Square Loyalty Q&A: Ask our product team anything about Square Loyalty 🤝

[Tom]

Hello Seller Community — hope your February is off to a good start!

On Thursday, February 17th, @seiderman (Product Manager) and @cspillane (Product Marketing Manager) hosted a deep dive into the world of loyalty. Together, they answered questions from “How can I drive more success from my loyalty program?” to “What features are on the horizon?” — we want to help you grow your business with Square Loyalty. We'll share a summary of best practices and address the main themes that came up on this day, and mark it as a Best Answer as soon as possible.

A few example questions:

• How can I configure my Square Loyalty program to increase engagement?
• What's the best way to increase awareness about my loyalty program?
• If I could do "_______" with Square Loyalty, it would make a big difference for my business.

[seiderman]

Yes!

We're aiming to release this across all Square points of sale. 

[SustainLA]

Do Loyalty transactions appear on customer receipts? More specifically, if a customer choose a Loyalty reward of a tote bag, will that tote bag redemption show on the receipt? If no, can this be a potential consideration for future updates?

[seiderman]

Hi @SustainLA,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. As long as you're sending your customers digital receipts, both point accruals and reward redemptions will be displayed. However, we currently do not support this functionality for our paper receipts.

Hope that helps!

[GourmetOnWheels]

We offer 10% off after 10 stars for every 8.00 in sales, but still, new customers often do not want to give their phone number. Even when I tell them it is safe.

René

[Twiggy]

Love Loyalty

Big one here .... When is loyalty coming to register?

These are more feature reuqests... xxxxx

Could you maybe have a window decal Loyalty scheme with a small square logo at the bottom?

Also could there be a central loyalty cross merchant? like Amex points?

Would it be possible to have the sceen at the end of the sale hang around a bit longer?

[seiderman]

Hi @Twiggy,

Good news! We're in the process of adding Loyalty to Square Register in the UK, and expect it launch by early Spring. Happy to follow up once it's fully live.

As for your feature requests, these are all great and something we'll definitely explore going forward. Will keep you all posted!

[SustainLA]

Hi! We are newish to the Square Loyalty program. Thanks for this opportunity to ask questions and learn more. We are operating with Square Register and Square for Retail. Initially, we started with monetary vouchers as reward options ($5 off, $10off, $50 off). During checkout, any earned monetary reward "pops up" as redeemable on the customer facing screen. So if they have earned a $5 voucher, it shows as an option during checkout. It's a very smooth process and convenient for the customer.

We have since introduced product rewards (16 oz. bottle of soap, tote bags, etc.). Unfortunately, these reward options do not show up during the checkout process. So if a customer has enough points for a $5 voucher and a tote bag, all they see as redeemable is the $5 voucher. 

We have discovered that in order to have the product based rewards appear as redeemable during checkout, they must first be in the cart. So we have to know, or the customer has to know, ahead of time that they have enough points for the tote bag, and then ring in the tote bag... only then can the customer select the tote bag reward option.

This feels clunky and difficult for the customer to understand what their rewards are. We realize they can check what they are eligible for ahead of time, but most don't. I'm just curious... Can product based rewards be visible during the checkout process like the monetary rewards are? This would make the process easier for all. Thanks!

[seiderman]

Hi @SustainLA,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Can definitely understand how the current process is frustrating for you, and your customers. The good news is that we’re in the process of updating this experience for Square for Retail on Square Register. You should see the update come through in early Spring, but I can follow up when we’ve actually rolled it out.

Hope that helps!

[Heather_H]

Currently, you can exclude/control items that earn loyalty points, but I'd also like the ability to control what loyalty points can be used on.

First example: If we give customers an online bulk discount they can still apply a loyalty reward on top of that to further eat into our product margins. 

Second Example: Shipping fees currently count towards loyalty spend. We give 1 point for every $5 dollars spent, so a customer who spends $15 in shipping earns 3 loyalty points. The problem is we 'discount' our shipping to keep it affordable for customers, so I don't want that margin to be further reduced by earning loyalty rewards on shipping fees or customers being able to apply rewards to shipping fees. Shipping fees are not currently part of the items you can exclude from the loyalty program.

Really, being able to exclude certain fulfillment types from the loyalty program or offer a separate loyalty program for these types of fulfillments methods might be a alternate solution. Shipping and delivery aren't our main business and they have more overhead costs associated with them than B&M sales.

I'm much more intersted in using the loyalty program to drive pickup orders and onsite sales than using it towards shipping and delivery services. We've added these to provide more convience to our customers during the pandemic, but they both have more overhead costs and expense associated with them.

[seiderman]

Hi @Heather_H,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Being able to exclude certain items and/or shipping methods is a request we hear all the time. Easy to see how loyalty points / promotions is a great way to drive traffic to a part of your business, such as pick up orders. While I don't have any specifics I'm able to share now, this is something that's top of mind for the team.  Will definitely keep you updated as we make progress.

[Imag3]

I do real estate photography. So, naturally, clients book appts. on their own. What's the point of me having the loyalty program if they're not earning stars everytime they make an order? I'm having to manually enter their stars and it's time consuming. This program shouldn't be exclusive to physical pos. Is there a work around for this? Otherwise, I just have to cancel this program. I really don't want to, Is there something I'm missing in the settings? I've looked all over for the solution where the stars just add themselves to the particular clients account.

[seiderman]

Hi @Imag3,

Just want to make sure I understand the issue you're running into. How are your clients currently paying for their Appointments? 

[Imag3]

They use my online checkout system via my site. I copied and pasted the link there. So, when they need a photo shoot, they pick a service, put in the listing address and pay for the order. However, the loyalty system isn't integrated into that online check out. Or is it and how do I activate it?

[EcoAutoClean]

We check ours out on the appointments app

[Imag3]

Not an option. My clients are all remote from my location and I travel 100% to their locations later.

[seiderman]

Thanks for clarifying @Imag3.

Unfortunately, Loyalty is currently unavailable for Square Online Checkout link transactions. While I don’t have a specific timeline for extending support, these gaps are top of mind for myself and the team. We have a number of initiatives in-flight to help close these gaps in the coming months, so keep an eye out for updates within your Square Dashboard. In the meantime, the best alternative is to use Square Online (website) with an item for your services. Let me know if you have any questions about getting started.

[ThirstyElephant]

Hi guys… new to the community. Does anyone have any idea on when we can expect to see the Square Loyalty coming to the Square register (for restaurants) in the UK?

November time i was told we should see it roll out at the end of the 1st Q of 2022 but have heard more recently it’s going to be longer than that. 

I was hoping it would a simple update to the systems as I know it’s available on a Square stand (IPad).

We would really love to use square loyalty to keep things all in once place!

Thanks all.

[seiderman]

Hey @ThirstyElephant,

Good news! This work is in-progress, and is expected to be rolled out in the UK by early Spring. Happy to reach out as soon as it's rolled out.

[ThirstyElephant]

Hi!

That’s great news, thanks for getting back to me!

If you could keep us posted when it’s due to roll out that would be fab!

Thanks so much.

[Sunflowerrec]

When a customer signs up for the loyalty program, it only asks for their phone number.  Why doesn't it ask for their name?  We have to go back and apply points from our current program to square but if all it is gathering is their phone number it makes it difficult to do once we are slow.

[cspillane]

Hi @Sunflowerrec,

We decided to use phone numbers as the required customer identifier because they’re unique (unlike a name), easy to remember (unlike a password or login), and you or your customer can easily enter them into the POS in a matter of seconds (speeding up the checkout process).

That being said, it sounds like you have additional steps as you're also taking time to apply points from your current program to Square. I'd love to better understand this process if you could share here. Ultimately, our CS team should be able to assist you in importing your points balances from the other program so you don't have to go through these additional steps in the future. 

Looking forward to learning more!

-Ciara