Verdant Tea Launches a Loyalty Points Reward Program

Dear Steepster Friends,
Verdant Tea is a small business, a project a passion that has grown largely because of all the wonderful word of mouth referrals that all of you spread. Since we don’t have the backing for large scale advertising, etc, we rely on you to help us keep moving forward and sourcing more and more unique teas from our friends in China. I are grateful beyond belief for your help!

To recognize your help, we have officially launched our loyalty rewards program. This isn’t your run-of-the-mill buy tea get points system. You earn points by sharing our articles and teas on Facebook, Twitter or Google+, or even just for visiting and reading some content. Your points will quickly accumulate, and can be redeemed for vouchers towards purchases, or exclusive items like Verdant Reserve samples, or tea wares.

I hope that you will all sign up to start earning something back for all the help you give us. Check out the details page here: http://verdanttea.com/verdant-loyalty-rewards/

This is super exciting! Now the only question is do we take the leap into the terrifying and vast world of tea puns and call this our LoyalTea program? Please leave your thoughts on the program here, and cast your vote on Loyalty v. LoyalTea. Thanks!
-David

36 Replies
Azzrian said

Thank you!! :)
Love it!
I like LoyalTea – I think its too obvious not to use. Even if punny.

Thanks Azzrian. Glad to hear that you like it.

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I’m usually not one for such things, but LoyalTea is cute.

Yeah, I am also not usually one for such things. Still, it is tempting…

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leafyq said

I love the idea of items that can only be gotten through such a program. I have never tried you guys, but I just might now!

Great to hear! Yes- there are many items, including perhaps hand made yixing teapots in the future, that I just won’t be able to get enough of for normal retail but still want to share.

I am glad to know that you will consider trying our teas. Hopefully you can earn a voucher through the new program to cover much of the cost of a preliminary order.

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Both are acceptable. I would vote for Loyalty. Seems a bit more polished, eliminates the distraction of a perceived cheesiness for prospective customers. Your current customer base could care less. Your teas speak for themselves! #quality #amazing

Thank Pureleaf. I appreciate your kind words and the advice on the name.

Azzrian said

This is very true.

Angrboda said

I agree with this. Although the pun might be fun, there are SO many tea-related puns out there in company names and usernames here, the majority of them by switching -ty with -tea, that it just seems a bit old, really. Avoiding this seems more professional to me.

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Nik select said

Sounds great, congratulations on the launch! I agree with Pureleaf and vote for “Loyalty.”

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I’ve already signed up, & either version is fine with me. I love your teas!

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Zeks said

Mmmhmmm… the idea is great but… am I the only one who thinks that social-network oriented reward points system is too easy to abuse by botters? This looks potentially disastrous to be honest. I mean – to get prizes any web programmer will have to simply write a once-a-day-visit script, make a fake facebook account and wait…

I suggest this should only work for ppl that are logged in to verdant website and have a history of at least one purchase

Azzrian said

This is true but geesh what would they gain besides tea which means that they would have to be some greedy MFers to do that – as if they don’t love tea then the only benefit would be to resell it for profit I guess. Crazy world we live in but you have a point.
Maybe I am being naive but I hate to think of fellow tea lovers going that route.
Then I wonder – either way if they must tweet, must facebook post, etc are they not still helping even with a bot doing the “work”?
Its advertising right?
Oh wait – see its late and my brain is numb….so if they make a fake facebook or fake twitter then no one is really seeing it .
BAH

Good point Zeks,
Still, it is a risk I am willing to take so that people who do read our articles and watch our videos that feel inspired to share can be thanked for it. We also have the ability to monitor usage on the back end and ban users who engage in obviously abusive use.

We will also be weighting rewards more towards (legitimate) blog commenting and reward purchases, diversifying the system a bit. Things can only keep getting better.

Bonnie said

Knowing the comment history of Azzrian, she should pass Go and be directly rewarded…huh Az! She is a Lioness! If you read the ‘yearbook’ comments she wins handsdown ( Az, you could do the Evening News Segment of Steepster!) I mean this in the kindest way!

Azzrian said

Aweee Bonnie I missed this comment – THANK YOU doll! xox

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Azzrian said

When all is said and done – regardless of which name you call it – it in and of itself is awesome! Go with your gut!

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Sounds to me like sticking with the Verdant Loyalty Program is the way to go based on feedback here. That was my first instinct, but I thought it would be fun to ask anyways.

As an aside: Why do you think that puns are SO common in the tea industry? Is it just because it is easy to make the -ty = tea joke, or is it something else about us tea people that makes it so tempting?

Babble said

I think it’s a little bit of both. “Tea” puns work well because they allow you to easily see what something is about but use a word people know. So, in the case of “loyaltea program”, people know the word “loyalty program” and they know it’s unique to tea.

I have seen a fair share of puns in coffee as well, all though I’m not quite immersed in the coffee culture. They have easily punable words like “brew”, “bean”, etc.

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Kittenna said

Anyone else having trouble getting all 500 points possibly available in a day? Also, how on earth can someone already have 1900 points? Grumble grumble :P

Azzrian said

500 possible a DAY? LOL no way I have visited every day since it started and Im only at around 800-900!! Oh that includes tweeting and facebooking etc.
Wow!

Hey, I have 1900 points! Well, 2300 now. I just happened to discover it by accident the day before they officially announced it, so I got a head start. I’m currently only able to get 400 points per day for some unknown reason, though.

I only have about 800-900 as well. I don’t have Twitter or Google+ so I have no idea how to get all those points otherwise.

Kittenna said

Yeah, I wonder if it’s because they have “tweeting” down twice (tweet a tea and an article), and it’s glitching and only counting that once. I tried a bunch of things yesterday and failed.

Sil select said

I’ve pretty much given up on this program. I’m not a fan of having to send a tweet every day to tell ppl about the rewards program – that essentially means I’m spamming friends with the same thing all the time. “liking” teas on Facebook never works for me, so I never get credit AND it again means, I’m cluttering up friends feeds with things.

I’ll visit every day for the points but that pretty much means that it’ll be a year before I can get anything, so yeah….

That’s kinda how I feel so far. I’d much rather acru points for purchases, or reviewing or whatnot – similar to the persimmon tree or red leaf or other such sites.

Babble said

Sil – does red leaf have any reward program beyond the review matcha and get free credit?

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