Help with your loyalty system, day to day

Getting started

We set up your first program with you: the rewards, a card in your branding, and counter cards with your QR code. On launch day we are at your counter to install the LoyalTea Merchant app on your staff's phones and walk them through their first real scans.

After that the program is yours to run as much or as little as you like. You keep full access to the merchant app and the web dashboard, and you can make everyday changes yourself, such as your rewards, offers and campaigns.

The app and the web dashboard: what lives where

Scanning happens at the counter on the LoyalTea Merchant app. The web portal is for analytics + management.

• The LoyalTea Merchant app, on a phone at the counter: Scanner, History, Insights, Rewards, Customers and Settings.
• The web dashboard at loyaltea.ca, from your desk: analytics, the activity feed, customers and their CSV export, your program and rewards, campaigns and settings.
• Messages to customers are called Campaigns on the web and Notifications in the app. They are the same thing, and a one-time message scheduled for later is set up on the web.
• The app password locks the app's sensitive screens. It is one password for the whole business, and the web dashboard does not ask for it.

At the counter

Staff open the LoyalTea Merchant app and scan the customer's card with the phone camera. They can also type the pass code by hand, or connect a plug-in USB scanner, whose scans go through on their own. If the camera stops working, the app switches to typing.

Before anything is saved, the screen shows the customer and what the scan will do: earn, preview, confirm. A mistake can be undone on the spot, and it stays in the history as a reversal. If the same card is scanned again before the program's scan cooldown is over, the app blocks the scan, adds nothing and logs the attempt.

Programs and earning

Choosing a kind

Pick carefully. The kind cannot be changed later. Every scan is recorded against it, so switching would leave your past visits meaningless. To change kinds, archive this program and create a new one.

Going live

Publishing creates the wallet card and opens your sign-up link so customers can join.

Your first program’s card design is something LoyalTea sets up with you, because the logo and colours have to be prepared once. Get in touch and we will do it. After that, every new program can copy that design and go live on its own.

See what to send us for your card's look.

The welcome gift

An optional gift for a stamps or points program, off until you turn it on.

Granted once, when a customer first joins through your enrollment page with an email or phone on file. It lands on their pass right away.

Not a claimable offer: nothing to show at the counter, no banner. New members simply start with a head start.

Pausing or ending a program

Customers keep their cards and their balances. While it is paused, scans stop earning, rewards cannot be redeemed, and your sign-up link stops accepting new customers. You can turn it back on at any time.

Archiving hides the program and stops all scanning and sign-ups. Nothing is deleted: balances and history stay, and you can bring it back from the archived list at the bottom of the Program page in the web dashboard. Customers keep the card in their wallet, frozen at its current balance, and your sign-up page tells them the program has ended.

Limited-time offers

Time-boxed banners on your customer reward page. An active offer inside its window is visible right away, with no separate publish step.

The type is a label, not a mechanic. Claiming records the offer as used and applies no stamps, points, or discount: your team honors the perk at the counter.

Rewards

Rewards are grouped into sections you name and put in order. A reward marked out of stock disappears from the customer's page and cannot be redeemed until you mark it available again.

Membership programs don’t use a reward catalog. Each scan records a check-in.

How campaigns work

Your three options

One-time goes out once, either right away or at a time you pick. Recurring repeats on a schedule you set, daily, weekly or monthly. Automatic waits for something to happen to a customer, like getting close to a reward, and sends only to them.

What already runs by itself

LoyalTea sends one message for you, on every points or stamps program: when a customer earns enough for a reward, their card tells them. It appears in your list marked “Set up for you” the first time someone earns one. You can reword it or pause it, but you cannot create it or move it to a different moment.

What your customer actually sees

Your words always appear on the card itself, and that part you control. The banner that pops up on the lock screen is a separate thing and not something to count on. On Android, Google writes that banner, not you.

Keep it short and put what matters first. A long message gets cut off on the lock screen, and the rest waits until they open the card.

Do not repeat your business name. It is already the title of the message.

How often is too often

Google allows three notifying messages per card per day, and LoyalTea budgets your sends to fit inside that. Campaigns you schedule also wait out your quiet hours, which you set in Settings. Four automatic messages are the exception and go out right away, because they follow something a customer just did: “A reward is ready”, “Every nth visit”, “Reaches a number” and “Close to their next reward”. The other automatic messages wait out your quiet hours too.

Worth knowing: going over the limit does not show you an error. The message is simply never delivered. Sending less often is what makes each one land.

Analytics

Analytics show what happened at your counter over the range you pick. Revenue counts only what is recorded at the counter: a points scan earned on the bill records its amount, while stamp scans and fixed per-visit points scans usually record none.

Switch to Custom & cohorts for custom date ranges, period comparison, acquisition cohorts, retention & CSV export.

Customers and your list

Each customer can have a personal link to their own rewards page, issued from Customers in the web dashboard. The dashboard shows the link only once: to see it again, you rotate it, which replaces the old link.

When a customer asks to be erased:

Removes this customer’s name + contact info. Their loyalty history is kept in a form that no longer identifies them. This can’t be undone.

Your customer list is yours: download it yourself, any time, as a CSV from the web dashboard (very large lists are provided by support on request).

Web dashboard settings

Campaign quiet hours

Campaigns don’t send during these hours, so a late send never wakes your customers. Some automatic messages still send right away, because they follow something the customer just did: “A reward is ready”, “Every nth visit”, “Reaches a number” and “Close to their next reward”.

Every business starts with a standard window, and you can change it.

Enrollment QR

Print your enrollment QR code or share its link so customers can join your program.

Tip: collecting email at enrollment lets customers recover their card on their own if they change phones.

Questions about the LoyalTea Merchant app

These answers also appear in the LoyalTea Merchant app, in Settings under Help & support.

What’s a one-time offer?

A one-time offer is a pass that can be redeemed once, like a welcome drink. Once it’s redeemed, the app shows “Already redeemed” if it’s scanned again. If it was redeemed by mistake, staff can reverse the redemption in History, and the offer becomes redeemable again.

Why was a scan blocked?

Every program except a one-time offer has a scan cooldown: how soon the same pass can earn or check in again, from no limit up to once a day. The app blocks a scan that comes before the cooldown is over, which also stops accidental double scans. Nothing is added or removed, and the attempt is logged in History for you to review. To change the cooldown, tap the program in the app’s Settings, under Programs.

What does the merchant password protect?

The merchant password is optional. Once you set one, the app asks for it before opening Insights or Settings, before changing a reward’s stock or visibility, and before any action in a customer’s Management section, such as adjusting a balance or issuing a link. Deleting a tag and the bulk link actions ask for it too. Everyday scanning never does, so the counter stays fast. Set, change or turn off the password in the app’s Settings, under Security.

How do enrollment links work?

Each live program has an enrollment QR code and link. In the app’s Settings, open Enrollment QR code. Customers scan the code to add the pass to their own phone’s wallet, with no app needed on their side. For a customer who isn’t at the counter, tap Share link on the same screen to send them the link instead.

A customer can’t find their pass. What do I do?

Ask them to re-open the wallet pass, or look them up in Customers by name or pass code. If the pass code isn’t recognized, re-share the enrollment QR so they can re-add it.

When you need us

Write to support@loyaltea.ca. Anything you can change yourself, we can also change for you. For the look of your card, ask us and we will change it.