Loyalty programme launch checklist: the first 30 days
A practical 30-day checklist for launching a loyalty programme in a UK small business: baseline, reward rules, staff training, in-store promotion and the first review.
Key takeaways
- Write down a baseline before launch, or you will never know if the programme worked.
- Fix the reward rules, expiry and exclusions before the first customer joins.
- Staff training and QR placement decide your sign-up rate more than the reward does.
- Review at day 30 using return visits and reward cost, then change one thing at a time.
Week 0: before you launch
The most common mistake is launching without a baseline. Pull four weeks of numbers before day one: transactions, average spend and, if your till can show it, the share of returning customers. Without this, a busy launch month will look like success even if it is just the weather.
Then decide your rules and write them down in plain English.
- Reward rate: for example 5% cashback, with higher tiers for top spenders.
- Sign-up bonus: small enough to be affordable, big enough to notice.
- Redemption limits and any excluded products or categories.
- Points expiry: how long before unused points lapse.
- Referral reward for both the existing and the new customer, if you use one.
- How marketing preferences are collected, kept separate from joining.
Week 1: set-up and staff training
Design the card with your logo and colours and add your contact details. Print the joining QR code for the counter, tables and the window. Then train the whole team, not just the manager. Give everyone one sentence to say, such as “Would you like to join our rewards? It takes 30 seconds and you get £2 off today.”
Rehearse the awkward cases: a customer whose phone is dead, a refund after points were added, a customer who wants to use points on an excluded item. In Unity, staff can find a member by QR code, phone number or card number in the Staff app, which covers most of these situations.
Week 2: launch in store
Launch quietly to your regulars first, then promote more widely. Ask at the till every time, and display the QR code where people wait. If you use staff incentives, start them now: each member of staff has a personal QR code, so you can recognise who is signing people up.
Avoid launching during your busiest week of the year. Staff will skip the ask when the queue is out the door.
Week 3: first messages
Once you have members, send one useful message rather than a flood of offers. A welcome reminder of how the programme works, or an invitation to return during a quiet afternoon, is a good start. Keep marketing to customers who have agreed to it; see loyalty programmes, UK GDPR and PECR.
Use the channel that fits the message. A wallet push suits a short, timely reminder; email suits a longer update. Our channel comparison explains the trade-offs.
Day 30: the first review
Compare the month with your baseline. Look at members joined, the share of members who returned, average spend and the value of rewards redeemed. Sign-ups alone tell you how good your team is at asking, not whether the programme brings people back.
Change one thing at a time: the sign-up bonus, the QR placement or the staff script. Then measure again. Our guide to measuring loyalty programme ROI shows how to work out whether the programme pays for itself. If you have not chosen a platform yet, see how the set-up differs in our loyalty software by business type.
For current guidance on customer information and marketing preferences, see the ICO’s direct marketing resources and our Privacy & GDPR policy.
