POS Integration | NCR Counterpoint via Pet Rewards Plus
Astro Loyalty offers several alternative styles when it comes to setting up your account. For instance, if you plan on using Astro beside your register independently of your POS then you would require a Standard Astro Account. If you are using NCR Counterpoint and have Pet Rewards Plus you can setup either a POS Report Astro Account or a Nightly Feed Astro Account. There are benefits to both.
POS Report Astro Account
A POS Report Account gives you the means to report your customers' Frequent Buyer Redemptions to your distributor for credit, and it also allows you to participate in Astro Offers. The main benefit of an account such as this is your ability to participate in Astro Offers.
Frequent Buyer Program Tracking via Pet Rewards Plus & Reporting via Astro Loyalty
In order to setup this style of account you must first Submit a Ticket to Astro Support and let us know that you require a POS Report Account.
In order to use an account such as this you will need to generate monthly POS Redemption Reports that can then be exported and emailed to Astro for processing. These reports are uploaded to your Astro account so the redemptions are able to be reviewed and credited by your distributors. This saves you a ton of time since you do not have to split up your reports and send them to multiple places.
In order to be able to generate the proper reports you must first review the Astro Frequent Buyer Programs you wish to participate in. Start by enrolling in the programs that interest you so you can compile your Enrolled list of programs. This list will appear under your Frequent Buyer menu. Open up each program's details by clicking on the program's blue title and take a close note of the categorization of the items within the program and the rules enforced when it comes time to redeem a card.
There is an Export Product List link below the list of Program Cards on all Frequent Buyer Programs.
If the program you are examining contains a lot of sub-program cards you may need to scroll down some before you see the Export Product List link.
This will generate a spreadsheet that shows you exactly what items are permitted on each program card within the master program. This can be very helpful if you are not sure how to group items within your cloned program in Pet Rewards Plus.
It is very important that you design your Pet Rewards Plus programs in such a way that they mirror the Astro Programs. If the design is off you run the risk of giving away a free good that does not qualify and the redemption may get flagged by your distributor and denied.
If a redemption is denied credit you may be able to correct it and resubmit it from the Distributor Free Goods Credit Status Report's Declined Credits tab.
Once you have your programs in place within Pet Rewards Plus, Pet Rewards Plus will be responsible for keeping track of your customers' qualifying purchases and their progress towards their future redemption. Pet Rewards Plus will also be responsible for alerting you when it is time for a customer to redeem their card, and it should only offer redeemable options that qualify based on the designated rules of the program. Once redemptions are made redemption reports will start to compile.
Most retailers opt to send in their POS Redemption Reports at the beginning or the end of every month. There may be a way to schedule automatic export and delivery of these reports via Pet Rewards Plus, otherwise you can export them yourself and email them to posreports@astroloyalty.com.
Astro Offer Tracking & Reporting via Astro Loyalty
If you are using a POS Report Astro Account you will be able to participate in Astro Offers, but you must do so manually using Astro.
When you login to Astro and then go to Checkout to lookup a customer you will notice at the top of the customer's checkout screen that it says Checkout Restricted to Offers Entry Only. This is to help protect the integrity of your Pet Rewards Plus Frequent Buyer Programs since Astro will not allow you to add a random purchase to a Frequent Buyer card.
Astro Offers are time sensitive, meaning they are only available for set periods of time. Some of them may also have caps applied, meaning customers may only qualify for a certain number of redemptions or your customers collectively can only redeem a certain total dollar amount before the Offer restricts further redemptions. This is why it is so important to ring up and redeem an Offer in Astro before you check the customer out in your POS.
You want to make sure that the Offer is still available, that the customer qualifies, and that it is redeemed in Astro correctly so that you will be able to get your credit back; before you issue that reward to your customer. Checking out the Offer in Astro first also helps to remind you of exactly what it is that you are rewarding to the customer.
In order to participate in Astro Offers you must first Enroll in the Offers that interest you. Then each time a customer is purchasing an item that qualifies for that Offer you will need to lookup their Petowner account in Astro. If no such account exists you can add them as a new customer in Astro. Then you can proceed with checking them out and redeeming the Offer. Once that is complete you can proceed with ringing them up in Counterpoint, applying the discount they earned, then finalizing the sale and collect your payment.
Nightly Feed Astro Account
This style of account allows you to more closely rely on the Tracking capabilities of Astro in regards to your Frequent Buyer Programs. This account still requires Tracking Programs to be built in Pet Rewards Plus, then Pet Rewards Plus is able to import a nightly feed of customer purchase data into Astro at the close of every business day. This data will include qualifying purchases as well as redemptions. The qualifying purchases will be added to open Frequent Buyer Cards on your customers' Astro Petowner Accounts and their redemptions will be recorded on those same cards as long as the redemption imported qualifies according to the rules of the program.
If a redemption was made in Pet Rewards Plus that is not compatible with the Program in Astro you will be able to access the Frequent Buyer Card in Astro and modify the redemption so it will report correctly.
The main benefit of this style of account is that you will be able to fully utilize the Marketing Suite and your customers can benefit from using the Free Astro Consumer Mobile App. You will not be able to participate in Astro Offers if you use this account style.
Astro Account Setup to Prepare for a Nightly Feed
Submit a Ticket to Astro Support and let us know you require a Nightly Feed Astro Account. We will put you in touch with our programming department so they can make sure the required pieces are in place on your account.
Then you can start Enrolling in the Programs you wish to participate in.
And finally, since your customers will be able to benefit from the Free Mobile App you can start customizing it with your store's logo and color pallet.
Pet Rewards Plus Account Setup to Prepare for a Nightly Feed
There are some settings in Pet Rewards Plus that need to be activated in order to trigger the nightly feeds. Reach out to Pet Rewards Plus and make sure you have those settings completed correctly.
The morning after your first imported feed login to your Astro account and go to the Customers menu. If the import was successful you should see customers listed there, and if you click on their names you should see their purchases that were imported. If there are no customers listed and you are positive you had customers purchase some frequent buyer items then either the nightly feed failed, or you forgot to enroll in all of the Astro Programs you needed. Check your list of Enrolled programs under your Astro Frequent Buyer menu first to make sure you are enrolled in everything.
Pet Rewards Plus will help guide you through the any remaining steps required for setup. If you need any information from us please Submit a Ticket by going to the Help menu on your Astro homepage.
Unsure which account style to choose?
Start with POS Reports. It is a lot easier to convert a POS Report Account to a Nightly Feed Account than the other way around.
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