What Is A Loyalty Program

What Is A Loyalty Program?

DISTINGUISHING FACTORS

Q:	Why is the Preferred Patron™ loyalty software program better from the competition?
Q:	What is unique about the communication system offered?
Q:	With Preferred Patron™ what are my marketing options?
Q:	How do customers know what offers and rewards are available to them?
Q:	How is reporting managed?
TYPES OF GIFT CARDS SUPPORTED

Q:	I sometimes hear the term stored-value cards. Is that different than a Gift Card?<
Q:	I'm thinking paper gift certificates are less expensive and equally suitable. Are they any reasons to consider using plastic gift cards?
PLASTIC LOYALTY CARDS AND GIFT CARDS

Q:	Am I obligated to purchase any plastic loyalty cards or gift cards from you?
Q:	Do you manufacture the plastic loyalty cards or gift cards you sell?
Q:	I am switching from another vendor program and already have a significant investment in cards from them. May I use my existing cards?
Q:	Are plastic loyalty cards necessary?
Q:	What if the customer does not have their loyalty card with them?
Q:	What happens if a customer loses their gift card?
Q:	I'm unsure if plastic loyalty cards are really necessary? Can you advise on the benefits of using plastic loyalty cards?
Q:	Once a Gift Card is sold, how long before it can be used by the customer?
Q:	Why should I consider Gift Cards for my Business?

PROGRAM COSTS AND OTHER FEES

Q:	Do you charge transaction or swipe fees when gift cards are sold, reloaded and decremented or when loyalty tags are scanned?
REQUIREMENTS

Q:	Do I need a computer?
Q:	I only want gift card processing. Do I need purchase loyalty software and tags too?
Q:	Does this system require a bar-code scanner or mag-strip reader?
Q:	I want to use a scanner. Which do you recommend, a bar-code scanner or a magnetic strip scanner?
Q:	What kind of bar-code scanner is supported?
Q:	Does the system require a touch screen monitor?
Q:	Is a receipt printer required?
POOLING OPTIONS

Q:	I am one store of a multi-store chain. If all our stores subscribe, can we run a shared program while tracking our activity individually?
Q:	If I choose one of the pooling options, can individual stores still market to just their own customers?
Q:	If I belong to a pool of stores, how do I track the gift cards and points I am responsible for?
INTERNET ACCESS AND ON-LINE PORTALS

Q:	Do customers have a web page they can access for program detail?
Q:	I am an e-commerce store. Can Preferred Patron™ be tied into my solution?
DEPLOYMENT CONFIGURATIONS

Q:	I already have a PC Computer at my store. Can I use Preferred Patron™?
Q:	I plan on using several workstations. Can Preferred Patron™ run from several workstations?
Q:	Why is Preferred Patron™ better than other software solutions which I can install without an Internet connection?
Q:	I have more than one store location, each running multiple workstations. How many licenses do I need?


DISTINGUISHING FACTORS

Q:	Why is the Preferred Patron™ loyalty software program better from the competition?
A:	The Preferred Patron™ Loyalty Software Program is an enterprise class system capable of managing the simplest loyalty needs to the most complex! Most other loyalty programs are micro-focused as traditional points based systems. Customers earn points for shopping and can redeem those points for rewards. That is a basic approach but does not truly offer the merchant any benefits from the perspective of building customer loyalty! In fact, for the worst offenders among us, the credit-card terminal systems, these programs often don't collect any customer demographic data at all, positioning themselves as nothing more than a discount program cutting into margins; a negative overall impact to the merchant. Preferred Patron™ is much more than an electronic punch card. This system meets all the requirements of a true enterprise class loyalty system, covering necessary requirements including efficient collection of complete customer demographic data, tracking of purchase behaviors, data analysis tools, a powerful and dynamic loyalty rules engine, and multi-channel customer communications. This system offers several customer touch-points to ensure the greatest possibility of collecting complete customer data. That data is then exploited in multiple ways through a series of loyalty centric rules. Rules are managed using the integrated marketing manager and the rules engine triggers events real-time based on those defined loyalty rules. Communications can be delivered real-time, on-demand, or scheduled for deferred and recurring delivery, once again, with dynamic content based on data collected and the loyalty rules implemented. The system comes complete with a vast selection of "pre-defined" loyalty rules to cover the spectrum of today's popular loyalty tactics and allows for custom rule definitions too, based on specific client needs.

Q:	What is unique about the communication system offered?
A:	The Preferred Patron™ communication system is a multi-channel system. Integrated into the system are Email capabilities, SMS Text Messaging as well as Direct Mail options. Each of these channels may be used in combination or in a Cross-Channel strategy, with different communications being delivered strategically across the appropriate channel. Additionally, and perhaps the most important advantage, is that your communications, regardless of the channel of delivery, are focused to the customers most likely to engage with them. This is accomplished by way of the customer data collected, how it is segmented and then, ultimately, how it diced when passed through the loyalty rules engine. The end result, you no longer have to waist valuable time and resources sending your communications to every customer on your mailing list! In most cases, the communications occur unattended by the system scheduler, and are delivered to only those customer's identified as targets. Factors evaluated are how customers are segmented, demographic data including zip codes and area codes, proximity to stores in multi-store environments as well as past purchase and spending behaviors. Most importantly, every mailing is personalized with your customer's name and address and redemption bar-code, for expedited processing when presented to the cashier.

Q:	With Preferred Patron™ what are my marketing options?
A:	The spectrum of marketing opportunities is vast with Preferred Patron™. Out-of-the-box, Preferred Patron™ has pre-established templates for many promotions, including New Members, Referrals, Member Recognition, Miss You, Best Member, Frequent Shopper, Birthdays, Anniversaries, Raffles, Electronic Coupons, Complaint Management as well as Fundraiser Campaigns. Most importantly, using the integrated Marketing Manager, you can pick and choose what works best for you as well as devise completely new promotion rules against the data that is collected!

Q:	How do customers know what offers and rewards are available to them?
A:	Included with your Preferred Patron™ subscription is a Web portal designed for your customers. You may add a link to this Web Portal from your own website or even have the URL printed on your loyalty cards. Your customers may access this portal, 24x7, to see information about their program participation, including their point balance, recent transaction history and eligible offers and rewards. Preferred Patron™ also works with optional receipt printers. If you choose to print loyalty receipts, the system can print receipts for every transaction showing important information, such as how many points were just redeemed and/or earned, upcoming rewards and other special incentive offers that have been awarded to the customer. There are even options to include promotion advertisements for in-store raffles, referral incentives or general ad-hoc advertisements you setup.

Q:	How is reporting managed?
A:	Reporting is managed in real-time, right from your software. We supply a vast library of reports, covering subject matter such as enrollment activity, promotion effectiveness, sales activity, gift card activity and more. Unlimited reporting is included in your subscription, available to you 24x7 and you may request them as often as you want! Additionally, most reports are available for scheduled, recurring delivery. Simply setup an automated run schedule, and have your reports emailed to your in-box automatically each recurring period. All reports are available in formatted PDF standard as well as raw tab-delimited text for easy manipulation in Microsoft Excel.



TYPES OF GIFT CARDS SUPPORTED

Q:	I sometimes hear the term stored-value cards. Is that different than a Gift Card?
A:	They are essentially the same thing but do have slight technical variations. In both case, you are pre-purchasing value to be placed on a plastic card for later use. Gift Cards are typically pre-denominated, like $25 or $50, and imprint the card value on the face of the card. Store-value cards, in-contrast, have their value determined at the time of purchase and can be set to any denomination desired. In both cases, they are typically "Gifted", making the terms somewhat interchangeable. Store-Value cards also have the added benefit of being well suited as a means of issuing Store Credits, as the card value can be set at the point-of-sale, in the amount of the credit owed. Not having to refund cash to the customer is a benefit to the store, as well as an element of loyalty, as the customer is now likely to return to the store at a future time to claim that credit.

Q:	I'm thinking paper gift certificates are less expensive and equally suitable. Are they any reasons to consider using plastic gift cards?
A:	The plastic gift card has overwhelmingly become the most popular form for gift vouchers and an expectation among consumers. From the store perspective, plastic gift cards mean "No Cash Back". If the customer does not use the entire balance of the gift card, the balance is simply recorded and tracked electronically. Paper certificates, in contrast, generally don't offer an electronic means to track left over balances, so the typical approach is to issue the balance in cash. Other reasons include real-time reporting options offered by electronic gift cards that are not available with paper certificates, as well as convenience to the customer. Customers simply prefer to carry a credit card sized piece of plastic rather than an awkward sized paper certificate, prone to wear and tear in the wallet!



PLASTIC LOYALTY CARDS AND GIFT CARDS

Q:	Am I obligated to purchase any plastic loyalty cards or gift cards from you?
A:	No. As a Preferred Patron™ subscriber, you have the option to choose a card based system or a card-less system. If you choose a card based system, we offer subscription plans with and without card purchase requirements. If you choose to purchase cards from us, you will receive a discounted price on your loyalty program subscription and, additionally, you will receive discounts up to 20% off our standard retail card pricing, depending on the program renewal terms you choose. If you choose a card-less system, operated by phone number or name lookup, we waive the card purchase requirement and also offer the program at the same discounted price as offered for card-based systems.

Q:	Do you manufacture the plastic loyalty cards or gift cards you sell?
A:	No. The plastic cards we offer are high grade 30mil teslin cards which can only be produced by high end card manufacturers. We have established relationships with the best plastic card manufactures in the industry, who are capable of handling small digital runs starting as low as 500 cards up to large offset orders that range into the millions! The plastic cards we bundle with our loyalty and gift card software are always produced to specification, using your custom artwork, at very competitive prices. We recommend ordering your cards through us for the best overall program cost, best quality control and assured program conformity and compliance.

Q:	I am switching from another vendor program and already have a significant investment in cards from them. May I use my existing cards?
A:	In most cases, you can! We understand you may have made prior investments in cards and probably have cards issued to customers that you need to continue to support in your new system. Our Preferred Patron™ program has been designed with that in mind, offering support for most of the gift cards and loyalty cards produced today.

Q:	Are plastic loyalty cards necessary?
A:	No but they are highly recommended. The loyalty card is a tangible reminder about your business, eliminating the out-of-sight out-of-mind syndrome! It is also the most efficient way to process loyalty transactions at the point-of-sale, as the customer's membership number is always encoded on the card, making for fast and efficient processing with a scanner. With that said, there are certain businesses that are more suited for card-less systems, using name or phone number lookups as an alternative. This would include home service based businesses that invoice and bill clients without ever having an in-person transaction.

Q:	What if the customer does not have their loyalty card with them?
A:	The Preferred Patron™ system is designed for efficient lookup by customer phone number, name or email address, in the absence of a loyalty card scan.

Q:	What happens if a customer loses their gift card?
A:	This depends on whether the customer is a loyalty member or not. If they are not a loyalty member, then the gift card is anonymous and must be treated the same way you would cash. In this scenario, cashiers should require the plastic card be presented at the time of use. However, if the customer is a loyalty member too, then Preferred Patron™ will associate their gift cards to their loyalty account, which allow you to lookup their gift cards by name or phone number.

Q:	I'm unsure if plastic loyalty cards are really necessary? Can you advise on the benefits of using plastic loyalty cards?
A:	Plastic loyalty cards and tags make your loyalty program feel real to your customers. They offer a physical element, making the loyalty program feel tangible. Additionally, they are imprinted with your name and logo, so they are an inexpensive advertisement, keeping you in your customers sub-conscious every day. By increasing your name recognition and exposure, customer's are more likely to revisit your store than a competitor's.

Q:	Once a Gift Card is sold, how long before it can be used by the customer?
A:	Gift Cards are sold and activated real-time. As soon as you sell and activate a gift card, it is immediately available to be used.

Q:	Why should I consider Gift Cards for my Business?
A:	Electronic gift cards, and equally as important, re-chargeable gift cards will let you capture your share of what has become a multi-billion dollar per year sales industry! Electronic gift cards mean no more cash back! No longer return cash to the customer for unused gift certificate balances. You also have the option to issue store credits instead of cash back for store returns. Paper gift certificates are targets for theft, misuse and fraud due to limitations on tracking. Electronic gift cards eliminate this problem. Electronic gift cards have a long-lifespan and may be recharged and reused over and over again.


PROGRAM COSTS AND OTHER FEES

Q:	Do you charge transaction or swipe fees when gift cards are sold, reloaded and decremented or when loyalty tags are scanned?
A:	No. This is a flat-rate program! There are no transaction costs for the issuing of gift cards or loyalty tags, reloading of gift cards, decrementing of gift cards or scanning of loyalty tags.


REQUIREMENTS

Q:	Do I need a computer?
A:	Yes, Preferred Patron™ client is a PC based windows software program. We also offer optional cashier portals on the Web, compatible with both PC and Mac computers.

Q:	I only want gift card processing. Do I need purchase loyalty software and tags too?
A:	No. We currently offer gift card only processing using our Gift Card WebDesk™. This special gift card program is offered at a nominal $5.00 per month fee with no startup fees. You are required to purchase your plastic gift cards from us to be eligible for this program. If you subscribe to our Preferred Patron™ Standard or Premiere versions instead of our WebDesk™ version, then you get both loyalty and gift card products with that subscription. You are, however, only obligated to purchase cards for the product you are interested in. Of course, if you elect either our card-less based plan or 3rd party card plan, there is no requirement to purchase cards from us.

Q:	Does this system require a bar-code scanner or mag-strip reader??
A:	No. In the absence of a scanner, Preferred Patron™ allows keyboard entry of gift card numbers and loyalty card numbers. An on-screen keypad is also provided in the Standard and Premiere versions. Additionally, customer account's may be accessed using a name, phone number or email search.

Q:	I want to use a scanner. Which do you recommend, a bar-code scanner or a magnetic strip scanner?
A:	The communications delivered and transaction receipts generated by Preferred Patron™ are encoded with special bar-codes that make retrieval of customer accounts and past transactions very simply. These bar-codes even allow for expedited offer and reward redemption when customers present bar-coded emails and letters they have received. For this reason, we recommend bar-code scanners over mag-strip readers and also recommend you encode your plastic cards with bar-codes, to avoid having too many scan devices at the register. You may, however, use magnetic strips on your plastic cards as an alternative, if you are operating on an existing point-of-sale system or using cards from a prior system.

Q:	What kind of bar-code scanner is supported?
A:	Preferred Patron™ requires keyboard-emulation type scanners. These are also referred to as HID scanners. This system does not support serial interface or serial profile scanners. Visit our hardware options page, under pricing, for details on the recommended scanners.

Q:	Does the system require a touch screen monitor?
A:	No. Preferred Patron™ is offered as a Windows application and Web Browser based application. Both versions support standard keyboard and mouse devices. The Standard and Premiere versions do additionally support touch screen monitors and have been designed with the appropriate surface area requirements to allow optional touch-screen monitor use.

Q:	Is a receipt printer required?
A:	No. A thermal receipt printer is not required but we do recommend one for best overall program experience. Preferred Patron™ Standard and Premiere versions support Star TSP and Epson TM compatible printers as well as most OPOS compatible printers. If using the WebDesk™ version, loyalty receipts are automatically emailed to customers after each transaction.



POOLING OPTIONS

Q:	I am one store of a multi-store chain. If all our stores subscribe, can we run a shared program while tracking our activity individually?
A:	Yes, Preferred Patron™ was designed with several pool configurations in mind, with options to pool similar stores of a multi-store chain, similar stores of a franchise as well as dissimilar stores of a community. When your stores are pooled, customers may join at any of the participating stores and their data is automatically shared with each of the other stores. Depending on options chosen at the time of setup, point balances may or may not be shared, gift cards may or may not be shared, Offers and Rewards may or may not be share and so on.

Q:	If I choose one of the pooling options, can individual stores still market to just their own customers?
A:	Yes! Preferred Patron™ offers various filter options when setting up your marketing campaigns, including store filters which control who gets the associated communications as well as any offers and rewards.

Q:	If I belong to a pool of stores, how do I track the gift cards and points I am responsible for?
A:	Preferred Patron™ provides a reports that generate inter-store invoices so that gift card activity and point redemptions may be reconciled between the stores. Reconciliation of gift card usage and point redemptions is managed by the stores or corporate entity. We do not participate with the reconciliation of funds between stores.



INTERNET ACCESS AND ON-LINE PORTALS

Q:	Do customers have a web page they can access for program detail?
A:	Yes, web portals, called MyRewards™ and MyGiftAccount™, are included with your subscription.. Using these portals, your customers can join your loyalty program plus access their the account status, point balance, recent transactions and available rewards and offers.

Q:	I am an e-commerce store. Can Preferred Patron™ be tied into my solution?
A:	Yes. Preferred Market Solutions offers a RESTful API. This API contains all the tools needed for your technology person to integrate our service into your website or other in-house software. Knowledge of Web Technology or access to a Web Developer is required.


DEPLOYMENT CONFIGURATIONS

Q:	I already have a PC Computer at my store. Can I use Preferred Patron™?
A:	Yes. The Standard and Premiere versions run on Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8. A broadband Internet connection is required for all production version, such as Cable or DSL. Additionally any Internet enabled device, including PCs, Mac, tables and iPads, capable of running Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox or Safari may be used to run the WebDesk™ versions.

Q:	I plan on using several workstations. Can Preferred Patron™ run from several workstations?
A:	Yes. Each store subscription grants a license to install up to 5 workstations at your store location for the Standard and Premiere client versions. WebDesk™ versions may be invoked from an unlimited number of workstations. Each Preferred Patron™ subscription covers one (1) store/business entity.

Q:	Why is Preferred Patron™ better than other software solutions which I can install without an Internet connection?
A:	Preferred Patron™ is a hosted solution backed by our marketing service. Benefits include: Easy web access for cashiers and customers, Managed and secured data hosting at our tier-1 hosting facility, monitored and backed up 24x7. Confidence your data is protected by fault tolerant hardware and generator powered backup. Intrinsic capabilities to pool data with other stores.
Q:	I have more than one store location, each running multiple workstations. How many licenses do I need?
A:	One (1) Preferred Patron™ license is required for each store location and or business entity you plan to operate the system in.

What Is A Loyalty Program?