Live Q&A: Ask us anything about Square Loyalty 🌟

[cspillane]

On Thursday, February 23, the Square Loyalty team hosted a Q&A (@cspillane, @seiderman, and @lornaz) alongside Square small business evangelist and former Super Seller, @PessoAlumni (former owner of Pesso’s Ices & Ice Cream with 5+ years of experience using Square Loyalty at his business).

We heard what’s working well for your business, as well as ways we can better serve your needs.

[PessoAlumni]

Thanks for holding this Q&A event and for the awesome introduction, @cspillane !
I'm super excited to jump in and help answer folks' questions as we go!

[PartyManiaMD]

I'll try to keep it short as I use Square Loyalty and I even created a Feature Request here regarding loyalty points.

In short why can't we designate x2, x3, x4,etc points by category? It seems like such an easy fix that would allow us to push Loyalty through category offerings.

Currently I can assign X points earned per category but not X points earned per dollar spent per category and that creates a huge roadblock to using loyalty to its full potential. A flat x2 or x3 point multiplier doesn't work because of how our margins operate.

Thank you for your consideration!

[GACoffee]

Yes! ^ This!

We need much more specificity allowed. For example, providing a flat number of points for any purchase within a category, AND a certain number of points per dollar spent within a single transaction. That way we reward loyalty for showing up AND loyalty for spending more, without disadvantaging one or the other. Having it simply one way or another is not good.

Loyalty points per visit only and the big spenders don’t get rewarded (big parties might as well separate their purchases). Loyalty points per dollar spent may yield no loyalty for those who daily (loyally) buy low-priced items.

Something like “A + 0.5B” would be very helpful (A: points awarded per purchase, B: total purchase spend). An example for a $32 spend could be 20pts + 0.5x32 = 20 + 16 = 36 points.

[lornaz]

Hi @PartyManiaMD! Thank you for the question and love this feature request! Unfortunately this is not functionality we have currently available; however, as a workaround, you could set up your program as a regular spend program and then use Loyalty Promotions to create point multipliers for specific categories (e.g. 2x on Drinks, 3x on Food). I know this isn’t exactly the feature you’ve requested since it’s not built into the program set up, but I think this could achieve the result you’re looking for.

[PartyManiaMD]

Looking at the loyalty promotions, it appears to almost hit the mark. The issue is that it's needlessly difficult to set up promotions instead of just having a list of categories and the multiplier assigned to each category. For example if I want 2x points earned for solids I have to set it up for that, then 3x for kids themes, etc.

Also, according to the Loyalty Promotions, it only lets people take advantage of a promotion once per day, so if people come back later in the day and it's 2x points for a given category that doesn't really work. I don't see a toggle for this to allow unlimited promotions? 

This is a massive issue because I want to offer 2-5x points earned for quite a few categories but having to put fine print of 1/day will still lead to people complaining they're not earning the points. 

Lastly: Purchases from your Square Online site are not eligible for Loyalty Promotions at this time. Which creates a huge headache when people choose to buy online and then come in to pick up their order only to see the promotions being advertised.

[cspillane]

Hi @PartyManiaMD,

Jumping in here — as of this week, Square Online transactions are now accounting for active promotions. 

[lornaz]

Hi @PartyManiaMD -- Thank you for your response. We are working on an update that will allow sellers to customize how often their buyers can claim a promotion per day. Stay tuned for more on this! 

[Ninjarita]

I currently have loyalty Happy Hour for orders between 3-4pm, with 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x— and it doesn't always work. I see orders that have a loyalty account that should have triggered 5x points, but the actually didn't get any. I often look at receipts to see what points were awarded in the happy hour. Also the mobile dashboard never shows what was redeemed, just what they can choose.

[lornaz]

Hi@ @Ninjarita, I’m sorry to hear that your Loyalty promotions have not been working as expected. We’ll look into this on our end to see what’s going on and get back to you. You should be able to see what rewards a seller redeemed in your Loyalty Dashboard as well as the Loyalty Reports section of the point of sale. It should show both the rewards you have created as well as the number of buyers who have redeemed that reward. Are you seeing something different?

[GeeksOnRepair]

I’m interested in having square help me with email marketing. 

[iowafly]

I am unable to attend at this given time, am I able to access it later?

[Tom]

Hello @iowafly, thanks for checking in! This discussion will take place in writing within this thread. If you have any questions or feedback, please drop them in by replying below.

You'll then receive a notification once the Loyalty team replies to your question in a couple of weeks. Thanks for your patience!

[WWW2017]

Is there a way to set up that you are rewarded every six visits with 5% of you previous 6 visits total. That is the current way I run our in-house loyalty and my customers love it. this means big spenders get a bigger card and small spenders get a smaller card.   

[Hollygwynn]

Are you doing whizbang's 6-box? I don't know why more pos systems that cater to small retailers don't accommodate this.

[seiderman]

Thanks for the question @WWW2017. Just want to make sure I understand your program setup – the 5% gets retroactively applied to the past purchases? Or is the 5% a forward looking discount once you hit the 6 visit threshold? If it’s the former, this isn’t something currently supported. However, we are looking into supporting tiered program structures, which should allow you to progressively scale your program the more your customers spend / visit. Happy to reach out with more information if you’re interested in learning more and/or joining an early beta program. 

[homeprogreen]

Actually I am pretty happy with loyalty. Been using it since it started and my customers live the way it’s set up. Give 1 star for every 20 dollars of your purchase. Once they have 10 stars they can redeem for 10% off entire purchase when they choose 

[lornaz]

Hi @homeprogreen! Glad to hear your customers have been enjoying your Loyalty program! If you have feature requests or suggestions on how we can improve the product, let us know!

[homeprogreen]

I have been using Loyalty since it first started. My setup is very basic. They get a star for every 20 dollars of their purchase and when they have 10 stars they can redeem for 10% off entire purchase. Keeps it simple and avoids any confusion. I can see how others do things differently for their unique situation but it honestly does everything I need. The recent ability to add loyalty card to Apple wallet is nice since it cuts down on customers asking me how many stars they have 

[Hollygwynn]

<span;>Hello,

<span;>A few requests:

<span;>When customers redeem loyalty rewards for a points per spend, they must purchase an item that costs the same as or more than the reward, regardless of their spend total. Is there a way to make loyalty rewards apply across their entire ticket instead of just one item? i.e. if a customer has a $10 reward and buys ten $1 items they can't use their reward, and I then have to fudge around with either item totals or points. Otherwise tiered loyalty points seems disingenuous. It would also help when a customer makes a return against that same receipt.


<span;>Also, is there a way to have rewards not accumulate on a purchase where rewards are being redeemed? This would also be helpful in a returned item situation.


<span;>Lastly, can you add a feature to the loyalty reports that can highlight repeat loyalty visits? "Loyalty accredited sales" is a misleading metric given how easy it is to sign up for the loyalty program. I have customers do it "just in case" they might be back "someday".

<span;>Thanks,
<span;>Holly

[lornaz]

Hi @Hollygwynn! Thank you for your questions.

1. I think this depends on how your rewards are set up. If you reward is a $10 discount on the entire cart, then your customer should be able to redeem their $10 reward even if they buy ten $1 items. However, if you have category or item restrictions on your rewards then the reward can only be applied to one item.
2. Right now, if the customer meets your points-earning criteria, they will receive points for their purchase even if they redeemed a reward. However, we do deduct points from their balance when they return an item, so you do not need to worry about your customer getting points for returned items.
3. Thank you for this feedback. In our Loyalty report, we do show average visit counts for Loyalty enrollees vs. non Loyalty enrollees. We also who a distribution of the number of visits from your Loyalty enrollees for that same time period. Although I understand this isn’t exactly what you’re looking for, it could help shed some light on roughly how many of your Loyalty accredited sales are from repeat customers vs. one time customers that signed up “just in case”