myrewardcard.ie blog

How Vouchers Are Being Used

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 11:43:00 -0700

A few weeks ago we launched Vouchers on the myrewardcard.ie platform. As you may remember these are trackable codes with value or messages attached and can be used in a self-service mode by customers or instore by businesses.

When we released these we saw uses for them that included tracking advertising performance and managing promotions. Now that they have been available for some time we have had a chance to see how they are being used in practice and I thought it would be interesting to let you know what other businesses are doing. And I also want to tell you about an upgrade based on feedback we have received.

How Are People Using Vouchers?

Vouchers can be configured so that they are applied to Reward Cards either by the issuing business or by the customer themselves. To date the only vouchers we have seen used have been redeemed by businesses in store, primarily for two specific purposes;

Promotional Advertising

Each voucher code generated by the myrewardcard.ie platform can be configured to have thousands of individual redemptions while at the same time limiting each individual use. Each voucher can also have start and end dates and value or a message attached. The most common use we have seen is for businesses to use these features to manage and track their promotions and advertising. The best way to explain this is to take an example;

Company A runs promotions on a regular basis. These take the form of "3 for the price of 1" or "50% off selected items" and are intended to increase awareness of the business while also generating interest in excess inventory. They typically advertise these in 3 papers but up to now the owner has not been able to get a clear picture of which of the papers produce the best response, whether the same customers are the ones to take up the offers, if they attract new customers, the long-term effect of the promotions or which promotions work best with each demographic. They have some anecdotal information but collecting and analysing the hard data has been too unwieldy. They now gather all this information automatically using vouchers.

They generate 3 vouchers for each promotion; one for each newspaper. These vouchers can have 10,000 individual uses but can only be used once by any individual. The ads in the papers each contain the voucher code and the ad must be brought to the shop in order for a customer to avail of the offer.

Once a customer comes in with the voucher both it and the customers card number are scanned and this confirms that the same customer has not used the voucher previously. At the same time it allows the business to build a picture of their promotions effectiveness. Immediately they can see which channel produced the best results but over time they also get a greater picture of which promotions appeal to which customers, if they see the promotions in just one paper, how often individual customers respond to a promotional offer, if a promotions leads to later sales and more.

This information of course helps them plan better and reduce their costs since they now have a picture they never had before and can send promotions direct to customers.

Forgery-Free Gift Cards

If you are like the majority of businesses in Ireland you provide Gift Cards as paper which you might stamp or sign. However these are extremely susceptible to fraud since the signature or stamp is easily forged and the paper token itself is quickly photocopied. What a number of businesses are doing is generating a unique code which is printed on every voucher and then, when the customer comes in, they enter the voucher number alongside the Reward Card number. This confirms that the code on the voucher has never been used before and, since there are a potential 150 trillion possibilities, the chances of someone guessing a valid one to print on a forgery is practically non-existent. Vouchers therefore act as a security measure but they also provide information on who purchases the vouchers, when they do so, what they buy in return and a lot more. They also increase the number of customers using the Reward Card and this in turn leads to repeat business.

These are the two most common uses of vouchers and it reinforces for me how flexible the system we have put in place is. However there is one major request for us to make and today we are implementing it.

Todays Upgrade

We originally designed the voucher system so that the voucher can only be used in conjunction with a registered Reward Card. This arose because we included the ability to set a limit on how many times a single customer could use the voucher and we designed it so we meant customer and not card. In other words a customer could not obtain a second or third card to reuse a voucher. This worked as designed but has caused difficulties for some businesses. Basically they would run an ad in a newspaper or put a voucher in a voucher book but if a new customer took advantage of this they would need to be registered in the store. You can imagine for popular promotions this would be an issue

So today we have just updated the platform so that voucher can be used with unregistered cards. This means that in the above scenario the customer can come in with the voucher and this can be used alongside a new card you give them and which they can then take home to register at their leisure. This is an optional setting and you can choose to remain with the customer limits if you wish. This decision can be made on a voucher-by-voucher basis.

What does this mean for the customer limits I mentioned earlier? If the card used alongside the voucher is registered to a customer then nothing changes, we will check all their cards to make sure the limit is not breached using any of their cards. If the card is unregistered however then by definition we do not have any customer data. In this case we impose the limit to the card only. This can have some implications if you are running a promotional campaign where a voucher can be used 10,000 times but you intend it to be used only once per customer. In this case if you decide to allow unregistered cards there is nothing the system can do to stop a customer using multiple unregistered cards, it is up to you to implement further checks. This does not affect vouchers which can only be used once in total (Gift Vouchers being a good example).

Vouchers are working as well as we had hoped when we first introduced them and it is interesting for us to understand how they are being used but also to know what issues you are seeing. For this reason we will keep a manual order system for the moment. If you want to order some vouchers please use the order form online or drop me an email. These are a powerful tool (both for security and for collecting data which can save you money) and I want to make sure we help you use them to their maximum effect.

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Vouchers - part 2

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 09:49:59 -0700

Two weeks ago we introduced vouchers to the myrewardcard.ie platform. These can contain different values such as points or prizes (see the details here) for issuing to customers. At that time we released the self-service portion of the service, allowing customers to take vouchers you had issued or had printed in newspaper adverts and enter the serial number at home to collect their reward. This design allows you to promote your service and to track your advertising response. For instance by printing a voucher in a newspaper and encouraging people to register it (maybe giving them points to do so) you could not only tell which channels produced the best response but also which ones led to sales a few months down the road.

But vouchers can do more and on Monday we are introducing the second element of the service: allowing you to redeem vouchers in-store.

What You Can Do

Before telling you about the mechanics I'd like to take a minute to outline what you can do with this and how it differs from the self-service implementation.

Vouchers can be used to manage any promotion you run in any medium you choose but they can also help in managing an array of day-to-day customer interactions. The benefits of the self-service option were outlined in the previous post so I won't go into them again. The in-store option will now brings added advantages; allowing them to manage store credit, reduce fraud, track direct advertising and operate limited-time promotions. The best way to understand the different possibilities is to look at some examples;

Preventing Fraud

The biggest issue with the paper-based systems for awarding store credit or gift vouchers is that they are so susceptible to fraud. It is easy for people to photocopy a voucher or forge a signature and you have no easy way to make sure that you catch these without extensive investigation. But using individual vouchers that are limited to one use each gives you a way to check that they are real and make sure that they will not be used more than once. Simply print (or write) the voucher code on your existing credit notes and redeem it when it is used. The voucher itself does not have to have any points on it - a simple message such as "€5 credit voucher" is enough to provide you with a record. And it keeps the revenue commissioners happy too.

Limited-time or Transaction Sales

If you want to generate excitement about your business you can run limited-time sales and promotions; for instance making a particular item half price for one hour. The problem is controlling such promotions since often customers will expect you to extend the terms just for them. Vouchers give you a way to insert these controls.

For instance you can run a promotion in the paper highlighting a promotion ("The first 25 people to present this at our till after 8am on Thursday get a 50% discount"). By printing a voucher code on the advert you can easily set the limit to 25 customers and have the system refuse any further uses. This allows you to tell customers that "the system won't allow it". It also makes it simple to control such sales across multiple premises.

Tracking Advertising

If you run an ad that encourages people to come into your business you want to know which ones work and which don't. By using a voucher code that needs to be brought in at the same time either to avail of an offer or to obtain an extra benefit you can track the effectiveness of the radio, newspaper or voucher booklet you are advertising in.

All of these uses has the added advantage that, because the customer must have a registered card to use the voucher, they encourage membership of your reward program. And the advantages of this are the extra contact and tracking that becomes available to you.

Where can they be used

Because vouchers can be configured so that they are used multiple times you have the freedom to use them in mass-media. For instance you can print a single voucher in a newspaper or radio ad and limit it to one use per person while allowing up to 100,000 people use it. Or you can text individual vouchers to people and monitor which people respond.

Using Vouchers On-Premises: The Mechanics

There is now a new link on the main toolbar, next to the "DEDUCT VALUE" link.

This brings you to the voucher page illustrated below. Simply enter the card and voucher number and any values will be applied to the customers account. If the voucher is invalid for any reason such as having expired, been used too much or not valid for the card then you will also get this information. Remember that you can use vouchers to manage actions other than awarding points (for instance giving a free bottle of wine to the first 5 diners after 5pm). In these cases you are responsible for ensuring the action is carried out along with the registering of the voucher.

Managing Vouchers

Management accounts will also now have an extra section available to them. "Vouchers" is located on the left bar under Communication. Because vouchers are new we have limited functionality for managing them right now. We want to see how they are used before finalising the development of this section. We will develop a range of reporting and other tools based on your feedback but right now what you can do is order vouchers.

The form will ask you for the various bits of information required. Vouchers will be manually generated so we will screen the information you have given us to ensure they are consistent. There is also a section for you to describe what you are going to use the vouchers for. This will help us to make sure that the criteria you specify for the vouchers themselves are suitable for your needs. If we have doubts or are uncertain about any issue we will call you. Because of this manual intervention it might take a day or so to issue you with voucher numbers so please order them as early as possible.

This is the second functional update for vouchers in the last 3 weeks. I believe the flexibility we have built into this system gives it huge power to help your business. As you can see from the examples above, vouchers can be used in many different ways and all have the extra advantage that they get people registering. Whenever you reach out to customers you should consider how a voucher can be integrated into the transaction. And if you have any questions about how best to use it for your business please contact us.

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Introducing Vouchers

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 07:09:00 -0700

I recently told you that we were working on a new voucher system for myrewardcard.ie. This new functionality is intended to do a number of things; allow businesses without internet access to run an advanced Loyalty program; allow you to assess your advertising channels; allow promotions and competitions and more. Today we are launching the first element of this and I wanted to let you know how it will work, what can be done, and the plans for future development. That's a lot of stuff to cover so let me start with what the additions we are adding today can do for you.

Vouchers are a simple concept: each one has a code that contains a value and when entered into myrewardcard.ie the value is applied to the card. We will be adding an option to redeem these codes within the business but what we are releasing today is the ability to have the customer redeem the vouchers by themselves at home. So what can you do with it?

Self-Service Loyalty Program

Businesses that do not have an internet connection in their store can now operate their own advanced Reward Program either as a stand-alone function or as part of a town card. All they need to do is to print a range of vouchers and, when a customer has made a qualifying purchase (spent €50 or more for example) the staff hands one of the vouchers to the customer. The customer then enters it at home to collect their points. Of course if a business does not have an internet connection they cannot redeem points directly so they will need to run a report every month and post out discount vouchers in the same way that Dunnes Stores do.

Since the product purchased can no longer be recorded the business loses some information that an internet connection allows but this allows businesses who do not have the equipment in-store to offer their customers the advanced points-based loyalty programs they prefer. These businesses include not only retailers but also taxis, plumbers, market stall holders and others

Promotions

Because vouchers can have different values it is now simple to create some excitement amongst your customers. You can easily have vouchers that guarantee customers 10 points - and mixed in among them have 5 that have a prize. This prize could be anything from merchandise to an entry in a draw or cash. When the customer redeems the voucher online they will be instantly told what they have won and can then contact you to collect the prize. This instant-win aspect makes it exciting and gets customers talking - all of which helps promote the business. It allows you to promote certain lines of goods, encourage custom at quiet times or just generate some excitement a few times a year.

Encouraging Registration

A Reward program is not an instant fix for a business. What it is is a long-term investment that increases in value as time passes and data collects in the database. However a lot of businesses with an existing mailing list like to try and jump start their program by posting cards to customers. In general the number of registrations received this way is not high - only when you get in the habit of asking people if they have a card can you be sure of building your database. However the registrations from a posting can be increased with vouchers.

You can create a promotion such as outlined above and include both a voucher and description with the card. Someone receiving this knows that they will be guaranteed some points by registering - but because they can also win a significant launch prize they will be even more enthusiastic about the fact. Not only will a properly designed and explained launch program increase the registrations but it will also get people talking.

Advertising Monitoring

Existing clients can now monitor the effectiveness of their different advertising channels. The problem with advertising of course is that you can never be sure which channel actually works. You put the same advert in two different papers and get results - but equally from each or is one a waste of time? By printing a different voucher code in each paper you can now encourage people to register the code and get additional Reward Points. Later you can see which one had the greatest response overall or amongst specific demographics and focus your future advertising there, saving you money.

Secure Gift Card Top-ups

Cash Cards are often used as Gift Cards. By having vouchers in specific values you can now make it easy for relatives to give gift vouchers that are added to the recipients existing Gift Cards. If the recipient doesn't have a Gift card you can provide one at the time. The other benefit is that you can cancel a stolen voucher or even manually track who you issued vouchers to and double check this against the recipient.

There are other uses of self-service vouchers such as fundraising opportunities and community cards but these are some of the highlights for an individual business. The question now is how do the vouchers actually operate?

Voucher Controls

While vouchers are a simple concept, we have designed our system to be flexible and comprehensive, with each individual voucher having a range of controls.

- Start and Expiry Dates: vouchers will automatically be refused outside of this date range.

- Card Type: Vouchers must specify if they are valid for Cash Cards or Reward Cards. This prevents what is intended to be 50 points instead giving 50 Euro.

- Place of Use: At the moment we are only allowing vouchers to be redeemed by the user themselves. In the next few weeks we will activate a function to allow you to redeem the vouchers in store. This opens up a new range of uses which we will discuss at that time.

- Total Uses: A vouchers can be used once or multiple times. Most vouchers you issue will only need to be used once but if tracking advertising for instance, you will not want to print a different code on every newspaper. In this case a single voucher per advert is used and you can set this to a maximum of 10,000 or more uses.

- Uses per Customer: In addition to total uses you can set a limit to the number of times a single account holder can use the voucher. Again this is most likely to be 1 but under some circumstances it may be more. This is more likely to be greater than one when we release the in-store redemption feature.

In addition to these overall controls each voucher can also have a range of values. These specify the message to be shown and the value to be awarded and they specify which businesses the specific set applies to. By including multiple values on a voucher we have ensured maximum flexibility - so some vouchers can have 10 points while others have 10 points plus a message letting the recipient know they own a prize. These are recorded as individual transactions in the database, making it easy to identify prize winners.

Customer Activation Process

Customers receiving a voucher must have a registered card before they can redeem the voucher itself. Once they have done so they will now see a new button on their detail page. Once they click this button they will be given some instructions and the space to enter the voucher code. If the voucher meets the criteria set such as usage and valid dates then the values are awarded and the voucher details are displayed for the customer in the way show at the top of this post. Both the business and customer can then see the voucher number and the details in the transaction history. This allows businesses to run reports on specific voucher usage.

Pricing

I've spent some time on trying to get the pricing low. I wanted to keep this free for the majority of businesses but given the computational and database requirements involved I needed a system that ensures overuse does not lose money. The compromise I've settled on is that each business that uses myrewardcard.ie for their Reward Programs can will have 10,000 vouchers or redemptions (whichever is largest) per calendar year. What does this mean in practice?

A business can issue 10,000 unique vouchers in a year free of charge, allowing a sole trader to issue 38 vouchers to customers every work day. Alternatively a single voucher can be redeemed by 10,000 individual customers so a business can run 10 adverts each of which get 1,000 actual responses. Or you can mix them and have 5,000 unique vouchers and 1 that is redeemed by 5,000 people. The first 10,000 in a calendar year are free of charge. For those who do exceed these they can then obtain extra on a pay-per-use basis of just 1 cent per voucher/usage, allowing you to control costs. This means a further 10,000 vouchers/uses for just €100.

I think under these conditions the majority of businesses will pay nothing for their vouchers and the minority that do will not pay more than €100/year. It is the fairest method I could devise that meant I could continue to offer this service without risking large losses.
Allowances cannot be carried forward to the next year, but this means that your full 2011allowance is now available for use in the next 6 months.

Getting Vouchers

As we are rolling this service out in stages there is currently no direct way to create your own vouchers. I want to see how they are used before settling on a final interface for that aspect. If you want vouchers drop an email to info@myrewardcard.ie with your requirements. I'll get back to you quickly with any questions or clarifications and generate a spreadsheet of codes for you which you can distribute in any way you wish. Similarly if you have any questions please drop a line.

I am excited about this element of myrewardcard.ie. I think it's going to be one of the big innovations on the platform and one that can change how you use your Reward Programs as well as opening the service to many new businesses. I will be monitoring it carefully over the next few weeks and will let you know when the next stage is implemented.

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Wasted Advertising - A Solution

Tue, 24 May 2011 04:09:03 -0700

There's an old saying which you've probably heard: half my advertising is wasted but I don't know which half.
It's a cliche but like all cliches it has a large degree of truth in it. In this case it's one that is particularly true for small businesses. The big companies and brands monitor their advertising with focus groups and surveys. They also have the technology to track the response rates directly. Small businesses on the other hand advertise pretty blindly and try to gauge if their advertising worked based on whether they see an immediate increase in customers. This can be a guide if you advertise specials occasionally. But if you advertise regularly and/or if you advertise in multiple channels at the same time (such as two newspapers or a direct leaflets and the radio) how do you know which is the half that worked and which is the half which wasted your money?

Loyalty Cards can be some help in telling you how many people convert to regular customers or is they come in only that one time for the offer, never to return. But that doesn't do much to tell you which advert worked best. You are still left wondering if the fact that all the new visitors were females in their 30s from one suburb is because one paper worked best or if the offer appealed for some reason only to that group. And so for the next offer you again advertise in all the same channels, wasting the same money reaching demographics that will never visit you.

A lot of businesses are now beginning to rely on direct advertising by means of discount voucher books and websites such as Groupon. These gives a more accurate reading on their performance since you have someone coming in with physical proof of where they saw your advert. But monitoring these still takes effort and does not give you any indication of people who saw your advert, were not in a position to purchase at that time and came along only 6 months later because it remained in their mind.

What to do then?

Well what if you could directly see in real time which channels worked, which adverts had the best response and which promotions led to delayed purchases? What if you could not only do that but also identify the channels by demographic? And if you could link this in to your Loyalty program in a way that told you which advertising channel led to one-time bargain hunters and which resulted in long-term customers?

Direct Marketing companies have been doing this for years and soon we will make this option available to you. We have been busy developing a system that can be used to do all the above and more. It can not only allow you to monitor the effectiveness of general advertising but also that of vouchers and offers.As an added advantage the system will also allow businesses who do not have any internet connection to run a self-service Loyalty Program. It can even help organisations build a local fundraising system for clubs and charities.
This is not a magic bullet - it is a simple and established idea we have spent time developing a new mechanism for. Like everything in business how successful it is for you will depend on how well you use it. But for those who are interested in saving money and generating business it will be a powerful tool.
We will be introducing the service in stages over the next few weeks. As we introduce each element I will keep you informed and will give examples of how that stage can be used to help you save money while increasing revenues. Look for the first stage in 2 weeks time.

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Beat the Price Cutting Trap

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 23:37:39 -0700

Rarely do price promotions lead to increased sales; more often than not, they simply attract deal seekers or encourage consumers to stockpile items that are on sale - Harvard Business Review

In the current economic situation more and more focus is being placed on prices. Obviously people are taking more notice of what things cost and grocery shopping in particular is being fragmented. Where before people were happy to do all their grocery shopping in one location they are now being more discriminating and spreading their basket across multiple shops. The discounters such as Aldi and Lidl are seeing increased market share as a result.

The temptation on hearing this is to immediately assume that you have to cut prices in order to compete. But the message is actually more subtle and, for non-grocery retailers at least, is more hopeful. I have seen customer survey results in recent times and my analysis of them showed that yes price is important but even within the grocery market it is not everything. If price was the only factor people placed a priority on then there would be no splitting of the shopping - it would all transfer to the cheapest shop. But in fact what is happening is that people are moving the dried products such as canned goods to discounters but they are still placing a premium on the fresh products such as meat and vegetables and are willing to pay more for them.

What does this mean for the general retailer?

I have given this some thought and believe it means that rather than simply cutting prices a business can maintain its margins if it is clever and pro-active. Cutting prices alone is a dead-end path, one which puts it up against larger organisations which, through their sheer scale have greater bargaining power and efficiencies. This conclusion was reinforced for me in a recent article in the Harvard Business Review.

The article focused on the dangers inherent in attracting customers through price cuttings. It specifically mentioned web sites which encourage businesses to offer deals to their visitors but it's message was more general than that and results from decades of research showing that price promotions are "suitable only for specific purposes under specific conditions." It's main points are;

Reducing prices lowers the perceived value of the product or service and makes price the only reference point. No longer will the quality of the product, the personal service or the ambience of the location be the factors that consumers take into account.
Price promotions attract people for whom price is the only factor. These people have already been desensitized to the other benefits you can provide and, as soon as you raise your prices again they will move on to the next place with a discount.
Price promotions that are available only to people who received a voucher book or purchased a discount card create resentment amongst your regular customers. These people are your bread and butter but they see others getting a better deal than they do and they don't tend to like it.

The result is that a business who tries to offer a special promotion (either by themselves or as part of promotional scheme such as a discount website or a voucher book) and expects this alone to improve his business will be disappointed - or worse. There may be an initial surge of customers but, as the article notes these rarely lead to increased long term sales. In fact "a steep price promotion can make consumers permanently price sensitive... and can distract customers from a products benefits, leading to permanent damage" that results in lower long-term revenue.

Of course none of this means you can raise your prices and expect to thrive either. You have to remain competitive, you just don't have to be the lowest price available. And you don't have to avoid sales and price promotions completely. If you use them sparingly and have a plan to convert the resulting 1-time customers into more profitable ongoing customers they can work. As the article says "what merchants need is a full tool kit of marketing programs."

A Reward Card can be one of the most important tools in that kit.

Llets look at how a Reward Card (or a Gift Card) can help you avoid the price game and also get you the maximum benefit from those rare promotions you do decide to run.

Most obviously the Reward Card allows you to replace the price fixation with one of your choosing. It is always better to give product rather than a discount because its cost to you is lower. So if you can get your customers to expect a bottle of wine after 5 meals or a free tire balance after 3 services then it helps your bottom line.
Because you are not providing a discount to every customer you automatically save money. Some of this can go towards greater rewards for the loyal customers, making the loyalty program itself more attractive.
The fact that a person has to do business with you to earn the rewards is seen as fairer by your regular customers and creates a positive attitude towards you.
When you do run price a promotion your Reward Cards can help you get the maximum value from customers. Be sure to ask every customer if they have a card or would like one. This is standard practice anyway for any successful Reward Program but it is critical during a price promotion. Most effective is to load the card with points and give it to the customer even before putting the purchase through. This will result in almost 100% acceptance of the card and now you have the opportunity to try and convert this bargain-seeking 1-time visitor into an ongoing customer.
myrewardcard.ie allows you to make private notes on each card that can be searched. Use this facility to record the promotion that brought the person in and the purchase they made. This will allow you to filter each promotion and assess which have been the most effective in bringing in customers and which have led to ongoing business.

Promotions such as sales or voucher books do have a place in business as a tool to bring customers into the shop. But they must be used sparingly and as part of a plan. Signing up to every voucher distributor has the same effect as permanently lowering your prices - lower profits. But if you know when and why you are going to run a promotion it can bring the customers in. Part of that planning is to have a Reward Program ready to convert those new customers into regular ones.

A Reward Card is not a replacement for all your other promotional opportunities, nor is it a magical device that will make your business a success. It is a tool that requires you to use it. If you do so it can help reduce the need for other tools such as vouchers and price promotions that might be easier to operate but cost your business more in the long run.

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Site Redesign

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 02:14:52 -0700

Today we're releasing a redesign of the myrewardcard.ie website. This is a brighter and cleaner version that will be nicer for both businesses and cardholders to use. There is no major change in functionality associated with the redesign (with one exception, see below) and no major change in the positioning of links, so there is nothing new to learn.

The new design is based around white and blue theme that feels fresher and that also highlights the important elements of a page, as you can see in the examples here...

Example 1: The Front Page

The "Create Account" button is more obvious and the explanation of what the site does and the benefits of the individual cards are more clearly explained.

Example 2: The cardholders card statement.

Cardholders who have registered their cards can at any time login to see their transaction history. When they do so the new design makes not only the individual transactions easier to read but also highlights any points that will expire this month. The news from the business which issued the card is also more obvious - making it easier to avail of any offers and giving the customer even more reasons to return!

Example 3: The individual business directory page.

Each business already has their own page with contact details, a map to their premises and their latest news. The new cleaner look makes it easier for the visitor to find all this information.

New Sharing Buttons

While I said there are no functional changes to the design the observant among you will have noticed that two of the screenshots have new Sharing buttons.These allow visitors to quickly let their friends know about the page by email or on facebook and twitter. They are on the front page and also on every individual business page.

We've based the redesign on watching how people use the site and on feedback from clients and cardholders. While not earth-shattering I think it is a good improvement and one that our feedback suggests will create even more use of the programs available .

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Using Cash Cards pt.2

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 02:06:00 -0800

Earlier this week I looked at 2 ways business could implement Cash Cards. The first example was a bookshop that replaced its existing paper based Gift Vouchers with a myrewardcard.ie card and the other was a restaurant that used the system to reduce the amount of time taking telephone orders tied up the line while also reducing cash handling.

Today I want to finish the series of examples with two more; a toy store running a Christmas Club and a Taxi Company which increased cash flow while encouraging regular bookings.

Taxi Company Looking to Increase Regular Bookings

The taxi company wanted a way to encourage regular bookings, particularly from corporate clients. It felt that a points based Reward program was too complex to manage and explain. Instead it decided to use the Virtual Wallet.

Solution

People making advance bookings were encouraged to sign up for a Wallet. Whenever the person rang to make a booking the depot could usually identify the person from the caller ID. Where this was not possible they asked the person for their card number.

The depot could then identify the person and simply asked them to confirm the address where they wished to be collected, saving the time of getting directions. At the time of booking the depot informed the client of their account balance and at the end of the journey the fare was deducted from the clients card. If there was not enough credit the passenger could top-up as well. Each top up of €20 received an extra €1 credit, providing a bonus to the client and encouraging them to use the system.

The company started with a paper based system limited to regular bookings. When the driver was given the booking they were also told the card number and the credit on it. They then recorded the value of the trip and this was deducted back at base.

The system could later be extended to trips made without pre-booking and, using internet enabled phones, the paper was eliminated.

Comment

This system achieved a number of benefits for the taxi company;

It allowed them to reduce the cash held in each car
It reduced the amount of cash required in each car since passengers tended to leave the extra on their account.
It helped cash flow as the passengers paid in advance, offsetting the top-up bonus.
It encouraged repeat business.
It made bookings more efficient as most of the information was already present in the system at the time of booking.

Toy Shop Christmas Club

A toy shop ran a successful Christmas Club every year. However they found that it was time consuming and the data they collected was spread around, making it hard to use effectively. They also found that their cash flow was hurt since a significant percentage of customers did not spend the full amount saved and they had to return the remainder at a key period of the year. Finally a number of customers every year lost their savings book and this left the business to decide whether to refund the customer or not.

Solution

The store purchased their own branded cards simply labelled “Saving Card”. These were issued to customers who wanted to save. Customers could save regularly and any amount remaining on the card could be rolled over to the next year. The same card was issued as a Gift Card.

Comment

The Saving Card successfully replaced the existing Christmas Club solving the previously identified issues. It also had the advantage of allowing the saving habit to be implemented all year round. By using it as a Gift Card they now also had a way to encourage recipients to return after their first visit. All the data on new and existing customers allowed targeted promotions.

These and the previous examples are just some of the ways Cash and Reward cards can be used to help increase custom while also reducing time taking orders, increasing cash flow and generally helping businesses survive the recession. If you want to discuss how you can use a card to bring additional benefits to your business give me a call on 021-2349920.

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Using Cash Cards pt. 1

Sun, 27 Feb 2011 04:28:41 -0800

Last week I took a look at different ways businesses can implement Reward Cards into their business and get not just the direct benefits that the card itself can bring but also make better use of the data and controls the system bring. This week I want to take two quick looks at Cash Cards and how the new introduction to our platform can bring you benefits far beyond those available from paper based systems.

I want to take a quick look at 2 examples today and a further 2 later in the week.

Book Shop Gift Cards

A book shop had been offering Gift Vouchers to its customers for some time. However it did not have any accurate picture of who was getting these, how long it was taking for them to be used or if they prompted the recipient to come back on a regular basis.

Solution

The shop made the decision to replace all its Gift Vouchers with Gift Cards. The decision was made to maximise the flexibility for the customer and allow the purchase and redemption of value in any amount.

Comment

This implementation provided the store with a range of information that was never previously available to it. Now the store could see who received vouchers, what for and what books they purchased. They could also identify average times from issuance to redemption and plan their stock accordingly.

They were able to use their information to maximise their relationship with customers and send them personalised offers, encouraging them to come back after the initial visit.

Takeaway trying to remove cash handling on deliveries

This shop wanted to reduce the amount of cash their delivery people had to handle. They investigated a system of taking credit cards at the time of booking but this was unpopular and very time-consuming and led to lost orders when the lines were tied up.

Solution

The restaurant encouraged regular callers to avail of the Cash Card and to top it up with value. Cards could be topped up in the restaurant or with the delivery people.

They system was run alongside an existing Reward Card and this sped up the order-taking process since the system already knew the customers name, address and the directions to their house.

When the caller rang them the restaurant took the order, confirmed the identity and informed the caller of their remaining balance. The delivery person did not have to deal with change as the cost of the order was deducted from the customers card at the time of order. If they customer wanted to top-up their account they did so by handing the cash to the delivery person.

The two systems were integrated further by awarding extra Reward Points to Cash Card holders.

Comment

This system was easily integrated with the restaurants existing Reward Program since both used the same myrewardcard.ie platform. The customer gained by not having to worry about cash when ordering and they got extra Reward Points by holding both cards.

The restaurant gained happier customers and could take more orders by reducing the time each order held up the phone line. Deliveries were also more efficient as they did not have to deal with issues around change.

Cash Cards are new on our platform and can be used in many ways, such as Gift Cards, Christmas Clubs, Virtual Wallets etc. If you want to see how they can benefit your business don't hesitate to give me a call on 021-2349920.

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RewardCard Usage pt.2

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 23:46:48 -0800

The last time I discussed two ways in which businesses can configure myrewardcard.ie Reward Cards to best match their workflow. Today I want to highlight three more.

Shoe Shop With No Internet Connection

A shoe shop wanted to provide a Reward Card to its customers but did not have any internet access to allow real-time entry of transactions.

Solution

The shop arranged their program around vouchers posted to customers. When a customer complete a valid transaction their card number was written down along with the points due. These were then entered into myrewardcard.ie at the end of a day.

Every 3 months a report was run showing all customers with more than 500 points. These points were deducted and a voucher for €50 was posted to the customer.

Comment

While adding some extra work the system they devised allowed the shop to offer a Reward Program. The posting of vouchers also reminded customers of the shop and gave them a reason to return as well as sparking discussion amongst the customer and their friends.

Clothes Shop With Internet-enabled Till

This shop wanted to implement the system using their existing till as a terminal.

Solution

myrewardcard.ie does not integrate into the till operation itself. However it operates through a browser on any internet-enabled till. The shop logged into the system and whenever a qualifying transaction took place the staff member simply switched screens on the terminal and entered the details.

Comment

While adding an extra transaction to the sales process this solution allowed the store to use its existing equipment and did not require extra space at the counter. The extra transaction easily took place while the customer entered their credit card details.

Restaurant Requiring a CRM System

The restaurant wanted to be able to streamline their take-away business by reducing the information to be collected during each call. In particular they wanted to introduce a delivery service and avoid confusion about addresses.

Solution

The business changed their default screen to Search. When customer rang in they used the Caller ID (if it existed) to immediately pull up the customer details and greet the customer by name. If this did not show up they asked if the person had a Reward Card and used this. They then recorded the order and points awarded and were able to confirm the Reward at the time of the order.

The restaurant also configured their Reward Program to focus on giving people rewards when they had a meal inside the restaurant. And they offered constantly changing "double-points" which focused on slow-moving high margin dishes. These changed depending on stock levels each day.

Comment

myrewardcard.ie fulfilled the two functions of Reward Program and Customer Relationship Management System for this restaurant.

It made bookings more efficient as most of the information (name, address, directions) was already present in the system at the time of booking. This allowed more orders to be taken as the line was not tied up for so long.
It allowed the restaurant to encourage purchase of slow-moving items by flexibly awarding extra points on different dishes each evening.
It encouraged eat-in meals by offering larger points to in-house dining and also by making the rewards redeemable in the restaurant itself.
As a bonus the the restaurant was also able to provide proof of rewards to the Revenue Commissioners when an audit was conducted - an important consideration for a cash business.

These and the previous show the flexibility of the platform and its ability to meet your business needs when implementing a Reward Program. Next week I want to discuss ways in which the new Cash Card can be sued either as a direct replacement for existing paper based Gift and Saving programs but also how they can bring additional benefits that paper does not allow.

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Loyalty Card Usage pt.1

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 05:10:20 -0800

The most common queries we receive relate around how the myrewardcard.ie system can be implemented for a particular business. While each business is different there are some common elements that are worth highlighting. I thought it would be worthwhile to look at a few of these as they might provide inspiration for you. I'll look at these over the next few days, starting with 2 today.

Cafe Transferring their Existing Stamped Card Program

A coffee shop already had a program using stamped cardboard cards. Under this program the customer received a stamp for every coffee bought and the 10th cup was free. The shop wanted to start their advanced system by mimicking this program and then gradually introducing more flexibility.

Solution

Because the system was simple one where every transaction was for a coffee and received 1 point the cafe was able to implement a SingleScan operation. Under this there was no requirement to manually enter points or note. This made each transaction very quick as it consisted of just one scan.

Comment

This process exactly mimicked the existing program. It also allowed for faster transaction time, collected the customer details and allowed a reconciliation process between the free coffees awarded and the till.

Cosmetic Shop With Limited Resources

This shop was very cost conscious and could not afford the capital cost of plastic cards.

Solution

The shop decided not to invest in physical cards but to use the customer name and phone number as the identifier. To implement this in a way that had minimum input from the customer the shop decided to complete registration instore. To complete this they printed all card numbers on a sheet. When a customer signed up they registered that number to the customer and verified the account using the code sent to the customers phone. After this whenever the customer bought a qualifying product they asked for the name or phone number, conducted a search and then manually entered the points.

Comment

This implementation allowed the shop to save money in their implementation while leaving open the possibility of introducing physical cards at a later date.

These are just 2 examples and I'll include a few more Reward Cards tomorrow. If you have any special features in your business that you think you need some assistance with don't hesitate to get in touch.

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myrewardcard.ie introduces Gift Cards and more

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 06:44:02 -0800

This week myrewardcard.ie is launching a new category of card on the platform. Cash Cards, as their name suggests, differ from Reward Cards in that they are specifically designed to hold cash rather than points. It sounds a simple difference but it is one with big implications.

Gift Cards Today

Most independent businesses operate Gift Vouchers in paper form and while these are cheap to operate and easy to understand they have a range of problems;

Easily forged
The customer loses the value if the voucher is lost.
No customer information is collected so you don't know who gets the card or build a customer database.
No Business Intelligence is gathered so you remain blind on how often people receive vouchers or how long they take to use it.
Any transaction not using the complete voucher value needs to return change, hitting cash flow.

Our customers asked us for a solution that would remove these problems. What we've come up with does that and more;

Increased advertising opportunities as people carry a card and tell their friends.
Automatic expiry of value if required.
Business generation as people see their existing and expiring values.
Complete visibility over outstanding liabilities.
Reloadable format allows for ongoing use once the gift has been spent.

Gift Cards, Christmas Clubs and Virtual Wallets

myrewardcard.ie Cash Cards are reloadable and can be used not only as Gift Cards but also as Christmas Clubs (and other saving schemes) as well as Virtual Wallets. The category is flexible enough to allow cards start out as one type and morph into another other - for instance someone receives a Gift Card for their Birthday and then decides to add to it every week to save for Christmas.

The myrewardcard.ie platform allows a business to issue their own Gift Card, Christmas Club or Virtual Wallet and manage it using the existing platform with which they are familiar. Those businesses customers will also be able to manage Cash and reward cards under one account - providing them with added convenience.

The myrewardcard.ie Implementation

The decision to implement Cash Cards as a separate category from Reward Cards rather than incorporating both functions on one card is for 2 reasons;

Research amongst consumers showed us that combining the two functions would cause a degree of confusion about what the card did and concern that a transaction was not being recorded to the correct service.
If one card held two functions the scope for staff error is greatly increased and it is very likely that at some point a person would be awarded €100 instead of 100 points. Without the separation of two cards there would be no way to prevent this happening. But using two cards means that the staff member has a visible way to differentiate what function they are accessing. it also allows us to build in a secondary system check and ensure that the serial number provided matches the category of the card.

Despite the separate function both cards use the same interface making them easy to implement with minimal extra training. All the user sees is an extra link to switch between the cards on each functional page.

Cash Cards can be managed separately from Reward Cards so default values such as SingleScan settings, value expiry times, etc can be set separately for both categories.

Price

Cash Cards are priced at €45/month. For this price a business can issue 3 different type of cards in that category, allowing them to manage Gift Vouchers, Savings Club and a Virtual Wallet for that low price. In return myrewardcard.ie will take care of the backend IT functions such as updating software and making database backups.

Why Switch?

Paper Vouchers have worked fine for most businesses so why switch from a paper system to one that costs €45/month? Earlier in this post I outlined some of the reasons; the flaws with paper and the extra features that the myrewardcard.ie option brings. But what do these mean in practice?

We are in a more competitive market than ever before and knowing your customers is critical to all businesses now. That is why the large stores such as Brown Thomas implemented this type of Gift Card a long time ago. Now small businesses have the opportunity to manage their customer base just as effectively. For the first time they have a cost-effective way to identify;

Who gets Gift Cards?
How long does it take a person receiving a Gift Card to spend it?
Do people get cards for their birthdays or other reasons?
What do people buy with the cards and what is their average spend?
Do recipients of cards become regular customers or are they one-time visitors?

At the same time they also build a database of new first-time customers to whom they can market directly.

All of this can be done now with paper vouchers but it is time consuming and not easy to manage. When you consider that Tom Traynor, the Chief Executive of the Marketing Institute says that gaining a new customer is "five to eight times more expensive than retaining an existing one" it becomes obvious why the Small Firms Association says that it's crucial for smaller firms to take a more sophisticated approach to customer relations.

myrewardcard.ie Cash Cards ensure all the important information is automatically captured and presented in ways you can use and this saves you money by ensuring that you can turn that one-time customer into a regular visitor, saving time and money in advertising.

Cash Cards will bring real benefits to any business that uses them whether as Gift Cards, Saving Clubs or Virtual Wallets. The business that uses the information available to them is the one that can save money, grow their business and come out of the recession stronger.

Cash Cards are available today. If you would like to learn more about the new card categories and how they can benefit your business contact us today on info@myrewardcard.ie or 021-2349920

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The Importance of CRM

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 08:36:17 -0800

An article in last Sundays (January 30) Business Post caught my eye. It highlights a recent report by Microsoft that shows the increasing importance of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems and the way Irish companies are finally beginning to take this aspect of their business seriously. The company surveyed over 400 businesses and found an increased awareness of CRM systems compared to its last survey five years ago.

The reason for such increased attention is explained in the article by Tom Trainor, the Chief Executive of the Marketing Institute who noted that winning a new customer was "five to eight times more expensive than retaining an existing one."

The article also quoted Avine McNally of the Small Firms Association who said that it is crucial for smaller firms to take a more sophisticated approach to customer relations and stop keeping notes on scraps of paper: ‘‘If you’re serious about your customers, you have to be serious about CRM too."

As the article makes clear it is the companies that work on retaining customers that will survive. The introduction of a Reward Card is of course a major step in this process on its own terms, giving customers a reason to return. But it is the CRM features of myrewardcard.ie that brings the real benefits.

The CRM Functions of myrewardcard.ie

myrewardcard.ie is not a dedicated CRM system but it does provide the majority of the data an independent retailer needs to actively retain existing customers. It even helps you get the maximum value out of the euro you need to spend on obtaining new customers. Built in you have reports that allow you to;

See which customers have not purchased form you in the last 6 months.

See the parts of town where you have a lower reach.

See trends over time in terms of what customers return, when they do so and what they buy.

See which customers provide most of your business.

Identify upcoming birthdays and send greetings.

Identify customers for special promotions on specific goods.

Save money by targeting leaflet drops to where they are needed.

Keeping Data Current

An important line in the article noted that 40 per cent of businesses who had implemented a CRM system said their biggest challenge was getting employees to update customer details. Of course this is a problem - managing data is time consuming. For retailers whose customer is a member of the public and not another business managing the data can be particularly awkward. But you still need accurate contact information that you can use quickly and efficiently.

That's why myrewardcard.ie automatically captures the patterns of customer transactions for its reports. It's also why we have the customer create the account themselves and why they can register multiple cards with just one account. These are all steps that take the onus away from your staff while also making it easy for the customer to keep the data up to date.

myrewardcard.ie is not a dedicated CRM system, nor does it try to be. But I believe that the functions it provides are more useful to an independent retailer than any CRM system that focuses on Business to Business transactions - and will become more so as we add new features over the coming weeks and months.

If you want to see how the inbuilt reports from myrewardcard.ie can benefit your business or you feel you might not be making maximum use of them drop an email to info@myrewardcard.ie

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Strengthening Our Infrastructure

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 10:16:46 -0800

Ensuring that we can meet our clients needs when they need to use the service is as critical to our business as it is to yours. For us this not only includes the businesses that use our service directly but also the cardholders who want to check their balances. To ensure we can meet these requirements we designed myrewardcard.ie to run on a cloud system consisting of clusters of servers. These balance loads and ensure that any heavy activity is spread evenly so that, even if one server should crash the others keep running and the site is available.

However there are additional ways to ensure we can maximise the efficiency of our service and over recent weeks we have been upgrading and refining the back end in preparation for some new service launches and the interest we have received from businesses...

Email Outsourcing

The myrewardcard.ie service conducts a number of transactions with cardholders. For instance they can create and verify their account or have their login details sent to them. This communication takes place over text messages and emails. Our text messages were outsourced from the launch of the service but we have been managing the email ourselves. While this has been working fine, what we have been able to do has been basic. We're all familiar with the simple fact of being able to send an email but rarely give any thought to the activity that takes place behind the scenes - and it's quite a lot. Minimising the chances of getting put into the Spam folder, monitoring the route taken, filtering out bad emails all take a lot of activity. And this all takes away from the core focus of our business. So for the same reason that our own clients focus on their business and don't develop or manage their own loyalty systems I have now outsourced the transactional email to a company called Postmark.

Not only will this free up time and guarantee the best delivery but it also means we can take advantage of extra features they include. The initial usage now allows us to classify emails not only as verified or unverified but also to identify those which simply don't exist. So now you will also see emails marked as "invalid" where appropriate.

Database Configuration

As you would expect the myrewardcard.ie service uses a lot of database resources. Over Christmas we re-organised this element to make it more robust as well. This involved splitting sections and redesigning a number of tables. Of course we had to make code changes to work with this but the result is that we now have a database design that will more effectively scale to new features.

The changes we have made will make the service more robust for everyone. They also allow us to concentrate on new features and functions and the first major new function will be released in the next 2-3 weeks. After that we have are finalising the roadmap of development for the rest of the year so if you have any function you want to see implemented let me know.

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myrewardcard.ie is now Guaranteed Irish - two services helping independent businesses survive the recession.

Sat, 11 Dec 2010 10:40:24 -0800

Amongst all the bad news in this weeks budget we received a small bit of positive information - myrewardcard.ie is now Guaranteed Irish. As you probably know the Guaranteed Irish symbol highlights goods and services that are primarily Irish in nature. It is intended to allow people to see which products and services they buy are keeping jobs in the country. It was very popular during the last recession of the 80's but almost closed down during the boom. Now in the recession it is back and in more demand than ever.

myrewardcard.ie qualifies for this mark for three reasons;

We are based in Cork.
We source all material such as our own promotional material and the cards we provide to you in Ireland as well.
We have developed all our own software and systems. We do not resell or rebrand generic software. This not only gives us our own asset in the Intellectual Property but also allows us to respond to our customers in the Irish market by ensuring it responds to our customers feedback instead of forcing our customers into adapting to the software. In effect we are doing the same thing that our clients are - thinking ahead and doing our best to offer them a reason to do business with us.

The majority of our clients are small independent businesses who see that their success is ultimately in their own hands and nobody else. By offering their customers a points based rewards scheme they not only encourage repeat visits but also have an easy way to market to those customers thanks to the mailing list and reporting features of myrewardcard.ie. It is these businesses that the country relies on for the majority of employment.

localrewards.ie

In addition to providing loyalty services to individual businesses we also use the platform to power localrewards.ie. This is the brand we have developed to provide Reward Cards for whole towns and communities. In each town the participating business can run their own Reward Program but customers can avail of all the reward programs with one town-specific localrewards card. This is loved by residents since they get rewarded for shopping locally. It also brings extra benefits to the participating businesses because the fact that someone is using a card in their neighbour means it is more likely they will visit them as well.

We launched localrewards.ie in Carrigaline a few weeks ago and have since run a community competition where a person who shopped in 2 or more businesses was drawn at random to win €250. The response from the businesses and the public has been very positive and there are now just under 3,000 cardholders in the town. We also launched in Macroom the week before last and while we had intended expanding the number of businesses since then the weather has led to a delay and expansion of the existing 4 businesses will take place in January. Extra towns will be coming on board from the end of January.

Reward Cards, Guaranteed Irish and Surviving the Recession

The response to our service from businesses and customers, and the enquiries we have had from towns shows I think that the businesses that are going to survive the recession know they need to do something to keep their customers and need to do it quickly. These are the ones who are willing to try something and not sit back waiting for someone to do it for themBut it also shows that the customers of independent businesses are aware of the importance of supporting local jobs in small businesses. They want to do so if they can see a reason to. Guaranteed Irish, myrewardcard.ie and localrewards.ie all give them that reason.

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Keeping The Revenue Commissioners Happy

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 05:48:00 -0800

With the economy in the condition it is and the black economy showing its head again the Revenue Commissioners are focusing on cash businesses. myrewardcard.ie can help you keep them happy.

I recently came across a cash-based business to which the commissioners had paid a random visit. They commandeered the register for 2 hours and poked through years of records. Even though the business was able to provide complete records on every sale there were questions asked about discounts. These focused on why sale prices were lower than normal on some products and what this meant in terms of possible VAT records. As the owner later explained to me the fact that he was offering discounts on those products meant that the VAT was lower than expected and this raised questions in the auditors mind about whether there was some skimming going on. In the end the business was able to answer all questions to the auditors satisfaction and business resumed as normal. But the experience was nerve-wracking.

This is going to be a far from isolated incident as the government focuses ever more intently on raising tax revenues and preventing the economy slipping further into the shadows. You may have recently received a booklet which specifies the requirements of your cash register. In it they have a specific section outlining the records you have to keep that can support activity such as the offering of discounts. You can't be sure that they will be satisfied with your word that discounts were given under any given circumstance.

myrewardcard.ie can be an aid in satisfying any enquiries that might arise if you are chosen for a random audit. Unlike the typical stamped cardboard cards that are most commonly used in Ireland users of myrewardcard.ie have a complete record of all points awarded and redeemed. These are time-stamped and linked to individual cards. You can run a report at any time that shows when you gave points and discounts and how much they were valued at. While we don't guarantee the result of any audit the very fact that you can provide this information when required and that it can be matched up to till records can be an assistance in how you reassure the Revenue that the discounts are provided to actual customers. The fact that these records are also held by an external company will be another factor in your favour.

In addition to providing the records we also maintain full backups and archives, ensuring that you don't have to worry about this aspect of the IT structure. This is an incidental aspect of using myrewardcard.ie for your Loyalty Program but it is one that can reduce the number of sleepless nights.

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Reducing Card Registration Errors

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 02:55:15 -0700

We're continually looking for ways to make using myrewardcard.ie easier for cardholders and our own clients. One of the ways we do this is by getting feedback from businesses and cardholders. But we also take proactive steps to monitor the issues that might arise.

Recently we got some feedback that there were small number of customers who were having trouble registering their cards; some said they were getting already registered messages while others were being told that the card didn't exist. Even though the numbers of people having difficulty were just a tiny percentage we were obviously interested to see how we could reduce this.

The first thing we did was to edit the code so that it would write the details of all failed registrations to a new database. From here we could examine the issues.

It turned out that 70% of the problems were due to people confusing the zero in a serial number with the letter O. So we've put in a fix;

There is now a notice on the registration page that explains the serial consists of 6 letters followed by 5 numbers.
The code has been rewritten to adapt and accept swapped zeroes and O's. If a person for instance enters the serial MA0HJKOO123 instead of MAOHJK00123 the software will now recognise the error and convert the serial number to the correct version. This applies to all places where the customer enters the serial number, not just registration.

These two changes (one simple the other more complicated) should cut the number of customers experiencing trouble to the 30% of those who, the data tells us, try to re-register their card. We'll keep tracking the process and see if we can find a way to reduce this number further. We will also be introducing the code changes into the business section over the next few weeks, allowing the system to adapt if for instance you enter the wrong format when awarding points.

The feedback we receive from our clients and the cardholders is critical in making improvements to the system so please don't hesitate to drop an email or give us a ring if you see any issues.

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Keeping Towns Vibrant - localrewards.ie Launches the First Town Loyalty Card in Ireland

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:51:53 -0700

A few weeks back I mentioned an article by David McWilliams regarding the need for towns to keep their own economy vibrant. In it he showed how the trend for people to visit larger population shopping centres would gradually lead to a small business closing, providing less reason for people to shop in the town leading to further closures and a recurring cycle until the town centre became deserted. At the time I said we had a possible answer to this problem. Today I'm happy to be able to say we have launched it in our very first town.

First lets look at what other towns have tried in order to stop declining business. Most of them have tried to solve the problem by introducing a branded Discount card for the town. And in most cases this has been a failure. The idea is good but Discount Cards have some significant drawbacks;

They require the businesses to give the same discount to one-time visitors as to their regular customers.
They don't provide the business with any transaction information that could help them improve their business or reduce their costs.
If the holder loses the card all the discounts go with them.
Often the cards are sold to the end user, reducing the uptake.

Even with these drawbacks Discounts remain the most common way a town will choose to try and encourage local shopping. However for the same reasons that a Reward Card offers benefits over Discount Cards to individual businesses they also do the same for towns;

Transaction information is captured and can be analysed to show patterns that can help increase revenue while reducing costs.
Because discounts are not being given to every one-time customer they can be increased for regular customers.
Cardholders can see all their transaction history.
If the card is lost the cardholder can protect and secure their points.

In addition to these points the benefits to the individuals involved the advantages to the town as a whole are even greater. For instance the fact that transactions are captured can allow town-wide promotions such as draws for people who use the card in 3 or more businesses a month or prizes for the 10,000 transaction etc. These all help increase excitement, a sense of community and encourage activity across the whole town.

Introducing localrewards.ie - the Town Loyalty Card.

Knowing these benefits we have developed localrewards.ie. This site is intended as the home for a range of cards that will be valid only in specific towns. The idea is that businesses in town can come together and jointly accept their own localrewards.ie card. In addition to the card they also get a page on the site. The whole site is run from the myrewardcard.ie platform and each business simply pays the same low cost for access to the complete benefits of the system.

Of course there will always be some businesses who feel that a Reward or Loyalty is not suitable for their business. Up to now this would have have led to a split or to the complete town deciding on the lowest common denominator - the Discount Card. But we have set localrewards.ie up so that each business can accept the card as a Discount or Reward Card. Every business will get the page on the website but those who use it as a Discount Card will not get the primary benefits such as targeting their discounts to regular customers or the collection of transaction information. In return they will pay a reduced price. The businesses which want the benefits of a Reward Card can do so and the other businesses will always be able to upgrade in the future - making localrewards.ie the only reasonable option for any town looking at a branded card.

Carrigaline - Ireland First Town Loyalty Card

localrewards.ie launched last week in Carrigaline, Co. Cork. This is the first true town Loyalty Card in the country. The card is Initially accepted in 8 businesses and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Even though the cards have only been available from the 8 businesses there have in just a few days been nearly 1,500 transaction and 20% of cards used have been registered.

We launched with a limited number of businesses because we wanted to be able to handle any teething problems and later this week we will be adding more. The list will continue to grow over the coming weeks.

localrewards.ie in your town - at no extra cost

A localrewards program might be of interest to you and we wanted to make sure that there would be no penalty for a business that already had its own Reward Card but wanted to take part in a community card. So in addition to announcing localrewards.ie we also want to let you know that any business using the myrewardcard.ie platform can now accept a total of 3 different branded cards for the same low annual price of just €7.69/week. This can for instance be your own business brand, a town card and maybe an industry card. This brings the cost to a possible €2.56 per card per week. At this rate I don't think there is a more cost effectively powerful business tool available than myrewardcard.ie

The launch of localrewards.ie in Carrigaline is an exciting step and one I think will be a big success as it brings benefits that were not possible to towns until now. We are already looking at the next towns which will join the program. If you feel it would benefit your community give me a call on 021-2349920 or by email at boc@myrewardcard.ie

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Handling Refunds

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 06:36:00 -0700

Sometimes customers return goods. If they do and you've given them points at the time of sale then you might want to deduct those again.

Refunds are an issue I had not explicitly considered when designing myrewardcard.ie but the flexibility behind the design allowed the redemption mechanism to be used to deduct points for any reason, including this one. Most clients who give refunds simply add "Refund" to the note field to differentiate it from standard redemption of points for rewards.

One aspect of refunds had not been addressed however and recently a new client raised it: What if the customer has not registered their card? An obvious question but one I had never considered. The system has been designed to ensure that only cards registered to a customer can redeem points for rewards. Because they cannot get their points until this has happened customers are happy to register. But refunds are different, the customer might not have registered and there is no incentive for them to do so. Obviously this needed a solution.

There were a couple of different ways to approach this including removing the need for registration altogether or adding a specific Refund button. Neither of these two seemed right - removing the need for registration would be removing a key element of the process while extra buttons would add clutter and confusion to the interface. Instead I decided to remove any need for the clients to change their process. Since the majority were recording the refunds in the note field I decided to use this as the trigger.

Now if you try to redeem points from an unregistered card you will be notified that the card needs to be registered first. However if you include the word Refund in the note the points you specify will be deducted even if the card is unregistered.

I believe this is the best solution because it is invisible and allows you to work as normal.

Once you are giving refunds you might of course want to track these so now there is a new option to isolate just refunds in the Transaction Filter.

Simply select this to see all refunds across a full year. You can isolate them even further by seeing refunds over a certain value or staff member. And of course this can all be downloaded to Excel for greater analysis later. This refund option joins the existing awards, redemptions and expiration options.

If you offer refunds please let me know how this works for you. Or if there are options you think need to be added drop a line so we can consider them.

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Cork Independent Site of the Week

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 03:44:37 -0700

It was just pointed out to me today that myrewardcard.ie was selected as the Cork Independent Site of the Week in June. They had a short review that focused on the sites usefulness to consumers and noted how easy it was for users to manage their various Reward Cards on the site.

The interface is something we give serious though to when introducing any features. Having been involved in web design for some time I am a big believer in keeping things simple and obvious. Too many times website designers focus on the graphics and not on the navigation and clarity of the site. This might be fine for a site that is intended purely for entertainment but it does not work for functional sites such as ours. Especially one with such a wide age demographic. That is why we have resisted the temptation to add animations and other flashiness.

The selection was made in their June 17 edition though I didn't hear about it until yesterday. I can't say with any certainty but I assume that the writer of the piece hold cards from some of our clients so it's nice to see that our approach to the interface is one that does resonate with the general public.

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Automatic Point Expiry Is Now Available

Sun, 30 May 2010 21:41:00 -0700

One of the biggest requests we have is for the ability to expire points automatically. The reasons why points might need to expire vary from business to business: some offer tiered discounts based on the number of points earned in a given year and need the accounts reset on January 1, some simply don't want to be exposed to large outstanding balances and want the points to expire a set period of time after they are issued, and most simply want to encourage people to return regularly to earn new points to reach a target before the existing points expire. In all these cases the business does not want to have to go through each account manually to calculate when and how many points to expire. We've been working on the best way to automate the process and have tried a number of options. The technical aspect proved difficult but it also proved more difficult than expected to get the whole system working as a whole as it affected a number of different areas. However these have now been resolved and, after some significant testing I'm happy to announce we have an elegant and simple function that lets you specify the expiry criteria for your points.

The Process

The new process works on a monthly basis. You can specify either the month every year when points will expire or the number of full months for which points remain active after they are awarded. At the end of every month the system will look at each card and calculate how many points to expire at that time. It will then redeem that number of points from the account. At the same time it will calculate the number of points due to expire at the end of the following month. This number is then updated at every transaction throughout the month. At the end of the following month the process will repeat.

The Mechanics

The setting for the Automatic Point Expiry can be found under Operations/point actions.

Setting Point Expiry Criteria
Here you have 3 options:

Points never expire.
Points expire on a specific date. You will be presented with the ability to select on which month they expire. Remember that points expire at the end of a month so if you want all accounts to go into a new year with a reset balance you select December as the expiry option for Set Date.
Points expire a set time after being awarded. The number of months you set are full months and so do not count the month in which the points are awarded. So if you want points issued in January to expire at the end of March you choose 2 as the period (February and March being the 2 in question).

You simply set the selection that meets your needs and you can forget about it after that. The system will do the rest. There are 2 points to take note of;

You can change the criteria and timing of point expiry at any time. However you cannot do so in a way that will immediately cause points to expire. Instead we will recalculate the number of points to expire at the end of the month and this will include any points which under your new rules would already have expired.
All points are taken into account in the calculation. This includes any default points you may have put on cards when you received them. If you have not issued the cards within the set time those points will no longer be on the card when the customer receives them.

Tracking Expirations

Business

The Statistics Dashboard has been updated to include the expiring points in the graphs and you can also search for them in the Transaction Filter and download them in the Excel export.

Graphs now show point expirations

Selecting point expirations for review

Cardholder

It's not a lot of use having expiring points if the customer is unaware of when they expire so we have integrated this information into their data. The cardholder will now see the number of points due to expire along side their balance for each card. This will update throughout the month as required. For instance if all points reset at the end of the month then every transaction will be reflected and the expiring points will equal the balance for the full month. However if points expire after specified period of time then only redemptions during the month will be reflected and the number of expiring points will reduce accordingly.

Showing Points Due To Expire

Why this process?

We decided on a monthly process because it is the one most liked by customers and so benefits business more than any other option...

Customers are happier if they know points expire at the end of the month rather than having a balance that can change every day
Cardholders can plan in advance to visit the business to use expiring points, something that would not be possible if the expiration balance changed every day.
Points awarded early in a month will be live for longer than those awarded at the end. This gives customers a feeling that they are gaining something extra by shopping early in the month.

Automatic Point Expiration is a major function that will be of use to almost all businesses. It's one of a number of major functional upgrades coming in the following weeks. Let me know what you think and if there are any functions you particularly want added.

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