Introducing Inovelli Rewards

Did you mean after June 1, 2020? I was about to email you my older orders before I realized that was probably a typo. :slight_smile:

hahā€¦ Yes, nice catch. After June 1st is correct :slight_smile:

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How will purchases work that take you over the threshold for a tier. For example, imagine a new customer places a $500 order such that they move from Bronze to Silver tiers. Do all the points get credited at the bronze tier or does the first $399 count get the 10 points/dollar and the remaining get 12 points per dollar?

Hey Alex! Great question. Your rewards points for purchases will be for your current tier. Once your purchase points are approved (after the 45 day return warranty period) and have enough points to move up, you will then be added to your next tier. All purchases made after this will be given your new tier points. So in your example all points will be credited the bronze tier. I hope this helps :slight_smile:

What is required to earn ā€œComplete Profileā€? I entered my address, hub, contact info, etc.

Hey Stu! To complete your profile you need to update your address. Your address is where your rewards go once they are redeemed. If you already have an address in your account you can delete and re-add your address and that should trigger your points. We are currently working on an edit to this that wouldnā€™t require you to re-input your address. If you still have an issue feel free to message me and I can take a look at your account :slight_smile:

I love a good rewards program! But I have a quibble. The requirement to wait 45 days before the points vest has created a reverse incentive for me to purchase more product!

Right out the gate, I bought a 10-pack of red dimmers. Didnā€™t even know about the points program. Just bought 'em because the products, company and founder look great, and the community is very active.

As I was shopping for my next slug of product, I discovered the points program.

Based on that first purchase, I now have 4,847 points (4,697 pending).

That point total puts me into the Silver tier, where I can earn 12 points per $1 spent, vs 10 points.

But am I in the Silver tier? My profile page doesnā€™t tell me which point tier Iā€™m in. It does show me that my points arenā€™t vested, and wonā€™t be until 45 days after purchase. So ā€¦ Iā€™m not Silver yet? Dunno.

This is causing me to hang back and not commit the next purchase. Maybe this causes me to wait 45 days? Some people (like me) may wait to maximize rewards.

Perhaps someone can lend some clarity to how the tier system works when points arenā€™t yet vested?

Thanks.

Hey Lars!
This is some great feedback and something weā€™ll definitely take into consideration as we make updates and fix some of the bugs. Iā€™m currently working on a solution for adding your current tier status to your rewards information page so hopefully that will help with the confusion there. You stay in your current tier until your points have finished pending.

As for the pending points 45 day period, totally understandable that youā€™d want to wait for an increased tier to purchase more products, however this is put in place so customers canā€™t purchase a ton of products, get their rewards for free products, and then return the products purchased. Iā€™ll see if we have some more options with our program to reduce risk while still offering our rewards members incentives to purchase.

Thanks for the rapid response, Brianna!

I get how you need to protect yourself from people gaming the system.

In my unique case, itā€™s hurting me (I want to buy my switches now, but feel like Iā€™m losing money if I do) and itā€™s hurting you (youā€™re not getting my money).

The honest folk are penalized because of fear of dishonest people doing dishonest things.

Would a return restocking fee on the refund on large purchases be a viable replacement for the 45 day wait period? If a scammer finds out heā€™s going to have to sacrifice 15% on returned merchandise over, say $1,000 (or $2000), perhaps that would disincentivize him/her from trying it. Perhaps the restocking fee only applies if someoneā€™s purchased product using points. Or something like that.

Seems if someone purchased stock using points and then returned a ton of product, youā€™d be within your rights to deduct the cost of the points-purchased products and set their points back to whatever they were before.

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One idea would be to confer the status upon purchase but delay the award of points until after the return period. For example, I become silver on the day I purchase 4000 points worth of product, but the 4000 points wouldnā€™t be spendable until 45 days after the purchase. This way I have the incentive to purchase more product ASAP, and the company doesnā€™t run the risk of someone spending points for products they ultimately return.

Now sure there is a chance someone could spend that X points to get to a high tier and then make another purchase at the elevated earning rate before returning the first purchase. But that seems unlikely because it is a lot of work for not a huge payoff (especially if the buyer is responsible for return shipping), and the downsides there seem lower than the potential benefits for the company from awarding status earlier. And, you could always clawback the extra points that earned on status premised on purchases that were ultimately returned.

@Alex_King, @lars ā€“ great feedback! Makes complete sense.

@Brianna_Inovelli and I are meeting tomorrow morning and weā€™ll discuss this to see what we can do. Iā€™m hoping the company we used (Loyalty Lion) can shed some light here and help out in an automated way as it will be hard to do this manually for Brianna (sheā€™d be doing it all day).

Definitely something weā€™ll look into and post back on!

As for the, ā€œthe bad apples ruin it for the restā€ ā€“ yes, it really sucks. Weā€™ve been victims of so many scams itā€™s ridiculous - one in particular the Secret Service had to get involved and it escalated to an international fraud investigation costing us a pretty penny.

Itā€™s terrible when you operate your business by the, ā€œtreat others as youā€™d like to be treatedā€ rule and then get walked all over with no repercussions. It will be nice to finally come out with a book/movie to explain it all. Itā€™s a crazy world out there ā€“ but itā€™s why we had to put these rules in place as the Secret Service incident actually almost crippled us.

Anyway, I promise weā€™ll look into it and do what we can :slight_smile:

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If we spend our points, does our reward tier drop? I.e., If I have 25K points (gold), and then spend 24K of them, am I no longer considered a gold-tier rewards member? Or are tiers based on points awarded instead of current available points?

Great question! Once you hit your tier status you are at that tier for life :slight_smile:

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+1 to this. It would be really nice if points applied to the tier immediately, even if thereā€™s a 45-day window before they can be spent. Then I can just focus on handing over $$$ as fast as I can install stuff instead of playing games with calendars. Pretty sure yā€™all are interested in the former as well. :joy:

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Just wanted to give an update that @Brianna_Inovelli and I met today and she has an email out to Loyalty Lion around the Tier question and if this is a possibility.

More to come once we hear back!

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I wanted to confirm what Eric said above and also give you all some insight into some of the things Iā€™m working on updating before we move into Phase 2.

1. Tier status: right now points have to be approved in order for tiers to increase, looking into an option that would allow the tier increase during the pending timeline.

2. More information: building out our rewards page and your account page to include tier information, adding more communication in the redeeming process.

3. Experience: I have already updated the process of claiming a reward as we had a few customers who accidentally claimed rewards without knowing. Currently working on adding verification emails when you redeem a reward (especially for those who donā€™t have an address in their account as this is where the reward is sent. Ie. if they donā€™t have an address they will get a reward error message letting them know to update their address to receive the reward)

4. Overall Look: this might be one of the only skillsets that someone in Inovelli doesnā€™t haveā€¦ I seriously canā€™t think of another area where one of us canā€™t fill in. Anywayā€¦ Iā€™m trying to create a better look and layout for the reward information. I want it to be really fun to shop around and as we add more ways to engage I want it to be easy to understand and use. If you have any ideas on this one I would love to know your thoughts. Weā€™re hoping to have a designer / coder come in to help us with this part (and our website: see project glow up) eventually.

I appreciate everyoneā€™s input and patience while we build out this program :slight_smile:

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:grimacing:

+2 ^^^^^ I was thinking exactly the same thing when I read about the 45-day pending period. Its similar to depositing a check in your bank account where the check amount is immediately added to your ā€œcurrent balanceā€ but you canā€™t withdraw (spend) more than your ā€œavailableā€ balance until the pending check clears

These are great ideas. Unfortunately weā€™re limited to what our rewards program provider can support. Iā€™ve been speaking with the tech support team at Loyalty Lion and theyā€™ve told me that this is not a current option so Iā€™m trying to look into some work arounds that wouldnā€™t require me to manually update every customer who wanted to jump tier before the 45 day pending period. Hoping to find a solution for this soon but in the mean time if your tier is getting in the way of you purchasing more you can send me a message with your rewards email and I can look into your account for you.

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Just wanted to revive this thread a bit to let everyone know that weā€™ve finalized adding Rewards Tier flair to the forum.

You should know see a bronze, silver, gold or diamond, ā€œINā€ next to your name.

More info here: Rewards Program Flair in the Community - News - Inovelli Community

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