⬇️Tier Assessment 🆕

This article shows how you can set up Tier assessment to automatically evaluate your customers' spending and keep them in the right loyalty tier, enhancing engagement and rewarding top spenders.

Who can use Tier assessment?

This feature is available for: Enterprise plans.

Introduction

For Shopify Plus merchants using the enterprise plan, keeping your loyalty program members in the right tiers is essential for maintaining engagement and rewarding your top spenders. The Tier Assessment feature allows you to automatically review your customers' spending habits to determine if they should maintain their current VIP status or be moved to a lower tier.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to set up the Tier Assessment feature to automate this process and ensure your customers are always placed in the appropriate tier.

Understanding the Rules

The Tier Assessment feature operates by allowing merchants to set the following parameters:

Assessment Cycle (X): The period after which the customer’s spending will be reviewed.
Order Review Timeframe (Y): The specific timeframe in which orders are evaluated.
Spending Threshold (Z): The minimum amount a customer must spend within the set timeframe to retain their tier.

After each cycle (X), the system assesses whether customers have met the spending criteria (Z) within the specified timeframe (Y). If not, they may be downgraded to a lower tier.

How to set up Tier assessment

Step 1: Open the Joy Loyalty application.
Step 2: Contact Joy Loyalty customer support and request to enable the "Tier Assessment" feature by providing a message like: "Please assist me in enabling the 'Tier Assessment' feature."

Step 3: Wait for activation from the support team.
Step 4: After having Tier Assessment in your setting, Open Membership > VIP Tier > Set up

Important note: Tier assessment feature only works when the VIP Tier of your store is calculated based on Amount Spent. Specifically, when you select the rule to calculate VIP Tier as amount spent, the tier assessment feature will appear. Conversely, if you select to calculate it based on points earned, the tier assessment feature will be automatically hidden.

Step 5: Choose Assessment > Set up Tier Assessment by configuring:
- Assessment Cycle: Set the time interval (X months) at which the system evaluates customers’ spending for tier retention. The review cycle will repeat every X months as specified.
- Order Review Timeframe: Define the period (Y months) during which customer orders are reviewed to determine tier eligibility.
- Spending Threshold to maintain tiers: Set the minimum spending requirement (Z amount) needed for customers to remain in their current tier.

Note: Currently, the start date of the Assessment Cycle is default set to January 1, 2025. In the future, we will allow you to edit the start date of the cycle. If there are any updates, I will notify you promptly.

Comparison Between Tier Assessment and Tier Demotion:

	Tier assessment	Tier demotion
Purpose	Automatically reviews customer spending over a defined period to determine if they should maintain their current tier status or be downgraded. It's more comprehensive and allows merchants to fine-tune the evaluation process.	Primarily focuses on downgrading customers if they haven’t earned points for a long time. It is a simpler mechanism primarily for basic tier management.
Evaluation Criteria	Considers three main variables: the assessment cycle (X), the review period (Y), and the spending threshold (Z). This allows for a more strategic approach to tier retention.	Typically involves setting a single period (X), and customers are downgraded if they don’t earn points within that timeframe.
Customization and Flexibility	Offers higher customization by letting merchants specify multiple factors like the review window and spending conditions. It’s ideal for businesses looking for a more tailored loyalty management strategy.	Provides a straightforward, less customizable method, suitable for merchants with basic tier management needs.
Use Case	Best for Shopify Plus merchants who want a more robust and granular method of evaluating their loyalty members, ensuring that top spenders remain engaged by regularly reassessing their tier status.	Suitable for merchants needing a simple, time-based system that automatically lowers the tier if no qualifying activity occurs.
Outcome	Results in maintaining or demoting a tier based on a holistic view of the customer’s spending habits.	Primarily focuses on demotion when inactivity or insufficient points are detected within the set period.

Tier assessment

Tier demotion

Purpose

Automatically reviews customer spending over a defined period to determine if they should maintain their current tier status or be downgraded. It's more comprehensive and allows merchants to fine-tune the evaluation process.

Primarily focuses on downgrading customers if they haven’t earned points for a long time. It is a simpler mechanism primarily for basic tier management.

Evaluation Criteria

Considers three main variables: the assessment cycle (X), the review period (Y), and the spending threshold (Z). This allows for a more strategic approach to tier retention.

Typically involves setting a single period (X), and customers are downgraded if they don’t earn points within that timeframe.

Customization and Flexibility

Offers higher customization by letting merchants specify multiple factors like the review window and spending conditions. It’s ideal for businesses looking for a more tailored loyalty management strategy.

Provides a straightforward, less customizable method, suitable for merchants with basic tier management needs.

Use Case

Best for Shopify Plus merchants who want a more robust and granular method of evaluating their loyalty members, ensuring that top spenders remain engaged by regularly reassessing their tier status.

Suitable for merchants needing a simple, time-based system that automatically lowers the tier if no qualifying activity occurs.

Outcome

Results in maintaining or demoting a tier based on a holistic view of the customer’s spending habits.

Primarily focuses on demotion when inactivity or insufficient points are detected within the set period.

This distinction helps merchants decide which feature aligns best with their loyalty program objectives, depending on the complexity and depth of their customer engagement strategy.

Best practice

A store has the following Tier Assessment rules:

Spending thresholds to achieve a tier:
- Bronze: $0
- Silver: $400
- Gold: $600
Spending thresholds to maintain a tier:
- Bronze: $0
- Silver: $400
- Gold: $600
First day of the assessment cycle: 01/01/2025
Assessment cycle: 6 months
Time frame for customers to spend: 12 months

In the example shown in the image below, my customer maintained their tier for 3 assessment cycles. However, in the 4th assessment cycle, they did not spend enough and were downgraded to Bronze.

Overall

The Tier Assessment feature helps automate the process of managing your VIP customers, ensuring that their tier is accurately adjusted based on their spending behavior. By setting the right assessment cycle, evaluation period, and spending criteria, you’ll maintain a high level of engagement in your loyalty program while ensuring fair tier placements.