How to Manage Customer Loyalty Programs with Square POS

Building customer loyalty is key to long-term success for any restaurant or cafe. Square POS makes it easy to create and manage effective loyalty programs, but many business owners don’t fully utilize these tools. This guide walks you through setting up a loyalty program, integrating it with your Square POS, and maximizing its potential to reward your most frequent customers.

1. Understanding Square Loyalty Programs 🔗

Square’s loyalty programs are designed to encourage repeat business by rewarding customers for their purchases. These rewards can take many forms, including discounts, free items, or points toward a future benefit. The system is fully integrated with your Square POS, making it simple to track customer participation and redemptions automatically.

2. Setting Up Your Loyalty Program🔗

Here’s how you can quickly set up a program:

1. Go to the Square Dashboard: Navigate to the Marketing and Loyalty section in your dashboard.

2. Choose the currency: points, stars or custom

3. Choose a Reward Structure: Decide how customers will earn rewards. Square allows you to choose between:

- points per visit (Good for creating a simple punch card program)

- per dollar spent (Great for creating a multi-tiered rewards program)

- per specific items purchased (Ideal for promoting specials or premium items)

- per category (Good for promoting some categories)

4. Define Rewards: Set clear rewards, you can choose:

- discount on entire sale

- discount on item in specific categories

- discount on specific items

- free item

It will sound like: $5.00 off entire sale for 10 Stars

5. Customize Your Program: Add your brand personality by naming your rewards and setting up personalized messaging.

6. Add more rewards: You can add multiple types of rew

7. Set location: Choose supported locations

As a final result your loyalty program can look like on the screenshot below:

3. Promoting Your Loyalty Program🔗

Once your program is live, you’ll need to get the word out:

• On Receipts: Enable loyalty program details on printed or digital receipts.

• At Checkout: Train your staff to promote the program and sign up customers during transactions.

• Through Social Media: Share the benefits of your program on platforms where your customers are most active.

• Through mobile app: Add banner with your reward program or send push notifications to your customers

4. Tracking and Managing Participation🔗

Square provides detailed analytics on your loyalty program’s performance. Use these reports to:

• Monitor sign-ups and redemptions.

• Identify your top customers.

• Adjust rewards based on customer preferences and program effectiveness.

5. Integrating Loyalty Programs with Appetize🔗

For restaurants using Appetize (branded app for restauratns), loyalty programs become even more powerful. With Appetize’s branded mobile app, customers can easily track their points and rewards, receive push notifications about new offers, and redeem rewards directly through their phones. This seamless integration enhances the customer experience and keeps your loyalty program front and center.

6. Tips for Success🔗

• Keep it Simple: Make earning rewards straightforward and easy to understand.

• Offer Meaningful Rewards: Know what your customers value most and tailor rewards to their preferences.

• Collect Feedback: Regularly ask customers about their experience with the program and adjust it as needed.

Final Thoughts🔗

Customer loyalty programs are a proven way to boost repeat business, and Square’s built-in tools make them simple to set up and manage. By combining Square Loyalty with Appetize’s mobile app integration, you can create a truly engaging and effective loyalty experience for your customers.

Ready to get started? Take the first step toward building customer loyalty today!