Enterprise Electronic Commerce  

LOYALTY SYSTEM

In today's economy, it is common knowledge that retaining customers can be up to 100% more profitable than acquiring new ones. Research by Gartner, Peppers & Rogers and others shows that it costs five times as much to find a new customer as it does to keep an old one.

Despite this, customer acquisition still tends to get the lion's share of most marketing budgets, a reality that belies the customer management commitments many companies pay lip service to in their marketing brochures.

Our loyalty program solves this problem. We will enable you to implement a full service, cost effective, rewards-based consumer loyalty program with minimal start-up costs. We can supply and implement all aspects of your loyalty program, from the manufacturing of the membership card to the implementation and training of your staff.

1. Increase profitability
2. Improve customer loyalty and retention
3. React to changes in customer demand
4. Improve average customer basket size (units per transaction)
5. Leverage off your investment in your database
6. Manage your customers across multiple channels
7. Improve your inventory efficiency
8. Improve product assortment mix
9. Become more predictive with your forecasting capability

Customer Loyalty Rewards

Our loyalty program is a multi-branch, ‘points based’ loyalty system. Members are rewarded for their purchases in points, where one cent equals one point.

This is not a discount, but rather a rebate that is electronically credited to a members account. Members wishing to redeem their balance must do so on a subsequent visit, thus driving future purchases. No minimal balance is required, and the member’s points are available 72 hours after earning them. The member can track their points accumulated in a number of ways:

• In store – members can ask the clerk to check their available balance via the computer terminal
• SMS – their balance will be sent to them via SMS
• Web – a member can log into a member page and view a statement of their account on-line.

Our loyalty program can run using two models;

• Cash model – The value of points issued by a merchant is off-set against the total points redeemed during the month. A net amount is either deposited or withdrawn from the merchant’s bank account at the end of the month. The surplus money is held in a bank account controlled by the group.
• Contingent liability model – In this model, no money changes hands. When a merchant issues points, their liability to the club goes up. This liability is reduced when redemptions are done. A cost is only incurred when the member redeems their points. The actual cost is only the cost of sales of the goods bought with the points, thus substantially reducing the cost of the reward. Periodically, the merchant’s net position is checked within the group and an equalisation transaction will be done if necessary.

The reward rate earned by the members is set by the group. This rate can also vary according to customer defined parameters, with examples such as:

• Card status (Platinum, Gold etc)
• Day of the week or time of day

Our solution is a ‘closed loop solution’, meaning that points earned can only be redeemed within that particular group thus driving the client back to your brand.

 In order to prevent an ever increasing group liability to its members, we advise that the group has a policy of expiring points that have not been used by a certain date. Once a year we run a “use it or lose it” campaign advising the member that a portion of their points will expire if not used by a certain date. We normally run this campaign during the groups’ quiet period of the year, thus driving turnover.

GIFT CARDS AND VOUCHERS

Members can purchase Incentive Rewards which can be used as a gift voucher or as part of a staff motivational program. The client will either be issued with a new gift card with a monetary amount loaded onto the card or the voucher can be loaded onto the members existing loyalty card. This voucher can also be valid for a defined period.

This is particularly useful when attempting to drive members to your group during a marketing campaign. Data Management Our philosophy is that members should be able to receive their membership card immediately. A new member will be handed an application form to fill in. Once completed, they will receive their loyalty card which can be used immediately.

 A software application is loaded onto the merchants’ computer that enables the managers to capture the members’ details and upload them to our server. This helps spread the workload amongst the stores and reduces the administrative staff required at head office. However, should it be preferred that these details are capture centrally; we will provide a web based capture form that will facilitate this. We have procedures to transfer members details and points to a new card should their card be stolen or lost. We too can blacklist a specific card, making the card unusable. We also have a ‘grey-list’ concept. This is used when we want to gather additional details on the user of the card. When a grey-listed card is used, the system will flag the staff member that an action is required and will specify the action. Members will also have the ability to log onto a membership page and update their details on-line.

The group can run a campaign that rewards members (in points) for updating their details on-line. Marketing Solutions Dialogue marketing – the right message delivered the right way Constant contact with current customers is a good way to build their loyalty.

The more the customer sees or hears from you, the more likely they will return. Send birthday greetings via SMS, give them a voucher to help them celebrate the day, invite them to VIP evenings, encourage feedback (good or bad) via a web page. We urge you to act on their comments and give feedback accordingly.

SMS Marketing

SMS text messaging is the most exciting and cost effective direct marketing and advertising method available to a business. SMS marketing and SMS advertising can create one-on-one communications with your market which has a successful history of generating high response rates ranging from 8%-20%.

The greatest strength of SMS marketing is its immediacy. But remember, mobile phones do not have "spam filters. People are therefore far more conscious of unwanted SMS messages than they are of traditional email spam. Anyone engaging in any type of SMS marketing must ensure that tacit permission has been given by the recipient to receive information. Sending unwanted messages to the mobile phones of your users will be extremely damaging to your brand. All SMS replies must be acted upon.

We only use premium telephony suppliers - this means a high level of delivery guarantee - something cut rate suppliers cannot provide! No matter if your market is 100 or 100 000; we can put your message into your customer's hands at highly competitive rates.

Electronic Newsletter

The printed newsletter is heading for extinction and the electronic newsletter has evolved into a professional, well designed tool. This has been driven by fact that today's electronic newsletters can convey the same slick, professional corporate image as their printed counterparts at a fraction of the cost. In addition, it is easy to ensure it reaches the desktop of every individual for whom it is intended.

Email Marketing

If used correctly, “opt in” email marketing offers great benefits:

• Email is quicker and cheaper to create than offline direct communication.
• Speed of (two-way) response.
• Targeting according to user preferences.
• Personalization.
• The "buzz" factor - users can share the message with others at the click of a button.
• Niche areas of interest can be reached.

Tracking and reporting

All transactions and newly enrolled members are uploaded to our server. Points are allocated to the members based on the group rules. These transactions are stored on our Sequel server and are available to authorized personnel on a 24/7 via our reports server or the Web.

Database security and customer confidentiality is of paramount importance to us. No unauthorized access to your database is permitted and customer data will never be made available to a 3rd party. Numerous management reports are available for your perusal; however, if you have a specific report requirement, we will make this report available to you. The following are examples of reports that are available:

1. Redemption report; lists all redemptions done within the specified period.
2. Best 100 customers; this report lists the top 100 members on spend and per number of visits for an outlet or the entire group.
3. First time customers report; lists the names of all new members within a specific period.
4. Churn report; lists the names of all members who have not visited your outlet within a specific period.
5. Customer activity report; this report is a history of the members’ purchases.
6. The report includes details on store name, bill number, amount, date and time of bill, clerk number and number of loyalty points accumulated or redeemed.
7. Member information; lists information on members, including: name, surname, telephone number, cell number, email address, available balance and home outlet.
8. Member & transaction count per store; lists number of members and transactions per merchant within a group.
9. Merchant client analysis; lists the total new clients within a user defined period. Percentage of members returning to a merchant with 30, 60, 90 and 120 days is also reported on.
10. Merchant statement; lists the following within a statement month - no of bills, sales value of loyalty turnover, value of reversals, value of loyalty points issued, value of loyalty points redeemed, admin fee, SMS charges, card charges and final invoice amount.
11. Merchant sales analysis; lists the number of new clients and bills (quantity and value) within a user defined period. Percentage of members returning to a merchant with 30, 60, 90 and 120 days is also reported on.
12. Exception reporting; this tracks any transaction that falls within the exceptional parameters. This will identify any transaction that is done fraudulently.