Customer rewards: points, rewards, tiers and members who join by QR

Who is customer rewards for?

Shops, pharmacies, trade counters and any business with customers who come back. If you already know your regulars by name, rewards gives them a reason to keep choosing you, and gives you a list of who they are and what they spend.

It is not for restaurants and street-food businesses, which have their own stamp cards.

What does it do?

• Gives members points on every sale, at an earn rate you set, with bonus points on chosen products if you want them.
• Lets members spend points at the till on rewards you choose: Money off or a Free item.
• Adds optional tiers, so customers who spend more in 12 months earn faster.
• Lets customers join on their own by scanning a Join poster and confirming their phone with a code.
• Sends optional automatic messages: points about to expire, a birthday message with optional points, and "we miss you" after a set number of days without a visit.

How do I switch it on?

Customer rewards is off by default. Your EasyTaskr contact switches it on for your business; it cannot be turned on from your own Settings yet. When it is on, you see a Rewards tab and a Members tab under Customer offers in the menu.

The first time you open Rewards you see "Reward your regulars" and a Rewards settings button. Only an owner or manager can change settings. Cashiers and other counter staff can add members, look them up and use rewards at the till.

What goes in rewards settings?

Rewards settings has one section for each decision, from top to bottom:

Press Save and start the first time. After that the button reads Save changes.

A worked example: you set 1 point for every 100 spent and a reward of 50 off for 250 points. A customer who spends 2,000 a week earns 20 points a week and reaches the reward in about 13 weeks. If you add a Gold tier at 80,000 spent in 12 months with a points multiplier of 1.5, that same customer, once Gold, earns 30 points a week and gets there in about 9 weeks. Work the numbers through before you print the poster, because a reward that costs more than your margin on those sales is a loss.

How does a customer join?

There are three ways in, and they all end with the same member record.

1. At the till. The cashier presses Add rewards member, types the phone number and, for someone new, their name. The phone number finds the customer or adds them as a new one.
2. From the Members tab. Press Add member, then Find or add.
3. From the join poster. Open Members, then Join poster (QR) from the menu. Switch on Let customers join from the poster, press Print the poster, and put it by the till. A customer scans it, types their name, phone and an optional birthday, presses Send my code, types the code they receive, and presses Join.

The join page has a tick box for messages: "Send me my points and offers by WhatsApp or SMS. I can stop this any time." Only members who tick it get automatic messages. If you have not switched on joining from the poster, the page tells the customer to ask at the counter instead.

The walk-in customer can never be a member, because it is not a real person.

What happens at the till?

When a member is on the sale, the till shows their name, points and tier. Under Rewards they can use it shows the rewards they can afford as chips.

• Tap a Money off reward and the saving is spread across the paid lines.
• Tap a Free item reward and the free line is added, marked as a reward.
• Choose Do not use the reward if the customer wants to save their points.

The points come off in the same moment the sale is saved, so two tills cannot spend the same points twice. The receipt prints the points earned and the new balance. If you switched on Tell customers their points after a sale, a short message also goes to the customer after the sale; it never holds the sale up.

Step by step: start a rewards scheme

1. Ask your EasyTaskr contact to switch on customer rewards.
2. Open Customer offers, then the Rewards tab, and press Rewards settings.
3. Under Earning, set how many points a customer earns for what they spend.
4. Under Rewards, press Add a reward, choose Money off or Free item, and set the Points it costs.
5. Decide whether you want tiers. If yes, switch on Use tiers and press Add a tier for each one.
6. Decide whether points should expire, and after how many months.
7. Leave the automatic messages off for now, or switch on the ones you want.
8. Press Save and start.
9. Open the Members tab, choose Join poster (QR), switch on Let customers join from the poster, and press Print the poster.
10. At the till, add your next regular with Add rewards member and check their points appear on the receipt.

How do referral codes work?

Switch on Referrals in Rewards settings; it is off by default. Each member gets their own code and link, shared by WhatsApp from their customer page or from the join page.

A friend who joins through that link, and is new to your shop, can get a one-use first-order code. The member who shared it is rewarded with points or a one-use code only after the friend's first paid sale reaches the minimum you set. Nobody can refer themselves, an existing customer cannot be referred, and each member can earn at most a set number of referral rewards a month, 5 unless you change it. Rewards, then Referrals, lists every referral with its status: waiting for first sale, rewarded, or not rewarded with the reason.

Where do I see how it is going?

The Rewards tab shows Members, Points given, Points used and Points to spend, plus your Best customers. The Members list shows each member's points, tier, when they joined and how they joined, with one search.

On a customer's own page, a rewards card shows their points, tier, how close they are to the next reward, and their history. A manager can press Add or take off points with a reason, for example to put right a mistake. Every change is kept in the history, which is never edited.

What does it not do yet?

• Points are not posted to your accounts as a liability yet; your accountant may want to know the points still to spend.
• A phone wallet pass is not built.
• A referral reward is not taken back if the qualifying sale is cancelled later.
• Restaurants keep stamp cards rather than points.
• Online food orders do not earn points from this scheme.

Related features

Rewards sits beside customer offers, where you can make a promotion for Rewards members only, and coupon codes, including the next-visit code printed on receipts. Gift cards are separate: a gift card is money the customer holds, points are a thank you. For the till itself, see the POS till.