How to start a loyalty program customers understand and staff can run.
Start your loyalty program with one clear offer customers can explain and checkout steps staff can repeat during a busy shift.
How do I start a loyalty program?
Choose the repeat purchase or visit you want to encourage, then start with one program: points when purchase amounts vary, stamps for similar repeat purchases, or a prepaid visit pass when customers pay upfront for future visits. Set the offer and its cost, publish the customer rules, and practise the checkout steps before launch. Add other offers and rewards after the first program works.
See how customers join and staff record purchases and rewards.
Who sets this up.
Reward Loyalty is self-hosted loyalty software for businesses, agencies and developers, with points, stamp cards, vouchers and prepaid passes.
Choose Reward Loyalty when you want your team or technical provider to run the loyalty software with access to its source.
Your business chooses the offer. An agency or developer installs and runs the software. Agree who handles program setup, staff training and ongoing support.
If you want the software provider to handle hosting and maintenance, compare provider-hosted services. Compare provider-hosted services
What rules should I decide before launch?
Repeat purchase or visit
Choose one purchase or visit you want customers to repeat. Write down what counts and review it 30 calendar days after launch.
Offer cost
Decide what customers must do, what they receive, and what it costs you to deliver. State exclusions and expiry. For prepaid visit passes, compare the package price with the cost and capacity required for every included visit.
Checkout steps
Decide how customers join, how staff add points or stamps, how customers claim rewards, and how staff fix mistakes.
Illustrative calculation: ten €5 qualifying purchases total €50. A reward worth €5 gives the customer value equal to 10% of that spending. If it costs the business €1.50 to supply, its direct fulfilment cost is 3%. These are example inputs, not recommended settings or a profit calculation.
The software does not decide whether your offer is profitable.
Should I use points, stamps, or prepaid visit passes?
Points
Award points according to spending when purchase amounts vary.
Stamps
Give one stamp for each purchase that meets your stated rule when repeat purchases have a similar value.
Prepaid passes
Sell a fixed number of visits or access for a stated period, paid at the counter.
The busy-counter test.
Use a test customer account to try joining, a qualifying purchase, an award, a reward claim, and a corrected mistake.
Joining
Customer
Open the program from its QR code or link.
Staff
Find the test customer and select the correct program.
These are separate demo captures, not a matched transaction. Compare the same test account in your own program.
After each action, compare what the customer sees with the staff record.
Ask the customer to explain the offer and the staff member to complete the steps without prompting.
For a prepaid visit pass, test the sale and use instead of an award and reward claim.
This practice check exposes confusing rules and checkout steps. It does not prove speed during a rush, profit, or long-term repeat business.
See how customers join and staff record purchases and rewardsHow do I launch my first program?
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Write the rules, configure and test
Write the customer-facing earning rule, reward or paid package, exclusions and expiry. Configure the chosen program, then use a test customer account to check the checkout steps, expiry, mistake correction and messages. Follow the current setup guide for exact settings and expected results.
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Print and test the customer joining code
Print the customer-facing QR code for the chosen program and check where it opens before displaying it. Place it where customers pay or finish the service. Use the QR-code guide to check devices, connection requirements and alternatives when scanning fails.
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Practise the checkout with staff
Have each staff member practise an award, a reward claim and a correction. For prepaid visit passes, practise sale and use. Give staff one clear sentence explaining the offer.
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Launch only the chosen program
Add other offers and rewards after staff apply the same rule, recorded actions match checkout evidence, and someone reviews unresolved mistakes.
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Review 30 calendar days after launch
Use program records and your own review sheet to count customers who use the offer, log staff mistakes and corrections, and total the direct cost of rewards claimed. For prepaid visit passes, review sales, uses and the cost of visits still owed. Decide which rule or checkout step needs changing. This first review cannot establish long-term repeat business.
Documentation.
Set up a points program
Set earning rules, points expiry, limits, rewards and the customer-facing card.
Set up a stamp program
Choose the required stamps, reward, availability and card design.
Set up prepaid passes
Set the visit count or access period, recorded counter price, availability and how the pass looks.