Lesson #79
Payables – Reward Points Summary function
Reward your best customers with points like airlines and credit cards do, based on the business generated by their calls to you. Use this function to monitor and manage your reward points program.
Before setting up reward points in RB9, check what your local laws and regulations allow and what you must provide participants with, such as terms and conditions and any legal agreements you must obtain before you enroll a client in your reward program. Some states do not allow these programs for court reporting firms, and OMTI makes no guarantees or assurances about these programs.
Set up your points system first
Contacts don’t earn points until you turn on the reward points system in RB9 and set up points in contacts’ RB9 listings. When you turn on the points system, you also set:
- Whether points are earned on all invoices or original invoices only.
- Default for how many dollars billed on an invoice equal a point.
- How invoice amounts are rounded up or down for determining points.
- What the conversion rate is for points earned to redeemable dollar amounts.
You also designate which services are “pointable,” i.e. which ones earn points. For example, you probably would want to give clients points for originals and copies, but not for delivery expenses.
When designating who receives points for a contact’s bookings, you can choose the contact themselves and/or other contacts at the same firm. You can also override your default point conversion settings, if for example you have an important client you want to give double points to.
Snapshot of contact/firm reward point activity
Once you have your reward points system in place, use this function to manage your program. You can look up:
- A single contact
- All of the contacts at a single firm who have earned points
- All of a firm’s contacts, including those with zero points
The Reward Points Summary displays a snapshot of point activity, listing each contact’s:
- Firm
- City
- State
- Current points
- Pending points
- Total points earned
- Points spent
Total amounts in each points category are displayed at the bottom of the summary.
You can sort your results in the grid by one or more columns in ascending or descending order (but when you exit the function, RB9 will revert back to the default order).
From the summary, you can access any contact’s Reward Points History, where you can see at a glance what activities they have done and how their points history has been affected.
If your state does not allow reward programs, you can still use the points system to track your clients’ order history and see who your best customers are by which contact’s calls generate the most revenue instead of by firm only.
You can export the summary as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV (comma-separated values) file to save, print, share, or use in other applications.
Manage points
From the Reward Points Summary, you can adjust, transfer, and redeem points for any contact listed. And if a contact is no longer participating in your points program, you can move their points history to another contact.
Adjust points
If you want to correct an error in the amount of points earned by a contact or to give bonus points, such as for welcoming a new client or other marketing purpose, you can adjust their total points amount up or down.
Transfer points
You can transfer earned points from one contact to another contact in the same firm, for example if a lawyer wants to give some or all of their points to their secretary or everybody in a firm wants to pool their points.
Redeem points
When a contact earns enough points and wants to redeem them, you document that here by noting the type of redemption chosen, the number of points redeemed, and making any notes about the transaction.
Move points
In addition to transferring points from one person at a firm to another, you can also move a contact’s entire points history to another contact. The contact does not have to be at the same firm. A use for this feature would be if a contact moves to a different firm, you can transfer their points to the new listing you make for the contact in their new firm so they don’t lose their points. RB9 will make automatic notes log entries in both contact listings recording who points were moved to/from, when and by which staff member.
Let clients access points online
If you have RB Connect, your clients can view and manage their reward points online. They can:
- Check how many points they have available currently and in the future.
- Look up their previous point history.
- Redeem any amount of points up to their currently available points for rewards.
- Transfer points to other people in their firm.
If you have RB Connect Mobile, they can do the same things on their smartphones or other mobile devices.
NOTE: This is an RB9-only function. It is not included in RB Lite.
TL;DR: Reward your best customers with points like airlines and credit cards do, based on the business generated by their calls to you. Monitor, adjust, transfer, and redeem points.
RB concepts in this lesson
Award Points: Used to encourage clients to book with your agency by rewarding them with points for different services. If you have RB Connect, you can allow contacts to request point redemptions online. (Also referred to as reward points.)
Contact: Person who works for a firm you do business with, such as attorneys, paralegals, secretaries, legal assistants, claim adjusters, and court clerks.
Firm: Business you provide services to, usually law firms, but can also be other court reporting firms, vendors, insurance companies, corporate clients, and courts.
RB Connect: Online repository, calendar, and access to your office for clients and resources. More >
RB Connect Mobile: Clients and resources can access your RB Connect on their smartphones and tablets in an interface optimized for mobile devices. More >
