Is the Square Loyalty program available in Australia? 🇦🇺

[barefootcinema]

I have a square business account in Australia and would like to set up a loyalty program, but can't seem to find the 'loyalty' tab. Is this feature available in Australia? I am happy to pay the subscription fee, but just can't get started. You're help would be most appreciated. Thanks! 

Julian

[hereforthebeer]

Just agreeing with everyone else here. We've been waiting for this for years, please let us know if there's any progress!

[Seamus]

Hey @hereforthebeer,

I know it's been a while, but we hope to have more to announce here soon!

I'll make sure to come back to this thread and tag everyone who has inquired once we do 👍

[Seamus]

@barefootcinema @kazshops @Candyland @BYProgram @Tim_Brady @AbrahamsClub @Phuong @MuzzBuzzarwin @HandmwithJayde @freshcrimcuts @Gbarr @theyarnbowl @theroyalctambo @hereforthebeer 

Square Loyalty is out today in Australia! Read more here 🙂

[theroyalctambo]

Thanks Sheamus.

the fact loyalty is here is awesome, albeit I’m scared of it, as it looks like it may not suit my business.  I am a small town country pub, so people come here at times for several hours, pay each time they order, which means each customer may have 3-15 transactions at each visit. They also may visit 3-4 times a week.

things that concern me (remembering its early days and I may be incorrect in my reading)

also remembering  if I love square, and support it, and I’m glad the ball has got rolling

- Each “visit” being an individual purchase.  Which I get charged on. My business, most of my loyalty customers are here for several hours, and purchase anywhere up to 20 drinks, will I get charged for each of these drinks as a “visit”. But the value of dollar spend is very low.   They may 

- logging the customer via phone number, again concerns me.  During happy hour, whilst we have two tills, getting a mobile number each time will be tiresome. Too many digits to enter, and painful to get customer to provide this each time.  Can you imagine having 50 people at bar, 3 staff serving, and having to ask for mobile number each time?  

- From what I read, loyalty isn’t applied at the same time a discount is applied. This means that “locals” (most of my loyalty customers) don’t receive at one of the highest times they patronise the Hotel points during “happy hour” 

- there doesn’t seem to be an option to have loyalty discounts for individual items. I’m a small town country pub, and we have a tourist season, and one of the main reasons I’d like a system that has loyalty, is that every other loyalty POS. I’ve ever worked with has had the ability to have discounts for members based on products. 

Ive rang Square twice today, and obviously because it’s new no one wanted/could  answer questions. Who do I speak to about this?

[Seamus]

Hey @theroyalctambo,

Thanks for getting in touch.

- Each "visit" is indeed an individual transaction. I get your point here - unlike a cafe or a retail store, in a pub you're far more likely to have multiple "visits" over the same session. Your user case is definitely an example of a situation that our Loyalty program isn't specifically designed to account for, and this is feedback I will pass on to the team who make Loyalty. I'm not sure what a solution to this would be as the system is built on a "per visit" principle - but it's good to hear examples how the current product doesn't quite fit how you run your business and the more feedback we hear like this, the more we'd consider making changes to the product.

- Logging customer phone numbers is unavoidable, as it's an SMS based system designed to use SMS updates for customers to track points in place of things like physical cardboard loyalty cards or having to log into external apps. If the customer is using a card to pay and has a mobile number tied to the card on Square's system (eg through a customer directory contact or automated receipts), the mobile phone number should automatically display in the Loyalty mobile field rather than you needing to type it in each time. This won't work with cash transactions though.

- I just tested applying a discount on items that had loyalty points associated and this worked fine - the points still applied to the transaction as per usual despite also using a discount. Do you have a link to where you were reading about this?

- You can certainly set points to be accrued for items purchased then use those points to either discount items or redeem free items. Here's some i set up as an example:

It may be that Square's Loyalty system isn't quite the right fit for you, however it does come with a free 30 day trial - so if you want to check it out and see if it's viable for your pub you're able to test it out!

Let me know if you have any questions 🙂

[theroyalctambo]

Thanks Sheamus

Yeah I think Square has missed the boat and the system seems clunky in regards to my business. 

Couple of follow up questions

- can the phone number be scanned in via barcode reader?  This would be great if I could have a bar code with the customers number so they wouldn't have to travel to the POS every time and enter in their phone number

- Is this the same system of loyalty as in other countries?

- With the rewards, can we make just general either credit or discounts based on dollar?  Ie can we make it so they get 20,000 points, they get $20 towards any spend?  I don't want to do a % off, but a dollar value.

[Seamus]

Hey @theroyalctambo,

1) Good question - I've not actually heard of anyone doing this before, but in theory I don't see why this wouldn't work. EDIT: This unfortunately won't work at the moment, though the feature is under consideration.

2) As far as I'm aware the Loyalty system is the same across countries - there may be slight variations between regions according to any relevant regulatory requirements, however I'm not aware of any differences. One thing to note is that Square Marketing isn't available in Australia yet, which isn't the same as Loyalty but integrates with Loyalty for email marketing.

3) Yep, this can be done:

[theroyalctambo]

Thanks for the reply Sheamus.

In regards to number 1, I can’t test this at the moment as I don’t want to start trial until I know all the details.

can someone from Square answer this?

[Seamus]

Hey @theroyalctambo,

We tried this out in the office and this unfortunately will not work as I assumed it may.

It appears the ability to use a barcode scanner within the Square POS app won't work after the checkout screen. I have passed your use case directly onto our Loyalty product team as feedback.

[theroyalctambo]

Hi @Seamus 

Any further update on this?

have you had any pubs or bars take up loyalty?  

How has the uptake of loyalty been?

ability to scan customers phone numbers I think would make the process easier

thanks

[Seamus]

Hey @theroyaltambo,

While we don't generally share numbers surrounding the uptake or use of our products, I am personally aware of a few bars and distilleries using Loyalty - however I don't generally hear from most merchants using these products!

Unfortunately I don't have any news regarding scanning customer phone numbers or barcodes for Loyalty. I passed your feedback on to the Loyalty team, but don't have a timeline as to if and when this may become available. I can tell you that I shared your use-case with the team, so it's been seen by the people who develop the product!

Sorry I couldn't be of more help here - if I do hear of any news I will let you know!