Solutions · Restaurants
Loyalty program for restaurants: bring customers back without an app
Good service alone does not bring people back. It takes a concrete reason, and a reminder at the right moment.
Key takeaways
- The card lives in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet: no app for the customer to install.
- At one of our restaurants in Montreal, 46 % of customers who signed up came back in the first month.
- Automated nudges (birthday, inactivity) bring customers back with no effort from the staff.
- The program fills slow weekdays with targeted notifications, not with discounts for everyone.
What we hear most often
- The room is full on Saturday and empty on Tuesday.
- You cannot tell who came once from who came weekly before disappearing.
- Delivery platforms know your customers better than you do.
The program we set up
- Mechanic
- Points per dollar. Lunch and dinner tickets vary far too much for a flat stamp.
- Reward
- A free starter or dessert rather than a percentage: a gift is visible, a discount has to be calculated.
- Follow-up
- Birthday (7 days before and day-of) plus a 60-day inactivity nudge.
- Field note
- 7 % of your customer base drives up to 50 % of orders. That core is what you protect.
The nudge that brings people back
Birthdays are the highest-return nudge in food service: the message arrives with an occasion, not a promotion.
Happy birthday. Dessert is on us this week.
Why a restaurant needs a loyalty program
A restaurant needs a loyalty program because bringing a customer back costs far less than attracting a new one, and without a card there is no way to know who returns. A card in the Wallet makes your regulars visible and reachable.
Acquisition is expensive in food service: influencers, ads, delivery platforms that take a commission. It is also hard to measure, since you never know how many customers a campaign actually brought in.
A loyalty program works on the other half of the equation: people who already came and liked it. A customer who goes from one visit a month to one every three weeks raises their yearly spend by about 40 %, with no acquisition cost.
How a restaurant loyalty program works
The customer scans a QR code at the table or the till, adds the card to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, then shows it on every visit. The balance updates on their phone automatically, with no app and no password.
- One-scan sign-up: a QR code stand on the table, at the counter or on the bill.
- Added to the Wallet: the card carries the restaurant’s logo and colours.
- A scan every visit: points add up, progress shows on the phone.
- Reward: unlocked automatically at the threshold you choose.
Scanning runs on a dedicated tablet, independent of your POS.
Which reward mechanic suits a restaurant
For most restaurants, points per dollar are the best start, since the bill varies a lot. A lunch counter with a stable ticket can keep a free meal on the 10th visit, and a restaurant visited once or twice a month does better with rewards on the 3rd, 7th and 10th visits.
| Mechanic | Best for | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Points per dollar | Highly variable bills (families, groups, lunch and dinner) | 1 point per dollar, $10 off at 150 points |
| On the 10th purchase | Quick service, counter, lunch | The 10th bowl free |
| 3rd, 7th and 10th purchases | Restaurants visited once or twice a month | A drink, a dessert, then a main |
A documented lever: give two stamps at sign-up. In Nunes and Drèze’s study (Journal of Consumer Research, 2006), 34 % of pre-stamped cards were completed versus 19 % of blank ones, for the same real effort.
Automated nudges that fill the room
Automated nudges bring customers back with no work from the staff: a message on the customer’s birthday, another after a period of inactivity, and a thank-you for the top customers of the week or month.
- Birthday: a message 7 days before and on the day, with an offer if you wish.
- Inactive customer: a nudge when a regular has not come back for 60 days, a delay you adjust to your traffic.
- Top customers: recognition for the top of the week, month or year.
- Slow weekdays: a targeted notification on Tuesday at 11 a.m. to fill lunch, sent only to the right customers.
Each notification shows how many customers it brought back, so you finally know what every action earns.
Launching the loyalty program in your restaurant
A restaurant launches its program in one to two weeks: the card set up in its colours, the staff trained on a single sentence, then a QR code on the tables and at the counter.
The sentence to give your staff: “Want the loyalty card? It’s one scan, no app.” Sign-up rates depend mostly on how consistently that offer is made, with every bill.
Is your restaurant in Montreal? Our page on a loyalty program for Montreal restaurants and cafés covers settings by neighbourhood, on-site setup, French and English, and Law 25. To estimate what the program can bring in, use the ROI calculator.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best loyalty program for an independent restaurant?
For an independent restaurant, the most effective format is a loyalty card in Apple Wallet and Google Wallet, with no app: the customer adds it by scanning a QR code at the table or the till. Pair it with a reward reachable in 4 to 6 weeks and automated nudges, for example on the customer’s birthday or after 60 days away.
How many customers come back thanks to a loyalty program?
At one of our restaurants in Montreal, 100 of the 215 customers who created a card in the first month came back at least once, or 46 %, for 460 scans at the till. Results depend mostly on how consistently the staff offers the card.
Does a loyalty program slow down service?
Not if it comes down to one scan: the customer shows the card on their phone, the staff scans it, the balance updates on its own. A program that adds more than a few seconds per transaction ends up dropped by the staff.
Points or stamps for a restaurant?
Points per dollar. An $18 lunch and a $70 dinner cannot be worth the same stamp, or the program ends up rewarding the smaller ticket.
Does it work with my POS?
Scanning runs on a dedicated tablet, independent of your POS. POS integrations (Clover, Lightspeed) are in development.
How much does a loyalty program for a restaurant cost?
ARSOM LOYALTY has three plans: Starter at $69 a month, Pro at $119 a month (tablet loaned and installed) and Network at $99 a month per location; paying yearly costs about 20 % less. Every plan includes unlimited notifications, automated nudges and in-person setup; Pro, recommended for a single location, adds the loaned tablet, referrals and Google review requests.