Setting up a loyalty club: how to get customers to join

Setup has two parts

You can set up a perfect club, with a nice design and a good reward, and find out a month later that almost nobody joined. This happens because setting up a loyalty club is two things: the settings, and the joining. The settings take an hour. Joining is a habit of your team.

This article is about the second part: how a customer goes from "What is this?" to a card in their wallet, and what helps them say yes.

How a customer joins

1. Scan the code on the counter sign, or tap the button on the business card.
2. Type a phone number.
3. Get a code by SMS and type it in.
4. Save the card in the wallet: Google Wallet on Android, Apple Wallet on iPhone.

There is no app to download and no password to remember. The code proves that the number belongs to the customer, and that is all that is needed. A customer whose phone is set to Arabic gets everything in Arabic.

Agreeing to receive advertising is a separate question. Joining the club is not consent to advertising, and anyone who wants to send advertising needs explicit consent, given separately. Shortip does not send advertising by SMS to your customers.

A question that comes up a lot at the counter: "What if I change my phone?" The answer is short, and your staff should know it: the card is restored with a code, and the visits stay. A customer who knows their visits will not get lost joins more easily.

No reception? Join at the counter

In a basement, in a covered market, or just on a busy day, there is not always reception. In that case the staff member signs the customer up from the scanner on their own phone. The customer has to do almost nothing, and does not leave the line without a card.

The one sentence at the counter

A sign helps and a social media image helps, but what really brings people to join is a staff member who offers it. Not a speech, one sentence, at the moment the customer pays.

Why at the moment of payment? Because that is when the customer is already holding the phone, already standing at the counter, and has already decided they like the place enough to buy. The sentence needs to do three things: say what it is, say how easy it is, and say what they get from it.

How to help your team remember

• Hang the sign where the staff member also sees it when handing over the bill, next to where the customer sees it.
• Let each staff member say the sentence in their own words. A sentence that sounds natural works better than one learned by heart.
• Offer it to every customer, including first time visitors.
• Once a week, look in the portal to see which staff member signed up the most people that week. It starts a good conversation in the team, without looking for someone to blame.

A join bonus: a card that does not start from zero

You can give a few visits as a gift right when a customer joins. The logic is simple: an empty card feels like the start of something long. A card that already has two visits feels like something that has already started.

For example only: "Falafel HaGiva" is a fictional stand. Its goal is ten portions, and a customer who joins gets two. So the first free portion comes after only eight visits, and the staff member can say "You already have two." That is easier to say than "Start collecting."

Inviting a friend

Every customer has their own page in the card, and from there they can send a friend the link to join. No discount code, and no chasing anyone. Someone who likes the place sends it to a friend who lives nearby, and the friend joins just like any other customer.

This is also a good reason to keep the card simple. A friend who gets a link needs to understand in a second what it is and why it is worth it.

A counter sign and an image for social media

From the portal you download a counter sign to print, and an image ready to post. The sign does the work at the counter, and the image tells people who have not come in today about the club.

• Hang the sign at eye level, next to where people pay. Not behind the coffee machine and not by the door.
• Post the image as a status, a story or a post on the day the club opens.
• Post it again a week later, because most of your followers did not see it the first time.

Customers with a paper punch card

Someone who had a paper punch card with you does not need to start from zero, and that is also a good reason to join. The customer joins like everyone else, and their visits are moved from the paper to the card on the phone, with your approval.

For example only: a customer comes in with a paper punch card that has six punches. She joins at the counter, the staff member sends the paper card for approval, and you approve it from your phone. From that moment the card in her wallet shows six visits, and she continues from the same point.

The setup meeting with Gal

With Shortip you do not get an empty account and instructions. Gal arranges a meeting with you and comes to your business. At the setup meeting:

1. You set up the club: a punch card with a reward or a prepaid package, the goal, the reward and the join bonus.
2. You design the card with your business's colors, logo and stamp.
3. You connect your staff's phones to the scanner.
4. You get a counter sign to print, and an image ready to post.
5. You get an explanation card for your team.

Setup is done at your business, and it is included in the subscription. There is no installation fee.

What to check in the first two weeks

• How many customers joined, and which staff members signed them up. If few joined, the problem is almost always at the counter and not in the reward.
• If one staff member has not signed up anyone, ask them what gets in the way. Sometimes it is only where the sign hangs.
• How many of the new members already came back for a second visit.
• If customers ask the same question again and again, add the answer to the sentence at the counter.

How much it costs

The price is set in one price list, and this is today's price:

Frequently asked questions