Loyalty program metrics that show your card is working

It’s easy to judge a loyalty program by feel: the regulars seem to like it, so it must be working. A few numbers tell you much more. A small shop can answer the questions that matter with half a dozen figures and ten minutes a week.

This guide covers which loyalty program metrics to watch, what each one tells you, where to find it in the Stow Cards console, and what to try when a number moves the wrong way. The examples use Harbor Coffee, our demo café.

Start with three questions

Every number worth checking answers one of three questions:

1. Are new customers joining? If not, the card isn’t being offered, or the reward isn’t worth a scan.
2. Do they keep the card? A sign-up only counts once the card is on the customer’s phone.
3. Do they come back? This is the one that pays. A card that brings people back is working, whatever the other numbers say.

Rewards redeemed, sign-up sources and your busiest hours help explain the answers.

1. New members

The dashboard’s New members chart shows daily enrollments over the last 7, 14, 30 or 90 days. Look at the shape as much as the total. A steady line means the card is offered every day. A line that jumps on some days and sits at zero on others usually means one person on the team does all the asking.

The chart is also the simplest way to test a change. Move a counter card to the pickup point, or ask staff to offer the card to anyone who comes back a second time, then compare the next two weeks with the two before. Change one thing at a time, or you won’t know which one worked. Where to put your loyalty QR code has placements worth testing.

2. Cards kept in a wallet

A customer who signs up but never adds the card to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet has nothing to show at the till and never sees your updates. The dashboard counts the members who have the card in Apple Wallet and in Google Wallet. Each program’s page has both sides in one place: under Engagement, Issued is every card the program has given out, and Installed is the members who have it in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet now. Installed divided by Issued is the share of members who kept the card.

These counts are live. When a customer removes the card from their wallet, they drop out of the count, so a slow fall can mean the card isn’t earning its place on the phone.

If the share is low, look at the moment after sign-up. The sign-up page shows the button for the wallet on the customer’s phone, so ask staff to check the card is in the wallet before the customer walks away. A customer who loses theirs can get it back from your sign-up page with their email address, unless you have switched that off.

3. Repeat visits: the number that pays

The Analytics page opens with Cohort retention, the clearest answer to “do customers come back?” Each row is a month of new members. The first column, M0, is the month they joined, so it always reads 100%. Each later column is the share of that month’s members whose card was scanned at the till in that month: M1 is the month after they joined, M2 the month after that, and so on, across the last six months.

Read along a row to see how one month’s members fade, and down a column to compare months at the same age. Say 46% of August’s new members came back the next month, and 54% of October’s did: whatever you changed in between is worth keeping. If you have met the term repeat customer rate, this is it for your members, month by month: the members who came back, divided by the members who joined.

Two things to know before you trust it:

• It counts scans. A visit counts when staff scan the customer’s card with the Stow Cards Merchant app. Points added after looking a customer up by name, or typed into the console, don’t log a visit, so scan the card every time.
• It needs time. The table appears once you have a month of enrollments and till scans, and small months swing. With 20 new members in a month, each customer is 5% of the row.

When the M1 column is low, one common cause is a first reward that is too far away. A customer who earns something on their third visit has a reason to come back; one who needs twenty visits may never start. Loyalty card reward ideas covers how to set a goal people reach.

4. Rewards redeemed

A reward nobody reaches is not a reward. The dashboard’s Reward funnel sets members who joined and cards installed beside the rewards redeemed in the last 30 days, and each program’s page counts its redemptions to date under Engagement.

A redemption counts when staff use Redeem reward, in the app or the console, on a stamp card or on a points card with a reward target. Taking points off by hand changes the balance but isn’t counted as a reward, so use Redeem reward every time.

If redemptions are rare next to your member count, look at the goal again. If they come quickly but repeat visits don’t rise, the reward may be too easy, or mostly going to regulars who would have come anyway.

5. Where new members come from

Under Acquisition sources, the Analytics page counts new members by source over the last 7, 14 or 30 days. Sign-ups from your standard QR code or link show as Web, and members your staff add show as In-store / staff. To compare spots, give each printed code its own tag: a code made from your sign-up link with ?qrSource=counter on the end shows up as “QR code: counter”, and ?source=newsletter on a link you share online shows up as “Link: newsletter”.

6. When customers visit

The In-store scans card on the Analytics page lists your scans by result, and Average scans by hour shows a typical day with the busiest hour highlighted. On the Stow Cards Merchant app’s Home screen, Scans today puts today’s scans hour by hour against a typical day.

Use the busy hours to plan who offers the card and when: the quiet spell after a rush is a better time to explain it than the rush itself. Keep an eye on scans that fail, too. Not found means the code didn’t match any of your members, and Denied means the card was voided or has expired, or the scanner’s settings don’t allow that scan. A run of either is worth a word with the team.

Turn a number into an action

A number is only useful if it changes what you do, and segments in the console turn one into a list of people. Set Inactive for (days) to 30 and Wallet pass to In a wallet, and the segment holds everyone who still carries the card but hasn’t had points or stamps added, or a reward redeemed, in a month. Send that segment a campaign with a reason to come back this week: a push notification shows your message on the lock screen of each phone that has the card. Then watch the next month of Cohort retention.

A ten-minute weekly check

• Every week: new members against the week before, cards installed against new members, and your top sources.
• Every month: the newest cells in Cohort retention, and rewards redeemed.
• After any change: give it two weeks before you judge it.

What these numbers can’t tell you

The console’s reports count people, cards, scans and rewards, not money, so for sales and average spend, read your till system’s reports alongside them. They also see only what happens to the card: a regular who forgets their phone and pays without a scan is a visit the reports never see.

Getting started

If you don’t have a card yet, design one in the Stow Cards Pass Designer, free and without an account. How live pass updates work explains what customers see when you send an update, and the digital loyalty cards and digital stamp cards pages cover the card itself.

Questions shop owners ask