Most loyalty programs are not lost to the wrong software. They are lost in the first month, to a card nobody was trained to offer, a reward nobody could explain in one sentence, and a QR code that ended up next to the till instead of in front of it. This is a plan for those thirty days.
The order is deliberate. Everything in week one is a decision that is expensive to change later, and everything after it is habit. A program that starts with the software and works backwards to the reward tends to launch with a card nobody can explain, which is the one failure this sequence exists to avoid.
The thirty-day shape
| Days | Focus | What is finished by the end |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 3 | Decide | Reward, what earns progress, the goal, one card design |
| 4 to 7 | Set up and print | Card live, QR code printed and placed, scanner on a staff phone |
| 8 to 14 | Staff and soft launch | Every shift can explain and scan; regulars enrolled first |
| 15 to 21 | Full launch | Every customer asked at payment; the script is consistent |
| 22 to 30 | Review | Joins, repeat scans and near-reward counts read; one change decided |
The checklist
Twelve items, in order. Items one to four are the ones that are costly to revisit once customers are collecting.
- Choose the reward. One sentence, no conditions. If it needs an asterisk, it is the wrong reward for a first program.
- Choose what earns progress. A visit, or an amount spent. Visits are simpler to explain and simpler to scan.
- Choose the goal. Divide the goal by how often a regular visits, and check that the wait is one you would accept yourself. The reasoning is on how many stamps a loyalty card should have.
- Decide who is allowed to scan. On the free plan that is the owner; team seats start on Pro.
- Design one card. One pass, one business, the name a customer would recognise on a receipt.
- Print the QR code and place it where the hands are. In front of the customer at payment, not behind the counter or on a window.
- Put the scanner on a phone that is always at the till. Bookmark it. A scanner that has to be found is a scanner that does not get used at busy moments.
- Write the one-sentence script. What it is, what they get, and how to join, in the time it takes to hand over a card machine.
- Train every shift, not every manager. The person on the closing shift will enrol as many customers as the person on the morning one.
- Soft launch on regulars. They forgive a fumbled explanation and they will tell you what was confusing.
- Ask every customer at payment for a full week. Consistency is what turns the offer into a habit for staff.
- Review at day 30 and change exactly one thing. Changing three at once means learning nothing from any of them.
What to decide before anything is printed
The three decisions in items one to three are worth an hour together rather than an afternoon each. The reward sets the margin, what earns progress sets how the scan works at the counter, and the goal sets how long the customer waits. They interact: a generous reward with a short goal is a discount, and a small reward with a long goal is an insult in the customer's arithmetic.
Write all three on one line before opening any software. If the line is longer than a sentence, the program is too complicated to be explained at a till, and simplifying it now costs nothing.
The counter setup
One decision inside the setup is worth calling out because it is invisible until it goes wrong: who holds the scanning device. If it is the owner's personal phone, the program stops when the owner is out. If it is a tablet fixed at the till, it works every shift and nobody has to be asked. The second arrangement survives staff turnover and the first does not.
The physical part of a launch is two objects: a printed QR code where the customer is already looking, and a phone or tablet with the scanner open. On Fideliya the scanner is a web page rather than an app or a terminal, so any device with a camera and a browser works, and it is included on every plan including the free one.
Place the code in front of the customer at the payment moment. Enrolment happens when the phone is already out, and a code positioned anywhere else is a code that gets pointed at rather than scanned. The reasoning for issuing a wallet pass rather than asking for an install is on loyalty app or wallet pass.
The month-one review
Before the numbers, one habit worth building in week four: ask two staff members what customers say when they decline. The answer is almost never about the software. It is usually that the reward was not clear, that the customer thought it needed an app, or that the ask came after payment when the phone was already away. All three are fixable in a sentence, and none of them appear in any dashboard.
Three numbers close the first month, and they should be read together rather than one at a time. How many customers joined, how many were scanned more than once, and how many are within a stamp or two of a reward. The first alone flatters a program: cards handed out are not a program, cards used twice are.
Set the review date on the day you launch rather than deciding to look later. A program without a scheduled review tends to get judged on impressions instead of counts, and impressions in the first month are dominated by whichever customer was most enthusiastic on the second day.
If joins are high and repeat scans are low, the problem is usually the goal or the reward, not the software. If joins are low, the problem is almost always the ask: where the code sits, and whether every shift offers it. Both are cheap to fix in month two, and both are invisible without looking.
On plans and what the review costs, see what loyalty software costs in 2026. For the published research on what programs return and how customers describe them, see the statistics page.
Sources
This page carries no third-party statistic. The plan figures it names, the free plan's 20 customers at one location, Pro at 49.99 euros a month with four team seats, and the 14 days of Pro features at signup, are Fideliya's published plans on the pricing page.
Fideliya is wallet-native loyalty program software for small businesses. Customers add a stamp or points card to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet in one tap, with no app to download and no account to create. Fideliya runs stamps, points, gift cards and referrals on one platform in English, French, Spanish and Arabic with full right-to-left support, and the free plan issues a real wallet pass for up to 20 customers. The counter tool this checklist assumes is described on the QR scanner staff use, and the plans are on the pricing page.