The Square Loyalty program is a good basic service but it has a lot of shortcomings. Their customers are from many different businesses and have different needs. In general, the Loyalty program is way too restrictive and customers need much greater options for customization. What would you like to see offered as part of the Square Loyalty program?
Here is my hot list. I am a coffeeshop to give it some perspective.
1. Square recently enabled redeption across all stores at multi-store units. I would like each store have the option to opt-in or out of the loyalty program. We have three (soon to be four) locations in two different cities. We use the loyalty in one city, but decided against it in the other city. When this new feature was rolled out, all of a sudden the store that was not using loyalty was automatically activated. We have the choice now that all stores offer the same program or no program at all. --> Allow stores to opt-in or out. --> Allow stores to customize their loyalty program individually. --> Allow stores to opt-in or out or rewards redemptions.
2. The punchcard system is way to restrictive. In a coffee shop we have some customers that come in twice a day and buy a cup of coffee or a cappuccino for $3.50 - I would like to reward these customers for their loyalty. We also have customers that come in weekly to buy bags of beans for use at home. Some buy 3 bags/week spending about $50 - I would also like to reward these customer for loyalty. But how do I do this with a single punchcard system that only awards one star per transaction? I give one star per $10 for a $10 reward after 10 transactions. Well, the coffee customer never earns a reward and the bean customer asks that we ring up each bag of beans separately so they can get the stars (or, they only get one star). Now, I have turned what is intended to be an incentive into a disincentive or an annoyance. --> Offer a Point System in addition to or instead of punchcard stars that can be customized for the store. Customer gets XX points for every XX dollars & and award of $XX after XX points. For example, Get 1 point for every dollar spent; after 100 points get a $5 award.
3. Allow item categories to opt-in for qualifying purchases or redemptions. I sell beverages, food, beans, and equipment. Perhaps I do not want my equipment to qualify for the award because it is a lower margin item but I want everything else to qualify.
4. For the punchcard award, all us to select 1 star for every transaction over a certain amount, OR 1 star for every XX dollars spent. For example if it is 1 star for every transaction over $5, then someone spending $6 or someone spending $40 gets 1 star. If it is 1 star for every $5 spent, then the $6 transaction gets 1 star, but the $40 transaction gets 8 stars.
5. Give us the ability to edit a customer's loyalty account balance in the event of a dispute over getting credit for an award or just to offer an incentive.
