analytical and award/spend purposes. 

• Name: The name of the classification. 
• Code: The code of the classification, if left blank then the system will provide a code. 
• Type: Specify the type of customer events that can use the specific classification. Supported values: Purchase, Referral, Achievement, Financial Statement.
• Description: A brief description of the classification. 

Key Performance Indicators

KPIs measure how effectively a business is achieving its objectives. KPIs are assigned to financial statement (type) customer events and used as criteria to evaluate the eligibility of events to be awarded through financial statement reward offers. You can define a list of products used to calculate the aggregate value measured by the KPI when evaluating reward offers.

• Name: The name of the KPI.
• Code: The code for the KPI, if left blank then the system will provide one automatically.
• Description:  A brief description of the KPI.
• Key Performance Indicator Products: Select either 'All products', or 'Specific Products' and select the products that will be taken into consideration while calculating the aggregated value for the KPI. 

Processing Automation & Rules

Automation rules define the business processes that are automatically applied to customer events depending on the event type.

Select Edit to make changes, and Save your rules definitions before leaving the screen.  

Purchase Customer Event Rules - Define the rules that should be applied while creating and processing Purchase Customer Events. To delete a rule simply click on the X next to the rule name. 

• Rule Name: Enter the rule name and select +Add Rule to create the rule. 

• Accept Purchase Customer Events with invalid purchased Products information: Defines whether purchase customer events can be accepted and posted, even if they include invalid product information or not (default is 'false').

• Default Product: Define the default product that will be used for 'purchase events' which were submitted with invalid product information. The default product is mandatory only if 'Accept Purchase Customer Events with invalid purchased Product information' has been enabled.

• Applicable classifications: The purchase customer event classifications that will be applicable for this rule.

Referral Customer Event Rules - Define the rules that should be applied while creating and processing Referral Customer Events.

• Rule Name: Enter the rule name and select +Add Rule to create the rule. 

• Maximum number (inclusive) of referrals that a customer can make: Specify the maximum number of referred customers that a contact can introduce. 

• Applicable classifications: The referral customer event classifications that will be applicable for this rule.

Payment Medium Identifier - This section deals with the card payment details to be registered in the system (i.e. the card number). As the payment medium identifier (card number) is classed as sensitive information, you can set up rules which will 'adjust' this information on CRM.COM in order to save only a specific number of digits on the system; e.g. the first or last 4 digits (therefore trimming the card number). Define the rules to be used in order to automatically adjust the payment medium identifier specified on customer events. 

• Adjustment Method: The method that will be used in order to adjust the payment medium identifier.  
  • No Adjustment - the payment medium identifier will not be adjusted, all the digits will be saved in their original form. 
  • Keep X Last Characters - specify the number of ending digits that should be kept after adjusting the payment medium identifier (eg. keep last 4 characters for credit card number 4556 1633 5881 1343, only 1343 will be saved). 
  • Keep X First Characters - specify the number of leading digits that should be kept after adjusting the payment medium identifier (e.g. keep first 4 characters for credit card number 4556 1633 5881 1343, only 4556 will be saved). 

Payment Medium Type Rules - This is the method of payment (e.g. credit card, debit card etc.). Define the rules to be used to automatically set the payment medium type on customer events, based on the format of the specified payment medium identifier. 

• Rule Name: Enter the rule name and select +Add Rule to create the rule. 
• Automatically set to type: The payment medium type that will automatically be set on the customer event, if the conditions are fulfilled.
• Formatting: The formatting that will be used to set up the conditions, there are two options:
  • Simple Formatting  
    • Payment medium identifier Length from - to: The payment medium identifier length range. If specified then the length of the particular payment medium identifier should be within this range in order for the rule to be applied.
    • Begins with: The payment medium identifier should begin with the specific value.
    • Ends with: The payment medium identifier should end with the specific value.  
  • Advanced Formatting  
    • Regular Expression: Mainly applies to credit card information. Using a regular expression you can easily determine the type of credit card being used. Each card issuer has its own range of card numbers, identified by the first 4 digits. This can be very useful to prove in a security audit that you’re not improperly exposing your clients’ financial details.

Payment Medium Brand Rules - These are for example the credit card companies (VISA, Mastercard, American Express etc.). Define the rules to be used to automatically set the payment medium brand on customer events based on the format of the specified payment medium identifier. 

• Rule Name: Enter the rule name and select +Add Rule to create the rule. 
• Automatically set to type: The payment medium brand that will automatically be set on the customer event, if the conditions are fulfilled.
• Formatting: The formatting that will be used to set up the conditions. There are two options:
  • Simple Formatting  
    • Payment medium identifier Length from - to: The payment identifier length range. If specified then the length of the particular payment medium identifier should be within that range in order for the rule to be applied.
    • Begins with: The payment medium identifier should begin with the specific value.
    • Ends with: The payment medium identifier should end with the specific value.  
  • Advanced Formatting  
    • Regular Expression: Mainly applies to credit card information. Using a regular expression you can easily determine the brand of credit card being used. Each card issuer has its own range of card numbers, identified by the first 4 digits. This can be very useful to prove in a security audit that you’re not improperly exposing your clients’ financial details.

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Using Customer Events

Provide the relevant search criteria on the summary screen in order to locate the customer event you are interested in. Events are logged in the system through Web APIs but can also be manually created through the UI. Click on +New to create a customer event, select the type of customer event (Achievement, Financial Statement, Purchase or Referral) that reflects the information you intend to log. 

This is the common information appearing on all the Customer Event data entry screens. 

• Contact: The contact for which the customer event is being created (for financial customers only). 
• Account Name: The relevant customer's account, choose from the drop-down list (if there is more than one).
• Performed by Business Unit: Defaults to the user's business unit. 
• Performed on: Date and time the customer event was created. 
• Classification: The classification of the customer event, choose one from the drop-down list. 
• Reference Number: A reference number for the customer event that uniquely identifies the transaction on the external system (must be unique if specified). If it's not specified then it will be auto-generated.
• Reference Number: A unique reference number identifying the customer event which is auto-generated if not specified. 
• Description: A description of the customer event. 
• Performed by TAP: The Transaction Acquiring Point that the customer event was actually performed. This could be an identification number of a POS, of a credit card machine or even a portal.  

The additional relevant information for each Customer Event is available under the corresponding sections below. Provide the mandatory information associated to each customer event and Save the information before leaving the data entry screen.

Creating an Achievement Customer Event 

Create an Achievement Customer Event to honour an achievement by a specific customer. 

• Payment Medium Identifier: The identifier of the payment medium related with the achievement (usually a credit card number).
• Payment Medium Type: The payment method (e.g. credit card, debit card). Choose one from the drop-down list.  
• Payment Medium Brand: The credit card company if it's a card payment (e.g VISA, Mastercard). Choose a brand from the drop-down list.
• Product: Select the product related to the achievement from the drop-down list. 
• Amount: Enter the amount in the given currency. 
• Promo Code: The effective, (not expired) promotion code to be applied to the customer event. Promotional codes (campaigns) can be setup via Finance > Product & Pricing > Manage Promotion Campaigns. 

Creating a Financial Statement Customer Event 

Financial statement customer events are used in order to measure the customers financial status/performance or any changes on their financial status/performance on a monthly basis. This is done by specifying a set of measured customer event KPIs and a value for each one of them. A KPI measures how effectively the business achieves its objectives (e.g. customer spending, how a product is selling etc.). 

• Period (Month-Year):  The month and year of the financial statement (financial statements are always monthly). Multiple financial statements can be created per customer but the combination of classification and month / year should be unique for each customer.
• Measured KPIs - The measured KPI information of the financial statement customer event. The combination of KPI and Product must be unique within each financial statement customer event.
  • Performance Indicator: The key performance indicator which is measured through the financial statement.  
  • Product: The Product which is related to the specified key performance indicator. 
  • Value: Enter the value (in the defined currency) for the specific product that will meet the KPI objective and activate the reward.

Creating a Purchase Customer Event 

Purchase customer events represent the purchases performed by customers providing information on the complete purchase transaction. The purchase may or may not correspond to an invoice in CRM.COM. 

• Reference Number: The reference number of the purchase logged in the external system (if the purchase event is based on a point of sale invoice). 
• Terminal Identifier: The terminal id that submitted the purchase customer event, or the terminal id where the purchase was made (if it's a manual entry).
• Promo Code: The effective, (not expired) promotion code that can be applied to the customer event. 
• Payment Medium Identifier: The identifier of the payment medium related with the achievement (usually a credit card number).
• Payment Medium Brand: The credit card company if it's a card payment. 
• Payment Medium Type: The payment method. Choose from the drop-down list.
• Requested Spend Amount: Indicates whether a spend will be performed as part of the purchase customer event. Spend implies redeeming customer wallet funds. 
• Purchased Products - Information regarding the products included in the purchase transaction. 
  • Code: The purchased product code.
  • Quantity: The quantity of the purchased product. 
  • Net Amount: The net amount before tax.
  • Tax Amount: The tax amount. 
    
  • Total Amount: The total amount of the purchased product after tax has been applied. 

Automatic Creation of Purchase Customer Events

Purchase customer events can also be automatically created when an invoice is registered in CRM.COM, this can be accomplished by a third-party system (such as a point of sale) updating CRM.COM with a new sale resulting in a new invoice being created. CRM.COM can simultaneously create a purchase customer event for the rewards platform.

The invoice financial transaction types that trigger purchase customer events when an invoice is posted are defined in Configuration > Finance > Setup Financial Transaction Settings > Processing Automation & Rules. 

Creating Purchase Customer Events Through WEB APIs

It's also possible for a purchase event to be logged through a WEB API. If the products of a purchased customer event don't exist (i.e CRM.COM hasn't been synchronised to include new products yet), then a default product will be set based on Configuration > CRM > Set up Customer Event Settings > Processing Automation & Rules > Purchase Customer Event Rules. The product which was initially included in the purchase will still have to be logged though as the 'purchase's intended product' but with the 'Default product' specified as the product description.  

Additionally, when logging the purchase through the WEB API you can define the 'terminal identifier' (which could be the shop or a specific POS in a shop which submitted the purchase) by providing its identifier.

Creating a Referral Customer Event 

Referral customer events are created when an existing customer introduces a new customer to your organisation. It is possible that the referring customer gets awarded for referring a new customer, in such a case an award transaction is created that will in turn credit the wallet of the referring customer.

• Referred by Account: The customer (account) who introduced the new customer. 
• Promo Code: The effective, (not expired) promotion code to be applied to the customer event. Promotional codes (campaigns) can be setup via Finance > Product & Pricing > Manage Promotion Campaigns. 

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Spend request

A spend request is initiated when a customer requests to pay for a specific purchase using their wallet funds, this is not an event in itself but it can be requested in one of the following ways: 

• Through a purchase customer event.  

• Through an instant offer - a reward offer that provides an 'instantly spend' award.

• Through automatic spend rules - rules that were set up and accepted by both the merchant and the rewards participant that allows available wallet balance to automatically be spent on purchases without a consumer initiated request.

A spend is always performed as part of a Purchase Customer Event, the Requested Spend Amount must also be provided which represents the amount that should be spent. This is either the total cost of the associated purchase customer event or the amount specified on the spend request.

The 'spend amount' defaults to the total purchase customer event amount and can be edited. Once the spend request is processed you can see the redeemed amount in Actual Spend Amount. This applies only to the automatic awards and not to the instant spending process. A purchase customer event can only be associated with one spend request. Spending of awards results in generating a transaction that debits the wallet of the participant. 

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Cancelling a customer event

Customer events can be cancelled (for example, in case a customer returns a purchased item). Select and view the customer event to be cancelled > click on the Cancel option > the life-cycle state of the customer event will be changed to 'Cancelled'.  

This process cancels an existing 'posted' customer event along with the cancellation of the related reward transactions (award and spend).

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Additional Processes and Automations for Customer Events

Using customer events in rewards

All customer event types except 'spend request' are used for awarding rewards participants. 

Customer events are evaluated by the rewards' engine either when the event is executed, or at a later stage with other customer events in one flow in order to determine whether the participant will be awarded or not.

When a rewards participant redeems an award, a spend request will be registered in CRM.COM with the information for the redemption. Once the spend is successfully processed by the system, the participant's wallet is debited with the redeemed amount. 

Spend requests can only be created for specific purchase customer events, when a rewards participant uses an awarded amount to make a purchase (spend):

• A purchase customer event is created.

• A spend request is created and associated to the purchase event.

  • Awards are redeemed. 
  • If the cost of a purchase is greater than the sum of the awards in the participant's wallet, the participant must pay the difference.

The following table displays the reward offer classifications that each customer event type is evaluated against, provided that a reward offer of the same classification is set up in CRM.COM.

Spending a wallet amount during a purchase 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'.

It's possible to disable automatic spending even if its allowed by the participant or the partner. I.E. The setup at the organisational level (Reward Resolution, Reduction & Processing Settings - setup 1. above) will override any other settings. Refer to the Rewards manual for further information. 

Award and spend transactions initiated by customer events

As aforementioned customer events are central to rewards. Results from a reward offer associated with an event (e.g. purchase) can generate an award transaction that credits the wallet of the participant. On the other hand when the customer initiates a purchase request customer event with a request to spend an award then a spend transaction is generated to debit the wallet of the participant. A Spend request can only be processed as part of a Purchase customer event.

Award and Spend Transactions associated to any customer events are available when viewing the information screen of each event.

Using back-end or front-end reduction method for spend requests

The reward reduction method defines how the amount that was requested to be spent will be applied. The available methods are the following:

• 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.  

The reward Reduction Method Settings can be setup in Configuration > Rewards > Set up Rewards > Reward Resolution, Reduction & Processing Settings > Reduction Method Settings. However if reduction method settings are also defined on the merchant through which the request is performed then these settings are overridden. Refer to the Rewards manual for further information. 

Previewing awards on purchase customer events 

CRM.COM Reward Offers generate awards for purchase customer events (subject to conditions). 

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 be 'spend instantly'.

• Additional amount that can be spent on a purchase customer event (based on funds available in the customer's loyalty account).

Communicating Customer Events

It's possible to automate communications on creating purchase customer events with/without spend requests by setting up 'Event Based Communication Definition' accordingly. You can use tags related to Customer Events (text that is automatically replaced by values specific to selected customers) when creating communications. Tags are available for selection by typing '#'. 

It is also possible to manually create communications which include customer event related information through the Communications page by adding the customer event in the 'Referring to Entities' section.

Refer to the Communications manual for a complete list of Customer Event tags.

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