Reward mechanics
A points system that rewards what customers actually spend
Points earn on value rather than visits, which is what you want the moment a small order and a large one stop looking alike. Set your own rates, add tiers on top, and show the live balance on the customer's lock screen.
- Your own earn & redeem rates
- Live balance on the pass
- Customer tiers included
- No app for customers
What a points programme does that stamps cannot
The difference matters most for your highest-spending customers.
It scales with the basket
A stamp treats a small order and a large one identically, which quietly tells your best customers their spend does not count for more. Points earn proportionally, so the customer worth three times as much is rewarded three times as fast — and feels it.
You control the economics
Set the earn rate and the redemption value yourself, so the programme costs a predictable percentage of revenue rather than an unpredictable number of free products. That makes it far easier to run in a business with thin margins.
Tiers on top
Once you have points you can add spend-based tiers — Silver, Gold, or whatever fits your brand — that unlock privileges rather than discounts. Priority booking, a complimentary upgrade, early access. These protect margin far better than cutting prices.
A gift catalogue instead of one reward
Points let customers choose. Publish a small catalogue of rewards at different point values and customers self-select, which raises perceived value without raising your cost — and tells you what they actually want.
Launching a points programme
The two numbers you need to decide, and nothing else.
- 1
Set the earn rate
Decide how many points a unit of spend earns. Round numbers are easier for staff to explain and customers to trust — one point per unit of currency is the simplest thing that works.
- 2
Set the redemption value
Decide what points are worth coming back. Aim for a total programme cost you would be comfortable spending on advertising, because that is what this is — except you only pay it to customers who already returned.
- 3
Choose the rewards
Start with two or three at different point levels: something small and reachable in a few visits, and something aspirational. The reachable one is what drives behaviour; the aspirational one is what makes the programme feel worth joining.
- 4
Enrol at the counter
A QR scan and a phone number, and the card with its live balance is in the customer's wallet. Points are added from your staff's scanner at checkout.
Designing a points programme that pays for itself
How to set the rates, when to add tiers, and the mistake that makes points feel worthless.
Points are the most flexible loyalty mechanic and therefore the easiest to get wrong. A stamp card has one decision; a points programme has an earn rate, a redemption value, a reward set and possibly tiers.
The good news is that only two of those actually determine whether it works.
Make the maths visible
The most common way a points programme fails is that customers cannot tell what their points are worth. If the balance says 340 points and nothing on the card explains what 340 buys, the number is decoration.
State the value plainly — in the reward text, on the card, in the notification. Customers who can see that they are two visits from something they want behave completely differently from customers holding an abstract number.
Set the rate from what you can afford, not from a competitor
Work out what percentage of revenue you are willing to return, then set the earn and redemption rates so the programme lands on that figure. Treat it as a marketing budget, because that is what it is — with the advantage that you only spend it on customers who came back.
Copying a competitor's rate is how businesses end up with a programme that either costs too much or motivates nobody. Their margins are not yours.
Add tiers only once you have the customers for them
Tiers are powerful and they need a population. If you have two hundred customers, splitting them into three tiers produces groups too small to behave differently, and the top tier feels arbitrary rather than earned.
Wait until you can see a genuine spread between casual and high-spending customers in your own data, then set thresholds where that spread naturally divides. And make the top tier worth something you can actually deliver every time — a privilege you withdraw is worse than one you never offered.
Watch redemption, not enrolment
Enrolment tells you the programme is visible. Redemption tells you it is working. If customers are accruing points and never spending them, the reward is too far away or too dull, and the balance is quietly becoming a liability on your books rather than a reason to return.
If redemption is very high but visit frequency has not moved, the opposite problem applies: you are discounting people who were coming anyway. Raise the threshold or change what the points buy.
Other reward mechanics
Points are one of four. Here is where the others fit better.
Digital stamp cards
The simplest mechanic there is, and the right one when every visit is worth about the same.
Cashback rewards
A percentage back as spendable balance — points without the conversion maths.
Guide: tiers vs stamps
Which mechanic suits which business, and how to move between them without losing customers.
Points programme questions
- Whatever makes the maths obvious. One point per unit of currency spent is the easiest for staff to explain and customers to trust. The important decision is not the earn rate in isolation but the redemption value it pairs with.
Start rewarding what they spend
14 days free, no credit card. Set your own rates and change them whenever you like.