Rewards · the list that comes back
Every business with a door has the same problem at two o’clock on a wet Tuesday, and almost none of them can do anything about it — because they have no way of speaking to the people who already like them. A card on the table fixes that in about forty seconds a customer, and then rewards are what keep the list worth having.
Alfredo’s is invented, and so are all 1,284 of its guests.
It starts with the square
Loyalty schemes fail on the first step, not the last. Nobody is downloading an app for a sandwich shop, and the paper card is in a coat from March. This asks for a name and a number at the one moment somebody is pleased with you — just after the food was good — and never asks again.
From then on the counting is the system’s problem. The guest does nothing except scan the same square they already scanned.
Six that work
A blanket 20% off tells everybody who was coming anyway to pay you less. These all do the opposite — they go to one person, for one reason, at the moment it is worth something.
Every visit is counted from the code on the table — no card to lose and nothing to stamp. On the ninth the assistant tells them before they ask.
The cheapest loyalty scheme there is: it costs one coffee and buys eight visits.Six weeks with no visit and they get one message: a table held, a reason to use it, and nothing for three months if they ignore it.
Winning back somebody who already liked you is the cheapest cover you will ever sell.It asks once, in the conversation, and never again. A week before, a message with a booking link and something free on the table.
Birthdays come with four other people and a bottle of something.Tuesday at eleven the diary is thin, so the offer goes only to the people who have eaten on a weekday lunchtime before.
Discounting to people who would have come anyway is how offers lose money. This does not.Their code, their name on it. When the new guest uses it both get something, and the new guest joins the list the same way.
A recommendation from a regular converts better than any advert you can buy.Rob said pasta and drinks red. When the new ragù goes on, Rob hears about it and the salad crowd does not.
A message that fits is not marketing. It is a favour, and it gets answered.The screen it all lands on
One list, yours, with what each of them likes and when they were last in. Filter it to the people the message is actually for, write the message, and send it. Twelve seconds, not an agency.
| Guest | Mobile | Last in | Visits | Spent | What they like |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rachel Byrne | 07700 900318 | 4 days ago | 11 | £286 | Arancini · window table |
| Rob Sandhu | 07700 900641 | Last night | 1 | £28 | Pasta · drinks red |
| Priya Raman | 07700 900204 | 2 weeks ago | 23 | £742 | Lunch, weekdays |
| Tom Hedley | 07700 900877 | 9 weeks ago | 6 | £141 | Drinks only · Fridays |
| Dawn Mercer | 07700 900455 | Yesterday | 31 | £1,090 | Birthday 14 Oct |
1,279 more. Built one table at a time by a card next to the salt.
Only guests who opted in, every message carries STOP, and anybody who stops is never messaged again. A list you bought is a fine, not a campaign.
It arrives where they already read things, and the reply is handled by the same assistant — so “BOOK” becomes a table at half one rather than a job for somebody on the pass.
Before you send anything
The guest who scanned the card, the one who ordered the ragù and the one who told you the door was cold are the same person on the same record. Rewards are not a separate app with a separate customer list — they are what that record is for.