27 Mar Featured in Boulder Daily Camera: Platform developed by Boulder company aims to make rewards programs easy for small businesses

Originally published at DailyCamera.com.

By Pratik Joshi

Boulder’s Smart Transaction Systems, a financial technologies company helping small businesses offer customer loyalty programs including digital gift cards, has developed a new rewards program.

The program called Wilbur is “ultra-simple” in the way it works, offering benefits for both businesses and consumers, said Ray Clopton, CEO and founder of Smart Transaction Systems.

It aims to help businesses generate repeat businesses while rewarding frequent customers. The system was beta tested late last year in Washington, Rhode Island and California, and is being rolled out nationally, he said.

In celebration of “National Mom & Pop Business Owners’ Day” on Friday, the company is giving a special deal: Friday through April 30, businesses that sign up for Wilbur will not pay the $49 monthly subscription fee until 100 customers are enrolled in their reward programs, Clopton said.

Businesses don’t have to worry about setting up the program or managing it, and consumers don’t have to fill out forms or download apps, he said. Consumers only need to send a text with their first name to enroll, he said.

Studies have shown that consumers aren’t willing to share personal data in exchange for personalized experiences, Clopton said. ” Wilbur is a non-invasive program that respects privacy.”

The program is geared toward smaller businesses that don’t have the information technology infrastructure to monitor and analyze data, Clopton said. The software is integrated with the point-of-sale systems, he said. It doesn’t require any special training or equipment, and can be customized to meet specific business needs.

Customers earn points for every purchase they make and points are redeemable for rewards, credit or discounts toward purchase of other products or services, Clopton said. Customers give their phone numbers to cashiers during checkout and they get texts with updated point balances and reward information.

Once customers enroll in their first Wilbur-powered rewards program, they don’t have to sign up again with other participating businesses, said Clopton who started Smart Transaction Systems in 1998.

Smart Transaction Systems is helping take care of the gift card program of Black-eyed Pea, a Colorado-based restaurant chain, said the company’s accounting manager Michelle Shaw. “Smart Transaction Systems is our new gift card processor.” The program previously was managed by a Canadian company, she said.

The restaurant chain plans to have a rewards program in place in the near future, Shaw said. She said the company won’t have to look far to get it set up.