Per-action rewards have a fall-off problem. The first review earns points and feels like a nice surprise. The fourth earns the same points and feels like work.
The behaviour you want, from the small group of customers who will do this repeatedly, needs something that accumulates.
What can carry a milestone
Cumulative counts of:
- Reviews written
- Photo reviews specifically, since those are worth more
- Referrals that resulted in an order
Set a threshold and a reward. Reaching it pays out on top of whatever the individual action earned.
Why cumulative works differently
A milestone creates a target, and a target is a fundamentally different motivator from a rate.
"You earn 50 points per review" is a price. Once a customer has decided whether that price is worth their time, the answer does not change and most of them have decided no.
"Three more reviews to your next milestone" is a goal, and a partially completed goal is uncomfortable to leave. It is the same reason a loyalty card with three stamps on it gets used and an empty one gets lost.
Who this is actually for
Not most of your customers. Most will never write a second review.
It is for the handful who would, given a reason. Those customers are worth a disproportionate amount: they produce the reviews that sell your products, the referrals that bring new customers, and the social proof you cannot buy. Milestones are the cheapest way to develop them, because you are only paying the people who are already doing the thing.
Combined with tiers
Tiers reward spending. Milestones reward contributing.
They are different axes on purpose, and a customer can be strong on one and not the other. Someone who spends a lot and never reviews, and someone who buys modestly and reviews everything, are both valuable, and a programme that only measures spend can see only one of them.
Where to set them
Perkie’s reward rules, alongside the other conditional rewards. Set the thresholds and they run.