Nine questions to ask any loyalty vendor, with our own answers

Every loyalty tool looks good in a demo. The differences show up in the questions nobody volunteers an answer to. Here are nine to ask every vendor you talk to. We answer each one for Perkaria, including the answers that will send some of you elsewhere.

1. Where does my customer's card live?

An app to download, a pass in the phone's wallet, or a web page? Each has a cost. An app loses most people at the download. A wallet pass can notify the customer on their lock screen. A web page needs nothing installed but cannot push anything.

Ours: a web page, opened from a link in a text message. Nothing to install and no password. It is not an Apple Wallet or Google Wallet pass, and it sends no push notifications. If lock-screen notifications matter most to you, we are not the right tool today. More on the member card.

2. How do you reach my customers afterwards?

Ask what the channel is, and what the customer had to agree to first. Ours: text messages, only to members who ticked a consent box themselves, never between 9 p.m. and 9 a.m., and never more than two promotional messages per member per week. See campaigns.

3. Does it connect to my register?

A live connection means an integration project and a dependency on your POS vendor. No connection means a second screen at the counter. Ours: no connection at all. A tablet sits beside your register. A stamp card needs nothing from the POS. If you give points on purchases, Perkaria reads the daily sales export your register already produces. See what it works with.

4. When does a stamp or a point actually count?

Instantly sounds better. Ask what it costs you when a tap was a mistake. Ours: not instantly. Everything recorded at the counter shows as pending, and is confirmed overnight when the day is closed out. Your customer sees the pending stamp at once, and can redeem the next day.

5. What stops a generous shift?

Every program leaks a little. Ask how you would find out. Ours: each staff member has their own PIN, so every action has a name on it. You set caps per transaction and per day. Points on purchases are matched against your sales export, and any member who collects two or more stamps in one day is listed in your end-of-day report.

6. Who owns the customer list, and can I leave with it?

Ask for the export button, not the promise. Ours: the list is yours, and a data export is included in every plan. Members can also download their own data and delete their account from their card.

7. Do you sell gift cards, and do they expire?

In Québec the second half has one right answer. Ours: yes, and never. There is no expiry setting to switch on and no dormancy fee, and your dashboard shows the total still outstanding. The details are in gift cards.

8. What does year one cost, all in?

Ask for the monthly fee, any setup fee, any hardware, and what happens to the price at renewal. Ours: a monthly plan, plus a one-time onboarding and training fee, plus tax. The only hardware is a tablet or a phone at the counter, and there is nothing proprietary to buy or rent. The plans and the current amounts are on the pricing page.

9. Who is using it today?

Ask for names you can walk into. Ours: one. Rockaberry Jean-Talon, a dessert counter in Montréal, runs its loyalty program, its gift cards and its review requests on Perkaria. We are a young company and that is the whole list. Read the case study.