How to Get Customers to Join Your Loyalty Program: Posters, QR Codes and What Staff Say
By Alva Chew · Updated
In short To promote a loyalty program, ask every customer in person at the till, back the ask with a QR code poster at the point of payment, and show a visible reason to join such as a welcome points balance. In one experiment, face-to-face requests succeeded about 70% of the time against about 10% for emailed ones (Roghanizad and Bohns, 2016), so the sentence your staff say matters more than the poster.
How do you promote a loyalty program in your shop?
You promote a loyalty program in three places: the till, the poster and the receipt. The till is where a staff member asks. The poster, with a QR code, gives the customer a way to say yes in a few seconds. The receipt or order tray catches the people who said “next time.”
Most of the effort should go into the first one. A poster that nobody mentions is easy to ignore. A staff member who asks every customer once, at the moment of payment, gives the poster a purpose. The rest of this guide covers each piece, with the evidence we could verify and a clear note where there is none.
Why does asking in person work better than a sign?
Because people find it harder to refuse someone standing in front of them. The best controlled evidence we found is a pair of experiments on how often requests succeed by channel.
| Finding | Scope | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Emailed requests succeeded about 10% of the time | Experiment 1, 45 college students each asking 10 strangers to fill in a short survey | Roghanizad and Bohns, 2016 |
| Face-to-face requests succeeded about 70% of the time | Same experiment | Roghanizad and Bohns, 2016 |
| Requesters in both groups expected about 5 in 10 to say yes | Same experiment | Roghanizad and Bohns, 2016 |
| Targets said refusing in person felt more uncomfortable, and reported more trust in and empathy for the person asking | Reported by the authors across the studies | Roghanizad and Bohns, 2016 |
Source: Association for Psychological Science summary of Roghanizad and Bohns, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2016, doi 10.1016/j.jesp.2016.10.002.
Treat this with care. The samples were students, the requests were surveys, and the authors call the findings exploratory and in need of replication. It tells you about the direction, not about your conversion rate. Still, a printed poster is closer to a one-way message than a person is. The direction suggests staff should do the asking and the poster should make saying yes easy.
What should staff say at the till?
One short sentence that names what the customer gets today, said to every customer, once. For example: “Want points on this order? Scan this and they’re yours today.”
A script like that works for four reasons you can check in your own shop:
- It names the benefit. “Join our loyalty program” asks for a favour. “Points on this order” offers something.
- It takes ten seconds. If the ask needs an explanation, the queue behind the customer will answer for them.
- It goes to everyone. Staff who guess who looks interested miss the regular who never mentioned that they would join.
- It accepts no. Ask once. A customer who declines today still sees the poster on the next visit.
Give staff the words, not a target alone. A weekly sign-ups goal with no script produces awkward asks. Run the first week as practice, have each person say the line out loud to a colleague, then compare sign-ups per shift. If one person does much better, ask what they say and share it.
Where should the QR code go?
Where customers are already standing with a phone in hand. In order of usefulness for most counters:
- At the payment point. A small sign on or next to the card terminal, at the customer’s eye level. This is where the staff ask happens, so the code is within reach when they say yes.
- On the counter where people wait. Waiting for a coffee or a table is idle time. A poster at eye level beside the pickup point gets scanned by people who were looking at their phone anyway.
- On the receipt, order tray or bag. This catches the customer who did not join today. It costs only the printing.
- On the table, for sit-down service. A table tent or menu card works if staff are not near the customer at the moment they would scan.
Smartphones are not the barrier. Pew Research found 91% of US adults own one in its 2026 survey.
| Finding | Scope | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 91% of adults own a smartphone | US adults, 5,511 surveyed 30 January to 18 June 2026, margin of error 1.8 points | Pew Research Center |
Source: Pew Research Center, Mobile Fact Sheet, 19 October 2026.
The barrier is the number of steps after the scan. A sign-up that asks for a name, phone number, birthday and a password loses people who intended to join. The shortest version asks for one thing, an email address, and gives the customer their card straight away. See a loyalty card with no app for customers to download for why a download step is the first one to drop.
What should the poster say?
Three things, in this order: what the customer gets, how to get it, and how long it takes.
- Headline: the reward in plain words. “Earn points on every order” works. “Join our rewards family” says nothing a customer can use.
- The QR code: large enough to scan from arm’s length, with white space around it. Test it on two or three different phones at the distance a customer would use.
- One line under the code: “Scan, enter your email, done in 10 seconds,” but only if that is true when you time it.
Leave off the rules. The poster does not have to explain the earn rate or the redemption steps. It has to get the scan. Explaining everything on the poster is a sign the program has too many rules, which is the argument for a simple earn-and-redeem structure in the case for points only.
Should you offer a sign-up bonus?
A small one is worth testing, because it gives the customer a reason to act today and not “next time.” The most relevant experiment we verified is on stamps, but the mechanism carries to points.
| Finding | Scope | Source |
|---|---|---|
| A 10-stamp card with 2 stamps pre-filled was completed 34% of the time, against 19% for a blank 8-stamp card needing the same 8 purchases | Car wash field experiment | Nunes and Drèze, Journal of Consumer Research, 2006 |
Source: Nunes and Drèze, The Endowed Progress Effect, Journal of Consumer Research, 2006.
Both cards needed eight purchases. The one that looked two steps along was completed far more often. In a points program you do not need a card with boxes. You give a welcome balance, say 100 points worth about US$1 at your earn rate, so the member’s first visible balance is already above zero. Pick the number from your own earn rate and check it against the reward you offer, as covered in how to set your points earn rate. It is one study in one car wash, so test the bonus in your own shop and compare sign-ups per week before and after.
How do you know if it is working?
Count two numbers each week: new members, and transactions. Divide the first by the second. That is your sign-up rate, and it is the only number that tells you whether a change to the script or the poster helped.
Change one thing at a time. Move the poster, keep the script, and watch the rate for a week. Then change the script and keep the poster still. Two changes at once tells you nothing about which one mattered.
Look at repeat visits too. A member who joined and never came back cost you a few seconds at the till and nothing else, but your program only pays for itself when members return. Is a loyalty program worth it? goes through what the research says about that.
What can you do on Gimify?
Gimify’s sign-up is built for the till. The customer scans the QR code, enters an email, and gets a points card in Google Wallet with a live balance. There is no app and no password, and staff add or redeem points from any phone at the counter. The free plan covers one outlet with unlimited members, so you can put the poster up and test the script before you pay for anything.
Questions owners ask
How do I promote my loyalty program in store?
Put a QR code poster where customers wait or pay, and train staff to ask each customer once, at the moment they pay. Tell them the reward in plain words, such as the points they earn on this very order. Keep joining to one scan and one email address.
Where should the QR code go?
At the till or payment terminal, on the counter where people wait, and on the receipt or order tray. Customers have a phone in hand while they wait, so the scan fits into time they already spend standing there. Menus and table tents work for sit-down service.
What should staff say to get customers to sign up?
Something short that names a benefit and takes ten seconds, for example: Do you want points on this order? Scan this and you get them today. Ask everyone, do not pick who looks interested, and take no for an answer the first time.
Should I give a sign-up bonus?
A small welcome balance gives people a reason to scan now instead of later. Research on a car wash stamp card found that pre-filled progress raised completion from 19% to 34% (Nunes and Drèze, 2006). In a points program the equivalent is a welcome points balance, so the customer starts with something already earned.
How many customers will join?
No independent public figure says what share of customers join a small shop's program, so be sceptical of any number quoted. Track your own: members added divided by transactions over a week, before and after you change the poster or the script.
Do customers need to download an app to join?
Not with a QR sign-up. With Gimify, customers scan the code, enter their email, and the card sits in Google Wallet. There is no app download and no password.
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