Retail requires flexibility: yesterday’s fixed discount no longer motivates customers today, which encourages business owners to switch to cumulative or bonus-based loyalty systems. The mass change mode for discount card parameters is a critically important tool that allows you to update loyalty conditions for hundreds or thousands of customers at once while preserving their history of interaction with the store.
When planning such a transition, entrepreneurs most often ask support specialists the following questions: «How can I move customers to a new discount card type in bulk?», «Why does the transition to a new level not happen during automatic discount recalculation?», «How can I change the accrual type from fixed to bonus-based for the entire database?» and «How can I make sure the customer’s accumulated amount is not reset after changing the card?».
In this article, we will explain in detail how to properly organize the mass transition of customers to a new loyalty system so that no accumulated amount is lost and technical errors are avoided.
The golden rule of transition: setting discount thresholds
Before moving customers to a new discount card type in bulk, you need to properly configure the discount policy itself. The most common mistake when changing the card type, for example, from the «Standard» level to «VIP», is the sudden reset of the customer’s discount during the next purchase.
Why does this happen and how can you avoid it? If the customer’s card type has changed, that is, increased, and the new discount card type has no transition threshold for the amount of money the customer has accumulated, the program will recalculate the discount to «0».
To avoid this, there is a clear rule:
the first transition threshold in the new, higher-level card must be the same threshold that was the last one in the previous card type.
This way, the program will immediately match the accumulated purchase amount with a specific discount threshold, and the discount will not be reset to zero.
Step-by-step instructions for moving customers in bulk
When the discount policy is configured correctly, you can proceed to the mass replacement. This process is performed in the «Marketing» – «Customers» section.
Step 1. Select the target audience (Filtering)
If you need to move not all customers, but only a specific group, use a complex information filter. Sort the database by «Amount for discount calculation» or other criteria so that only the customers whose discount card type you want to change remain in the list.
Step 2. Mass parameter change
Select the filtered customers, or all customers if you are moving the entire database. Then click the «Change discount card parameters» button. In the window that opens, you can change the key parameters for the entire selected group at once:
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Discount accrual method: select the new system: Cumulative, Fixed Discount or Bonus System.
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Discount card type: specify the newly created type.
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Initial amount for discount calculation: you can set a single initial amount for the start if this is provided by your new policy.
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Discount %: for fixed cards.
For a parameter to change, you need to activate the switch next to the required item and select the new value.
Step 3. Recalculate automatic discounts (Required!)
After you have set new discount card types or accrual methods in bulk, be sure to click the «Recalculate automatic discounts» button, preferably outside working hours, as this process is resource-intensive. This action will make the system analyze the entire saved purchase history of customers, compare it with the new rules, that is, the new card, and automatically assign the correct discount percentage or the correct number of bonuses to each customer.
Preserving history and initial amounts
During the transition, entrepreneurs often worry that customers will lose their previous privileges. Torgsoft allows you to transfer this «history» to the new system.
If you are transferring customers from an old system, or even from another program or a notebook, use the «Initial amount for discount» field. This amount is assigned when the customer must enter the new discount system already having a certain privilege. For example, if you want the customer to immediately have a 5% discount, you need to enter the initial purchase amount that corresponds to 5% according to your new discount policy. If you simply specify 5% without an initial amount in a cumulative system, the program may reset this percentage after the very next new purchase.
Automatic transition to a new card type
It is worth remembering that a manual mass transition is mainly needed when the store’s rules are changed globally, for example, when completely abandoning discounts in favor of bonuses. For everyday work, Torgsoft supports automatic transition between cards.
You can configure this in the «Marketing» – «Discount card types» menu. The card type settings include the option: «When the maximum discount percentage is reached, switch to...». There you can select the next card type from the list, one with higher privileges. The transition will happen automatically when the customer accumulates the amount of money that corresponds to the last threshold of their current discount card type.
Summary
A mass transition to a new discount system in Torgsoft is a safe process that prevents the loss of customer history. The main rule of a successful transition is to correctly configure discount thresholds so that they connect to each other without gaps, replace parameters in bulk using the «Change discount card parameters» action, and be sure to run the «Recalculate automatic discounts» process to update the statuses of the entire customer database.
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