A loyalty program for Montreal restaurants and cafés

What a loyalty program changes at a Montreal restaurant or café counter

At the counter, the program adds a single step: your staff scans the card the customer shows on their phone, in about 12 seconds. A new customer signs up on their own by scanning a QR code, in about 15 seconds, with no app and no password.

A loyalty program that slows down the line gets dropped by the staff within weeks. That is why we measure counter time before anything else. At our businesses, showing and scanning the card takes about 12 seconds, and the balance updates by itself in the customer’s Wallet. Nobody types a phone number, nobody digs for a paper card in a drawer.

A customer without a card scans the QR code on the counter or the table. They enter a first name and an email, then tap “Add to Apple Wallet” or “Add to Google Wallet”. They do it while waiting for their coffee or the bill, and your staff has nothing to type.

What really changes for the team is one sentence to say at every bill, for example: “Want the loyalty card? It’s one scan, no app.” Sign-up rates depend on how consistently that sentence is said far more than on the card design.

For you, the manager, the change shows up on Monday morning. The dashboard shows who came in, who comes less often than before, and how many customers each notification brought back. A paper card will never give you that.

Trade-specific details are on our pages for restaurant loyalty programs and coffee shop loyalty programs.

Results measured at one of our restaurants in Montreal

At one of our restaurants in Montreal, 215 customers created a card in the first month and 100 came back at least once, or 46 %, for 460 scans at the till. After 45 days there were 283 cards and 768 scans, still with a 46 % return rate.

Over 45 days, the same restaurant reached 283 cards created and 768 scans, close to three visits per active card, with a steady 46 % return rate. Average sign-up time at the counter stayed under 15 seconds, and the floor team reported no friction.

Results depend mostly on how consistently the staff offers the card, with every bill. It is the first thing we work on with you during setup.

Across our clients, five brands and twelve locations are under contract, with more than 2,100 active cards and more than 18,000 scans to date. At our businesses, a loyal customer spends 67 % more per visit on average. These numbers come from our own dashboards, not from a general study on loyalty.

To estimate your own numbers, the ROI calculator starts from your average ticket, your traffic and your margin.

Tuning your loyalty program to your Montreal neighbourhood

In Montreal, the rhythm of your customers depends on the area more than on the type of business. An office-tower café lives on weekday lunch, while a residential-street café lives on regulars who walk by. The reward threshold and the timing of nudges follow from that.

A counter on Saint-Jacques Street and a café on Wellington Street do not get the same card settings. Here are the four broad profiles we see, with the default we start from. We then adjust it with your own numbers.

The Montreal calendar matters too. For many restaurants, January and February are the slowest months, and that is when a targeted notification to regulars pays off most. On July 1st, many customers move to another neighbourhood: the card follows their phone, not their address, and the inactivity nudge shows you who stopped coming. The construction holiday and festival season move customers around on dates known well in advance, so messages can be prepared weeks ahead.

For timing and tone, our guide to push notifications (in French) lists the hours that work.

A loyalty program in French first, bilingual if your customers are

The ARSOM LOYALTY card, sign-up form and scan screen are in French. The texts specific to your program, such as the reward name or your notifications, are the ones you write: you can add an English line after the French.

In Montreal, part of your customers order in English, especially in office districts, student areas and around tourist spots. That does not call for two cards. The card frame is in French, and the texts you choose can be bilingual: “Café offert au 10^e tampon / Free coffee on the 10th stamp”.

Messages shown to your customers are your commercial communication, and Quebec’s Charter of the French language applies to them just as it does to your menu. In practice, put French first and make it at least as visible as English. We set up these texts with you during installation, and our team works in French and in English.

A bilingual notification has to stay short, because the lock screen only shows a few lines. Two brief sentences beat a long word-for-word translation.

Loyalty programs and Quebec’s Law 25: what the tool does, what stays with you

ARSOM LOYALTY does not make a business compliant with Law 25. The tool helps you meet some requirements: little data collected, a newsletter turned off by default, a consent box that is never pre-checked, and an export that keeps proof of consent. Responsibility for your customers’ information stays with you.

In Quebec, the Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector, as amended by Law 25, applies to your business as soon as you collect a customer’s name or email. Software cannot carry that obligation for you. Here is how the tool is designed, and what remains on your side.

What the tool does. Sign-up asks for a name and an email; phone number and birthday are optional or required depending on your settings. The newsletter is off by default. If you turn it on, the consent box is separate, optional and never pre-checked, and customers can unsubscribe from their card. The subscriber export contains the date, the source and the exact text each customer accepted, without their IP address. Details are in our article on newsletter consent and Law 25 (in French).

What stays with you. You are responsible for your customers’ personal information. You must designate a person in charge of protecting it, and that person answers customers’ access or deletion requests. Your program rules, meaning the value of stamps or points and how they are earned, must also be shared with customers before they join. Our terms of use (in French) describe this split of roles.

If you are unsure about your situation, a lawyer or the resources of the Commission d’accès à l’information are the right reference. We can show you exactly which data the tool collects and where to find it.

What a restaurant or café loyalty program costs in Montreal

ARSOM LOYALTY has three plans: Starter at $69 a month without a tablet, Pro at $119 a month with a loaned tablet and in-person setup, and Network at $99 a month per location for multiple locations. Paying yearly costs about 20 % less.

For a Montreal restaurant or café with a single location, we recommend Pro. It includes a loaned and installed tablet, unlimited notifications, automated nudges, referrals, in-person setup and regular follow-up. Starter suits a business that prefers to do everything remotely, on its own device, with 500 notifications a month.

Yearly prices: Starter $660, Pro $1,140, Network $950 per location. Network pricing: listed price for 2 to 3 locations, 15 % off per location from 4 to 6, custom quote from 7. Prices are in Canadian dollars, taxes extra.

The line-by-line comparison is on the pricing page.

On-site setup in Montreal: how onboarding works

Onboarding takes one to two weeks. We look at your numbers together, set up the card in your colours with you, then come to your business to install the tablet and train your staff at the counter, in one visit.

1. A first meeting to understand your average ticket, your traffic and your slow days. That is what decides the mechanic and the reward threshold.
2. Card setup: logo, colours, reward, texts in French and in English if you wish, and the automated nudges that suit you.
3. The on-site visit: the tablet goes next to the till, the sign-up QR code goes on the counter and the tables, and we run a real checkout with your staff.
4. Follow-up: support is included with Pro; we review results with you regularly to adjust the threshold, the reward or notification targeting.

Scanning runs on a dedicated tablet, independent of your POS: you keep your terminal and your POS software. POS integrations (Clover, Lightspeed) are in development and not available yet.

Several locations in Montreal? The Network plan includes in-person setup at each one. Head office sees the total, each location sees its own.