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Understand VIP tier milestones

How to choose from points earned or amount spent for VIP tiers

Karen F (she/her) avatar
Written by Karen F (she/her)
Updated over 2 weeks ago

šŸ›’ Supported on all platforms

šŸ’³ Available on Growth and Plus plans

šŸ‘¤ Accessible to all roles

The milestone type sets the parameters for your VIP program, they outline what a customer has to do before they can join a specific tier of your rewards program.

Program start date


  1. From Smile Admin navigate to Program > VIP.

  2. In the Tier settings section, click Edit.

  3. In the Program start date section, choose the date you'd like the VIP program to start counting your customers points or $ spent from.

šŸ’” Important: The earliest program start date you can choose from is the day you installed Smile. Smile isn't able to retroactively apply settings from previous VIP programs you may have had.

Milestone type


  1. From Smile Admin navigate to Program > VIP.

  2. In the Tier settings section, click Edit.

  3. In the A customer enters a VIP tier based on their, select your preferred option

Revenue

A revenue-based milestone will use the total money a customer has spent with your store in a given time period to your calculate your customer’s tier.

This milestone type is a great way to ensure a customer has spent a fixed amount of money before they can access VIP tier benefits. A revenue-based milestone also makes it very easy for your customers to understand how they can move to your next tier.

Smile recommends using this option if you have a VIP program only and no points program set up.

ā„¹ļø Note: The revenue milestone types takes into account the Grand Total of each order made by your customers that is marked as Paid, excluding any discounts used. This includes any shipping fees and taxes.

Points

A points-based milestone will use the total points a customer has earned with your store in a given time period to calculate your customers’ tier.

This milestone type is a great way to ensure that points awarded for orders, program signup, referrals and social sharing contribute to your customer’s VIP tier.

When these actions count towards your customer’s tier, they’ll see more value in each engagement they have with your program. When they see this value, you'll build stronger relationships with them over time.

Milestone period


  1. From Smile Admin navigate to Program > VIP.

  2. In the Tier settings section, click Edit.

  3. In the A customer has the following amount of time to achieve a VIP tier, select your preferred option

Calendar year

A calendar year milestone will use all of your customer’s activities within one calendar year to determine their VIP tier for that year and the following calendar year.

If a customer earns enough points to reach your gold tier in November of 2025, they will enjoy the benefits of your gold tier for the rest of 2025 and all of 2026.

Then, during the calendar year of 2026, they’ll have to earn enough points to re-qualify for your gold tier in 2027. If they do not, their VIP tier will be recalculated based on the points that they did earn in that calendar year.

Smile recommends this option when your customers make frequent purchases throughout the year and it's a great option if you want to decrease time between repeat purchases.

ā„¹ļø Note: If you chose the Calendar year method - the start date setting will only work for you if you choose a date from the current calendar year.

For example -

  • if it's currently March 2025, and you set your start date as November 1, 2024 - then the actual program start date is going to be Jan 1, 2025.

  • If it's currently March 2025, and you set your start date as February 1, 2025 - then the actual program start date will be February 1, 2025.

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