Loyalty punch-cards

A punch-card turns visits into a reward: "6 visits → a free dessert". Diners collect punches when you check them in, and a full card mints a reward that sits in their wallet until they choose to use it at your restaurant. One thing makes it trustworthy: once a diner holds your card, its terms are a promise — they can't be quietly changed underneath them.

How it works

1. Create your card under Loyalty cards → Punch card: how many visits (the threshold), what the reward is, and any fine print — plus a look (color theme, icon, or a photo background).

2. Publish it. From then on, diners who save their visit start collecting punches.

3. Punches come from a check-in. Ask the diner for their 4-digit code and enter it under Loyalty cards → Check in — one tap punches every card they're collecting. See Check diners in.

4. Diners watch it fill on your restaurant's page, and can see all their cards from any restaurant in their own punch-card wallet at /me/punch-cards.

5. A full card mints a reward into the diner's wallet, with your exact terms frozen into it — reward, description, and fine print as they stood at that moment.

   

How a reward gets used

The diner spends it themselves; there is no staff "redeem" button, and they don't need to be checked in first. A check-in happens at the counter, at payment; a reward is spent at the table, when you take the order.

1. The diner opens their rewards and taps Show staff.

   

   Their phone fills with the screen you read — the reward, any fine print, and the restaurant it belongs to.

   

2. You say yes or no. Nothing has been spent yet. If you can't honour it right now, they close the screen and it's still theirs for next time.

3. They tap Use it now. That's the one-way step, and it comes after you've agreed — so a mis-tap isn't something you have to undo.

4. It appears on your side — a banner naming the diner and the reward on whichever page you're on, then a Rewards used today list on your Activity page.

5. You hand it over. Tap Done to clear the banner; that's a dismissal, not a claim that you served it.

6. If something's wrong, tap Decline — that returns the reward to the diner rather than burning it. You can decline until the end of your restaurant's day (at least 3 hours), which covers reconciling at close.

A punch-card reward only works at the restaurant that minted it — that's frozen into the reward and nothing the diner does can change it.

One reward per diner per 3 hours here, whichever programme it came from. If a diner uses a Foodie Passport reward with you, their punch-card reward is dimmed for the next 3 hours and vice versa: two promises, one bill.

Changing a published card

• Looks are always editable — theme, icon, photo, and your internal nickname save in place.
• Terms (visits, reward, fine print) depend on holders. If nobody has started your card yet, edit freely. Once diners hold it, changing terms publishes a new version — existing holders keep earning and redeeming on the card they were promised until it winds down (at least 30 more days), while new diners join the new one.
• Winding down: inside the editor you can stop new sign-ups (existing holders keep earning) or end the card — holders then get a 30-day window to claim an earned reward. You can extend that window any time if someone's about to lose a reward they earned.

Good to know

• A visit counts once per diner per 6 hours, so a regular who pops in twice in an afternoon earns one punch — and a diner who both taps your tag and hands over a code still earns one.
• Code punches need an account, which a diner gets by saving their visit (a quick email code). Browsing your menu signed out works fine; it just doesn't earn anything. A tap tag is the exception — it collects up to 3 visits on the diner's phone before they've signed up, and they all land on your card when they do.
• The diner is shown before anything is written. Typing a code brings up their name to confirm first, so a mistyped code doesn't punch a stranger.
• Rewards keep the terms they were minted with, even if you've since published different ones — including the fine print, because the diner now reads it themselves.
• Rewards don't expire in a hurry. A reward lives until your card's end date, or 12 months if the card has no end date — long enough for "I'm saving this for Christmas". Two weeks before one does run out, we email the diner to say so — once, listing anything else of theirs expiring in the next month. It's the only message that reaches a diner who took no notifications: it's about a reward they already earned, not an offer.
• Each version shows as #1, #2, … to diners and staff, so "which card do they hold?" always has a clear answer. The card history page shows how each version performed — punches issued, rewards redeemed, diners enrolled.
• Visit counts outlive cards. A diner's total visits to your restaurant keep counting even between programs — "you've visited 12 times" is always true.
• One live card at a time per restaurant.
• Staff see the card read-only — editing terms is for owners and managers. Checking diners in and declining a reward are staff jobs.