Loyalty cards for a restaurant
A restaurant is the one trade where the bill and the customer are not the same thing. One table of four is one visit, not four, and the card has to be set up knowing that or it hands out rewards you never sold.
One bill is one stamp, not one per head
This is the decision that separates a restaurant from every other trade on this site. A table of four pays once, and the person who books and pays is the one who chooses where to eat next month. That is the customer the card is for.
So leave the card counting visits rather than items. The per-item setting suits a counter selling six pastries to one person; it does not suit a table, where counting covers would turn a single dinner into a filled card.
The exception is a lunch trade. If you sell weekday lunches to people who work nearby, they behave like café regulars, and the numbers below shift accordingly.
| If a regular eats with you | Set the card to |
|---|---|
| Weekday lunches, most weeks | 10 to 12 stamps |
| Once or twice a month | 6 stamps |
| Every month or two | 4 stamps |
The reward is a dish, not a discount on the bill
A free dessert or a starter costs you its ingredients. A percentage off the bill costs you a share of everything on it, including the drinks that carry your margin.
Pick something they already order. A reward the customer has to be talked into is not a reward, and one they would have bought anyway is the cheapest goodwill you will ever buy.
Give it on the visit after the card fills rather than on the same bill. It brings them back one more time, which is the entire point.
Print the code on the bill, do not ask for a phone
Nobody wants to scan a QR code at the counter while a table is waiting for the card machine. Print a one-time code on the receipt instead and let the customer claim it on the way out or at home.
It works exactly once, and you set how long it stays valid, so a code that goes in the bin expires instead of sitting there claimable.
It also solves the group problem quietly. One bill produces one code, and whoever paid keeps it.
Setting it up
The burger, pizza and sushi stamps are among the 27, or you can upload your own artwork if none of them is your kitchen.
Staff approve every stamp, so a code cannot be passed around a table and used twice, and the cooldown stops the same phone claiming again on the same visit.