Which program fits your business

Below is a recommendation for six kinds of business, not a survey of options. If yours is close to one of them, start there and adjust once you have three months of real numbers.

All amounts are in whatever currency you take payment in.

How often can they come back?

That one question decides more than anything about your trade. A customer who can come three times a week needs a reward that arrives quickly and often. A customer who comes eight times a year cannot be motivated by a balance that creeps, so their program has to give them something to be rather than something to collect.

The second question is how much your tickets vary. If your smallest sale and your biggest are within about three times of each other, a stamp is fair. If not, use points.

Six trades, six recommendations

Café or bakery

Two to five visits a week from a regular, and a small, consistent ticket. Use stamps if you only sell coffee and pastries, points if you also sell beans, lunch or catering.

Worked example on a 5.00 average ticket: Earn rate 1, a first reward called "Any pastry" at 30 points, and a second called "Free filter coffee" at 60. Six visits to the first one, about three weeks. That is a 5% give-back at menu value, and far less than that in what it costs you.

Restaurant

Once or twice a month, ticket 25 to 40. Points, and add Status tiers once you have a few hundred members and can see who your monthly regulars are.

Worked example on a 30.00 ticket: Earn rate 1, reward "Dessert on us" (9.00 on the menu) at 180 points. Six visits, roughly five months. Add tiers with thresholds at 300 and 900 so the people who eat with you every month have a name for it.

Salon or barber

Every four to eight weeks, so eight to twelve visits a year. Tiers first, points second, and make the reward an added service rather than money off the cut.

Worked example on a 25.00 cut: Earn rate 10, so a visit earns 250. First reward "Beard trim" (6.00) at 1,200 points, about five visits. Second reward "Deep-conditioning treatment" (12.00) at 2,400. Add a Gold tier with its threshold at 2,500 points, which a regular reaches in about a year. What Gold actually means — first pick of Saturday slots, a coffee, the good shampoo — is yours to honour at the chair; the builder gives you the name and the threshold.

Gym or studio

Two to four visits a week, but the money arrives once a month as a subscription, so a spend-based rate barely fires. Reward attendance instead, and add tiers on top.

Worked example: one point per class, added from the Customers page, with a reward called "Guest pass for a friend" at 24 points. At three classes a week that is about two months. Awarding by hand is one of the capabilities your plan controls, so check what your plan includes before you build this one.

Retail

Anywhere from monthly to a few times a year, with baskets that vary a lot. Points, never stamps, plus tiers for your top customers.

Worked example on a 40.00 average basket: Earn rate 1, reward "8.00 off your next visit" at 200 points. Five baskets, which for most shops is the better part of a year — so put a smaller first rung at 100 points as well, or nobody will ever reach anything.

Service businesses

Dog grooming, car washes, cleaning, mobile repairs: scheduled work, every one to four weeks, at a consistent price. Stamps, plus Referrals, because these businesses grow almost entirely by recommendation.

Worked example on a 12.00 wash: unit "stamp" and "stamps", one added per wash from Customers, reward "Free wash" at 10 stamps. That is a 10% give-back, which is generous. If it stings, make the tenth wash an interior clean worth 6.00 instead and you are back to 5%.

When one mechanic is not enough

Add a second layer when one of these is true:

• Fewer than about twelve visits a year. Points alone crawl. Status tiers carry the months in between.
• Your biggest ticket is more than about three times your smallest. Use points, not stamps.
• Most new customers arrive because someone told them about you. Turn on Referrals.

When you have picked a shape, setting earn and redeem rates shows how to derive the numbers for your own prices, and setting up your first program builds it.