Overview
Loyalty rules allow you to program reactions to certain conditions occurring within loyalty programs, such as purchases of a specific number of items (e.g., “buy 3 get one free”) or birthdays. As soon as the conditions are met, outcomes of the loyalty rule are applied.
A newly defined loyalty program is quite static: it just allows members to collect points based on receipts and to move between tiers (if present). Loyalty rules add dynamic to programs.
Where to find loyalty rules
To access loyalty rules go to LOYALTY > Programs. Loyalty rules always belong to a program, you won’t find them outside of one. If you have more than one loyalty program in your universe, select the one for which you want to create or manage rules. Open the "Rules" tab under the name of the program to display the list of existing rules.
To edit an existing rule, use the edit button on the right (red border).
Creating loyalty rules
To create a rule, click the “+New Rule creation” button in the “Rules” tab of a program.
A rule needs a name, an activation date, and at least one condition and one outcome to work. When you have added all required elements, you will be able to click the “Create” button in the bottom right to save the rule.
Scope (tiered programs only)
The scope is located directly under the name. It is a list of tiers to which the rule applies. You can use search to select from existing tiers.
Scope is a required field. You must select at least one tier for the rule to be valid.
Activation
This section defines the start and end date for the rule.
The start date is required and shows the creation date by default. You may want to set a specific time and date to match a specific event. Examples: beginning of a campaign, a new week of the campaign (with its own rules), a special week of sales (e.g., in January) or the Black Friday, or even a sports event (an important soccer match, FIFA World Cup or Superbowl in the US).
The end date is optional. Adding the end date allows you to create temporary rules. Otherwise, they don’t expire until the program ends.
Restrictions
Here you set how many times the outcome of the rule can be achieved. It also serves as a fraud prevention tool: without it, a user might get a birthday present every day by changing their date of birth in the system.
“Unlimited” means that the rule will work each time. “Limited” allows you to set how many times the rule can be activated during the given number of days, weeks, months, or years.
Note that if you define a period that ends after the end date, the rule will not renew.
Conditions
To create a condition, click the blue "+Add condition" button. You will be able to choose between purchase (sales) conditions on the one hand, and event condition (email, interactions, tier movements, birthday, and program subscription) on the other.
You can normally have one condition in a rule. The “+Add condition” button is only enabled when you can add more rules.
After selecting a condition, you will sometimes need to fill it with filters. Should you make a mistake, use the "X" button to delete a condition or a filter.
Purchase condition
The purchase condition is applied whenever a holder of a loyalty card makes a purchase, which means a receipt created in the database. It is a broad, sales-related condition that is defined by the use of filters.
You can combine the purchase condition with the birthday or program subscription condition but not both.
Purchase filters
Filters determine how the rule will be applied to purchases. You can combine all purchasing filters to achieve very advanced rules.
- Amount spent
These filters measure the money spent by program members while the rule is active.
- Total amount >= is met when the sum of all receipts equals or exceeds the given amount.
- Total amount <= is met as long as the sum of all receipts does not exceed the given amount. You can combine these two filters to provide a spending range for the rule.
- Per transaction amount >= is met for all transactions equal or exceeding the provided amount of euro.
- Per transaction amount <= is met for all transactions not exceeding the provided maximum amount of money. Used together, these two rules allow you to define a transaction amount range for which the rule will work.
- Every X: triggers once per every X euro spent by the program member. Example of use: think of giving a member a 5 NQ points bonus every time they spend €100.
- Every X per transaction: works once per every X euro spent by the program member within a single purchase (one receipt).
- Number of transactions
These filters allow you to react to the number of purchase events (measured by receipts).
- Every X transactions: triggers the rule once per every X receipts.
- Total transactions >= is met when the number of transaction is equal or greater of the number in the filter. This filter defines a minimum number of transactions
- Quantity
Quantity filters measure the number of items purchased by the program member.
- Total quantity >= is fulfilled when the total number of items on receipts equals or exceeds the given number.
- Per transaction quantity >= is met if the receipt contains at least the provided number of items. E.g., if the number is 5, receipts containing 2 or 4 items will be ignored.
- Every X items: this filter triggers once per every X items purchased by the program member.
- Stores
- Specific store: this filter allows you to select a specific store or stores from the list. Only receipts registered in these stores will be counted.
- Stores filter: here you can use a stores filter (from the Target module) to match a group of stores, based on their country or any other category.
- Products
- Specific product: is met only if the program member has purchased a specific product or products.
- Products filter: instead of selecting individual products, you can use a products filter (from Target) for a more precise listing.
Completion timeframe filters
A set of three filters which can be used to decide when this condition can be applied.
- Until amount spent
The condition will no longer be applied once the program member has spent a certain amount on purchases qualifying for this rule.
- Starting from amount spent
The condition will be applied only after the program member has spent a certain minimum amount of money on purchases which qualify for this rule.
Using these two filters you can define a set of rules which apply to different spending ranges.
- Must be completed in
This filter defines the longest time interval (in days, weeks, months, or years) between the first and last purchase included in a rule calculation.
Example of use: The purchase condition below is met when a program member spends at least €1,000 over 2 weeks. The number of receipts does not matter: it can be one large purchase or many small ones. Spending €200 every other day will fulfill the condition after the 5th purchase.
Event conditions
These conditions are grouped together because they allow the rules to react to and depend on non-sales events.
Emails conditions
There are two conditions based on email: “Every email opened” and “Every email clicked”. These conditions will be met by opening or clicking in an email message, respectively, subject to filters and restrictions of the rule.
For now, these conditions are available only if you have the "Interactions" option activated. Please get in touch with Splio if you need them.
- Campaign category
Thanks to this filter the rule will only match email messages belonging to a specific category, defined in Scenario. It allows you to tie the rule to a specific email or set of emails.
- Device type
With this filter you can select the devices which must be used to open/click in the mail for the rule to trigger.
Example of use: The following condition will only work when a link in the email is clicked on a smartphone, not another device.
- Link category
This filter only applies to the “Every email clicked” rule. It allows you to limit the rule’s activation to a particular category of links you may feature in one or more emails.
Interactions conditions
When selecting the interactions condition, you need to choose the type of interactions (social or custom) that it is going to use. Both types of interactions use the same filters:
- Channel
Limit the rule to a specific interactions channel (or channels) selected from the list.
- Channel details
This filter allows you to access additional information related to interactions channels.
- Source type
Choose the source type(s) for which the rule will work. E.g., you can limit it to interactions originating from a web page or a survey.
- Source id
This filter allows you to limit the rule to one specific source of interaction data defined by its id.
Birthday conditions
These are single conditions that do not use any filters. Instead, they may be combined with a purchase condition to create rules that grant special offers related to birthdays.
- Precise birthday date
You need to select if the rule should work on the exact day, in the week, or in the month of the birthday. This makes it great for one-off gifts like a reward or a lump sum of loyalty points.
Example of use: You want to reward every third purchase in the week of a program member’s birthday with additional loyalty points.
- During X Days after birthday
This condition will be met on the set number of days following the loyalty card owner’s birthday. It is ideal for limited time birthday offers.
Program subscription conditions
The subscription conditions are meant to be combined with purchase conditions to create offers directed at newly subscribed program members.
- Subscription date
This condition makes the rule work for each program member only on the day they have subscribed to the program.
- During X Days after birthday
This is very similar to the subscription date condition but works for a set number of days. It is good for offers which allow new members to gain extra points for purchases.
Tiers movements conditions
These conditions are described last because they’re only available in tiered programs. There are no filters to add to these conditions. If you do not have tiers in your programs which the conditions require, you will not be able to select them.
- Tier upgrade
Select a tier from the list. The rule will react to an upgrade to this tier.
You need at least 2 tiers in a program for this condition to work. You will be able to select from among all tiers except the lowest one (you need to be able to upgrade to that tier).
- Tier downgrade
Select a tier from the list. The rule will react to when a loyalty program member is demoted to that tier.
You need at least 2 tiers in a program for this condition to work. You will be able to select from among all tiers except the highest one (where no demotion is possible).
- Promoted to a VIP tiers
Select a VIP tier from the list. The rule will react to when a user is promoted to this tier. If your program has no VIP tiers, you will not be able to add this condition.
You need at least 2 tiers in a program for this condition to work. You will be able to select from among all tiers except the lowest one (you need to be able to upgrade to that tier).
Outcomes
To add an outcome, use the blue “+Add outcome” button. You must define at least one outcome to make the rule valid. Each of the following outcomes can be added once to the rule (it will be grayed out when adding another one).
- Qualifying points > Qualifying points credit
Credit the loyalty card with a fixed amount of Q-points whenever the conditions are met. This option is only valid for tiered programs because simple programs don’t use Q-points.
- Non-qualifying points > Non-qualifying points multiplier
Apply a specific NQ-points multiplier when the conditions are met. Useful for promotion use cases where you want to make a specific product (brand or store) purchases to be worth more for a time.
⚠ This outcome depends on timeframe-based conditions, e.g., X days after birthday or after subscription, and will not be available without them.
- Non-qualifying points > Non-qualifying points credit
Credit the loyalty card with a fixed amount of NQ-points whenever the conditions are met.
- Reward
Assign a reward or rewards to the loyalty program member.