How to promote your program at the counter (scripts your staff will actually use)

You can build the best program on your block and still watch it go nowhere, for one boring reason: nobody at the counter asks. The sign-up is a sentence said out loud during a transaction, a hundred times a day, by whoever is on shift. If that sentence is awkward, or forgotten, or different every time, your program quietly stalls. So the highest-leverage thing you can do this week isn't a new reward — it's giving your team words they'll actually say.

Good counter scripts share three traits: they're short enough to say mid-rush, they lead with what the customer gets, and they take about ten seconds. With Perkaria, the enrolment itself is fast — staff take a phone number on the counter tablet and a text puts the card on the customer's phone — so the only hard part is remembering to open your mouth. These scripts fix that.

The first-visit ask

This is the one your staff will use most. Keep it to a benefit and a question. The customer just paid; they're already engaged; you're offering them something, not asking for a favour.

That's it. It names the reward, it names the effort (a phone number), and it ends on a yes/no question. Notice what it doesn't do: it doesn't say "loyalty program," it doesn't mention an app, and it doesn't promise marketing. If they say yes, you enrol them in seconds. If they hesitate, one honest line closes most of the gap: "No app, no password — it's just a card on your phone, and I'll never spam you." That last part is true, and it matters: the platform holds you to quiet hours and a two-message-a-week cap, so you can promise it and mean it.

The regular who isn't on it yet

Your regulars are the people the program is really for, and they're the easiest to sign up because they already trust you. The trick is to make it feel like you're doing them a favour, because you are — they've been leaving rewards on the table.

It flatters honestly and it frames the sign-up as catching up on rewards they've earned. A recommended touch when you launch: honour the visits you both know they've made by starting them a few stamps in. It costs you almost nothing and it turns a sign-up into a gift.

The December gift-card moment

Gift cards are a second counter ask, and the holidays are when it pays for itself — a card sold today is cash in the till now and a new face walking in later. It only needs a nudge at the right time.

"Never expire" isn't a sales line, it's Québec law, built into the product — so your staff can say it flatly and it's simply true. If the customer asks about a balance later, they don't have to call: every card has a public balance page.

Winning back someone you haven't seen

This one usually isn't a script at all — it's a message the program sends for you when a regular goes quiet. But when that person does walk back in, the counter line matters. Don't make it weird; make it warm.

Nothing was lost while they were away; a member's stamps and balance live on the account, not on a card in a wallet. Saying so out loud reminds them the habit is still worth keeping.

When the line is ten deep

Rush is exactly when staff drop the ask, and that's fine — a slow, chatty enrolment at the worst moment helps nobody. The move at peak is the two-tap scan, not a new sign-up.

• For a member: scan their card in the two taps it takes and keep the line moving. Their stamp is recorded; the reconciliation confirms it overnight.
• For a non-member at peak: plant the seed, don't run the sign-up. "Grab me next time and I'll set you up a rewards card" is enough.
• Never hold a line to explain the program. The ask has a hundred other chances today.

What not to say

A few lines quietly kill the ask. Cut them:

• "Do you want to join our loyalty program?" — abstract, corporate, and easy to reflexively decline. Lead with the free reward instead.
• "Can I get your email and phone number for our marketing?" — now it sounds like a cost, not a gift. You need a number to send the card; that's all, and that's all you should mention.
• "There's an app you can download…" — there isn't, and the word "download" loses people. It's a card on their phone, full stop.
• Anything mumbled while looking at the screen. The ask works when you look up and say it like you mean it.

Brief your team in ten minutes

You don't need a training day. You need a huddle and a sticky note. Here's the whole brief:

• Pick one first-visit line as a team and write it where the tablet lives. One line, said the same way, beats five clever ones.
• Do two round-trips out loud — one of you plays the customer. It feels silly for thirty seconds and then it's muscle memory.
• Agree on the rush rule: members get the two-tap scan, new sign-ups wait for a calmer moment.
• Make the reward real for staff too. When someone's stamp card fills and they hand over the free one, that's the program working — celebrate it out loud.

Then check whether it's actually happening. You don't have to hover — the owner dashboard shows how many new members joined this week. If the number is flat while your counter is busy, the ask isn't happening, and that's a shift-huddle fix, not a software problem.

The program is only as good as the sentence your staff says a hundred times a day. Give them a good one, make it easy, and the rest takes care of itself.