What VivaPoints is and who it's for

VivaPoints is a loyalty and rewards platform. You set up a program, your customers join it, they earn something each time they come back, and eventually they trade what they have earned for a reward you chose. That is the whole idea. Everything else in this help centre is detail.

What you actually get

Three things, and they are the three screens you will spend all your time in.

A program is the set of rules: what customers earn, how fast they earn it, and what they can swap it for. You build it once and adjust it as you learn.

Your customer list shows everyone who has joined, how much they are holding, which tier they have reached, and any reward they are waiting to collect. This is the screen your staff opens at the counter.

Your dashboard is the honest scoreboard — how many members you have, how many were active in the last 30 days, how much you have issued, how much has been redeemed, and what you still owe in unredeemed rewards.

The kinds of program you can run

Most loyalty software makes you pick one mechanic and live with it. VivaPoints treats them as layers you can combine:

• Points — customers earn a currency you name yourself, and spend it on rewards.
• Stamps — the digital version of the punch card. Ten coffees, one free.
• Tiers — Silver, Gold, and so on, earned by activity, usually with faster earning at the top.
• Benefits — perks a member simply has, like a standing discount, rather than something they buy with points.
• Referrals — existing customers bring new ones and both sides get rewarded.
• Gamification — challenges and badges for the businesses whose customers enjoy that.

You are not choosing between these permanently. A café can start with plain points, add tiers six months later when it knows what its regulars look like, and turn on referrals for a summer push. Which mechanic to start with walks through the trade-offs.

Who it's for

VivaPoints earns its keep when your customers can come back, and the question is whether they choose you or the place next door. That usually means:

• Cafés, bakeries and restaurants
• Salons, barbers and beauty studios
• Gyms, studios and anything sold as a membership
• Retail with repeat purchases
• Service businesses with regular clients — dog grooming, car washes, cleaning

If your customers buy from you once every few years, loyalty is the wrong tool and no amount of program design will fix that. We would rather say so now than after you have spent a weekend setting one up.

What your customers see

Your customers get a card in their VivaPoints account. It shows their balance in whatever you decided to call your points, their tier if you run tiers, the rewards within reach, and how far they are from the next one. When they want to claim something they tap the reward, and one of your staff confirms it at the counter.

They do not download anything to get started, and they do not need to be handed a plastic card that ends up in a drawer.

Where VivaPoints fits alongside your other tools

VivaPoints is not a till, a booking system or an email platform, and it does not try to be. It sits next to whatever you already use and owns exactly one job: knowing who your repeat customers are and giving them a reason to stay repeat customers.

If you run several locations, or several businesses under one roof, they can be grouped together so a customer's standing travels with them. Multiple locations and business groups covers how that works.

Next steps

Read your first 30 minutes if you want the shortest path to a working program, or creating your business account if you have not signed up yet.