Paladin Club Changes

I signed the contract yesterday on the re-upgrade of the POS machine to the newest version of Microsoft Retail Dynamics. We should have it installed within a week. Included in the contract was the new customer loyalty software for our paladin club program. I went with a package called Hero Points, which works a bit differently than our previous software.

Rather than getting a coupon for a static 10% discount at 200 points, Hero Points offers cash rewards at various point levels that can be redeemed at the register. There are no paper coupons to lose or keep track of. The paper coupon issue for cash rewards is a deal killer for me, since they're fnancial liabilities that aren't tracked.

Each time you buy something using your paladin club card, if you've hit your redemption point target, the cashier is prompted to ask you if you want to use your cash reward now or let it ride to a higher level. For example, you might get a $5 discount at 200 points, but at 500 points you might get a $15 discount. The key is to make higher point values scale with slightly better rewards. This rewards customers who spend more, similar to a percentage discount. I've talked to a few of our regular customers about this and they would prefer to work towards a higher point discount. As an FYI, only about a third of out 800 or so paladin club members have ever gotten a coupon.

Example screen

Club members will continue to use their paladin club cards before each purchase, and should continue using their cards even though this isn't up yet. The big question is whether or not the point values from the previous software can be transferred to the new system. Theoretically this is possible, as it's all stored in the main database of RMS, rather than a stand-alone product. We'll have to determine if it's cost effective or whether it's cheaper to start from scratch and mail out a coupon to every member to make up for past points. That would also be our last snail mail mailing, requiring redemption of the coupons to include email addresses.