This function allows you to define rules to control how a member
can be upgraded or downgraded to a new category. See Member
Upgrading/Downgrading.
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Group
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Rules can be grouped together for better processing. For
example, you may want to process upgrade rules every day and
downgrade rules once a month. Simply give the same group number to
rules that you want to process together.
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Current Customer Type
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The current customer type, for example SILVER.
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Calculation Type
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The way the system should perform its calculation to see if the
rule will be used to upgrade or downgrade a customer.
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Specific Points Level
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The system will compare the current balance to the Threshold Level. If the balance is higher, the rule
passes the test and can be used. This option is simplistic and does
not take into account the history of earning and redeeming points.
A customer may have earned 10000 points and redeemed 9999 points,
leaving a balance of 1 point. Do you really want to treat that
customer the same as a customer who really did earn only 1 point
over the same period of time?
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Points Earnt Over X Days
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The system will compare the points earned over the last x days
to the Threshold Level. If the amount is
higher, the rule passes the test and can be used. This method
addresses the issue of looking at the actual points earned over a
period of time, but it needs to look at the raw details every time
which can make it an intensive process which may take longer to
ruin than allowable.
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Points To Date
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The system will keep track of all sales and adjustments to the
points account (this is called Value To Date). This value is
compared to the Threshold Level. If the amount is higher the rule
passes the test and can be used. The Value To Date is then reset to
zero and the number will start to grow again until the next time
the customer is upgraded/downgraded. This is similar to the
previous option but because it is keeping a 'to date' value, it can
quickly refer to that number instead of looking at the raw details
each time.
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Upgrade Type
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This indicates what the purpose of the rule is. Does the rule
exist to upgrade a customer, downgrade them, or simple retain their
current level. It does not effect the actual calculations but is
for information only.
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Check When Period
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This controls when this rule is actually checked. It also checks
how the expiry date of the customer's card is extended.
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AnyTime
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The rule will be checked anytime the upgrade process is run. You
would generally set upgrade rules to be Anytime so that the
customer can be upgraded as soon as they have earned enough points.
You shouldn't use this option for downgrade or retain type rules
because you have to give the customer time to actually earn
points.
If you use this option, you will be upgrading the customer as
soon as they have earned enough points. The expiry date of the
customer's card is set to be the current date plus the required
number of months (in Additional
Months).
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Card Expired
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The rule will be checked only when the customer's card is about
to expire. You would generally set downgrade and retain rules to
Card Expired. Just as the card is about to expire, you check to see
if the customer has enough points to retain their current level or
if they need to be downgraded. It is possible that you could use
this option for upgrade rules if you only want to upgrade customers
when their card is due to expire, rather than as soon as they earn
enough points.
If you use this option, the expiry date is the card's current
expiry date plus the required number of months.
Note: The
system doesn't want until the actual card expiry date before using
this rule. It will check a few days before the card is expired in
order to ensure that if the customer uses the card on the expiry
date, it will have been extended as required, so the customer
doesn't get a 'Card Expired' error.
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Threshold Level
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When the system calculates the points based on Calculation Type,
it compares the points to this number. If the points are greater
than or equal this number, the rule is passed.
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Check Last x Days
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If the Calculation Type is 'Points
Earnt Over x Days', this is the number of days that the system will
check
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New Customer Type
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The new customer type, if the rule is passed, for example
GOLD.
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Additional Months
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If a customer passes this rule and their card is about to
expire, this system will extend the card's expiry date. It will add
on this number of additional months to the date. To extend the
expiry date by one year, set this to 12.
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Calc Date As End Of Month
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If this option is checked off, the expiry date is simply
calculated as the current date (either the current date or the
card's expiry date, depending on the Upgrade
Type above) plus the number of additional months. So 4 June
plus three months would be 4 September. If the option is checked
on, the expiry date will be calculated as the current date, moved
to the end of the month plus the number of additional months. So 4
June would become 30 June plus three months, 30 September.
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Reference
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This simply allows you to record your own reference (perhaps
from a third party system) against the rule.
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