A Loyalty Program Explained Only at the Counter

Rules learned after paying

A party supply store hands a points card to every customer at the till: a point for each dollar, $10 off at 200 points, and points that lapse after a year without a visit.

The website never mentions it. Regulars learn the rules one at a time, usually just after paying, and newcomers comparing two party stores online never hear of it at all.

A program the store pays for every day, in rewards and in staff time, is doing half its job. It keeps regulars, but it never helps anyone choose the store in the first place.

What staying quiet costs

When the rules live only at the counter, staff explain them again for every new customer, often while a queue waits behind a parent holding forty balloons.

Regulars do not know their balance or when points lapse, so the first they hear of an expiry is when a reward they were counting on has gone. That conversation happens at the till, too.

And a parent choosing between two stores for a birthday sees prices and photographs, never the reward that might tip the decision.

What the page should answer

A short page with its own address can answer everything staff explain at the till:

• How it works: what earns points or stamps, in one sentence.
• What it is worth: the reward in dollars or items, with an example.
• What counts: any purchases that do not earn or cannot be redeemed.
• When points expire, and what keeps them active.
• How to check a balance, on a receipt, by phone or in the store.
• How to join, and what you are asked for when you do.

Each answer is a sentence or two, in the words staff already use. The whole page should read comfortably on a phone.

What it is worth, with an example

A rule such as a point per dollar and $10 off at 200 points is accurate but hard to picture. An example makes it concrete.

Balloons, plates and decorations for a child's birthday might come to $60 and earn 60 points. Four parties like that pass 200 points, enough for $10 off, which a parent can weigh against another store's prices.

Build the example from a typical basket in your own store, not an imagined one, so regulars recognise it.

Expiry and the small rules

Expiry is where disappointment usually starts, so state it plainly: points lapse after twelve months without a purchase, and any purchase keeps the whole balance active.

The same goes for exclusions. If helium refills, rentals or sale items earn nothing, the page should say so before a cashier has to.

Say too whether points apply to sale items, whether they combine with other offers, and what happens to a balance when a card is lost.

Checking a balance

The balance question comes up at the worst moment, just before paying. Printing the balance and the expiry date on every receipt answers it before it is asked.

Say on the page how else to check: by phone, in the store, or online if the system offers a lookup, linked from the page.

A balance that is easy to check is also a small reminder, at every visit, of why the regular chose this store.

Where the page belongs

The page needs links where people decide: a line on the home page, such as points on every party, a link in the footer, and a mention on the hours and location page.

Print the page's address on the card and the receipt, so a regular who wonders about a rule at home can look it up.

A page with its own address also gives staff something to point to, and the newsletter something to link when the rules change.

When the program changes

When the rules change, update the page the same day and note the date of the change at the bottom. Customers who remember the old rules can see what changed and when.

Announce any change that makes rewards harder to reach well ahead, on the page and at the till, and say what happens to points already earned.

If the program ends, leave the page up for a while with the closing date and the last day to redeem. Removing it at once leaves regulars to find out at the counter.

A worked example

The points card at a party supply store in a Vernon strip mall had run for three years without a word on the website. The store sells balloons, helium, decorations, costumes and tableware.

Staff explained the rules at the till all day. In January, when a batch of points lapsed, several regulars complained, and one wrote about it in a review.

The store added a page called party points, with six short answers and the birthday example. A one-line mention under the home page photograph links to it, as does the footer, and the card now carries the page's address.

The till system prints the balance and the expiry date on every receipt. Staff point new customers to the page instead of reciting the rules while a line waits.

Parents comparing stores now see the reward beside the prices, and regulars can see when their points lapse before it happens.

The counter-case

Some programs explain themselves. A coffee stamp card with ten squares, the tenth drink free, needs no page for the people already holding one.

And a business planning to rework its program soon may hesitate to publish rules it will change in a few months.

Even so, one line on the website tells newcomers the program exists, and published rules, with the date of any change, settle more arguments than they start.

Putting the program on the site

1. Write down the rules exactly as staff explain them.
2. Add an example from a typical basket in your store.
3. State expiry and exclusions plainly.
4. Say how to check a balance, and print it on receipts.
5. Give it links from the home page and footer.
6. Print the address on the card itself.
7. Date every change to the rules.

Step three prevents the hardest conversations. A customer who can read when points lapse can act in time, and one who loses them anyway knows the rule was there to read.

Another plain page that settles a question customers otherwise raise at the counter, when the bill arrives, is covered in why the final invoice differs from the estimate.

Frequently asked questions

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