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Tiers let you reward your most engaged members with progressively richer benefits. Members at higher tiers earn more points, get better multipliers, or unlock exclusive rewards — creating a powerful incentive to stay active and increase spending. Loyalife automates tier evaluation and assignment, so members move up (or down) without manual intervention.

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How tiers work

A tier is a status level defined by a milestone — a threshold of points, spend, or custom metrics that a member must reach to qualify. Once a member crosses a tier’s milestone, they are upgraded and begin enjoying that tier’s benefits and earning multipliers for all subsequent transactions. Tier evaluation runs on a daily automated schedule. Members are promoted or demoted based on their current qualifying activity against configured thresholds.

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Why tiers work

Tiers create a loyalty loop. Members who are close to the next tier threshold increase their spending to qualify — a behaviour sometimes called “tier chasing.” Once at a higher tier, members are motivated to stay there. This increases both transaction frequency and average spend.

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Tier structure

A typical Loyalife program has a base tier (the entry level every member starts in) plus two to four levels above it:

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Qualification methods

Loyalife supports multiple approaches to determining tier eligibility:

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Tier retention period

The Tier Retention Period defines how long a member stays in a tier after they qualify. This is separate from the qualification method and lets you offer grace periods before downgrading members who dip below a threshold. Example: A 365-day retention period means a member who qualified for Gold last year retains Gold status for the rest of the year even if they don’t transact again. All changes to the Tier Retention Period — both toggling the setting on/off and changing the number of days — are captured in the Audit Trail with a timestamp, actor, and the before/after value.

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Tier benefits

Benefits are awarded when a member first achieves a tier’s milestone. They are not awarded to members already in the tier when you configure or edit the benefit.

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Manual vs automated assessment

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Real-world tier examples

Qualification: number of nights stayed in a rolling 12 months. Retention: 2-month grace period before downgrade. Benefits: priority check-in, room upgrades, lounge access at higher tiers.
Qualification: combined average daily balance over a rolling 3-month window (aggregated attribute). Rolling evaluation with a 3-month grace period. Benefits: fee waivers, higher cashback rates, dedicated relationship manager.
Qualification: lifetime points accumulated. No rolling window — once Gold, always Gold (lifetime basis). Benefits: early sale access, free shipping, birthday bonuses.

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Next steps

  • Configure tiers — enable tiers and set up your qualification method and base tier
  • Manage tiers — add, edit, and delete tier levels