Ten is the number most people reach for, because it is the number on a coffee card. It is the right number for a coffee card and the wrong number for almost everything else. Here is a way to choose that takes two minutes and a bit of honesty about your shop.
Start with the visit, not the stamp
Ask one question: how often does a good regular come in? Not your best customer, not the once-a-year one, the ordinary regular you would recognise and whose order you half know.
For a cafe near offices, it is most weekdays. For a bakery, weekly. For a butcher, twice a month. For a florist, every fortnight if you are lucky. For a boutique, a few times a season. For a greengrocer, two or three times a week.
Now ask: how long should it take that person to fill the card? The answer that works is somewhere between three weeks and three months. Under three weeks and the reward comes so fast it stops feeling like one; it becomes a discount you have to keep paying. Over three months and people lose count, lose interest, or forget the card exists. Aim for six to eight weeks.
Divide the second number by the first and you have your target.
The worked numbers
A cafe with a weekday regular, five visits a week, six weeks to fill: that is thirty visits, which is far too many stamps. So the cafe picks eight to ten and accepts the card fills in two weeks for the daily regular. That is fine for coffee, because a free coffee costs you under two dollars and the daily regular is spending twenty-five a week. Ten stamps, free coffee.
A bakery with a Saturday regular, one visit a week, six weeks to fill: six stamps. The reward is a free loaf, which the customer values at eight or nine dollars and costs you a fraction of that. Six stamps, free loaf.
A butcher with a fortnightly regular spending fifty dollars, eight weeks to fill: four stamps. That feels too few on a card, so stretch it to five or six and set the reward to match: a free kilo of sausages, or ten dollars off. Six stamps, a real cut.
A florist with a fortnightly bunch buyer, ten weeks to fill: five stamps. A free bunch up to thirty dollars. Short card, generous reward, because the people who reach it have spent well over a hundred dollars to get there.
A boutique with a regular who buys four or five times a season: four or five stamps, one per visit over a spend, reward forty dollars off. That card fills once a season, which for a boutique is right.
A greengrocer with a regular who comes three times a week, four weeks to fill: twelve. Round it to ten and ten dollars off, and the daily shopper fills a card in a fortnight on a spend of well over a hundred dollars.
Counter Club lets you pick 2 to 50
The Loyalty card page takes a target from 2 to 50 and a reward up to 200 characters. The default is 10 if you do nothing. Change it whenever you like; members keep every stamp they have. If you lower the target below someone's count, their next stamp fills the card. If you raise it, they have further to go, so tell people when you do.
Per visit or per item?
The software counts presses. What earns a press is your rule, and the rule should be sayable in one breath across the counter. One stamp per coffee. One stamp per loaf. One stamp per visit over thirty dollars.
Per item fills faster and suits things people buy more than one of. Per visit is fairer when spends vary and easier when the till is busy, because the only question is "did they buy something?", not how many. Write the rule on the sign under the QR and keep it.
The reward should be a thing, not a percentage
A free coffee, a free loaf, a free bunch, a kilo of sausages, a book up to twenty-five dollars. Things are remembered and talked about. Ten percent off is forgotten before the customer leaves. If you must use money, use a round amount: ten dollars off, forty dollars off. And pick a reward you make or stock yourself, so the real cost to you is well under the value to them.
When to change it
Watch the Members page after a month. If almost nobody has passed halfway, the target is too high or the rule is too strict. If cards are filling every day and it is costing more than you like, raise the target or tighten the rule. Change it once, tell the regulars, and leave it alone for a season. A card that changes every month is a card nobody trusts.