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Loyalty: Common Scenarios & Best Practices
Loyalty: Common Scenarios & Best Practices

List of best practices, resources, and flow scenarios to inspire your program.

Crystal McHenry avatar
Written by Crystal McHenry
Updated over 2 months ago

Overview

Best Practices for a Program

While planning or optimizing your program, consider the following:

  • Read this 6-step ebook and plan with this workbook as a stepping stone toward a well-rounded and effective loyalty program. Use these resources as a starting point to brainstorm, visualize, and refine your ideas.

  • Make it easy to join the program.

  • Customize and brand all details of the program, such as your enrollment method, emails, and Portal experience.

  • Make it easy to earn their first points.

  • Setup a reward they can earn right away to encourage participation, such as a free shipping or discount (voucher) code at signup.

  • Keep your program easy to understand. Start with up-to 5 ways they can earn points, and up-to 5 rewards they can redeem those points for.

  • Review, optimize, and add new ways to earn as you go, maximizing the long-term engagement and value of the program!

Keep in Mind

Badges - Below are two primary ways to utilize badges. Learn more.

  • Tiers/Milestones - Similar to your favorite airline loyalty program, as participants earn more points, they meet different tier levels/milestones that earn a badge and/or reward and send an email.

  • Activities - Reward badges for activities, such as when they join the program, complete a task, or make a high value purchase.

Tasks - You will setup a Task for each action that you want a participant to complete to support your brand's goals. The participant can access these in their Portal account. Upon completing them, you can issue points or other rewards, badges, and send an email. Learn more.

Effects - Effects are outcomes of a flow. In most cases, you will assign one or more of the following effects to each flow.

  • Issue points redeemable in the Portal Reward Catalog

  • Issue and send a digital gift card or voucher code via email

  • Issue a Badge

  • Send an email to the recipient

  • Mark a Task as complete in the Portal

  • Trigger an outgoing webhook or email notification, such as to fulfill a custom reward outside of Ambassador
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Out-of-the Box Program Flows

No external integration needed.

Flow scenarios that can be automatically triggered by data available in the Ambassador system or from a CSV import - without the need for an external integration. Each of these can be implemented in 1-2 business days. Note: CSV imports may require additional time for planning, data retrieval, formatting and testing.

  1. Program Enrollment - Issue points or a reward when someone first joins the program. If possible, issue a code for a discount or free shipping instead of points as to entice them to make an initial or return purchase right away.
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  2. Complete Profile Details - If there are details about a contact that you deem necessary to your business or program, other than the required email, such as birthday, mailing address, social handles - setup a Task to encourage the participant to complete those in their Portal account in return for points.
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  3. Birthday - Celebrate your participant and bring your company top-of-mind for them by sending an email with a reward present! If possible consider a voucher code for a discount or free shipping instead of points, to encourage a near-term purchase.
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  4. Program Membership Anniversary - Celebrate the anniversary of a participant joining the program. This is a great way to reengage a participant with the program, especially if you offer points and/or a reward.
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  5. Referral Shares - Encourage referral shares in return for points when someone shares. Here are some specific ideas:

    1. First Share - When they share for the first time

    2. VIP Share - When they've shared a certain number of times

    3. Monthly Share - When they share atleast once each month makes their first share.

    4. Targeted Share - When they've shared to a specific social channel, such as LinkedIn.
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  6. Click to Follow on Social - Need more social engagement? Offer points when someone clicks on Tasks in their Portal account to follow your company on your desired social sites. Note: This only tracks the click and will not verify the follow was complete.
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  7. Click to Leave a Review on a Third Party Site - Need more third party reviews? Offer points when someone clicks on Tasks in their Portal account to leave a review on a third-party site. Note: This only tracks the click and will not verify the review was complete.
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  8. Click to Signup for an Event or Webinar - Need more signups for a webinar or offline event? Offer points when someone clicks on Tasks in their Portal account to register for a webinar or event. Note: this only tracks the click and will not verify they signed up.
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  9. Action/Event with Manual CSV Import - If you have a list of contacts who have completed an event outside of Ambassador, including , you can import a CSV file with the necessary data for each scenario and issue points, send a gift card or voucher, issue a badge or trigger or a reward, issue a badge, mark a Task as complete, and send an email. This includes but is not limited to the following.
    ​Note: Make sure to discuss this with your onboarding team to confirm which import method works best for your use case. CSV imports may require additional time for planning, data retrieval, formatting, and testing.

    1. Referrals

    2. Orders

    3. Surveys

    4. Case Studies

    5. Course Completion

    6. Reviews, Surveys, and Questionnaires

    7. and more!


Intermediate Program Flows

Requires some basic level of external integration efforts.

Examples of flow scenarios that can be easily triggered with Ambassador flows upon a intermediate level of integration with your systems. These typically require a 1-2 week IT/development cycle to implement the integration(s). An Ambassador success engineer will review your specific integration and details to help determine a better estimate.

  1. Make a Referral - When a participant makes a referral, your integration can create a commission in Ambassador to send a reward via email, issue points/cash for Portal redemption, or send a webhook to issue an external reward such as an account credit. Note: This scenario is not yet available in flows, and instead uses the standard referral campaign settings.
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  2. Make an Order/Purchase - When a participant makes an order/purchase, your system integration can create an Order event in Ambassador to issue points.
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  3. First purchase - When a customer makes their first purchase as a way to welcome them to the program, encourage engagement and return purchases.
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  4. Purchase of $X or more - For a purchase that meets a certain dollar value.
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  5. Purchase during a specific time frame - For making a purchase during a specific promotion period, season, or holiday.
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  6. Total Lifetime Spend Met - Participant has spent at least $X with your company since joining the program.
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Advanced Program Flows

Often requires advanced integration and/or flow efforts.

Examples of flow scenarios that may require advanced setup with Ambassador flows and/or advanced level of integration with your systems. These can range between 1-6+ weeks of IT/development depending on the scenario and system integration requirements. An Ambassador success engineer will review your specific integration and details to help determine a better estimate.

  1. Purchase of a specific product/sku - When a customer purchases a specific product or SKU. Note: With some integrations, this could qualify as a standard flow.
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  2. Sign up for Newsletter / Email List - When someone has signed up for a Newsletter / Email List, and only want to reward if you can confirm it was complete.
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  3. Leave a Review / Confirmed - If you are encouraging customers to give a review on your system or another and only want to reward if you can confirm the review was complete.
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  4. Customer Feedback - If you are encouraging customers to provide feedback through surveys or questionnaires, and only want to reward if you can confirm it was complete.
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  5. Special Events / Webinars - Trigger rewards for participation in special events or webinars and only want to reward if you can confirm it was complete.
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  6. Mobile App Downloads or Usage - Incentivize customers to download and use your mobile app, and only want to reward if you can confirm it was complete.
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  7. Subscription / Contract Renewals - Offer points or perks for renewing subscriptions to services or products.
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  8. Completing a Course - Reward points for completing a course you offer, and only want to reward if you can confirm it was complete.
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  9. CRM Custom Field - Reward or give points for something applied to a custom field in your CRM or other system.

For other ideas and best practices, check out our Blog - https://www.getambassador.com/blog.

For questions, contact your Customer Success Manager or support@getambassador.com.

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