'I've had twelve boxes, where's my gift?'
Your website says subscribers get a gift with their sixth and twelfth box. It is a nice promise and people remember it. Each month, someone filters the subscription app for subscribers with a start date six or twelve months ago and adds a gift to their order. The filter misses anyone who skipped or paused, because their twelfth box came later than twelve months. It includes people who restarted after cancelling, whose count restarted too, or should have.
A subscriber who has been with you since the beginning emails politely to say she never received her twelve box gift. She is right.
Months are not boxes
The milestone is a number of boxes, but the easy thing to filter on is a date. As soon as subscribers skip, pause or restart, the two drift apart.
- Skipped and paused months push a subscriber's milestone later than their anniversary.
- Replacement boxes should not count as extra boxes.
- Subscribers who cancel and return may or may not keep their count, depending on your rule.
- Prepaid and gift boxes may count differently.
- The gift must be added before packing, not after someone notices.
So a promise that sounds simple needs a count that nobody can easily keep.
What missed milestones cost
Loyalty gifts go to your most loyal subscribers, and missing one is noticed by exactly the people you most want to keep. Sending one twice costs stock. Handling the emails takes time, and sending a missed gift on its own costs postage the box would have covered.
It also undermines the promise. If people suspect the gift depends on luck, it stops being a reason to stay.
There is a stock planning side as well. Without knowing how many subscribers will reach a milestone next month, you cannot order the right number of gifts, so you either run short on the month a large group from a busy signup season all reach their sixth box, or you hold far more than you need.
The milestone tracking we build
- Each subscriber's box count is kept from actual dispatches, taken from the packing plan and courier records.
- Your rules decide what counts: replacements do not, prepaid boxes do, gift boxes by your choice, and what happens to the count after a cancellation.
- Before each packing run, subscribers reaching a milestone with this box are listed, with the gift you set for that milestone.
- The gift is added to their box recipe, reserved from stock, and shown on the pick sheet.
- Subscribers can see their box count and next milestone on their manage page.
- A record of every gift sent stops duplicates, and missed gifts from before the system can be found by recounting history.
| Milestone rule | Example | Your choice |
|---|---|---|
| What counts | Dispatched boxes, not replacements | Yes |
| Gift boxes | Count towards the recipient's own total if they continue | Yes |
| After cancelling | Count kept or reset | Yes |
| Milestones | Sixth, twelfth, twenty-fourth box | Yes |
| Gift item | Chosen per milestone, from stock or leftovers | Yes |
When you first switch it on, we recount history so you can see who was missed in the past and decide whether to send a belated gift.
Milestones kept without anyone counting
Before each packing run, the list of milestone subscribers is ready and the gifts are already in their recipes. The pick sheet shows the extra item and a small card if you use one. Subscribers can see how close they are to the next gift, which gives them one more reason not to cancel just before it.
The polite email from your earliest subscriber does not arrive, because her gift was in the box.
Is your loyalty promise slipping?
- Milestone subscribers are found by filtering on start date.
- Subscribers who skipped have missed their gift.
- Loyalty gifts are sometimes posted separately after a complaint.
- You are not sure whether some subscribers got a gift twice.
- Subscribers cannot see how many boxes they have had.