Tiers are available on our Advanced and Plus plans, and as an add-on on Classic. To add tiers to your account, contact our Support team at support@loyaltylion.com.
In this article:
Overview
Calendar-based tiers evaluate your customers on the calendar year rather than on a rolling window. Everything else works the same way as your standard boundary tiers, so you still choose your tiers, your boundaries and your entry mode in the usual way. Only the timeframe changes.
This gives your customers a fixed, easy-to-understand date for when their status is reviewed, in the same way airline status works.
How calendar-based tiers work
Your customers are placed into a tier based on their activity during the calendar year, and they keep that tier for the whole of the following calendar year. Every customer is evaluated on the same date, January 1.
Reaching a tier partway through a year does not shorten the membership. Your customer keeps it for the rest of that year and all of the next one.
Customer A spends $500 in your store during 2024 and reaches your Gold tier. They stay in Gold for the rest of 2024 and for all of 2025. If they spend nothing during 2025, they move down to your bottom tier on January 1, 2026.
Moving up still happens straight away. As soon as a customer crosses a boundary we move them up, whatever the date. It is only moving down that waits for the turn of the year.
When to use calendar-based tiers
Calendar-based tiers suit you if you want your program to run on clear, shared dates rather than on a separate clock for every customer.
Your customers know where they stand. The start and end of a tier period are fixed and public, so there is no ambiguity about when status is reviewed.
Your reporting lines up. Because every customer is evaluated on the same date, your tier data covers the same window across your whole program.
You can build a season around it. A fixed reset gives you a natural moment to run a push at the end of the year.
If you would rather each customer ran on their own clock, use a rolling duration instead.
How to set up calendar-based tiers
Your tier duration is part of your setup and locks when you launch, so choose it before you go live.
In LoyaltyLion, go to Program, and then Tiers.
Follow the tier setup, adding your tiers and their boundaries. You can then make any changes you want to your activities and rewards.
Under Settings, click Edit. Under Duration, select Calendar year, and save.
Choose whether to launch your tiers now or later.
If you launch now, choose whether to add your customers retroactively. Leave the option unselected if you would rather everyone started in your lowest tier.
Continue to launch your tiers.
FAQ
When are calendar-based tiers re-evaluated?
On January 1 each year. We look at what your customer did during the year that just ended, and either keep them where they are or move them down.
What happens if a customer reaches a tier partway through the year?
They keep it for the rest of that year and for all of the following year. A customer who reaches Gold in July 2025 holds it until January 1, 2027.
Can I switch to calendar-based tiers after launching?
No. Your tier duration is fixed once your tiers are launched, along with your entry mode and your boundaries. To change it, contact our Support team at support@loyaltylion.com.
Do tier entry rewards trigger again each year?
Not if your customer has recently held that tier. We look back over the evaluation window to check for a previous membership in the same tier, and only trigger the entry reward when this is a fresh entry, as covered in tier benefits.