Intro to Gift Cards and Points

0:13

Good afternoon everyone. We'll just give it a minute for people to come in.

0:17

You can see my mouth moving. I have a little bit of audio challenges with a colleague of mine.

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I just want to make sure that you can all hear me.

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So please, if somebody could just give me a thumbs up or something saying that you can hear my audio. Okay, perfect. Thank you.

0:41

Excellent. Okay, yes, I'm not, I can't hear anything. So that seems to be the problem.

0:46

All right.

0:47

Hey, Kat.

0:48

Nice to see you.

0:54

Hey, we'll just give it another minute and then we'll get started.

1:01

Can't believe we're already at September.

1:03

Wow.

1:15

Okay.

1:15

So I'm going to let people just trickle in and we'll get started just to be aware and conscious of everyone's time today.

1:22

So good afternoon and welcome.

1:24

I am happy to see you all here today for our ninth topic of 2026.

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I was saying that to Kyle.

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is that we've now come, we've decided to do this pilot project of virtual workshops and webinars throughout 2026.

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And we've come to the end of a series that we put on best practices for system five and the data integrity.

1:51

And we're now moving into a different phase that I'm gonna talk about today.

1:54

So just to bring us back to those that don't know me, my name is Charlene and I manage the professional services team here at Winward.

2:01

Our goal in the PS team is to bring best practices for system five to you, our customers, so that you'd get the most out of the software.

2:11

Honestly, system five is not just a tool that lets you invoice customers and track your inventory.

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It has so much data that can help you run your business more efficiently and make decisions that can lead to you achieving your business objectives.

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and that's really what we looked at focused this year.

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So we started with the system and data integrity series and that's taken us right through August.

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So the purpose of it was to provide best practices around using system-wide day-to-day and those really critical periodic tasks that we strongly recommend to keep your data integrity solid so you can rely on the information.

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If you weren't able to attend those previous sessions, Recordings are available online for purchase.

2:55

But for the remainder of the year, we're going to shift gears a bit and offer a three-month look at the most important, well, one of the most important components of our business, but arguably the most, and that's our customers.

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Without them, we just wouldn't have a business, right?

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So this series is going to take us through November.

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We're going to leave December to the side and just let the busy shopping days, all the staff vacations and holiday season and 2027 planning to take the press, they're going to take the focus for December. But we are going to offer a three month format on customers.

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And we're going to do the same thing that we've done this year is to provide an introductory webinar to introduce the topic.

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And if you're interested in how the topic is configured, how it's used in system five, a workshop that dives deeper into the topic will happen in a couple of weeks time.

3:52

So sit back for the next 20 to 30 minutes and see if anything you see or hear peaks your interest.

3:59

We're gonna close with how you can sign up for the workshop later in September.

4:07

Okay, so this is talking about customer loyalty and loyalty programs.

4:12

Why do a loyalty program?

4:15

Well, a few of the reasons really are repeat customers, they cost less and they they cost us to serve let's say that and they spend more money per visit really that's the whole business case around customer loyalty when you have let's say a points program because that's one of the things we're going to talk about today it's not really a giveaway it's a really cheap way to convert a one-time buyer into a regular buyer so if you sign up for a loyalty program i know i've signed up for a few and you have to give a bunch of but once you start seeing the results of that where you go in and you've got oh this discount off because you have accumulated points it really is something that brings a customer back.

4:57

Now you certainly can think about the discount as a discount but it's not really lost margin it's what's getting someone back in the door and once they're in they typically buy more than they came for, which is me to a T.

5:13

And honestly, you can control the cost.

5:16

We're going to walk through how you set the earning rate.

5:19

So you know, is it a point per dollar, you also set the redemption value.

5:24

So you can tune the program to your margins rather than just a generic industry rate.

5:31

But you get to decide that you also get to control where it's applied.

5:38

So qualifying items. You know, there's some, let's say a convenience store.

5:44

I've seen it before.

5:44

I don't have a loyalty card at a convenience store, but at a convenience store, they may exclude tobacco and lottery from earning rewards.

5:55

That's an example of how you can control where it's applied.

5:59

So you can land the rewards, I guess, accumulating of points where it's affordable for you, where it affect those low-margin items or the really high-priced items.

6:16

So how does it change customer behavior?

6:20

Well, I kind of described how it affects me, but it creates a reason to choose your business over the shop next door.

6:27

So when your points start to grow, then the balance of that point, it's a switching cost that competitors can't match on price, even if they're a bit earn that loyalty, earn those points because you're going to get something for it.

6:47

Honestly, if you've got a big balance like I have with a local store that I have, well, I'm going to choose them because I want that to grow, it's going to have a significant value to me, and then it's just going to be a stronger need to coming back.

7:02

There is a consideration when we're talking about points, because a typical points program that will go through end to end in the workshop is really you yet you earn points and that equals a discount.

7:13

Something worth considering that we'll talk about in the workshop is you can also do that for redeeming a free item.

7:21

And instead of points, it could be a free item that allows you to have a strategy for discontinued or slow moving inventory that might mean something to a customer.

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Maybe not to everybody, but might be something they genuinely want.

7:37

So lots of different ways that you can play with a customer loyalty program.

7:45

Okay, so just a quick overview.

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What is the life cycle of points end to end?

7:50

All right, well, the customer's gonna earn points.

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Once it's set up in system five, let's jump forward.

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The customer's going to earn points at the till.

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It is going to earn points on qualifying purchases and the rule is applied automatically at point of sale.

8:07

So what I'm trying to describe is that once it's set up, it's pretty easy.

8:10

It just kind of happens at point of sale.

8:13

The cashier really doesn't have to remember anything.

8:16

Now the points accumulate against the customer and those points are tracked in system five.

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Very easy to see, they're pretty visible.

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They even have a quick look up from the main menu.

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Say a customer comes up and says, how many points do I have on my card?

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What's my balance?

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It's an easy thing to be able to scan, type in the points or type in the card number and you're gonna get a balance.

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So that's nice and easy in system five.

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Now, points are redeemed at point of sale, typically for discounts, but as I said, it could be for a free item.

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And the redemption uses the same screen.

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There's no change really.

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So training is pretty simple.

9:01

The cashier is already in the point of sale screen and system five is gonna trigger based on meeting the rule for the redemption.

9:09

Let's say you earn, let's keep it simple.

9:11

Let's say you earn a point for every dollar and there's another rule that says you can redeem points that equal a discount or that equal a free item once you reach 10 points or a hundred points.

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So it triggers based on the rule.

9:30

If the rule criteria is met, then the cashier or the sales clerk is going to be faced with a question.

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Does the customer want to redeem points?

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So it's very simple, and we'll walk through the full workflow in a couple of weeks, but there really is little training.

9:46

Most of it is the setup and config, and it's already in system five.

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But the whole point is the customer gets rewarded by the redemption, the discount.

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It's a nice feeling.

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I've got a discount, and then it just caught, well, the idea is that it brings the customer back, because the cycle then repeats.

10:06

They make purchases, they earn points, they get their points redeemed, it's a discount, and then we just keep going.

10:16

So the other thing we're going to talk about in the workshop is gift cards.

10:19

They can layer on top of the same point of sale workflow.

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So a gift card is issued, which is a purchase, redeemed, which is like a tender, all in the same point of sale screen.

10:32

It's the same workflow.

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There's no separate system for the staff to learn, no separate reconciliation, and cards can be reloaded.

10:39

So it's a nice way, think of it as a bit of a retention tool because they've got this gift card.

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Personally, over the summer, there was a couple of events where I accumulated a few gift cards and they were to local vendors that I've never been to before.

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But because I've got this gift card, it makes me want to go in and just check it out.

11:02

You've got something that, you know, you've got a $25 gift card, well, you could spend that.

11:07

So it's a very interesting way to be able to bring customers into the door.

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There's a fear of missing out on that gift card.

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So anyway, the key message on this slide is both points and gift cards, they're configured within system five that we're gonna walk through in the workshop.

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No third party platforms, one system, and you've got loyalty covered in system five.

11:31

Now, the one thing that we will discuss is the physical card versus a gift certificate.

11:39

So I say that it's all configured in system five, which it is.

11:44

However, you either need a card that you can issue to the customer or a gift certificate that you need to print out.

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The card is preferred, but those do need to be purchased.

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And they've got like a mag strip on the end or something you can scan and barcode.

11:59

So there's a decision point for your business on that, but within system five, very easy setup.

12:07

Okay, all right.

12:12

So I wanted to just give a quick screenshot.

12:14

This is point of sale.

12:16

If you haven't seen a loyalty program set up in system five before, if you look, I don't know if you see my mouse, but if you look in the bottom right corner, this is a purchase and it's triggered off of a rule set up for points collection.

12:29

You can see that down here, the invoice points are 20.

12:34

The total points just to the left of that is the total accumulated.

12:37

So this little screenshot that I grabbed is just a first time somebody's earned some points.

12:43

If they had an accumulated balance, the total points would be more.

12:47

So that's what it's going to look like to the sales associate who's working with the customer.

12:52

And there are some other options for display and things like that that we'll go over.

12:59

This is a quick shot of the promotion screen.

13:02

So this you can see I've got ticked off, apply promotion to every invoice.

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You also see tabs above that that say inventory items, supplier, brands, categories.

13:13

This is part of the configuration.

13:16

And right now, this is set to just, it's a blanket promotion of earning points.

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Anything that you purchase in the store, it will apply.

13:25

We will walk through how you configure categories or brands, suppliers, or very specific inventory items that earn points and how that looks as far as how the workflow looks at point of sale, okay?

13:44

And lastly, this is just the promotion for the redemptions.

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So if you think about promotions, we have a promotion that's going to be collecting or accumulating the points, and then this one would be the redeeming of the points.

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You can see here that the promotion is to redeem X number of points.

14:00

The number of points is 10, and the reward is a dollar discount of $1.

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So what that means is that's like 10 cents per point.

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If we accumulate 10 points, we get a dollar discount off.

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So the setup is pretty straightforward.

14:18

It just becomes how do you want that to look for your business?

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Sorry about that, that shouldn't have popped up.

14:32

Okay, let's talk a little bit about gift cards.

14:36

So points is one thing, that's a great loyalty program, gift cards.

14:40

So what's the benefit of doing gift cards?

14:42

oh please I'm so sorry about that.

14:48

Gift cards okay money arrives before the product actually leaves. A card is actually revenue that is upfront against inventory you haven't given up.

14:56

It is booked as a liability until it's redeemed which is part of the setup so you sell a gift card to somebody that comes in and they want to give their daughter-in-law a gift card.

15:08

So you take the money it's a liability to you but the benefit is is that you've got that and just as we talked about my gift cards in the summertime, I wanna go in there and spend it.

15:18

The one nice thing is that often overselling is going to happen, sorry, overspending is going to happen.

15:27

So overspending, when you go in and you have a gift card for $25, the likelihood of you spending more than $25 is pretty high.

15:36

That's the nice thing about a gift card.

15:39

And unlike points, a card is sold at face value.

15:42

You're not really getting a discount.

15:43

it's just cash for cash. You sell a $50 gift card, that's what you're going to get back is $50.

15:51

And just as I said, the cards they bring people in if you've never been there before, well, there's a reason to walk in the door and check it out.

16:01

One thing I say as well about gift cards is that they can reload.

16:05

So if somebody enjoys that experience of having the gift card, it's easy to reload them in similar just based on the configuration that we're going to go through.

16:19

Okay, so just really quickly on the issuing and redeeming of gift cards.

16:25

Once we have the actual gift card product set up, we're gonna create a product, and that's going to be the gift card.

16:34

Once we have that in place, all that happens is that when the customer chooses to buy a gift card, well, you're selling that part number.

16:43

You're going to scan the card number, and then you're going to load the amount.

16:49

That's going to be registered in the system based on, I think it's probably a 10-digit number, and that is tied to the value, which is also tied to the customer record.

17:01

So once that amount is loaded, then it's really simple.

17:05

The customer presents that when they actually want to redeem the gift card, and it's just like cash, just like you would scan a debit card or a credit card, you will scan or swipe the gift card and it is treated just like cash.

17:22

It reduces the balance off of the gift card and it tenders the invoice.

17:29

A balance can be held on it and the balance can also be a portion of, so they may want to only use half of the gift card balance.

17:37

All of that happens at point of sale, just like a typical tender.

17:40

The one thing that I will raise is that there is the option that we will talk about in the workshop is what I'm referring to is the simple setup of points and gift cards in system five gift cards can also be done through integrated payment processing.

18:02

Now that's something that I am not able to demonstrate, but at the same time, there are benefits to that, but there's a bit more complexity in its setup.

18:12

What that offers and the real big benefit is that if you have a point of sale terminal that you use for accepting credit cards and debit cards, well, having gift cards through that integrated portal, integrated payment processing, you get to use the same terminal to be able to you know issue or redeem the balance on that gift card and that is an option we have partners that allow support of that but again what we're talking about here is the simple setup of doing it in system 5 100 controlled within your environment okay all right so let's pull it all together you know a loyalty program is going to deliver points or gifts cards and it really operates as one coordinated system that the whole team follows.

19:05

So what we'd be looking at is, if you're, and this is what we'll walk through, is that implementing this in your system is going to require a number of steps.

19:15

First of all, we're going to need to configure it, and that's gonna be setting up the points rules, the gift card products.

19:22

That says upsell kits in WinWord.

19:25

Upsell kits is something, it's kind of like a little value add that we'll talk about in the workshop, where when you want to get something going like this and you haven't had it before, the upsell kits really helps with building the habit.

19:42

So an upsell kit would be something where there's an attachment to regular items that you sell as a reminder to think about gift cards.

19:51

So that there's, to me, there's higher value in a sales associate talking to a customer about it than having just a banner up that says we have gift cards.

20:01

That's the idea around the upsell kits, and that's something that we can incorporate into your workflow, so that's what that means.

20:08

But first off, we have to configure everything.

20:11

Step two is going to be training, so that people grow accustomed to, what does that look like?

20:18

Walk through the workflow of what it's like to purchase or set up points, and then to redeem points to redeem a gift card.

20:28

Those prompts that are gonna happen need to go through some training, just like anything else that you'd want to implement in system five.

20:36

And then this part we can discuss, but really becomes the communication with your customers.

20:41

You gotta talk to your customers about it.

20:43

You know, you maybe want to launch a new promotion program and you've got things that go along with the receipt that tell people about it and how they can sign up for it and that type of thing.

20:53

And then a big part is the review.

20:55

So one thing that's really nice, in particular with the points, is that with the points you have data.

21:04

Back to that, what I had mentioned early on about what we're trying to do here this year is really go beyond just the usage of System V and rather look also at the data that you have in System V. And what does that tell you?

21:19

So, as a simple example, if you have a points program, you can run a list of all the people that have points and you can see who is spending a lot.

21:33

Look at their activity.

21:35

What does that say to customer retention?

21:36

What do you want to do with that information?

21:38

If people aren't collecting points, well, what does that tell you?

21:43

You know, could it be, well, and honestly, it's not even like they need to present a because it's attached to their customer account.

21:51

So it's really just going to happen, the points accumulation.

21:54

So take that information and what do you want to do with it as far as customer retention goes?

21:59

How should we act?

22:01

What decisions should be made based on the information that's in there?

22:04

And that's really around the monitoring.

22:07

And if it's not working, well, maybe there's a pivot.

22:09

Maybe we need to change what that promotion program is looking like.

22:18

Okay.

22:19

So I am going to close today with this.

22:24

If today raised the question of how do I set this up, what does it look like? The September 17th workshop makes sense.

22:32

So it's at 9 o 'clock Pacific and what you're going to walk away with is a points program that you can design around your margins.

22:41

We'll go through the live setup of the gift cards, live setup of points, the options that you can have as far as the points collection and redemption.

22:52

And what does that look like end to end in point of sale?

22:55

We'll take a customer record and account and we will see the earning of points, the redemption of points and what options are there for the customer and what they get out of it.

23:07

So again, logistics, it's virtual, September 17th, 9 a.m. Pacific.

23:13

You can register self-serve at the link there, www.genevertsoftware.com slash workshop, or you can contact your account manager and they can help you with that purchase.

23:26

Lastly, the professional services team, I keep saying that we look at best practices and helping people get the most out of system five.

23:36

So if a workshop isn't for you, that type of learning environment just doesn't work for you, then we are here to be able to help you.

23:44

we can help you configure, train and optimize the way that your points program works.

23:50

I don't have the typical slide that I usually do on here, but you do have resources available to you.

23:56

We've got the Windward Learning Academy, we have the self-help portal, and we also have the self-help documentation itself that can allow you to investigate a little bit further if that's something that you're interested in.

24:11

Otherwise, I do hope to see you all in the workshop in a couple of weeks, a little bit shorter topic than we're used to, but pretty exciting about what we can do to be able to get that customer engagement and loyalty built up.

24:28

Okay, well, thank you for your attendance, and I hope you have, oh, is that a question, Kat?

24:48

Okay, so Kat, your certificates, we can talk about that if you want to attend the workshop.

24:52

I'm not sure, they should work the same as yes we will go through I tend to reapply them to in-house certificates but apparently not recording them correctly okay maybe you could give me a little bit of information beforehand but yes we will talk about certificates as well as gift cards the issuing of them and then the redemption of them for sure okay all right well again thank you for your time and attention today and I hope to see you in a couple of weeks time.

25:34

Please enjoy the rest of your afternoon.