A café lives on repeat visits. A person who stops by for coffee three times a week brings in more over a year than a hundred random passersby. A loyalty program has one job: make sure that tomorrow they come back to you, not to the coffee shop across the street.
Step 1. Decide What You're Paying For
Don't hand out bonuses "for everything." First answer: what behavior are you trying to buy?
- Frequency — to get people coming in more often. Then reward the visit, not the amount.
- Average check — to get people to add a dessert, not just coffee. Then boost cashback for a check above a certain amount — in UDS that's the certificate for a higher check.
- Return visits — so people don't disappear. Then use bonuses with a short lifespan.
You can't do it all at once. Pick one for the first two months.
Step 2. Set the Percentage
A common mistake is being too generous from the start. A 20% cashback at a coffee shop with a 60% markup means you're giving away a third of your profit. In a month you'll notice this and cut the percentage — and customers will be more upset than if you'd offered less from the beginning.
Profit from a single receipt
Calculate from the markup: cashback is what you're willing to give back from profit, not from revenue. For food service, a 5–10% range is usually comfortable, and it's best to start at the lower end: raising the percentage later always feels better than cutting it.
Step 3. Get Your Staff on Board — Before Launch
This is the step where programs die. A barista who doesn't care about the program won't say a word to the customer — and a month later you'll conclude that "loyalty doesn't work."
What works is simple: an employee sees how many customers they personally signed up, and gets something for it. UDS shows staff reports, and you can tie incentives directly to those numbers. Competition between shifts works better than any instruction ever could.
Step 4. Remove the Friction
The customer is at the counter, with a line behind them. If signing up takes more than ten seconds, it will never happen.
So: no forms, no paper cards. A QR code on the counter, the customer scans it, the app is already on their phone — they see the balance themselves, and the card can be added to Apple Wallet or Google Pay so they never have to hunt for it.
Four Mistakes in the First Month
- Silence. The program exists, but no one talks about it. A sign on the counter is the bare minimum.
- Too generous. See step 2. Calculate first, announce second.
- Bonuses for "someday." Without an expiration date, points fade into the background.
- No second touchpoint. The customer signs up and forgets. One well-timed reminder a week retains better than raising the percentage.
What It Costs
The LITE plan costs €75 per month, PRO is €200. For a coffee shop with an average check of €3, LITE pays for itself with a few dozen returning visits per month. You can run the numbers with your own figures — see pricing.
The simplest thing is to just try it: 7 days free, no card, no commitment. Setup takes one evening.