Getting started:: Activating your Loyalty account - Loyalty Onboarding – Emarsys

Before you start with Loyalty, you must set up your account. This involves creating your initial account settings including language & currency definition and plan settings.

Before setting up a Loyalty plan, it is highly recommended to read Before you start with Loyalty to get an overview of add-on.

The onboarding process includes the following steps:

Prerequisites

Emarsys Loyalty requires a working Smart Insight integration, and an additional three mandatory fields in your sales data file.

You will also need to confirm that your sales data is loaded daily and that your returns and cancellations are processed accurately (so that any points earned from then can be removed).

If you want to use the Loyalty Wallet you will need to implement the Loyalty JavaScript commands on your website, otherwise you can use Loyalty’s API and build your own UI on your website.

Creating your plan

Emarsys Loyalty allows you to manage multiple loyalty plans simultaneously in the same account (multiplan). Parallel plans can be for example B2C/B2B, Amateurs/Professionals, etc.

In the first step of onboarding, you are required to define a plan name and plan identifier of your first plan, which is also your default plan. Additionally, you need to select the plan type.

Once you activated your Loyalty account, you can add more plans via Loyalty Management > Account settings. To enable this option in your account, please contact Emarsys support.

Plan name - This is the official name of your plan as it will be communicated to the customers. A branded name will help you to market your plan. Customers also will see the name of your plan in the Loyalty Wallet before joining.

Plan identifier - This is a permanent ID that will be used to identify the plan internally. The ID cannot be changed after the plan is launched.

Plan type - We currently support the following types of plans:

Redemption - Members earn points from purchases and engagement, and they can redeem them for rewards. You can start a one tier plan quickly and with a minimum number of complex decisions. You can also run a multi-tier plan to increase the gamification element and regularly encourage members to upgrade to the next tier and earn upgraded rewards.
Benefits - A multi-tier plan that increases the gamification element and regularly encourages members to upgrade to the next tier and unlock new benefits. You can decide if members earn points or not, but the points are not redeemable.

Setting up languages and currency

If your customers belong to different markets with different languages and currencies, each of them can receive the Loyalty treatment in their own language and currency.

This step is divided into the following parts:

Language - Select primary and additional languages if needed.
Currency - Select currency and additional currencies if needed.
Country - Select primary country (market) and additional countries if needed. This is an optional field that will allow you to target Loyalty offers by selecting the relevant country. For example, your customers are located in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, but you are interested in offering a voucher for points only to the German market.

The defined primaries will be the default shown on your Loyalty account and for customers without language and currency association.

Setting up your plan

In the Plan settings tab, you can define the basic rules of your plan, that will affect all members regardless of their Loyalty status. The plan settings are changeable after launch (except for ‘Yearly calculation for tiers’), but we do not recommend doing so if it is not really required. Any such change will require you to communicate this to your customers.

Plan name - This is the official name of your plan as it will be communicated to the customers. A branded name will help you to market your plan. Customers will also see the name of your plan in the Loyalty Wallet before joining.

Points name - Points are the Loyalty currency in your plan. You can call them "points" or anything that resonates with your brand like "stars" or "coins". Customers see the points name in their Loyalty offers, rewards and fixed benefits. You are required to define the name of the points in the singular and plural.
Rewards allocation delay - Select how long after a purchase rewards are approved and added to the customer's Wallet. This allows the system to automatically calculate returns and cancellations if required. Also, this prevents you from awarding rewards that you may need to cancel later. Your customers see their earned points in the Wallet as "pending" during this period. Note that after the rewards are approved, you can only manually add or remove points via Member Profiles.

When setting your reward allocation delay, align it with your return policy and shipment time. Additionally, check your actual return times. Options range from 24 hours to 40 days.

You can delay the rewards only for purchases (purchases & promotions actions), but not for engagement actions.
Please note that any refund or cancellation after the configured period has to be done manually by you via the Member Profiles.

Activate the Loyalty tactic Point about to expire, and make sure you let the members know when they have points which are about to expire.

Calculation for tiers - Select when the total accrued status points are counted for tier status:
- The calculation for tiers is done on December 31st every [X years] - While the tiers are calculated on a fixed date, every [x years] according to your definition, customers who are upgraded to a higher tier maintain their status at least for this defined period.
- The calculation for tiers is done [X months] from the date of joining the plan or upgrading a tier - The date of calculation can vary depending on the customer's progress among the tiers. Customers who are upgraded to a higher tier maintain their status at least for the defined period.
- The tiers are not calculated (no dropout scenario) - Points are accumulated for upgrading tiers only.
Tiers expiration - Select every few months/ years (depends on the previous setting) when tier status expires and a new calculation is made.

This option is not relevant if the tiers are not calculated.
In the tier settings you can set a different tier expiration that will override this setting.
For example, Bronze and Silver will be calculated once a year while Gold will be calculated once every two years.

Status points expiration - Select when the Status points expire and reset:
- Status points expire and are reset on the day of calculation for tiers - Once the points are calculated they are reset, but the customers maintain their tier status at least until the next calculation.
  This option is not relevant if the tiers are not calculated.
- Status points expire and are reset every [X months] from the moment they are earned - At the time of calculation for tiers, only the valid points for that day are calculated. Based on this calculation customers maintain their status or drop out to a lower tier.
- The Status points are not expired or reset - This option is relevant only if the tiers are not calculated.

Status points validity - If the second option is selected, define the validity of status points from the day they are earned.

The following cannot be edited after the first launch:

Calculation for tiers,
Tiers expiration,
Status points expiration
Status points validity

To do so, contact Emarsys Support.

Use case - Yearly tier calculation on the 31st of December

The calculation for tiers is done on December 31st every year. Status points expire and are reset on the day of calculation for tiers:

Use case - Tier calculation 12 months after the date of joining

The calculation for tiers is done 12 months from the date of joining (or upgrading a tier). The status points expire 12 months from the day they are earned:

Balance points expiration - If you want to limit balance points validity, select when the "points to spend" will be removed from the customer's balance. Limiting the point validity helps to drive customers to redeem them for rewards and stay engaged with your program. (See Before you start with Loyalty for more information about balance points.).
Points about to expire - If you have defined validity, you also have to select how long before expiration, the "points to spend" will be marked as "expires soon". This warning helps to drive customers to redeem these points before they expire.

Defining launch settings

After specifying the general Plan Settings, consider your Launch Settings.

Contact sign-up process - Select how you would like to add new members to the plan. Invite them to make your Loyalty program feel more special and exclusive and reduce the potential number of inactive members. If your motivation is to add as many contacts as possible into your plan, then select the automatic join setting.

Please note that users who have subscribed only for your newsletters but are not registered customers with accounts will not be automatically added to your Loyalty program.

Launch type - Select the starting structure of your program:
- Start with a single tier and add all new customers to it - Ideal for a quick and effective start with a minimum number of complex decisions. It is recommended if you want to build an optimal Loyalty plan based on experience and data. New tiers can be added and members can be distributed based on their Loyalty activity.
- Start with multiple tiers created in advance - The ideal option to properly treat customers who are already loyal and distribute them among tiers based on their purchase history. A multi-tier plan also increases the gamification element and regularly encourages members to upgrade to the next tier.
Contact distribution - When you set up your Loyalty plan, you are required to decide what to do with your existing and new customers when they join the plan:
- Add existing and new contacts to the bottom tier, with no points awarded.
  This is the ideal option to start a new loyalty plan from scratch with equal benefits for all contacts.
- Add existing contacts to a tier according to their historical spend, and new ones to the bottom tier.
  No points are awarded to either. This is the ideal option to reward contacts who were already loyal before the start of the plan.
- Add existing and new contacts to a tier according to their historical spend so far this calendar year, and award additional points to spend.
  This is only available if you have selected the option to invite new contacts to sign up for your Loyalty plan. It is the most stimulating and rewarding option to encourage contacts to become members.

Activating your Loyalty account

Now, you are ready to activate your account and configure the rest of your settings such as customer actions, benefits and rewards.

Emarsys Loyalty