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Lending Points to Loyalty Members

If a member has almost enough points to qualify for a desired redemption, some companies will lend the member enough points to qualify. Then the member will have a negative point balance, until the member accrues more points.

Setting Up Automatic Loan Approval

You can allow automatic approval of loans for a specified number of points, so a manager does not have to review the loan request.

For example, you could allow loans for certain amounts depending on tier status.

The procedure below shows how to enter the amount for automatic loan approval manually. However, you could also create a workflow to enter this amount automatically whenever a customer's tier changes. For more information about workflows, see Siebel Business Process Designer Administration Guide.

To set up automatic loan approval

1. Navigate to the Loyalty Members screen.
2. In the Members list, select the member.
3. Click the More Info view tab.
4. In the Administration section of the More Info form:
   • In the Max Point Loan field, enter the maximum number of points that may be loaned to this member automatically, without manager review.
   • In the Max Point Loan status field, select Accepted.

Lending Points to a Member

To decide whether to loan a member points, the member service representative can perform these tasks:

• Viewing Loyalty Members' Point Balances
• Entering and Viewing Loyalty Members' Value Scores

After deciding to lend a member points, the member service representative uses the Loans view to create the loan.

To lend points to a member

1. Navigate to the Loyalty Members screen.
2. In the Members list, select the member.
3. Click the Loans view tab.
4. Add a new record to the Loans list, and complete the necessary fields. Some fields are described in the following table.

   Field	Comments
   Type	Select Accrual.
   Subtype	Select Loan.
   Product	Select the product that the points will be redeemed for.
   Points	Enter the number of points that will be loaned.
   Point Name	Select the point type. For more information about point types, see Creating Point Types for Loyalty Programs.
   Submit To	Select the manager who must approve this request. By default, this field contains the name of the member service representative's manager. The member service representative may change this value, if, for example, the manager is on vacation.
   Status	Select Submitted to submit the loan for approval.

Approving the Loan

If you have set up automatic loan approval and if this loan is less than or equal to the number of points that can be approved automatically, the status automatically changes to approved.

If it is not approved automatically, the manager must view the record and manually change the status to approved or rejected.

When the loan is approved, an email is automatically sent to inform the customer.

Member service managers should regularly search for accruals that need their approval.

To find accruals that need manager approval

1. Navigate to the Loyalty Transactions screen.
2. From the Show drop-down list, choose Transaction Approval.

   The list includes all transactions that need manager approval, including loans.

3. To approve a transaction, select Approved in the Status field.
4. To reject a transaction:
   1. Select Rejected - Manager in the Status field.
   2. Click the Notes view tab.
   3. Add a record to the Notes list and enter the reason for rejecting the loan.

Contacting the Member

After looking in the Loans list to whether that a loan has been approved, the member service representative informs the member that the loan has been approved or rejected.

Redeeming the Loan

The loaned points remain available to the member until the member redeems the loan.

When the member redeems the loan by making a purchase, the points are temporarily debited from the member's account.

The redemption is fulfilled by an external system, which must be integrated with Siebel Loyalty.

After the fulfillment is complete, the points are permanently debited from the member's account.