In the previous tutorial we discovered how to create a new member and assign them a card. The Portal also provides ways to replace lost or broken cards, link cards together to pool points, renew expired cards in a batch process and age points on a regular basis to encourage members to redeem them regularly. In this tutorial we will discuss the screens that are used to perform these administrative duties.

 

Part One: Replacing Lost or Damaged Cards

 

We will begin this tutorial by examining how to replace a lost or damaged card for a member. If the Navigation Menu is not in the Loyalty menu, click on the Menus link followed by Customers, Services and Loyalty. The first thing we need to do is find our member's details by using the Find Member screen (located under the Card Maintenance submenu).

 

 

You can search by the member's surname or card number in the Custom tab of the Find Member screen, or use one of the letter tabs to search a list of members with surnames beginning with the chosen letter.

 

 

 

When you have found the member to issue a replacement card, click on their name and their details will be loaded in the Member Maintenance screen.

 

 

Select the Maintenance screen, which is where most administrative tasks for cards are performed. Enter the new card number in the Replacement field. If desired, you can enter a Comment to describe the reason for the replacement being issued. Select either Lost Card or Broken Card depending on the situation and press the Replace Card button to proceed.

 

 

A popup window will remind you that the Replace Card process is irreversible. Press OK to confirm or Cancel to remove the change. After you have pressed the OK button, a message will be displayed at the top of the Maintenance screen informing you that the replacement card has been submitted for processing.

 

 

We can repeat the steps outlined above to issue several replacement cards before we process them all in one batch. Let's view the cards that are awaiting processing by opening the Lost Card Report. This screen can be opened by selecting the link under the General Maintenance section of the Loyalty Menu.

 

 

In the Lost Card Report we see all cards that have been issued a replacement in the date range selected and whether they have been processed.

 

 

In our example, we have two replacement cards that are yet to be processed. In order to process the cards, click on the Process Lost Card link in the General Maintenance section of the Loyalty Menu. This opens the Pending Lost Cards report that displays the number of cards awaiting processing by Company.

 

 

Click on the Company name that you want to process lost cards for. After some processing the screen is refreshed with a message describing the success of the process.

 

Part Two: Family Cards

 

The Family Card system is designed to allow cards to be linked together to combine their points earned and redeemed, similar to having multiple EFTPOS cards linked to a single bank account. Members do not have to be related in order to use this facility - they are called Family Cards because the process creates a "family" of cards that are related. In order to link two cards together, open the Find Member screen as outlined in Part One of this tutorial and note the card numbers that will be linked. Open the Member Maintenance screen for one of the members by clicking on their name and navigate to the Maintenance tab. Enter the card number of another member in the Family Card field and ensure the Add Points to Family checkbox is selected. Press the Add Card button to link these cards together. Note that the entered card number becomes the Master Card for the family of cards. At any time you can press the Remove Card button to delete the card from its family grouping.

 

 

You can get a list of all family groups in the Portal from the Family Cards report, located under the Card Maintenance section of the Loyalty Menu. This report lists the Master Card holder, the Company, the Master Card number and the number of Family Members belonging to the group.

 

 

You can drill down into a Family Card group to get a listing of all members belonging to the family by clicking on the Master Card holder's name.

 

 

Part Three: Renewing Expired Cards

 

Eventually your members' cards will reach their expiry date, making them inoperable in your venue. Cards need to be renewed in order to allow members to continue earning and redeeming loyalty points. This section of the tutorial will outline the process of renewing expired cards.

 

The Expired Card report lists the number of cards in the Company that have expired. This report can be viewed by navigating to the Expired Card link under Card Maintenance in the Loyalty navigation menu.

 

 

In this example, the Company H & L currently have 94 cards that have expired. Cards are renewed in a batch - all cards that have expired are renewed, by Company. Card Defaults can be set to incur a cost to the member in points to renew cards and to set the renewal period. In the Loyalty navigation menu, navigate to Process Renew Cards under General Maintenance. The following screen appears:

 

 

The H & L Company charges zero points to renew cards for five years. By clicking on the company name, the process will take place, and the 94 cards will be renewed with a new expiry date five years from today. A message appears saying "Processing Renew Cards Complete" to confirm the process.

 

Part Four: Aging Points

 

The last important administrative task for card maintenance is the aging of unredeemed points. Processing expired points is useful to encourage your members to redeem their points on a regular basis. The length of time to expire points for is set in the Card Defaults screen and can be set differently for each Card Type.

 

In the Loyalty menu, under General Maintenance, select Process Expired Points to open the following screen:

 

 

Click on the company name for the Card Type to process expired points of members in the Card Type for that Company. All points that were earned before the "Expire By" date are deleted. The message "Processing Expire Points Complete" confirms that the process has worked correctly.

 

The manner that points are expired from the members' accounts with the selected Card Type depends upon the Card Type Expiry options. The three options allow for great flexibility in the way that each Card Type expires points. The most common type of expiry is the Date of Process Expiry Type. This type of expiry process causes all points earned prior to the date calculated from the current date minus the Expire By setting to be aged. For example, for such an Expiry Type, if the Expire By option is set to "Older Than 2 Years", and the date of the process is July 6, 2009, then all points earned prior to July 6, 2007 for all members in the selected Card Type are aged. If the Rollover Type is "Normal" then the points are immediately removed; for a "Two Stage" Rollover Type, the points are aged and if they are not redeemed within the next 2 years (because of the Expire By setting) then they are removed after the second Expiry Points Process is performed. Thus, a two-stage rollover causes the points to be removed after twice as long a period as for a normal rollover.

 

The other Expiry Type to consider is the Anniversary Expiry Type. This setting ages points according to the date that each member was originally signed up. To demonstrate this, imagine we have a member who signed up on March 13, 2004, and that their Card Type is set to expire points that are older than 1 year with a normal rollover type. If we perform the Points Expiry Process on July 6, 2009, then this member will have all points earned prior to March 13, 2008 removed from their account. Members that were signed up on September 24, 2004 will be aged for points earned prior to September 24, 2007.

 

There are two other Anniversary Expiry Types - the Anniversary (1/2 Year) and Anniversary (1/4 Year) options - which allow the aging of points based upon the date that the member account was created, but increment in a six-month or three-month (respectively) fashion as opposed to the yearly anniversary previously illustrated. If the Points Expiry Process is performed on July 6, 2009, members accounts created on September 24, 2004 will have points earned prior to June 24, 2008 for the 1/4 Year Anniversary setting, or March 24, 2008 for the 1/2 Year Setting.

 

In this tutorial we have discussed the administration of member cards in detail. Common tasks performed include replacing lost or damaged cards, linking cards into a "family" to pool points, processing expired cards and aging points. These tasks are important maintenance issues and provide flexibility in the way in which the Portal can be used by a Company.