Loyalty and promotions
Setting your reward threshold
Work out what the reward costs you to make, not what you sell it for. Then check how long it takes a regular to collect enough. If that is more than about six weeks, most people stop counting.
The threshold is a pricing decision dressed as a configuration field.
Cost it against margin
A reward costs you its input cost, not its menu price. A $5.50 coffee at 70 percent margin costs $1.65 to give away. Over ten visits at a $6 average ticket that is under 3 percent of the revenue those visits generated.
Then sanity-check the time
Work out how many stamps a regular collects in a normal week, then how many weeks it takes them to finish. Ten stamps at two a week is five weeks, which is fine. Ten stamps at one a fortnight is five months, and most of those people will give up.
The two edges
Below about six stamps the reward reads as a discount rather than something earned, and you pay people who would have come anyway. Above about twelve, the finish line stops feeling reachable.
Common questions
Can I change it later?
Yes, though it affects customers who are partway through. Treat a change as something to communicate rather than a quiet setting adjustment.
Is nine standard?
It is common, which is different. It became common because the arithmetic happens to work at typical coffee margins.
Related terms
- Reward thresholdHow many stamps or points a customer needs before a reward unlocks.
- Gross marginThe share of a sale left after the direct cost of what you sold.
- Visit frequencyHow often a customer comes back over a given period.
- Redemption rateThe share of issued rewards or vouchers that customers actually use.
Still stuck?
Send us the details and we will pick it up. The form opens with "Business account" already selected.