A loyalty programme you can actually afford to run

How do clients earn points?

You set the earn rate for services and for retail independently, because the margins are not the same. A salon making 70% on a service and 25% on a bottle of shampoo should not be paying the same points on both.

On top of the base rate you can award fixed bonuses for specific actions. Each is off until you set it, and each counts toward tier progress.

• Booking through the online widget rather than by phone.
• Having a future appointment already booked when they check out.
• Referring a friend who completes their first visit.
• Leaving a review, confirmed by you rather than self-reported.
• A birthday credit, on their birthday.

Can I run double points on quiet days?

Yes — that is what the promotion windows are for. You define a day and a time range, say Tuesday 10:00 to 14:00, and a multiplier; points earned inside that window are multiplied.

Windows can be bounded by a date range for a seasonal push, and where two overlap the higher multiplier wins. The window is evaluated against your salon’s local clock, not the server’s, so a promotion that says Tuesday morning is Tuesday morning where you are.

How do VIP tiers work?

You define the tiers, their thresholds and their colours — the seeded Bronze, Silver and Gold are a starting point you can rename, re-threshold or delete outright.

Tiers classify on one basis for the whole programme: LIFETIME points, or points earned in a rolling window of however many months you choose. Rolling tiers are the honest choice for a salon that wants VIP status to mean "a good client now" rather than "a good client in 2023".

A tier’s perks are written by you as plain copy, and the functional part — "Gold gets 10% off retail" — is a real discount rule triggered by that tier, not something inferred from the text. Nothing invents a perk you did not configure.

What stops the points liability getting out of hand?

Three things, and they are the reason this is worth running rather than just worth announcing.

• A cap on how much can be redeemed in a single visit, so a large balance cannot be cashed out against one appointment.
• An expiry window that resets a balance when the client has not earned anything for however many months you set.
• A per-service exclusion, so a loss-leader or a package price need not accrue at all.

Does a loyalty discount come out of my stylist’s commission?

Only if you want it to, and the default is that it does.

There is a switch that calculates commission on the gross service price instead — before the discount — so a stylist is not paid less because the salon chose to reward the client. It is one setting on the programme, and it is there because the alternative is a conversation with your team every time somebody redeems.

Do clients see their balance?

If you let them. The balance can appear in the client portal, on payment receipts, both, or neither.

There is also a nudge for clients who are within a few points of a reward — set the window to zero to turn it off. A points balance nobody knows about changes nobody’s behaviour, which is the usual reason a loyalty scheme quietly does nothing.