Surprise and Delight Flows

Surprise and Delight allows you to add a free gift or discount on an order and optimize customer incentives using A/B testing. Make customers feel valued or generate interest in a specific product.

This guide provides an overview of Surprise and Delight, how to configure this template, analytics, and common questions. 

Before you start

• Flows are available to merchants on the Pro or Custom plans.
• Schedule a set-up call with Recharge to get started with Flows, or contact your Account Manager directly.
  • You can upgrade to Recharge Pro if you are on the Standard plan and would like to use Recharge Flows. Set up an upgrade call with Recharge to discuss the Recharge Pro plan and its benefits.
• If you are a first time Flows user, and looking for an overall introduction, see Flows Training: Surprise and Delight.
• Free gifts will not follow inventory rules configured in Recharge. Orders with free gifts will always process even if they’re out of stock. You cannot swap the free gift after it has been added to an order. It is important to set your flow limits based on your inventory levels to avoid out-of-stock issues.
• Recharge does not recalculate shipping or taxes when a gift is added.
• Two flows cannot be triggered at the same time. For example, if a Targeted Upsell and Surprise and Delight flow are triggered on order number 3, then only the most recently created flow will be triggered.
• Ensure you do not have duplicate experiences set up using SKU swap and gifting.

Surprise and Delight overview

Send incentives to the right customer at the right time to improve retention with the Surprise and Delight flow. A/B test gift flows to determine the most effective gifts. You can even set specific criteria based on product and customer data to gather analytical insight using operational or flow analytics. 

A Flow is triggered on a completed charge. If this charge fits the criteria set up in the trigger filters, the customer will enter the flow and move to the next step in the flow. For Surprise and Delight flows, the free gift is added to the customer’s next order and the notification is sent to the customer.

Triggers

There are currently two Triggers available, order processed number and streak order number. Both order processed number and streak order number refer to the number of orders a customer has made across all of their subscriptions. The difference is in how customers who have canceled and reactivated are treated by the flow.

If at any point one or more of a customer's subscriptions are canceled by either the customer or an admin, even if the customer has other active subscriptions, their streak order number will reset at 1 with the next fulfilled recurring order, but their order processed number will not reset.

Use order processed number for Flows that refer to a customer's entire history with your store, or streak order number to reflect their current and continuous journey.

While either order count will usually reflect subscription orders only, in rare situations there may be slight discrepancies. For example, a one-time purchase could also count towards the order count if the customer originally added it to a subscription order, but then rescheduled the one-time purchase to a different delivery date.

Order processed number examples

The following table covers scenarios for how a free gift is added depending on the order processed number set. 

The incentive is added to the customer's next queued order, and customers are notified of the incentive via an email notification sent after the incentive is added to the queued order.

Free gift banner

Customers who fulfill the trigger and condition of a Flow will see a banner in their customer portal stating they received a free gift or discount with their order. At this time, previewing or editing the banner is not available.

Depending on the customer portal theme your store is using, this banner will display in different location:

• Affinity: View your next order page
• Prima: Order now side banner
• Novum: Subscriptions page

Video tutorial

Want to learn more? Review the video below for a detailed overview of the Surprise and Delight flow and its functionality: 

Configure Surprise and Delight

To create a Surprise and Delight Flow: 

Step 1 - Create your flow 

1. Click Flows in your merchant portal. 
2. Click the Create New dropdown and choose one of the available Flow types. Optionally update the name of the Flow by clicking the pencil icon next to the title. 
   
3. Click Get started.
4. Choose the Trigger filter and add conditions based on customer, order, and product data. The flow will start when these conditions are met. You can also create custom customer segments.
   

Step 2 - Build your flow

Get started building the flow itself after setting up your flow configuration. Use the available flow action nodes to build the flow to your specifications. By default, the standard Surprise and Delight template is available to get you started, in the typical sequential order.

You can add additional Flow nodes, such as an A/B test node, or conditional split node. After adding these nodes to your flow, you can then add additional nodes to further segment your customers. See Flow nodes for additional details.

1. Click Add Incentive to choose your incentive offer. Choose the type of incentive to offer and add the incentive. Note that free gifts are considered a one-time product and will not add a free subscription.
   
   It's important to consider your product inventory when setting a free gift incentive. Free gifts do not follow the inventory rules configured in Recharge. Orders with free gifts are always processed, even if the free product is out-of-stock. Consider setting flow limits based on your inventory levels to avoid out-of-stock issues, as it is not possible to swap the free product after it has been added to an order. 
2. Confirm that your flow is configured correctly before saving and activating the flow. You can click on the vertical line menu included on a node to delete the node, or drag and drop additional nodes into the flow.

Step 3 - Save and activate the flow 

Save and activate the flow after confirming your Flow is configured correctly:

1. Click Save to save changes and once you’re ready to use the Flow, click Activate Flow. 
2. Select Save & activate.
3. Perform a test flow.

Perform a test flow

Test your Surprise and Delight flow to ensure the flow functions as per your expectations. When you perform a test you can force a customer through a flow, as the initial trigger criteria are ignored, allowing you to evaluate the customer experience before activating the flow. 

Test your flows in two locations. 

Option 1 

1. Click Flows in the merchant portal.
2. In the Your flows section, click the kebab icon and select Test Flow
   
3. Search for the target customer using the customer's email or customer ID. Select the customer and then select Run Flow. The email notification configured in the template is sent at this time, assuming the customer has opted into marketing emails.
   
4. Click View results to navigate to the customer details page to review the results of the test. 
5. Open the customer's next upcoming order to confirm that the free gift was added via the flow.

Option 2

1. Click Flows in the merchant portal.
2. Select an existing flow or create a new flow to access the canvas. 
3. Click the kebab icon and select Test Flow. 
   
   
4. Search for the target customer using the customer's email or customer ID. Select the customer and then select Run Flow. The email notification configured in the template is sent at this time, assuming the customer has opted into marketing emails.
   
5. Click View results to navigate to the customer details page to review the results of the test.
6. Open the customer's next upcoming order to confirm that the free gift was added via the flow.

You can also test the experience from the customer's perspective:

• Check your email to preview the email notification that is sent if you're using an email address that accepts promotional marketing
• View the customer's customer portal to confirm how the free gift is displayed to customers

Limitations

There are some limitations to consider when using Surprise and Delight:

• Prepaid subscriptions order number is based on the actual prepaid charge not the free prepaid orders. The free gift is added to the next charge, and is a not free order.
• Free gifts can be added to Bundles, though Customizable bundles shouldn’t be used as the free gift. Preset bundles can be a free gift.
• The free gift banner is fully supported using the Affinity customer portal theme. Stores using Prima can can see the free gift on the order now side banner and stores using Novum can see the banner on the subscriptions page. Stores using Theme Engine can customize code by following the steps outlined in Adding Flows to the Novum Theme Engine.
• Free gifts do not appear in RechargeSMS. 

FAQs

Is Surprise and Delight the same as gifting? 

Yes, Surprise and Delight is gifting though it’s important to note that Surprise and Delight is gifting from the merchant to the customer on their recurring orders (excluding checkout). Customer-to-customer gifting is not a part of Flows and the Surprise & Delight template. 

What happens if the order with a free gift is rescheduled or skipped?

The free gift is removed from an order if the order containing a free gift is rescheduled or skipped. The free gift does not carry over to the next order.