Offer a community rewards center to recognize your contributors with gifts, swag, and other items available for redemption.
This element of the contributions feature utilizes the Points + Badges mode + Rewards and will not appear in your dashboard if Advanced Gamification is enabled for your tenant. This is an additional module so reach out to the Gradual team if you'd like to add this element to your community.
Your dashboard can be configured in one of three gamification modes:
Badges Only
Points + Badges
Points + Badges + Rewards
Rewards are only available if Advanced Gamification is enabled for your tenant and your community is configured in the Points + Badges + Rewards mode.
Points
Contributors will utilize points to redeem for rewards. They will earn these points through various set contributions in your community.
Make sure to follow these steps to establish the point values for your community contributions in the dashboard before you build your rewards center, so that rewards are adequately "priced".
Lifetime vs. Redeemable points
These point values can be seen on a member's profile in the dashboard and also in member exports.
Lifetime points: The total points recorded for a member, including those points that have been redeemed.
This point value is what is displayed on a member's profile
This point value is used for the contributor board ranking
Redeemable points: The total points available for redemption. Only includes points that have not been redeemed in the past from the rewards center.
This point value is only displayed to the member
You can bulk upload or manually add contributions and points to your members' profiles following these steps.
If you'd like to backfill points for your members, reach out to the Gradual team.
Rewards
Add items to your reward center so contributors are encouraged to earn points and redeem them for valuable things. You can offer physical items like mugs, notebooks, etc., or digital items like gift certificates.
Adding a new reward item
From the dashboard, click on the Contributors tab and select Rewards.
Click on the +Reward button on the top right.
Each reward must have a Title, a Picture (image), and Cost (price, in points).
The Description field is optional, but it will give your members a chance to learn more about the item.
Under Inventory, enable Track quantity if you'd like to track the item's quantity. Enter the current inventory quantity if enabled.
Under Advanced Settings:
If Require Shipping Address is checked, users will be asked to provide their shipping address during checkout. You can also add a shipping policy.
If Require Phone Number is checked, users will be required to provide their phone number.
By setting Redemption limit per member, you can decide how many times a member can redeem that item. The default value is 1, and accepted values range from 1 to 9,999.
Under List for redemption, you can choose to list the item immediately upon adding it or keep it unlisted until you're ready.
Click on Add Reward to finish adding the item.
Point Limits
To ensure fairness and prevent reward system misuse, there are limits on how points are awarded for forum and content post contributions. By default, users can make multiple posts in a day, but will only receive points for one qualifying post.
Communities can adjust these limits when editing the individual contribution settings.
Limit Reward visibility with Spaces
You can limit which members can view or redeem rewards with spaces. On the specific reward, you can choose to have the reward visible and redeemable by anyone, only members, or specific spaces.
For reward items, you can also exclude specific spaces from access. This exclusion list is available when the reward is set to All Members or Selected Spaces Only and is unchecked by default. When enabled, you can select one or more spaces to exclude from viewing and redeeming that reward.
Excluded spaces cannot overlap with allowed spaces. If a member belongs to both an allowed space and an excluded space, the exclusion takes priority and the reward will not be visible or accessible to that member.
Excluded members will not see the reward in the rewards list, and if they try to access it directly, they will receive a 404 page.
Editing Reward Items
From the Rewards page, you can change details on rewards, set them as unlisted (or hidden), or change the order in which the items appear.
From the dashboard, click on the Contributors tab and select Rewards.
To edit an individual reward, select the title of the reward or the edit icon in line with that reward.
Change any of the elements of the reward and select 'Save Reward' to save your work.
To change the order of rewards on the front end, navigate to the Rewards page in the dashboard, and to the Listed tab. Drag and drop the items to the order you prefer.
Track Reward Inventory
You can track and display the inventory counts of each reward item in your reward center. Showing the count of items left in stock, or listing when an item is running low in limited stock.
Committed inventory count
The committed inventory count is the number of items that have been reserved (to be processed) or redeemed and sent. This quantity updates dynamically based on order completions or refunds.
On-hand inventory count
The on-hand inventory count is the total inventory of the item and equals the sum of available items and committed items.
To adjust the on-hand inventory count, manually select the number and enter or adjust the count. Don't forget to save your work!
Available inventory count
The available inventory count is the number of items available for redemption and will consider any committed items that have been redeemed from the on-hand total count.
To adjust the available inventory count, manually select the number and enter or adjust the count. Don't forget to save your work!
Display inventory count
You can display the inventory count per item in your Rewards center by selecting the 'Display inventory to members' feature. You can decide if it displays the exact count left in stock (the on-hand inventory), or if it lists 'Limited Stock' when the inventory dips below a decided threshold.
Customize 'Limited Stock' inventory language
If you'd like to change the 'Limited Stock' text that shows when a reward is running low on inventory, you will select the edit icon in 'Display Style' and add your word or phrase. This will then appear to members on the Rewards page for that specific item.
Viewing the Reward list
You can see the list of all reward items, either listed or unlisted, from the Rewards page in the dashboard.
You can sort the reward items by listed or unlisted to see what's currently visible or hidden from members on the community website, or search for a specific reward item.
For each reward item, you’ll be able to see its name, cost, creation date and creator, how many times it was redeemed, inventory quantity, access restriction, and whether it is listed or unlisted. If spaces are excluded from access, those exceptions will appear in the Access tag flyout.
Shipping policy
You can provide a shipping policy that will be displayed during the checkout process for reward items which require a shipping address.
From the dashboard, click on the Contributors tab and select Rewards. Then, click on Shipping Policy Settings on the top right.
The policy you list must be no more than 200 characters.
For reward items requiring a shipping address, users will see the shipping policy you set during the checkout process.
Redemption Orders
All orders placed by your members will appear in the Redemption Orders tab in your dashboard for you to take action to redeem. This is a great place to see current & past orders, and take action on refunds or shipped items.
Currently, the rewards center cannot be integrated with a gifting platform or third-party site to handle the redemptions.
Data & Exports
The system will show you when all requests were made, by which member, and any notes provided by the member. You can also navigate to the users' profiles from here.
Export this list by selecting 'Export' in the upper right, and the system will send a CSV file of all this information to the email inbox of the dashboard admin requesting the export.
Process or Refund orders
Take action on redemption requests from this tab to mark the item as processed, or refunded.
Process request
Mark when a redemption request is being processed by navigating to the Redemption Orders tab, selecting the edit icon in line with the request, and selecting 'Mark as Processed'. The system will prompt you to confirm your action.
Currently, the platform will not alert the contributor when an item has been processed or shipped, but it will email them if it is refunded and their point value is refunded.
Refund request
Mark when a redemption request cannot be fulfilled, and the item must be refunded.
You must select why the redemption is being refunded, so the member can be notified of the reasoning.
Here are the refund reasons you can select from:
Item Out of Stock or Unavailable
Order Cancellation
Defective or Damaged Item
Incorrect Item Received
Shipping Delays or Issues
Points Miscalculation
Limited Time or Promotional Items
Event or Service Cancellations
Redemption not approved
Other
Once confirmed, it will alert the member of the refund by email, and allocate those points back to their redeemable points bank immediately.