Digital loyalty card for your restaurant

Give guests a reason to book the next table

Lunch for the office next door, Friday pizza, Sunday with the family: a digital restaurant loyalty card rewards the people who keep choosing your kitchen. Each visit brings their next treat closer.

Lunch and dinner are two different businesses

Your lunch guest comes every week, has forty minutes and pays for themselves. Your dinner guest comes every few weeks, stays two hours and often brings others. Both collect on the same card, because each business has one stamp card. So the target has to work for both:

• Lunch once a week: eight stamps fill in about two months, six in around six weeks.
• Dinner every other week: eight stamps take almost four months, six about three months.
• Dinner once a month: eight stamps take eight months. With visits that rare, a target below six is more honest.

If you live on evening trade, set the target around that. If lunch matters most, eight stamps is a good starting point. The article on a stamp count that fits your business shows how to work it out.

Stamping when the floor is busy

The scan happens where the bill gets paid and needs no till or extra device. That keeps things calm at the table:

• Ask with the bill. When the folder arrives: “Are you collecting with us?” Anyone who is opens their pass, and the server scans it when they come to take payment.
• On their own phone. Every server signs in by QR code. The Scanner role is enough for daily service, including seasonal help. From Start, the log shows who stamped when.
• At the counter with no table service. At a self-service lunch, the person on the till scans. Keep the rule short: one visit, one stamp.
• On a terrace with no signal. The stamp waits in a queue and is added when the connection returns. Redeeming does need a connection, so step back into Wi-Fi range for that.

The kitchen needs to know about a free dessert before it’s ordered. So ask when clearing plates: “Is your card full?” If the pass shows the unlocked reward, order the dessert and redeem in the app at payment. When scanning a full card, your team picks Einlösen & neuer Stempel (redeem and add a stamp) so today’s visit counts too. If your guest doesn’t want it today, the app saves it for later.

Which reward suits your restaurant

The reward should make people want your cooking and be easy to cost:

• Pizzeria or trattoria: dessert or starter on the house.
• Lunch spot: soup of the day, a coffee after the meal or a dessert. A whole free dish quickly gets expensive and is far more than a thank-you.
• Evening restaurant: a starter to share or a dessert people rarely order. That way your guest discovers something new from your kitchen.

For costing, the rule on the card matters: a fixed dish always costs the same. A percentage depends on how many people sit at the table and what they order. It’s worth checking once with your tax adviser how to record the reward at your till.

Worked example: dessert versus percentages

All figures are example numbers, not measurements. Rework them with your own.

• Lunch special: €11 excluding VAT, ingredients €3.50, so €7.50 gross profit before staff and rent.
• Dessert on the house: ingredients €1.40.

Eight lunches bring in €88 of net revenue and €60 of gross profit. The dessert costs you €1.40 in ingredients, once. If you gave 10% off a €180 dinner table instead, that’s €18 for a single visit.

The Start plan costs €7.99 a month including VAT: at €7.50 gross profit, two extra lunches cover it. For Pro at €39 including VAT, it’s six. Nobody can promise you those visits in advance. From Start, you can read them off the customer list.

What your servers say

Nobody on the floor has time for explanations. Give your team one line per situation:

• When bringing the bill: “Are you collecting with us yet? After eight visits, dessert is on us.”
• When someone asks how it works: “Just scan the code in the folder. The card goes into your wallet, no app needed.”
• At a table of colleagues: “Everyone collects on their own card. Whoever pays for the table gets one stamp.”

Common restaurant mistakes

• No table rule. Four phones, one bill: without a rule, every server decides differently. Stick to what the FAQ below describes.
• The code only by the entrance. People coming in are thinking about their table. In the bill folder or on a table stand, your guest has time.
• No rule for delivery. Nobody shows a pass through a delivery platform, though collection works fine. Say up front what counts.
• Forgetting full evenings. A reward that slows the kitchen on a Saturday causes trouble. Choose something that goes out fast even when you’re full.

From lunch punch card to wallet card

Many lunch spots hand out paper cards with “Every tenth meal free”. If you switch to “Dessert on the house”, that’s a smaller reward. Say so openly and honour old cards under the old rule. Nobody halfway through should lose out.

For transfers, Stempel anpassen (adjust stamps) in the customer’s profile is available from Start for admins and managers. Avoid the lunch peak: take the name and add the stamps in the afternoon. There’s more in paper vs digital stamp cards.

One restaurant or several

Free covers a first trial with up to 20 customer passes. Start adds unlimited customer passes, the customer list and stamp log. With Pro, you can share your new weekly menu or free tables by campaign. Apple Wallet shows a notification; Google Wallet displays the message in the card details. Treubar doesn’t take reservations; bookings stay with whatever you use today. If you run several restaurants, Max lets one card work at up to five locations.

Choose your design from 72 stamp card templates. Compare the plans before you commit.

The basics are in our guide to the digital loyalty card. To see whether the card adds up for you, try the stamp card calculator.