Guides & answers

How to run loyalty in Australia — written for real counters, answered in the first 60 words, dated, and kept fresh.

Guides

• Setting up a barbershop loyalty program in Australia (2026)
  Updated 2026-08-19 — The barber edition — surviving the month between visits, the right cut count for the free one, walk-ins vs bookings, and why the wallet pass beats every paper card that ever entered a washing machine.
• Setting up a café loyalty program in Australia (2026)
  Updated 2026-08-19 — The café edition — why buy-9-get-10 still wins, what threshold to set, how to move regulars off paper cards without losing their progress, and going live in a morning.
• How to set up a loyalty program in Australia (2026)
  Updated 2026-08-19 — The plain-English playbook for Australian small businesses — choosing stamps vs points, picking a reward, staying inside the Spam Act and Privacy Act, and going live in about 5 minutes with a digital wallet card.

Straight answers

• Do loyalty programs actually work?
  Updated 2026-08-19 — What the behavioural evidence says — goal-gradient and endowed-progress effects, when loyalty programs genuinely change visits, and the design mistakes that make them decorative.
• How much does a loyalty program cost in Australia?
  Updated 2026-08-19 — Real 2026 numbers — paper cards, app-based platforms (A$50–80/month), POS add-ons like Square Loyalty (about A$67/month per location), and the free wallet-first option.
• Is the Square loyalty program worth it?
  Updated 2026-08-19 — A straight answer for Australian venues — when Square Loyalty's automatic accrual justifies about A$67 a month per location, and when a free wallet-first program delivers the same behaviour for $0.
• What happens when a customer reaches their reward?
  Updated 2026-08-19 — The reward moment, done right — how digital redemption works, why one-time codes beat screenshots, what happens to the card afterwards, and how to turn ten seconds of free coffee into a review.