Customer loyalty: a stamp card, points and offers that send themselves

Loyalty is set up on the Customers page in four short steps: how it works (a stamp card, points, both, or just a list of members), how many stamps or points, what members get, and joining, where you can add welcome stamps. A café setting up for the first time is walked through one step at a time; after that, each step opens on its own from a summary.

Beside the steps, a preview of the guest's card changes as you choose, showing exactly what guests will see on your menu. Settings you already have load straight into the steps, so nothing changes until you save.

• ✓Stamp card, points, both, or a members list only
• ✓A preview of the guest's card as you choose
• ✓Change one step later without redoing the rest

Pick a card of 6, 8, 10 or 12 stamps and, if you like, a minimum spend. Every order linked to a member that reaches it earns one stamp. A full card gets the reward you choose: a menu item free, an amount off, or a percentage off the bill. A free item comes off at the price of the dearest one of it in the basket.

Full cards bank, so a regular can have more than one reward waiting while their next card fills. Give new members a welcome bonus of one or two stamps on their first card, and give a head start of up to three free stamps on the next card each time a member uses a full one.

Members use a full card wherever they order. At the till, staff link the member to the sale and their banked reward is there to use. On your QR menu or online order page, a member on their own phone can use it at checkout; a free item needs that item in the basket. If a sale fails, the reward goes back on their card. If you make the card smaller later, a member already past the new size fills their card with their next stamp.

• ✓6, 8, 10 or 12 stamps
• ✓An optional minimum spend for each stamp
• ✓A free item, money off or a percentage off
• ✓Full cards bank, so no reward is lost
• ✓One or two welcome stamps for new members
• ✓Head start stamps on the next card
• ✓Rewards used at the till, on the QR menu or online

If you would rather reward spend than visits, members earn points for every pound, at a rate you set, and you list up to four rewards, each with its points and what it takes off the bill, such as a free coffee or a cake.

Staff link the member at the till and pick a reward they have the points for, which spends the points. Points are counted once per order, and if the sale fails, the points come back. You can run points alongside the stamp card, or either on its own.

When a member opens your QR menu on their own phone, the menu drawer shows their loyalty card at the top, in your café's colours. With a stamp card it is one box per stamp, ticked as they fill, with the reward on the last; with points only, it shows the points they have. Anyone who has not joined sees the deal and a link to join.

Joining asks for a name, a phone number or email, and a birthday if they want birthday treats. Guests choose separately whether to hear from you by WhatsApp, text or email, and each choice is recorded with when and where they made it. Ordering never signs a guest up for marketing on its own.

• ✓Shown on the guest's own phone, with no app
• ✓Their stamps or points so far, and the reward to come
• ✓A join link for everyone else
• ✓Consent recorded for each channel

The Members tab lists everyone who has joined: their contact details, the channels they agreed to, their orders, stamps and points, what they have spent and when they last came. Filter by new, regulars, lapsed, big spenders or never ordered, or by tags you add yourself.

Open a member to add notes, tags and a birthday. The till shows them when staff link that member to a sale, so the team knows a regular's usual order or an allergy note. A card at the top of the list shows how many of the last 30 days' orders came from a customer you know, with ideas for raising it.

• ✓Segments: new, regulars, lapsed, big spenders, never ordered
• ✓Your own tags and notes on each member
• ✓Orders, spend, stamps and points per member
• ✓Download the list as a CSV file, with your filters and tags

In Automations, switch on the messages you want and set the offer each one carries: a percentage or an amount off, with its own code and an end date. Birthday goes on the member's birthday. Win-back goes when someone has not ordered for a number of days you choose, 45 to start with, or can be timed to each guest: it goes when a member has gone twice their own usual time between orders, and guests with too few orders to tell fall back to the fixed days. Regulars gone quiet looks after guests with 3 or more orders who then stop for 30 days.

There are also a welcome a day after a member's first order, a thank-you after an order, a welcome when someone joins your rewards, and Nearly there and Reward ready when an order brings a reward close or fills a card. For a one-off, such as a quiet Tuesday, the Offers tab sends a message to a segment or a tag.

Each automation shows its last 30 days: how many were sent, how many guests came back or used their code, and what those orders took.

• ✓Only to guests who agreed to that channel
• ✓An unsubscribe link in every message
• ✓Nothing between 9pm and 9am; it waits for the morning
• ✓At most one automatic message to a guest every 2 days

Guests who add your menu to their phone's home screen can choose, after ordering, to get notifications from you. Send one from a quick template, such as Tonight's deal, We're open or New on the menu, and see it on a phone preview as you write. Tapping it opens your menu.

Notifications cost nothing to send, and you can send up to three a day.

With table bookings, each guest who books with a phone number gets a WhatsApp reminder 24 hours before their table, with a link to cancel. It never goes between 9pm and 9am or less than 2 hours before, and if the booking moves, a fresh reminder replaces the old one. You can switch reminders off.

• See table bookings →

The stamp card, points, the members list, offers, automations and notifications are in every plan, from Order & Pay at £9.99 a month. Members can use a full stamp card on the QR menu and online on any plan; points rewards and rewards at the counter need the till, which is in the POS plan at £39 a month or the Till and cash-up add-on at £15. Booking reminders come with table bookings, in the POS plan or the £4 add-on.

Emails to guests are free, up to 1,000 a month. A WhatsApp offer costs 8p and a text 7p, and nothing that costs money is sent during the free trial.

A stamp or points only count when the order is linked to the member's phone number, so staff link members at the till and guests type their number when they order. The card lives on your own menu in the browser, so there is nothing to download from an app store and no wallet pass.