One checkpoint for every invoice
The professional pest-control arm of a global life-sciences group, selling through distributors to operators it never saw, with a programme for three Southeast Asian markets.
/work/sell-out-dataCame in new build
- System
- Loyalty platform for pest-control operators
- Ask
- Logins, a rewards shop, short campaigns and a customer database
- Region
- Southeast Asia, three markets
The piece Four rods of four lengths enter one funnel and leave as four equal pins: four prices in, the same points out.
- 3012invoicesuploaded by July 2019
- 284operatorsmembers by July 2019
- 48hoursupload to points, at most
- About 1%reward cost against sales tracked
The ask
A regional loyalty programme for operators: individual logins, tiers, a rewards shop, short campaigns and a customer database.
The real problem
With no unique code on the products, the only proof of purchase was an invoice the client had nobody to check.
Points read off the invoice price would have tied the client's cost to every distributor's mark-up.
From sell-in to sell-out
- Idle
- Live
- Strain
- Fail
BeforeThe client saw its sales to distributors and nothing after. Operators bought at each distributor's price and no record came back.
AfterEach invoice passes the clearing house, earns points from a fixed product table and becomes a row of sell-out data.
What we built
A platform in three parts behind one operator portal: the invoice clearing house, the points engine and the sell-out reporting. We set it up one market at a time from July 2017.
The clearing house checks each invoice in order: readable, dated within 30 days, stamped, signed. A rejected invoice always goes back with its reason. The engine awards points on a recommended price held for each product.
How we made it hold
The reward pool is a share of the client's own sales to distributors and points are pegged to the product, so no mark-up raises the payout.
Backstage The decisions behind the build, and the hardest problem
Decisions
Points from a fixed product table.
Earned on a recommended price set in the system, so a distributor's price never changes what an operator earns or what the client pays.
One checkpoint outside the client.
The client had nobody to check invoices, so the clearing house runs the same checks in every market and returns every rejection with its reason.
Expiry that rewards coming back.
Points last six months from award and every new invoice extends the whole balance.
Ruled out
Points on the invoice price.
It would have tied the programme to each distributor's pricing and let mark-up raise the cost.
The hardest problem
Reading invoices the client had never seen, printed by distributors in three markets. Each market sent its distributor list, a sample invoice and its product codes as the distributors print them. The checks run in the same order everywhere.
The difference
- Three markets live on one platform, from July 2017, March 2018 and August 2018.
- Each approved invoice became a row of sell-out data the client never had before.
- Invoice checks run outside the client, which needs no staff of its own to do them.
