Is your business concerned about SMS coupon fraud? If so, you can now rest assured with Tatango’s new coupon code merge tags, which eliminate the most common forms of SMS coupon code fraud.
Before we jump into how to eliminate SMS coupon code fraud, it’s best to first be able to identify the different types of SMS coupon code fraud. There’s really three types of SMS coupon code fraud, the first being a single recipient using an SMS coupon multiple times. This type of fraud usually occurs when an SMS coupon has an expiration far enough out into the future that would allow a recipient to redeem the same SMS coupon multiple times, for multiple purchases.
The second type of fraud is when an SMS coupon intended for one recipient is redeemed by multiple customers. This type of fraud usually occurs when an SMS coupon is forwarded by the recipient to others, or shared on social media sites, or increasingly popular coupon sharing sites.
The third type of fraud is when an SMS coupon isn’t present at purchase, and the employee processing the purchase uses a previously redeemed SMS coupon. This type of fraud usually occurs when there’s a relationship between the customer and the employee. As you can imagine, all of these types of SMS coupon fraud become more prevalent as the value of the SMS coupons increases, so running high-value opt-in SMS promotions as a way to grow your SMS subscribers can result in higher than normal amounts of SMS coupon fraud. Don’t worry though, with Tatango’s new coupon code merge tags, you’ll be able to completely eliminate these types of fraud.
Now that you’re aware of the different types of SMS coupon code fraud, lets jump into how Tatango’s new coupon code merge tags work, and how they prevent fraud in your own SMS coupons. The first step is to export a set of unique, one-time use coupon codes from your point of sale software, enough to cover the total amount of SMS subscribers you intend to message. Once you have your coupon codes exported, you’ll want to create a new broadcast message and paste those coupon codes into the coupon code management tool, as you can see below.
The second step will be to insert the coupon code merge tag into your SMS message, and you’ll do this by simply selecting the “Upload” button within the coupon code management tool. You’ll notice when you do this that within your SMS message you’ll see a merge tag, and depending on the size of the coupon codes you uploaded, it will look something like {c12}, as you can see below. If you remember from a couple weeks ago, this is very similar to how you would go about customizing each SMS message with a subscriber’s first name.
After sending your SMS message and its arrival on your customer’s mobile phone, Tatango will do some magic on our end and replace the merge tag, in this case {c12}, with one of the unique coupon codes you imported into the coupon code management tool earlier. When this process has been completed, every recipient will receive a message with their own unique coupon code, as you can see from the two messages received by two separate customers.
By having employees validate each individual coupon code through your point of sale system, then voiding that coupon code for future use, you’ll be able to eliminate any future SMS coupon fraud. For more detailed instructions on the above steps, click here.
In addition to fighting SMS coupon fraud, this feature also allows you to more accurately track SMS coupon redemptions, as each coupon code will only be able to be redeemed once by the intended recipient. This will allow you to increase the accuracy of your redemptions, which in-turn will allow you to more accurately determine the ROI of each individual SMS message.
Interested in fighting SMS coupon code fraud, or maybe just want a more accurate method to track redemptions at your point of sale? Send us a message or call our sales team at (206) 274-6599 ext 1 to discuss how we can help.
