In this article:
Overview
The Join program rule gives a customer points the moment they join your loyalty program. It is the first thing most members earn, so it sets the tone: a generous welcome puts a reward in sight straight away, while a thin one makes the program feel like hard work before it has started.
How many points to give
Aim to get a new member about halfway to their first reward, so that their first purchase finishes the job. Work it out like this:
Take your average basket size, say $50.
Work out the points that basket earns. At 5 points per $1, that is 250 points.
Set this rule to roughly the same number, so joining and a first purchase together reach your cheapest reward.
Your first reward costs 500 points. Joining gives 250, an average first order of $50 earns another 250, and the customer has their reward after one purchase.
Setting up the rule
Go to Program, then Rules, then Create rule.
Choose Join program.
Under Customer gets, set the number of Points.
Fill in the Display section: the Title shown on your loyalty page, and the Notification a customer sees when they earn the points.
Click Create in the top right.
In the notification, {{points}} is replaced with the number of points the customer actually receives, so you only write the wording around it.
Everyone earns the same amount from this rule. Unlike most rules, it cannot be varied by tier, because a customer joins before they have a tier.
When a customer counts as joined
This rule fires when a customer is enrolled in your program, and you decide what causes that. Go to Program settings, then Enrollment.
Enrollment mode is either:
Automatic, our recommendation, where customers join as soon as one of your chosen conditions is met.
Manual opt-in, where nobody is in the program until they choose to join it themselves.
On automatic, the conditions are:
Create an account or first sign in. Always on, and cannot be turned off. It covers a customer creating an account and an existing customer logging in.
Customer places a POS order. Optional. It enrols a customer who buys in person and gives an email address.
So a shopper who only ever checks out online as a guest is not a member, and neither is someone who abandons a point of sale checkout, or who has been invited to create an account but has not accepted the invitation yet.
FAQ
Do customers sign up separately for the loyalty program?
No. Your customers use their existing store account, and there is no second login to remember. Depending on your enrollment mode they either join automatically or opt in themselves.
A customer has just joined but the points are not showing yet.
Give it about ten minutes. If they still have not appeared after that, email support@loyaltylion.com and we will look into it.
My imported guest customers did not get these points when they created an account. Why?
A customer only earns them if they were not already enrolled and were not created by an import. Imported customers fail that second test, so they never receive them automatically.
If you are importing guests, add the joining points to the import yourself, so they are not left behind.