Loyalty for small businesses
Loyalty programmes for small businesses
If your customers come back often and spend about the same each time, a stamp card is usually the simplest loyalty programme to run: a stamp per visit and a reward once the card is full. You can explain it at the counter in one sentence, and customers get it without reading anything.
NextStamp runs that card on the customer’s phone. They join by scanning a QR code, with nothing to install, and your team approves their stamps at the till. The rest comes down to a few choices in the card editor, starting with the reward and the number of stamps.
Which type of loyalty programme fits a small business?
There are four common kinds. A stamp card rewards what most independents want more of, which is another visit, so that’s where many of them start.
| Type | How it works | A good fit when |
|---|---|---|
| Stamp card | A stamp per visit or purchase, and a reward when the card is full. | People buy from you often: coffee, bread, lunch, haircuts. |
| Points | Points for every pound or dollar spent, swapped for rewards later. | Basket sizes vary widely and your till can count spend. |
| Tiers | Named levels for customers who keep coming back over months. | You want to recognise your best regulars on top of a card. |
| Paid membership | A fee for ongoing perks, such as a discount on every visit. | You have a devoted following and perks worth paying for. |
Five decisions that shape the card
You make each one in the NextStamp card maker, and you can change any of them later.
How many stamps
Match the card to how often a good customer comes in. A daily coffee suits eight to ten stamps. A haircut every six weeks suits five or six, or the free cut ends up more than a year away.
What the reward is
Give something you make rather than money off. A free coffee or a treatment feels generous to the customer and costs you much less than its menu price.
A head start
Welcome stamps put a stamp or two on every new card. In a field study by Nunes and Drèze, a car wash card that needed ten stamps but came with two already filled was completed by 34% of customers. A plain eight-stamp card, the same distance from the reward, was completed by 19%. There’s more on what the research says about loyalty cards.
Something along the way
A smaller reward partway through gives people a reason to keep going between the first stamp and the last.
The small print
Decide how long rewards last (for good, or one, three, six or twelve months after they’re earned) and whether an unfinished card resets after a quiet spell. The card’s rules also cap how many stamps one visit or one day can earn, and customers see all of it, with your terms, before they join.
Starting a programme this week
- 1
Create the business and the card
Sign up, add your first outlet and design the card: colours, stamp icon, number of stamps and the reward. Publish it once the preview looks right.
- 2
Print the posters
The till poster goes where customers pay and the window poster where they queue or sit. Scanning either one opens your card on their phone.
- 3
Bring in the team
Invite whoever works the counter. Each person gets their own sign-in and opens the till on whatever device sits by the till.
- 4
Ask every customer
A programme grows when staff mention it at every visit. One line does it: scan the code and your first stamp is on us.
Keeping it going after the first month
A card needs a look now and then once it’s running. NextStamp’s Insights show the visits, stamps and rewards behind it, which customers are regulars, slipping away or gone quiet, and when you’re busiest, and the guide to measuring a loyalty programme explains what each number means. Its tips suggest what to try next and open a campaign in one tap.
Loyalty campaigns are how you act on what you see. You can send a gift to someone who hasn’t been in for a while, thank everyone on the card, or run double stamps on a slow afternoon. Gifts land on the customer’s card, and campaigns never send emails or texts.
Questions, answered
What is the best loyalty programme for a small business?
It depends on how your customers buy. If they visit often and spend about the same each time, a stamp card: one stamp per visit and a reward when the card is full. If spend varies a lot and your till can count it, points may fit better. NextStamp only does stamp cards.
How many stamps should a loyalty card have?
Enough that the reward feels earned, and few enough that a regular can see it coming. Work from how often a good customer visits: eight to ten stamps suits a café, five or six suits a salon.
Do my customers need to download an app?
No. They scan your QR poster with the phone camera and the card opens in the browser. They create an account once with their name and email.
Does it connect to my till or card machine?
It runs beside them. Your team takes payment as usual and approves the stamp on the NextStamp till, which works in the browser on any phone, tablet or computer.
Can I change the rules later?
Yes. New cards follow your changes as soon as you publish them. A card already in progress keeps the reward and terms it started with, while limits such as stamps per day apply to everyone from the moment you publish.
Give them a little something
to come back for.
Make a card that feels like your business and put the poster up by the till.
Create your card