Loyalty member
A loyalty member is a participant in a live loyalty program. What counts as a member depends on the loyalty program type:
- In profile-based loyalty programs, a member is a loyalty profile.
- In card-based loyalty programs, a member is a loyalty card.
Loyalty profile
A loyalty profile links a customer profile to a profile-based loyalty program. When a customer joins the program, Talon.One creates a loyalty profile that records the following:
- Customer's join date.
- Point balances across all subledgers in the program.
- Customer's tier, if tiers are configured.
- Transaction history.
A customer profile counts as a loyalty member if either of the following is true:
- They have a recorded join date for the program.
- The join date isn't yet recorded, but they have at least one transaction in any subledger of the program.
You can retrieve every customer's join date for a program using the Export customers' loyalty program join dates endpoint.
A loyalty profile is program-specific. For example, a customer who has joined two profile-based loyalty programs has two loyalty profiles, one for each program.
Loyalty card
A loyalty card is a physical or virtual card used in card-based loyalty programs. The card holds loyalty points, and any customer profile linked to it can spend its balance.
A loyalty card has the following properties:
- Unique card code that can be used at a POS system or passed via API.
- Loyalty points that can be stored and spent using the card.
- Link to one or more customer profiles, for example when family members share a card.
- Status: Active, Inactive, or Blocked.
A loyalty card counts as a loyalty member as soon as it is created in the program, regardless of its status or whether it is linked to a customer profile. For example:
- A customer with three loyalty cards in the same program counts as three loyalty members, one for each card.
- If you have 15,000 loyalty cards, 12,000 active, 2,500 inactive, and 500 blocked, they all still count as loyalty members.
Total member count
Members are counted at the program level, not the customer level:
| Program type | Unit counted | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Profile-based | One member for each customer profile that has joined the program. | All profiles that have joined a live program. |
| Card-based | One member for each loyalty card created in the program. | All cards created in a live program, regardless of status. |
For example, if you run a profile-based program with 8,000 joined profiles alongside a card-based program with 5,000 cards, the two are reported as separate totals: 8,000 profile-based members and 5,000 card-based members.
Member count doesn't depend on recent activity. A member still counts even if they haven't made any recent transactions.