Launching a loyalty card: the first four weeks

Start the launch by writing down what happens during an ordinary purchase. A guest sees the offer, chooses whether to join, makes an eligible purchase and receives the progress you promised. Later, someone earns a reward and staff honour it. Prepare that whole journey before printing the sign. Include the awkward parts, such as correcting a mistake or running out of the reward item.

Give someone responsibility for keeping the instructions current and reviewing what staff record. In a small local business, that may be you. Leave a clear way to raise a question when you are away. Your first review should tell you whether the offer works at the counter and which assumptions still need checking.

Before launch: choose a reward you can honour

Choose the earning rule and reward together. For a worked example, suppose an eligible paid standard coffee earns a stamp, and eight such purchases earn a free standard coffee. In this example, the reward earns no stamp and extras are excluded. “After eight paid coffees” is the intended rule; “the eighth coffee is free” would be a different offer.

List the eligible drinks and calculate the cost of serving the reward, including the allowed ingredients, packaging and preparation. Check the offer against the least expensive qualifying purchase. Also consider what happens if the reward replaces a drink that would otherwise have been bought. Use your own costs, and include any programme charges when deciding what you can afford.

Write the rules for missing items, corrections, refunds and any expiry you intend to use. Decide how an earned reward will be honoured if you later stop the trial. Put the essential terms where guests join and keep the full staff instructions at the till. Avoid launching an offer whose difficult decisions are still marked “ask the owner”.

Put the QR code where joining belongs

Place the joining QR sign on the guest-facing side of the counter, where someone can read it and scan without reaching over the payment terminal. Try the actual position during your normal service routine. Check the view from where the guest stands, whether anything covers the sign and whether a phone can scan it under the lighting you use.

Print the reward and the action beside the code. For the sample offer, suggested wording is “Collect a stamp with each eligible paid coffee; after eight, enjoy a standard coffee on us. Scan to join.” Mark sizes and exclusions clearly nearby. Avoid leaving a bare code for staff to explain, and distinguish the joining sign from any code used for payment or a menu.

Test the destination from the printed sign, including any Wallet step in your chosen setup. Complete a test purchase and redemption, then separate test records from launch records. If joining requests an email address, be ready to explain its purpose. For a salon, also try the reception position used when the appointment is paid for and the next booking discussed.

Give staff a sentence and a complete rehearsal

For the illustrative coffee offer, use this sentence: “If you would like to join, scan here: each eligible paid coffee earns a stamp, and after eight you can claim a free standard coffee.” Adapt it to the final rule and practise saying it naturally. Offer it as an invitation; continue the ordinary service if the guest declines.

Rehearse the next steps as well as the invitation. Show staff how to recognise a successful join, record the current eligible purchase, confirm the resulting balance and redeem an earned reward. Include an ineligible purchase and an accidental duplicate entry. Ask staff to explain the outcome without borrowing the owner’s wording.

Agree a fallback for an unavailable card or a failed scan. For example, your written procedure could let a supervisor review the receipt and correct the record later. Decide how you will prevent the same purchase being credited again. Promise only a correction route you can actually operate, and record unresolved cases for the next shift.

Week 1: check that the promise reaches the card

Use the opening week to observe the complete counter routine. Watch whether the sign is visible, whether the invitation matches the printed rule and whether eligible purchases receive the correct progress. Keep a brief shift log of questions, failed scans, missed entries and corrections. Write the issue and its resolution, rather than a general verdict such as “the card was confusing”.

Look at joins separately from purchases. Check that a guest who joined during an eligible purchase received whatever progress your rule promised for that purchase. If people reach the joining page but cannot finish, inspect that step yourself. If staff are unclear about eligibility, repair the instructions before judging the appeal of the reward.

At the end of the week, review the log with staff and choose a specific operational fix. That might mean moving the sign or clarifying the treatment of extras. Keep a dated note of the change. Avoid quietly altering the reward while you are still correcting the way the original offer is applied.

Week 2: check what happens on a return visit

Now follow the routine for an existing card. Check whether staff find the right record, add the right progress and explain what remains. Review activity by joining date so you can see how long each group has had to return. Keep records from the opening days separate from those of people who have only just joined.

For this example review, record returning cards alongside eligible paid purchases and the dates observed. Do not set a success threshold borrowed from an unrelated business. If your usual appointment interval is longer than the time elapsed, mark repeat behaviour as not yet assessable. You can still review whether the card and staff routine are ready for that return.

Read the questions guests ask about progress. If they need help understanding the reward, revise the explanation and keep the underlying promise consistent. If staff are recording different outcomes for equivalent purchases, settle the rule and correct affected records. Treat this as a check of delivery before drawing conclusions about demand.

Week 3: rehearse and inspect redemption

Review earned and redeemed rewards separately. If genuine redemptions have occurred, inspect how they were handled and record the actual fulfilment cost. Check whether the reward item, size and extras matched the promise, and whether the card showed the right state afterwards. Include replacement items in the cost record if you agreed a substitute.

If nobody has reached a reward, rehearse redemption using a clearly marked test record. Keep it out of the programme results. A successful rehearsal answers whether staff can issue the reward; it does not answer whether guests want it. Keep unredeemed earned rewards visible in your planning rather than assuming their cost has disappeared.

Ask staff to describe any difficult handover. An unclear size allowance needs a wording decision. An unavailable reward needs a workable fulfilment plan. An extra service taking longer than expected needs a scheduling review. Address the specific problem and preserve what you have already promised to people collecting towards the reward.

Week 4: decide what to keep and what to investigate

Bring the records together: joins, eligible paid purchases, repeat activity, rewards earned, rewards redeemed, costs and unresolved issues. Note opening hours, changes to the offer and other promotions during the same period. Compare like periods where possible. Treat any sales change as a question to investigate, rather than attributing every member purchase to the card.

Make separate decisions about the counter routine and the commercial offer. You might keep the routine while extending observation because too few normal return opportunities have elapsed. You might simplify the reward before accepting new members, with a written arrangement for existing progress. Record the reason, the next review date and the person responsible for each change.

Common launch mistakes to check for

• Counting scans as success. Check completed joins, correct purchase records and subsequent use separately.
• Printing before rehearsing. Finalise the rule and test the destination before putting the QR sign into service.
• Letting each shift improvise. Keep shared wording and a correction procedure beside the till.
• Changing everything together. Record each change so the next review can address what actually changed.
• Stopping at enrolment. Rehearse redemption and plan for rewards already earned, even if the trial ends.

Finish the month with a usable record of what you learned: the current rule, the counter instructions, actual costs and the next unanswered question. Keep observing for as long as your purchase cycle requires. The next version of the offer should follow from something you saw and can explain.