Tutorial: Card Types

Member cards can be grouped into "types" in order to provide different rules for points accrual and redemption, card renewal, points aging and discounting on transactions. This tutorial describes the way that a Card Type is set up and a subsequent tutorial will describe how to assign a member to the card type.

We will be working in the Loyalty menu for this tutorial which can be navigated to by selecting Menus, Customers, Services and Loyalty from the Navigation Menu. To open the Loyalty Card Type Maintenance screen, select the Points Maintenance submenu followed by the Card Defaults link.

The settings for the Default Card Type are displayed in the Loyalty Card Type Maintenance screen. You can select another card type to edit by using the Card Type drop-down list. The New button can be used to create a new card type and the new card type's Description can be entered. Press the Reset button to revert the changes made to a card type or Save to commit them. The information for the selected or new card type is contained in six tabs:

• Limits, allows you to enter dollar values for the minimum and maximum sale that earns points for cards in the card type, the minimum sale that earns a bonus number of points, the minimum sale that allows a discount by card type and the minimum sale that can be purchased through a redemption.

• Control, allows you to set the Portal to Recalculate Points for transactions, apply rounding to whole numbers for points and whether to redeem prizes in the Portal. You can also set how a new member's Active status is set by default and how the Active flag is followed.

• Points, sets the Points per Dollar in sales and redemptions for the card type and allows you to specify multiple levels of redemptions based on the price level used in the sale. Note that the Points tab will only affect members whose points rule is set to follow the card.

• Discount, specifies the discount that members with this card type will receive on all transactions that exceed the minimum set in the Limits tab.

• Renewal, sets the points to charge members for a card renewal and the length of the renewal. This screen is also used to specify the penalty to charge members (in points) for processing a lost card.

• Expiry, controls the options for expiry of points for members with this Card Type. Expiring member points is a useful method to encourage regular redemptions of membership points, reducing the Company's liability. The three options available in this tab are:

• Expiry Type: Allows you to specify either No Expiry (indicating that members with this card do not age their points); Anniversary (indicating that the card type ages points based on the date that the member signed up, based on a yearly aging basis); Anniversary (1/2 Year) (indicating that the card type removes points based on the date that the member signed up, based on a six-month expiry basis); Anniversary (1/4 Year)  (indicating that the card type expires points on a three-month basis, in relation to the date on which the member signed up); or Date of Process (indicating that points are withdrawn based solely on the date that the Points Expiry Process occurs.

• Points Expiry: Indicates the length of time that a member with this Card Type has before points will be expired. For specific examples of how the Expiry Type and Points Expiry options work in conjunction with each other, please see the tutorial on Card Maintenance.

• Rollover Type: Select either Normal for points to be expired immediately, or Two Stage for points to be expired only after the Points Expiry Process occurs for a second time.

In this tutorial we have demonstrated how to create card types which provides a way of grouping members with the purpose of setting points rules and discounting for the members. Card types allow the Company to set rules for renewal of cards and expiry of unredeemed points, encouraging members to maintain their account.