Growave VIP Tiers program overview
IN THIS ARTICLE:
VIP programs are powerful customer retention tools, emphasizing exclusivity to encourage shoppers to spend more with your brand. They help achieve a higher customer lifetime value, particularly from your most loyal audience. This makes VIP programs an ideal strategy for boosting engagement and loyalty.
How do VIP Tiers work?
When customers reach the milestone you've set for your program, they are automatically assigned a Tier. You can configure settings to send them email notifications upon tier achievement and even provide rewards.
Customers can view their tiers in the Rewards widget on the storefront. Here, they learn about the benefits they receive from each tier and what actions they need to take to reach the next tier.
Configuring VIP Tiers enrollment
Before you start setting up the VIP Tiers, in the Growave admin panel, go to Rewards → Settings → VIP Tier Status → VIP Tiers Enrollment. Here, you can configure how customers are enrolled in the VIP Tiers program:
There are four options:
- Look up activity from the first order: Activity tracking starts from the customer's first order. All consequent orders and other rewardable activities in the shop will be considered in the customer's status calculation.
- Current year: This option tracks the customer's activity starting from January 1st of the current year. For example, if it is July 2024, it will consider activity from January 1, 2024.
- Specific date: Allows you to specify a date, which will serve as the starting point for tracking customer's activity and calculating their tier status.
- Update tier progress after the last customer activity: This option sets up tiers based on the customer's most recent activity. Activity means placing a certain number of orders (Purchases made), earning the specified amount of points (Earn points), or spending a certain amount on your shop (Spent amount), depending on the milestone you selected. See details about selecting milestones below.
EXAMPLE: If the monitoring period is set to 365 days, our app will check whether a customer performed any activity on your store within the last 365 days counting back from the current date (e.g., from October 1, 2023, to October 1, 2024 (current date)).
If a customer performed an activity within that time frame, say on June 1, 2024, the app will restart the monitoring period from June 1. It will then check if the customer performs another activity within 365 days from that date, i.e., until June 1, 2025.
With each activity, the monitoring period resets for that customer. If the customer stops making actions within a 365-day period, their VIP Tier status may drop to a lower level or be removed entirely.
Additionally, you can customize the frequency of rewards for reaching a specific VIP tier:
- Reward only once: The reward for a tier is issued only once. If a user achieves the same tier again, they will not receive the reward.
- Reward on every tier update: The reward for a tier is issued each time the user achieves the tier, regardless of how many times they reach it.
Setting up VIP Tiers
To set up and start running your VIP Tiers, go to the Growave admin panel → Rewards → VIP Tiers:
You can create as many VIP tiers as you want. Common examples include Gold, Silver, and Bronze, but you can use any names that come to mind.
Additionally, you can add a short description to give customers a better understanding of each tier. There is also an option to upload images, allowing for creative customization of your tiers.
Selecting milestone
Before adjusting the settings, select how your customers will be sorted into tiers. There are five milestones for creating VIP Tiers:
- Earn points
- Spent amount
- Purchases made
- Customer tag
- Referrals completed
- Earn points: Customers earn tiers based on the total points accumulated through shop activity. For example, a member gets the Bronze tier for earning 6000 points.
Points are excluded from tier calculation when:
- The customer's Points balance is manually changed
- Points are imported
- Points are spent on a discount
- The discount is refunded
NOTE: If points are awarded for an order and then refunded, the points will be deducted, affecting the VIP Tier status.
- Spent amount: This milestone rewards customers based on the total amount they spend on your site. For example, a member who spends $150 will achieve the Bronze tier.
- Purchases made: This milestone rewards customers based on the number of purchases they make. For example, a member who makes 10 purchases will achieve the Bronze tier.
- Customer tag: This milestone determines VIP tiers based on the tags a customer has. If a customer qualifies for multiple VIP tiers due to having several relevant tags, they will receive the tier that was created first.
EXAMPLE: Suppose you have three VIP tiers: Bronze, Silver, and Gold, which were created in that order. You assign tags to each tier: order-tag , customer-tag , and product-tag .
A customer named Alex has the following tags: order-tag , customer-tag , and product-tag .
According to the Customer Tag rule, Alex qualifies for all three tiers. However, because the Bronze tier was created first, Alex will receive the Bronze tier.
NOTE: If a tag is used in eligibility settings to either allow or forbid participation in the Rewards program, it will not be available for use in the Customer tag milestone to assign VIP tiers.
- Referrals completed: This milestone determines a customer's VIP tier based on the number of successful referrals they have made. The program evaluates referral metrics, and a validated referral can help a customer advance to a higher tier, provided they meet the enrollment criteria for that tier.
Setting up default tier
You can configure a default tier to automatically assign to users who have not yet made sufficient progress to achieve higher tiers. Users in the default tier will continue participating in the loyalty program and will advance to higher tiers as they meet the required progress criteria:
Adding points multiplier
The points multiplier function of VIP tiers increases the number of points users receive after reaching a tier. For example, without a VIP tier, a user may receive 100 points for leaving a review. If you set a multiplier of 2 for a certain tier, a customer in that tier will receive 200 points for leaving a review.
NOTE: You can set up the points multiplier in every tier.
IMPORTANT: The milestone for earning a tier can be chosen only once when you create the first tier. You will not be able to select another milestone for subsequent tiers you create. If you need to change the milestone, you must delete all existing tiers and create new ones, which will result in the loss of customers' earned and multiplied points.
Selecting entry reward
NOTE: You can assign only one reward per tier. If you update the reward option, previously assigned but unused rewards will be removed (except for points).
Learn more about rewarding customers for reaching VIP tiers.
Perks for VIP Tiers
NOTE: This feature is available for Growave 2.0 users (who joined our app after January 22, 2024) starting from the Growth plan.
In the VIP Tiers section of the admin panel, you can offer additional rewards to your top customers with the Perks feature. Located at the bottom of each tier editing page, this section allows you to define up to five extra perks outside of the loyalty program.
To activate, check the box and enter the custom perks that your customers will receive. These perks are fully managed by the shop owner, providing flexibility in what you offer.
Key features:
- Add up to 5 perks per VIP tier
- Customize perks to fit your business needs
- Multilingual support for perks in various languages
This feature enables you to enhance customer loyalty by offering exclusive rewards to your VIP members.
Tracking VIP Tiers activity
You can monitor VIP Tier activity to see which customers have achieved specific tiers. To view this information, go to Analytics → Rewards → VIP Tiers.
Changing VIP Tiers settings
If you make changes to the VIP Tier settings, please be aware of the following:
- Tiers will be recalculated. Customers who no longer meet the criteria for their current tier will have their tiers removed.
- A "Tier Unlocked" email will be resent to all customers subscribed to marketing emails, informing them of the change.
- If you modify the rewards associated with a tier, you will receive a notification to assist you in updating rewards for your customers.
For any questions or requests regarding the VIP Tiers program, please contact us at support@growave.io or use the chat icon in the bottom-right corner. We’ll be glad to assist you.