Loyalty - Issues Managing

[sagganis]

I just set up the loyalty program and while setup is pretty easy, managing and marketing this program is very cumbersome.  I'm trying to figure out if these are glitches or I'm just not doing it correctly.

1.  I want to send out the canned email that was prompted when I first created the loyalty program but I can't seem to get back to it.  When I did have it drafted it was dynamically pulling in directions and specifics of the program but it was all blank in the email.  Is this a known bug?  How do I get back to that email template?

2.  It says I've had 96 customers register for the program, but when I go to the Customers section and filter by Rewards Participants, there are only 15 customers listed.  What gives?

3.  Is there a separate charge for the Marketing package on top of the Loyalty charge?

This seems way more difficult than it should be at this point.  Help!

[pessosices · Accepted solution]

Hey @sagganis, I feel your frustration with some of there, but I think I can help. 

1. Hmm, when I started my Loyalty program I didn’t see a canned email like this, but it sounds like it could be a good feature! I just created my own email with some details and info of how it works and sent it out as a newsletter. Do you remember anything more about when you saw it and what it looked like?

2. When you filter your customers by Loyalty Participants I believe that it shows you only people who have entered in their name and email address on their status page - those are your reachable Loyalty customers. If you scroll through your full customer list and see folks with just a phone number for a name, those are other Loyalty customers that aren’t reachable by email. 

3. Yes there is a separate charge from Loyalty and marketing. The Loyalty makes the Loyalty program work, and the marketing lets you send out as many emails as you’d like at a reduced rate, depending on how many customers you have. 

Overall, the Loyalty and marketing systems have been working really well for my ice cream shop. There are definitely still some kinks to work out, but overall it has tremendously simplified and improved our business. 

Hope ths helps,

Pesso 

[hochs]

 I am new to the Loyalty Program.  Trying to set up.  Have it set to send email to address used for receipt, but tried test transaction, and no email was sent to me.  As well, I am an online only merchant, and nothing comes up during check-out process to sign-up.  And online retailers out there successfully using the program?

[Helen]

@hochs I'm very sorry for the confusion. The Loyalty Program doesn't integrate with eCommerce/Online retailers at this time.

Customers sign up for a Square Loyalty program by providing their phone number (or their email address as well). They earn stars by making purchases processed through the Point of Sale app. Customer's rewards are intended to be redeemed in store/at a business location and can't be redeemed when checking out online. 

I hope this helps clarify. I'll share your interest in a Loyalty Program for online retailers with our Product Team!

[GoodGrapes]

@Helen

For me, it’s not confusion. It’s the clarity in knowing what is supported when it’s stated that Square integrates with a web site provider (e.g., a product roadmap).

I agree with @hochs in wanting the Loyalty Program supported with Square integrated web sites. There are also competing priorities such as fixing the Loyalty Program defects before adding more functionality, basic and timely technical support for online issues, basic credit card processing error management to prevent lost web site sales, and integrated inventory management. Additionally, perhaps there’s an option for a phased Loyalty Program implementation.

Lastly, I’m surprised to learn that providing an email address enrolls someone in the Loyalty Program. The POS asks for phone number, not email address. Are the enrollment and the category groupings being combined?

[FlyingC]

I can't imagine why this isn't offered for online sales! Very  disappointing, as I would like to set up a loyalty program, and now must look for another means to do so... 😞

[Toreesmiles]

Ooh Square team, please integrate the loyalty program into invoicing. Please integrate everything into invoicing. 90% of my business is through invoicing along with hundreds of others that aren't utilizing your offers because they can't.  Thank you. 

[BambuRC]

Resume and pause option on loyalty program disappeared from the tab. What’s going on here. I can’t resume the loyalty program so I have to edit manually. I have to pause the program during one  of my workers on duty. She will put her own phone number to every transaction to earn herself a star. 

[EJ_]

Hi @BambuRC

Sorry for the confusion around this. 

We sent out an email in regards to this change, but we've removed the Pause functionality from the Loyalty feature.

If you've been unsubscribed, you can subscribe again and resume your Loyalty program from your Square Dashboard. 

[BambuRC]

I have not unsubscribed. To solve it do I need to unsubscribe first and resubscribe? How about the stars my customers earn! Are they still there? 

[BambuRC]

Hi @EJ_

I have not unsubscribed the loyalty program. There are 2 option to click,either edit or delete. When you said to subscribe a program again, did you mean to delete it first. I don’t dare to click delete because it will upset my regular customers. Will all their  stars be gone?

[rsklar]

@Helen,

Where in the checkout process is there an option for phone number?  All it asks for is an email address.

Is phone number only available once you activate and "Pay" for the loyalty program?

It seems that for people to come in and use their "loyalty" program without using a CC, it would take a long time to look them up.

[pessosices]

@rsklar

When you sign up for the Loyalty program, after the Receipt Screen it will ask if the customer wants to enter their Phone Number to claim their stars for the transaction and/or sign up for the program. This takes the place of the "Enter Your Email" screen.

The majority of our customers do not use a credit card and love the loyalty program - it doesn't take too long to claim their stars or redeem their rewards - super simple and quick to enter their phone number!

We all love it!

[rsklar]

OK but if this takes place "after the receipt screen" how does one redeem their loyalty if they have, for example, earned a free item.  It would seem that they need to enter something during or before the transaction.

[GoodGrapes]

Until the phone number is entered, the customer is unknown. The customer is identified by either the credit card (if they already enrolled) or by entering their phone number after the transaction has completed. In the menu options, there is a category Redeem Rewards. You look up the customer by name, phone, or email. The search result will either indicate that they have a reward or many stars until the reach a reward.

I don't  know why you were prompted for an email address as part of the loyalty program.

[rsklar]

We are not part of the loyalty program.  Based on the number of complaints and technology issues we have decided to wait until some of these have been worked out.

Currently now, at the end of the transaction the customer has a choice of entering their email address.  I presume this is so we can pay square to send emails to these customers to market them.

So if we start the digital punch card, we have to have people sign up again using their phone number.  Joy!  Although I still hear there are problems with that especially when splitting checks.

I assume the reward notifications are sent as a text message?  How does this work for customers who have old fashioned analog phones?  What if they have a landline #  Sqaure provides little to no actual functional knowledge details for this.

[pessosices]

@rsklar

It's less of signing up a customer with their cell phone as much as it is them just entering their cell phone number.

A customer can use a landline - instead of recieving a text, they will just see their status on the Register when they claim their stars. When it shows that they have a reward, they need to remember that next time the come in. 

Yes, the program has glitches, but they're definitely not big enough to keep us from participating. It has still saved us a ton of money on paper punch cards, and even more importantly has reinvigorated our customers in actually using a rewards program. Customers would constantly lose and get new punch cards, and by this point just stopped caring and started refusing punch cards. Now that they're digital, I have more people using the Loyalty program, and loving it, than ever before. It's easier for us, is automatic so our employees don't mess up or game the system, or give away rewards when they weren't actually earned.

We love it, and we're not looking back.

[GoodGrapes]

@rsklar We definitely wouldn't have signed up for the Loyality Program if the number of defects had been known. Perhaps it depends on the type of business, however, the defect riddled software is an issue for us. The assessment now is what is the cost (dollars and effort) to switch to a new Loyalty Program. It's not just the defects, it's the lack of response to fix the defects and to incorporate functionality that is warranted based on the monthly fee. 

[pessosices]

@rsklar

When a customer earns a reward they are told that when they want to redeem a reward the next time they come in, they should tell the cashier that they have a reward before being rung up.

The employee would click on the Redeem Reward button, either type in the 6 digit code that customer receives, or just the customer's phone number, and click Redeem if there is an applicable reward.

[rsklar]

That makes sense.  What about all these people that say the punches do not match reality?  People getting more punches than they should or not enough?  Have you run into those issues?

I am still so dissapointed with Square over the whole 11.2 register thing that my "trust" factor in them is very low.  Square had zero credibility with me given their refusal to make good on their failure with the register issue for month, offer any form or compensation and that no one has taken any responsibility for the screw-up.  Now to think about adding another service that seems to have months of reported problems (without solutions) is concerning.

-Bob

[pessosices]

@rsklar

I have not really run into customers not getting enough stars. I've run into customers who thought they didn't get enough stars, but they did. I've run into customers who've entered in the wrong phone number, but there are work arounds. 

I have run into customers getting too many stars, like with the bill splitting function that you've mentioned. We don't split bills except for when someone uses a gift card and still has some money left to pay by cash or card. But it's rare so we don't really worry about that. It's a loyalty program, you're giving away things for free - so yes, sometimes you'll give away a little bit more than you want, but if you don't want that to happen, don't start a loyalty program. People will always try to cheat the system, mistakes will always happen. That's part of owning and running a business.

Yes, the 11.2 bug wasn't fun, but honestly it hasn't dropped any of my trust in Square. It's a massive company with a lot of moving parts. Bugs happen, mistakes happen, I'm sure they took every step they could have taken, and still sometimes, things go wrong. That's part of using any vendor, and again, owning a business. Always have a backup plan. In terms of them not offering any form of compensation, I don't really blame them - what are they supposed to do? I'm sure they already lost a ton of money on the whole thing, and set the whole company back a bunch of time and development hours that could have been used to push a new feature. It's fixed now, so we move on. 

It's a great program, it's going to get better. Even the best software has glitches, and again customers will always find ways to cheat the system. There's no such thing as a perfect system, but this one is pretty good. The benefits huuuugely outweigh the negatives for us and I'm sure for many other businesses.

Hope this helped!

Pesso