Customer recognition shows your best customers a thank-you with a coupon code on your cart and shop pages, from time to time, while they’re logged in. It also flags their orders on the WooCommerce order screen, so whoever packs the parcel knows to take extra care.
You will learn #
- How to show your best customers a thank-you with a coupon
- When a customer gets a coupon, and how often
- What the Top customer box on the order screen shows
- What the Segment column on your Orders list shows
Before you begin #
- Run an analysis first. Customer recognition works from your customer groups, such as Champions and Loyal, and Tendlio hands out a thank-you coupon only once an analysis has finished. Tendlio runs an analysis every week on its own. For what each group means, see What your customer segments mean.
- Keep coupons on in WooCommerce. The thank-you always comes with a code, so if Enable the use of coupon codes is off under WooCommerce → Settings → General, no thank-you shows.
- Know that only logged-in customers are greeted. Tendlio can tell who a shopper is only when they’re logged in to their account. Their orders count by email address, so orders they placed as a guest with the same email count too.
Show your best customers a thank-you #
- In your WordPress admin, open Tendlio → Customers → Customer recognition.
- Under Recognized customer groups, tick the groups you want to thank. Champions and Loyal are ticked to start, and you can add others, for example At-Risk customers you’d like to win back.
- Under Greet recognized customers on the storefront, turn on Show the thank-you (with a coupon when one is due) on cart and shop pages.
- Under Thank-you message, write the greeting.
{name}becomes the customer’s first name. It starts as “Hi {name}, thanks for being one of our best customers!” - Under Occasional coupon, turn on Sometimes include a thank-you coupon. The thank-you shows only when a coupon is due, so with this switch off, nobody sees anything.
- Under Coupon discount %, set the discount. It starts at 10%.
- Under Coupon message, write the line that carries the code.
{pct}becomes the discount and{code}the code. It starts as “Here’s a thank-you: {pct}% off this order with code {code}.” - Click Save.
You can also get to Customer recognition from the Segments page: the row of each group you reward has a Reward with perks button.
The thank-you shows as a WooCommerce notice, styled by your theme, at the top of the cart page and above the product list on your shop and category pages. After your two lines, the notice adds “This code doesn’t apply to products already on sale.”
The customer sees the thank-you once, on the page where Tendlio makes their code. On the next page it’s gone, and it comes back only when their next coupon is due. The code keeps working for 14 days, but Tendlio doesn’t show it again.
Tip: An email campaign to these customers doesn’t hand out any thank-you codes. Tendlio makes a code only when a customer who’s due visits your shop. If your campaign email carries its own offer, turn Sometimes include a thank-you coupon off while the campaign runs, so the same customers don’t get two discounts.
When a customer gets a coupon #
A customer in one of your groups gets a coupon when both of these are true:
- They’ve placed at least 5 orders since their last thank-you coupon. For the first coupon, that’s 5 orders in total.
- At least 45 days have passed since their last thank-you coupon. For the first coupon, there’s nothing to wait for.
Tendlio also makes no more than 25 coupons a day across your store. A customer who’s due when the day’s coupons have run out gets theirs on a later visit.
Each code starts with VIP-, works for one order and only for that customer’s email address, can’t be used together with another coupon, and stays valid for 14 days. It takes the discount off every product in the cart that isn’t already on sale.
In Advanced mode, you can change these numbers on the Customer recognition page: the orders in Give it every, the days in …and at least, the days in Coupon valid for, and Max coupons per day, where 0 means no limit. Under Per-segment offer, you can also give one group its own discount, for example a bigger one for At-Risk customers. A group with its own discount has to be ticked under Recognized customer groups, or nobody in it gets the coupon.
If the thank-you doesn’t show #
The next step at the top of the Customer recognition page, and the tool’s card on the Growth engine page, tell you when the thank-you can’t reach shoppers, and why:
- The coupon is switched off, either Sometimes include a thank-you coupon on the Customer recognition page or coupons in WooCommerce. With no coupon, there’s no thank-you.
- Your theme skips both spots. The thank-you shows only at the top of the classic cart page and above product lists, and some themes built from blocks use neither. If Tendlio hasn’t seen either spot load for a week, the next step says so. There’s no shortcode to place the thank-you anywhere else.
A note under the thank-you switch also warns you when your cart page uses the block Cart. The thank-you doesn’t appear on that cart page. It can still show above the product list on your shop and category pages, if your theme uses the standard WooCommerce layout there.
A customer in one of your groups can also see nothing when:
- They aren’t due yet: they’ve placed fewer than 5 orders since their last coupon, or fewer than 45 days have passed since it.
- The day’s coupons have run out. They get theirs on a later visit.
- They’re logged out.
- Tendlio is waiting for a fresh analysis: one is running, the last one stopped before it finished, or since it last ran you’ve changed a setting it uses, such as which order statuses count as a sale. No coupon goes out until the next analysis finishes.
The Top customer box on the order screen #
When you open an order from a customer in one of your recognized groups, a Top customer box shows in the right-hand column of the WooCommerce order screen. It’s on from the start, and it works whether or not the thank-you on your shop is switched on.
The box shows:
- The customer’s group, and their number of orders, average order, lifetime spend and when they first bought, with how many days since their last order.
- A line when their order count is a milestone, such as 10, 25 or 50: “They have now placed 25 orders with you!”
- “One of your best customers. Double-check this order before it ships.”
- When they once rated an order 1 to 3 stars on a review request: “They reported a problem before. Make this one perfect.”
- Whether a thank-you coupon is due: due next time they shop, none sent yet, or sent about N days ago. This line shows only for a customer with an account, while the coupon is switched on.
- Copy thank-you note copies a short note you can put in the parcel, and Email them personally opens your email app with the note ready to send. Tendlio sends nothing itself.
To change the note, write your own under Thank-you note on the Customer recognition page. {name} becomes the customer’s first name.
Anyone who can open an order in WordPress sees the box, a shop manager for example. Shoppers never see it. If other people pack your orders, turn off Include their spend, history and feedback on the Customer recognition page. The box then keeps the group, the order count and the careful-packing line, and drops the spend, the feedback line, the coupon line and the email button.
To turn the box off, switch off Flag recognized customers on WooCommerce orders on the same page.
The Segment column on your Orders list #
Your WooCommerce Orders list gets a Segment column that shows which group each order’s customer is in, for every group, not only the recognized ones. Hover over the name to see what the group means.
- Pending means the customer has no order that counts as a sale yet, for example when their first order is still waiting for payment.
- A customer who ordered since your last analysis gets a group worked out from their orders right away. The hover says it’s a live estimate, confirmed at the next analysis.
The column is on from the start. To turn it off for everyone, switch off Show each order’s customer segment on the Orders list on the Customer recognition page. Each person can also hide it for themselves under Screen Options on the Orders list.
Why Customer recognition works this way #
The thank-you comes only with a coupon #
A thank-you on every visit becomes part of the page, and shoppers stop reading it. Tying it to a coupon that’s due means it shows rarely, and each time it brings something.
A coupon needs both orders and days #
If only orders counted, a customer who buys every week would get a coupon every few weeks. If only days counted, a customer who buys every two months would get one with nearly every order. Needing both also makes it harder to time orders to trigger a coupon.
Guests aren’t greeted #
To greet a guest, Tendlio would have to answer, on a public page, whether an email address belongs to one of your best customers, and anyone could ask that about someone else’s address. So only customers who are logged in to their own account are greeted.
Additional resources #
- What your customer segments mean: the groups you choose from.
- Coupons the plugin creates (and cleans up): what every Tendlio code has in common, and when unused ones are deleted.
- How to act on a customer segment: email a group, or reward it.
- How to check your tools on the Growth engine page: what the Customer recognition card’s status means.
Frequently asked questions #
Why doesn't a Champion see the thank-you? #
They have to be logged in, and a coupon has to be due: 5 orders since their last thank-you coupon (5 in total for the first) and 45 days since it. Coupons also have to be on, both on the Customer recognition page and in WooCommerce.
Can a customer get the thank-you without a coupon? #
No. The thank-you shows only together with a coupon, so it stays rare and always brings something.
Does the Top customer box need the storefront thank-you? #
No. The box and the Segment column work on their own, and both are on from the start.