Surprise & Delight

Overview

• Our Surprise & Delight tool allows you to offer 1-time discounts and/or free products at specific order counts for specific subscribers
• Easily improve retention rates by offering additional discounts to subscribers the longer they stay subscribed
• Delight your subscribers with free products or introduce them to new products with trial packs
• Surprise and delight rules will trigger 1 order before the order so it appears in the customer portal (eg. Free gift on order 3 will trigger after order 2 processes)

What is Surprise & Delight?

Our surprise and delight feature is an incredible automation tool to help increase subscriber retention rates by offering free products and/or additional discounts as specific order counts for subscriptions. A good subscription strategy increases the value a subscriber gets the more they buy from you. If you want to build a subscription experience that keeps subscribers coming back month after month, it's important to invest in a strong post-purchase strategy.

A great way to incentivize subscribers to stay active is by offering additional discounts or free products as rewards for being a subscriber. Oftentimes subscribers drop off at specific order counts and our tool allows you to reward subscribers by staying active longer.

Here's an example of how Surprise & Delight can be used:

• On order 2 (the first recurring order) offer subscribers a free trial pack for another product in your catalog
• On order 3 offer subscribers an extra 10% off
• On order 6 offer subscribers an extra 20% off as a thank you
• On order 10 offer subscribers a free product that pairs well with their subscription product (like a classic punch card)

When do Surprise & Delight rules trigger?

A Surprise & Delight rule will trigger, by default, when the prior order processes. For example, if you're going to give a free gift on order 2, the surprise and delight rule will trigger immediately after checkout. If the free gift or discount should apply on order 4, the rule will trigger on order 3. This gives you time to notify the subscriber via email (see:  ) and alerts the subscriber that they're getting a free gift on their order to help prevent cancellations.

Any time the subscription is edited, Skio will check for eligibility. If the subscription is no longer eligible for the free gift or discount, this will be removed from the subscription. Make sure to take this into consideration when you're editing Surprise and delight rules after setting it live.

Skio also offers the ability to have the Surprise & Delight rule trigger a certain amount of days before the next order. 

We added this new component in June 2023 so that the rule will check eligibility 5 days (by default, this can be changed to any window) before a subscription's billing date and then "lock in" the add-on (or discount). This means that if a subscription order is eligible for the Surprise & Deligh 5 days before the order, the rule will run and the free add-on or discount will be applied.

This change can be helpful for certain merchants because eligibility could change and some merchants may not want to automatically remove free gifts or discounts if the subscription is no longer eligible. 

How do I set it up?

• Go to your Skio Dashboard
• Click on Rules on the left-hand menu
• Click on + New Surprise & Delight at the top of the page
• Choose the order number you want the gift or discount to apply to

  

• Choose the discount amount or the free add-on product

  

• Select which products you want the surprise and delight rule to apply to and then click Continue. You can also click "Select All" to choose every subscription product. Feel free to select specific variants or all variants for a product.

  

• Name your rule and click Done to create the rule

How do I delete a Rule?

1. Go to your Skio Dashboard
2. Click on Rules on the left-hand menu
3. Click the trashcan next to the rule you're looking to delete

How do I edit a rule?

1. Go to your Skio Dashboard
2. Click on Rules on the left-hand menu
3. Click the black pencil icon next to the rule you're looking to edit

Surprise & Delight banner

You can notify customers about their upcoming Surprise & Delight through a banner which shows up in the customer's subscription portal. The surprise and delight banner will alert a subscriber that they received a free gift and it will alert them that they will get a free gift in the future X orders away. Here's an example:

How do I enable/disable the banner?

1. Go to your Skio Dashboard
2. Click on Portal Settings on the left-hand menu
3. Toggle the setting Hide "Surprise & Delight" banner

FAQs

Is the discount recurring or just for that specific order number?

• The discount will ONLY apply to the order it is configured for and it will not recur for future orders

Can two rules be triggered together?

• Yes! If the eligibility requirements are met for both (or multiple) rules then the subscriber will get both rewards

Do I need to create a rule for each order count?

• Yes, if you want to offer a discount on the 3rd and 6th order you'll create a rule for each

Can I create rules that apply to unique products?

• Yes, our tool allows you to select apply rules on to the products you want

I only want to incentivize a specific variant and not all variants for a product, can I do that?

• Of course! Our tool allows you to choose single variants, a few variants, or all variants for products

What does the Sync Rules button do?

• Sync Rules button will check to make sure all subs that should get a rule applied to their next order and update that sub so the rule triggers as expected. Without clicking the button, those subs would not have the rule apply to their next order because the rule was created after their prior order was processed which triggers the rule.