Two streets away a chain rewards its regulars inside its own app, and it can afford to get that app installed. Your customers come for the flat white and for the roastery you picked, not for one more app on a full phone. At the counter it is loyalty software with nothing to download: the card goes into the wallet already on their phone, and you scan it while the shot pulls.
Free, unlimited customers, no bank card. Ready in 15 minutes.
You create your card online and put the poster with its QR code on the counter. The customer scans it once with their camera: the card lands in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, with no app to install. On each visit, you scan their card (or your till does it): stamps or points add up, and the reward unlocks on its own.
Keep the pace everyone already knows: nine drinks, the tenth on the house, and let them choose, oat flat white or matcha included, not just a short espresso. A customer who comes in every morning finishes a card in a fortnight, soon enough to stay interested. On the Pro plan, the nearby notification puts your card back on the screen of the regular walking past your window at 9am.
No, and that is a real argument against the chains. Your customer scans the QR code on the counter, the card lands in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, the wallet already on their phone. Nothing to install, nothing to update. A chain app does more, paying and ordering ahead; your card simply stays there, with nothing to think about.
Nothing in the UK or Ireland forces you to. Ireland's promised levy on single-use cups still has not started, and Scotland has consulted on a charge without bringing one in. Plenty of coffee shops knock something off anyway. The card copes either way, since you confirm every visit by hand, and you can credit an extra stamp to whoever brings their own cup.
Whoever takes the money. Scanning runs from the iPhone app or from a browser, so any phone behind the bar does the job, even on a busy Saturday. The Pro plan, €49 a month incl. VAT, around £42 and billed in euros, adds staff accounts, one per barista, so each of them confirms visits without touching your settings.
The basic loyalty card is free, with no cap on customers and no commitment. The Pro plan, all inclusive at €49 per month incl. VAT, can be taken whenever you want.