A digital loyalty card for your snack bar or burger joint

A snack bar near a campus or a busy street lives on two crowds: workers and pupils at lunch, students and night owls in the evening. They order menus, burgers, durums, pitas, croques and paninis, they come often, and they switch places easily when a friend says the new burger spot is better. Prices are close everywhere. A loyalty card is one of the few things that makes the difference visible: every menu counts, and your card is already in their phone when the group is deciding where to eat at midnight.

What to reward, and after how many stamps?

Menus are what your customers buy, so a menu is the reward they understand. A smaller upgrade reward keeps new customers coming back early.

• 10A free menu: burger, fries and drinkThe headline reward. Put it on your QR stand.
• 5Free drink or large fries upgradeA quick win for students who come twice a week.
• 8Free durum or pitaFor kebab and pita shops where that's the bestseller.
• 4Free dessert or milkshakeCheap to give, feels like a treat.

Here is an example calculation. A burger menu sells for €12 and costs you about €3.50 in meat, bun, fries, sauce and a can. A customer who buys 10 menus has spent €120. The free menu costs €3.50, about 3 % of that. An upgrade to large fries after 5 orders costs you a few cents of potatoes and oil.

Cards can have between 3 and 30 stamps. If you change the number later, only new cards follow it; customers already collecting keep their rule. A welcome stamp at sign-up gives students a head start, which helps when you’re competing with three other places on the same street.

Which card type fits a snack bar?

The stamp card in Essential fits most snack bars: one stamp per order.

Where a snack bar differs from a friterie is the size of the order. One student buys a single durum, a group orders five menus and shares the bill, a worker grabs a croque. If your order sizes vary a lot, points on Pro reward bigger orders more: staff type the amount on the scanner’s pad and points follow the euros. You can set up to 6 rewards, for example a drink at a low level and a double burger menu at a high one.

VIP levels (Pro) by number of visits work well for the regulars who come in every evening. Their level shows on the pass and on the scanner.

How does stamping work during the rush?

You have two rushes. At lunch, 12:00 to 13:30, workers and school pupils want to be in and out. Late at night, the queue is a group of students, loud and in no hurry, with one of them paying for everyone or each paying for themselves.

• Where: the scanner phone sits on a holder next to the Bancontact or Payconiq terminal. The person taking payment scans.
• When: at payment, before the order goes to the kitchen. Not when the bag is handed over.
• Groups: if one friend pays for the whole group, one stamp. If each pays separately, each shows their own card.
• Card sharing: the cooldown, 5 minutes by default, blocks a second stamp on the same card, so friends can’t pass one phone around to fill it up in one evening. Every stamp records who scanned, on which device and where.
• Young staff: a shared counter phone with a PIN login per person and the staff role, which only opens the scanner.
• Mistakes: the owner or a manager corrects the card in the dashboard with Adjust stamps; the reason and who made the change are logged.

The scanner shows a big “+1” with the customer’s first name and progress, for example “Amir · 9/10”. When the card is full, the customer gets a lock-screen notification. Staff tap Claim + add today’s stamp: the free menu goes in the bag and tonight’s order starts card 2.

Seasonal and occasion ideas

Student cities set the calendar: Brussels, Leuven, Ghent, Liège, Louvain-la-Neuve.

• Mid-September to October: new academic year. Students choose their regular places in the first weeks, so put the QR stand where they queue.
• January and June: exam periods. Long study nights, late snacks.
• End of June: exams are over, groups celebrate.
• Big football nights: the late-night rush comes after the final whistle.
• Summer: students leave, lunch workers stay. Adjust your messages.

What to send by push or e-mail

Push messages are part of Pro. They show on the lock screen via the wallet pass and only reach customers who ticked the news box. Your crowd reads their phone all day, so one well-timed message beats several random ones.

Example push messages:

• Title: “Exam week” Text: “Free drink with every menu until Friday. Study hard, eat well. Open until 2:00.”
• Title: “New burger this week” Text: “Our double smash with cheddar and pickles is on the menu from today. Lunch or late night.”
• Title: “Your free menu is waiting” Text: “Your card is full. Burger, fries and drink are on us next time.”

E-mail idea: a welcome e-mail, sent automatically from your shop’s own address, with your opening hours and the late-night menu.

Students ignore a shop that messages every day. Two or three pushes a month is the ceiling.

Common objections

“My customers are students, they’ll cheat.” The cooldown blocks double stamps on one card, staff scan only at payment, and every stamp is logged with the staff member and device. A manager can correct a card, with a reason, if something looks wrong.

“It’s too slow at lunch.” One scan while the customer taps their card on the terminal. Joining is done by the customer while they wait in line.

“Everyone already has ten loyalty apps.” This isn’t an app. The card goes into Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, next to their student card and train tickets.

“I have a paper card.” Keep it while people switch. A manager can add the stamps from the paper card with a correction.

What does it cost?

Essential is €29 a month excl. VAT: one location, one stamp card, unlimited customers and scans, the scanner for the whole team and the first QR stand included. Pro is €59 a month for push messages, points and VIP levels; try it free for 14 days. In Belgium, the first merchants can keep Pro at €19 a month for life.

For a pizza and takeaway shop, read the pizzeria page. If you sell from a truck, see food trucks.