Run automations that bring customers back

Automations are campaigns that run by themselves every morning, each at one moment of a customer’s journey: after their first visit, when they’re close to a reward, when a reward they earned is still waiting, after they use one, when they become a regular and when they miss a visit. Like every campaign, they send no email or text message: what they give lands on the customer’s card, and on their Apple Wallet or Google Wallet pass if they’ve added one. The customer retention page shows why these moments matter.

Automations are for owners and admins: tap Automations on the Overview, under Campaigns, or at the top of the Campaigns screen. A card must be published first.

The six automations

Each card can have one of each:

• Welcome back. A gift for first-time customers who haven’t come back a number of days after their first visit, to make the second visit happen. The days can be 3 to 90; a new one waits half your visit rhythm’s slipping-away days.
• Almost there. A message for customers who are 1 to 3 stamps from a reward on the card (2 for a new one) but haven’t visited for 3 to 90 days; a new one waits half your visit rhythm’s slipping-away days. It gives nothing new: its headline says how close they are, such as “1 stamp to your Free coffee”, and your note goes under it. A card gets one nudge for each reward it nears.
• Reward reminder. A message when a reward a customer earned is still unused 3 to 60 days later (7 for a new one). It gives nothing new: its headline names the reward, such as “Your Free coffee is waiting”, and your note goes under it. Each reward gets one reminder.
• Head start. 1 to 3 bonus stamps on the next card the morning after a customer uses the card’s main reward. A card that starts with a few stamps already on it gets finished more often. Each reward used gets one. A card whose rewards can only be used where they’re earned can’t have it, because no gift can add stamps to that card.
• Thank your regulars. A thank-you when a customer becomes a Regular by your visit rhythm, or reaches a number of visits on this card that you choose, from 2 to 100. Each customer gets it once.
• “We miss you”. A treat for customers who are late for their usual visit. See set up a “We miss you” campaign.

The Automations screen lists them in that order, with the card’s choice at the top when you run several cards. Where a card has none yet, it says what that moment means for your business now, for example how many first-time customers from the last month never came back, how many rewards have waited unused for a week or more, or how many were used in the last month.

Set them up

To switch on every one the card is missing at once, tap Set up all under Start with what works. Each starts straight away with settings that suit your trade, and the sheet says what each gives before you confirm.

To set up one, tap Set up beside it, then Set it up. It starts as a draft: check its gift, its timing and its note, then tap Turn on. Before you do, the page estimates how many customers it would reach on its first morning.

When gifts go out

Automations run once a day and send that day’s gifts by 09:00 in your business’s timezone. On a card in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, the alert for a gift waits until about an hour before the customer usually comes in, judged from their last 10 visits, and never later than 20:00. With fewer than 2 visits, it comes with the gift. When you first turn one on, it also reaches customers it just missed: first-timers who joined up to 30 days before, customers close to a reward who have been away up to 30 days longer, rewards earned up to 30 days before, rewards used in the last 7 days, and regulars from the last 7 days. Each moment gives once: one welcome per card, one nudge per reward a card nears, one reminder per reward, one head start per reward used, one thank-you per milestone and one gift per absence.

One a week at most

Nobody gets more than one automated gift or message in 7 days, across all of a business’s automations. One that would come sooner rests and is tried again on a later morning, so nothing is lost. A resting gift is dropped if the customer comes back first, and a reminder if the reward is used or expires. On an automation’s page, Resting says how many are waiting, and each one shows when it will be tried again.

Gifts don’t pile up either. A customer who still has an unused gift from a campaign gets no new reward from an automation, and Reward reminder nudges them about the one they have. They show as Still has an unused gift among the recipients.

The test group

Keep 1 in 10 back as a test group, under Measure it, is on for new automations once your business has 1,000 customers or more. With fewer, a result would take years, so new ones start with it switched off. One customer in ten that an automation would give to gets nothing, always the same customers, so you can see whether the gift brings more people back than would have come anyway. They show as In the test group among the recipients. Switch it on or off in the editor; with it off, everyone gets the gift.

Is it working?

On an automation’s page, Is it working? counts who came back within 14 days of their gift, against the test group:

• Until 14 days have passed since the first gifts, there is nothing to show yet.
• Until each side has at least 30 customers, it shows the two percentages so far without drawing a conclusion.
• Then it says It works when clearly more came back with the gift than without, and how many more in every 100 customers, or that there is no clear difference yet. Try a different gift, or give it longer.

Without a test group, it shows how many came back after their gift, with nothing to compare. Given, Used, Skipped and each recipient are listed below, as for any campaign. See bring customers back with campaigns.

Pause or end one

Pause stops new gifts until you Resume; End it stops it for good and moves it to Ended on the Automations screen. Gifts already given stay on customers’ cards either way. After ending one, you can set up the same automation again: it carries on from where the old one stopped, so nobody gets the same gift twice.