Here’s a look at their program.
About Elite Window Fashions: Elite Window Fashions™ is a leading Canadian manufacturer of custom window covering products. What began in 1967 as a small vertical blinds shop has grown over the years expanding nation-wide.
Program: MoreRewards
How it works: Customers are recognized and rewarded when they sell Elite Window Fashions products with points, which they use to redeem for brand name products, gift certificates and experiences of their choice from an online catalog.
Program Launch: January 2008
I Love Rewards sat down with Noah Zimner, Project Manager at Elite Window Fashions for a Q&A session about MoreRewards.
1. What made Elite Window Fashions seek out and launch an incentive program?Elite had implemented other incentive programs in the past that all came and went without much effect. We used to give away electronics, trip vouchers, etc., but all of those programs and products were a huge administrative and organizational headache for us. We also could not easily track our customers’ participation and communicate with them very well on program details.
When we heard what I Love Rewards does, we knew that the type of incentive program we wanted to run for our customers was within reach. I Love Rewards has taken what was once something that we shied away from and has made it into a manageable and workable solution. Their system also provides us with up-to-date user statistics, data, and easy ways of communicating information to our registered customers via email.
“Do what you do best and outsource the rest”, is a saying that has definitely come into play with the launch of Elite’s MoreRewards program.
2. How has More Rewards had an impact on your relationship with your suppliers and their purchasing decisions?
Elite sells through a cross-national network of independent dealers. In late 2007 our management team was trying to uncover the best way to drive sales for the 2008 year. Elite was without any incentive program at this time and it was then that we decided to implement MoreRewards. We decided to reward our customers with points whenever they sold our products.
After a few months of point accumulation we noticed that call volumes to Elite started to increase towards the end of each month, which is the same time we do our point uploads. Customers were calling to make sure that orders they placed that month would qualify for points. People were saving up and waiting to redeem for hot ticket items and were consciously selling more Elite blinds so they could earn more points for their online Wish List items.
As an unexpected side-effect, we also noticed that our days of receivables came down as customers were paying invoices earlier to get their points before each monthly deadline.
3. How does MoreRewards give you the competitive advantage in your industry?
The MoreRewards program provides our customers with the choice and the freedom to redeem for what they want when they want. Other incentive programs in our industry often place strict and difficult restrictions and deadlines on dealers to meet goals and sell product.
We are lucky to have a large community of loyal customers and MoreRewards is our way of saying thank you for purchasing our products. Our competitive edge is that we provide our customers with something in return, and in the process not only incent them to continue their purchasing habits, but encourage their behavior to sell MORE.
