Restaurant loyalty program software with points, deals and WhatsApp

Why regulars matter more than new faces

Every restaurant owner knows a few families who come every Friday, the office group that orders lunch twice a week, and the student who orders the same shawarma every evening. These people are your steadiest income. A loyalty program is a simple way of saying thank you to them and giving them a reason to choose you over the new place that just opened down the road.

In Pakistan most loyalty programs fail for practical reasons. Stamp cards get lost. A separate loyalty app needs the customer to download something. The cashier forgets to ask. When loyalty points live inside the POS, the cashier sees them while billing, the customer display can prompt people to sign up while the counter is idle, and the same points work on your own website and app.

A worked example: what a points program costs

Suppose your program gives 1 point for every Rs 100 spent, and 100 points can be used for Rs 500 off a bill. A regular family spends Rs 2,500 per visit and visits four times a month.

You give away Rs 500 on Rs 10,000 of business, and the reward itself brings them back for a fifth visit. Compare that with a 15% walk-in discount offered to everyone, including people who would have paid full price anyway. A points program rewards only the customers who keep coming back. Our guide on restaurant loyalty programs covers how to pick a reward level your margins can carry.

Deals that bring people in

ArfaPOS lets you set up deals and promotions with their items and price, and the same deal shows wherever you sell: counter, waiter tablets, QR menu, website and app. The customer display plays deal banners when the counter is idle, so people waiting in the queue see this week's offer. When a deal's period is over, take it off the menu in the admin portal and it disappears everywhere at once.

• Ramadan iftar and sehri deals that run only for the month.
• Weekday lunch deals to fill the slow hours between 1 pm and 4 pm.
• Cricket match night deals for big games, when families order in.
• Launch offers for a new item, running for two weeks to get people to try it.
• Winter deals on soups, chai and fish, when the season brings the crowd.

Before launching a deal, cost it. A deal that looks generous on the menu can sell below cost. The recipe costing software page shows how to work out what a deal actually costs you to make.

WhatsApp marketing without spamming

Almost every customer in Pakistan uses WhatsApp, which makes it the obvious channel. ArfaPOS sends WhatsApp receipts automatically and lets you send bulk and template messages to past customers about a new deal, a new branch or a menu change. A few rules keep it useful and stop people blocking you:

1. Send only when you have something real to say, such as a new deal or a new item. Two or three messages a month is plenty.
2. Keep it short: what the offer is, what it costs, when it ends.
3. Send before the meal, not during it. A lunch deal message at 11:30 am works better than one at 2 pm.
4. Write in the language your customers use. Urdu, English or a mix is fine.
5. Include your ordering link if you are on Business, so a customer can act on the message straight away.

Hear from your regulars

On the Business plan, customers can leave a 1 to 5 star review linked to the order they placed. Because each review is tied to a real order and customer, you know which dish or which rider it is about, and the rating chart shows whether things are getting better. A regular who leaves two low ratings in a row is worth a phone call before they stop coming.

Who it suits

Cafés and ice cream shops with daily regulars get the most out of points, because visits are frequent and tickets are small. Family restaurants benefit from deals and WhatsApp reminders around weekends and holidays. Delivery kitchens can use points to move regulars from commission apps to their own online ordering system.