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Square Loyalty FAQ

Find answers to commonly asked questions about Square Loyalty.

Loyalty Overview

How do I subscribe to Square Loyalty?

If you’re using Square Point of Sale or Square Online and are designated as a business, you can subscribe to Square Loyalty and create a digital rewards program to recognize repeat customers.

Start your free 30-day trial to see if Square Loyalty features are suitable for your business.

How do I set up a Loyalty Program?

To create your Loyalty Program:

  1. Go to Loyalty from your online Square Dashboard and select Get Started. If you’re on the Square Point of Sale app, tap More > Add-ons > Loyalty.
  2. Click your program terminology and program type.
    3.Select your reward type from the dropdown.
  3. Choose the reward value and enter the discount that will be applied for the reward.
  4. Select Finish once you’ve completed setup. If needed, you can update the parameters of your Square Loyalty program at a later date.

How many rewards can I create for my Loyalty program?

You can create up to 15 unique reward types for your Loyalty program, each with different values, types, or parameters. Each reward name can be up to 100 characters, but we recommend keeping reward names around 50 characters for better display options across different platforms and devices for you and your customers.

Can my Loyalty program work for multiple locations?

If your business has multiple locations, you can create a loyalty program that works across any or all of them.

What does each setting mean?

Terminology

Customize the terminology of your loyalty program to fit your brand (Examples: Star/Stars, Point/Points, Punch/Punches).

Earning Points

Choose how customers earn a point. You can set a purchase minimum to define how customers can earn a reward by:

  • Visit: Reward points based on a per-visit minimum. For example, if your customer spends more than $5, they’ll earn one point per item/visit. This program type also allows you to exclude items from accruing points.
  • Amount Spent*: Reward points based on the total amount spent before tip. For example, one point per every $5 spent on a purchase.
  • Any Item or Category: Reward points based on purchasing a specific item or category. For example, a drip coffee earns 1 point, a latte earns 2 points and a sandwich earns 3 points.

Redeeming Rewards

Select how you’d like to reward your customers:

  • Discount on the Entire Sale: Set a fixed percentage or dollar discount for the entire sale.
  • Discount on an Item or Category: Set a fixed percentage or dollar discount on specific items. For example, 20% off all coffee.
  • Redeem a Free Item: Select a specific free item. For example, a free latte.

Reporting Location

If you’ve set up multiple locations, select which locations this loyalty program is applicable to.

How much does it cost to use Square Loyalty?

Square Loyalty comes with a free 30-day trial. After the free trial, Square’s Loyalty program subscription cost is based on your customer’s participation with your program.

Pricing is based on the total number of qualifying Loyalty Visits across all active locations per month in the following tiers:

Monthly Location Cost Loyalty Visits
$45 per month Up to 500
$75 per month 501-1,500
$105 per month 1,501-10,000+
Contact Square Sales Greater than 10,000

Note: If you signed up through the Add-on Library in your Square Point of Sale app, you are given a 30-day free trial for your Square Loyalty program. You will need to add a subscription payment method for your Square Loyalty program within the 30 day period from the Pricing & subscriptions section of your online Square Dashboard. If a payment method isn’t added, your Square Loyalty subscription will expire and both new and existing customers will be prevented from participating in your program.

Enroll Customers

How do I enroll a customer into a Loyalty program?

You are able to enroll your customers during a purchase, or directly from your online Square Dashboard.

To enroll your customers during a purchase:

  1. Process a sale the same way you normally would.
  2. After the sale has been completed and your customer has passed the receipt screen, they’ll reach the Loyalty screen.
  3. Your customer enters their 10-digit phone number to opt-in to your loyalty program.
  4. They’ll receive an SMS indicating they’ve been enrolled and, if applicable, earned their first star, along with a link to view their loyalty program status.

To enroll your customers from your Customer Directory:

  1. Go to Customers from your online Square Dashboard or Square app.
  2. Select or create a customer profile.
  3. Under the “Loyalty” section, select Create Account.
  4. Enter the customer’s mobile phone number > select Save.

Take a look at the Enroll your Loyalty Customer tutorial in the Square app to see what your customers will need to do to enroll in your loyalty program.

  1. Select ≡ More > Support.
  2. Tap Tutorials and Tours and choose Enroll a Loyalty Customer.
  3. Swipe through the slides in the pop up screen to learn how your customers can enroll in your loyalty program after their transaction.

Can a customer enroll for Loyalty when making a purchase via my Square Online website?

Yes! Customers can also enroll in your Loyalty program by providing their phone number during the checkout process.

Can a customer check in to or enroll in Square Loyalty when completing a payment through Square Invoices?

Yes. When a buyer is completing a payment for a Square invoice, they will be prompted to provide their phone number in order to check in to or enroll in your Square Loyalty program. Once they complete the invoice payment, your Loyalty Activity Report and the Loyalty status status page will update with any available points they can redeem for future transactions. The buyer’s customer profile will also update with total points accrued through Square Invoices.

This enrollment or check-in option can be enabled for buyers within the Loyalty > Settings section of your online Square Dashboard. Your Loyalty Activity reports will also include points accrued from invoice transactions.

How can customers enroll in Loyalty after a sale?

If your customers weren’t able to claim a point at checkout, they will receive an invitation to enroll in your Loyalty program and claim their point after each eligible purchase. To ensure your customers receive their invitations:

  1. Go to Customers > Loyalty section of your online Square Dashboard.
  2. Click Settings.
  3. Toggle on the Enable Claimable Points setting.

How do I automatically prompt customers to sign in to or sign up for your Loyalty program during checkout?

Follow the steps below:

On Square Terminal and Square Point of Sale for iOS and Android:

  1. Tap ≡ More > Settings.
  2. Select Loyalty and toggle on Customer check in on customer display.

If using Square Register:

  1. Tap ≡ More > Settings.
  2. Select Loyalty.
  3. Toggle on Show check-in screen at start of transaction. Ensure that the Enable Loyalty on this device option is toggled on in order to update the settings on your device.

Email Collection

How do I collect emails with Loyalty?

Enabling the Collect Contacts feature in Square Loyalty allows new customers to receive a text message offering an additional amount of points in exchange for collecting their email address. Customers who provide their email address are automatically added to the Reachable and Loyalty Participant groups in your Customer Directory.

To enable this feature:

  1. Go to Settings from your Loyalty dashboard.
  2. Toggle on Offer customers points in return for their email addresses.
  3. Enter amount of points being offered for email address.
  4. Click Save.

To enable this feature on an existing program:

  1. Go to Customers > Loyalty from your online Square Dashboard.
  2. Click Actions > Edit.
  3. From the Settings tab, enable Offer customers points in return for their email addresses.
  4. Enter amount of points being offered for email address.
  5. Click Next to continue with setup > select Save.

Earn and Redeem Points

How does a customer meet the established amount in order to earn points?

The amount used to assess whether a customer earns a point is based on the total purchase amount before tax and tip.

When does an item not earn points?

Item-based rewards that have a reward applied will not earn points. Additionally, if you have a spend-based Loyalty program, you can exclude certain items or categories from accruing points. To do so:

  1. Go to Loyalty > Settings from your online Square Dashboard.
  2. Select Edit next to the “Eligible items and categories” section.
  3. Use the filter or search bar to locate items, and deselect any items you want to prevent from accruing points. Any items that are uncategorized will be located at the bottom of this list.
  4. Click Done.

If you exclude a category, then any new items you create in that category will automatically be excluded from accruing points as well.

If your customer purchases items that are exempt from earning points within your program, let them know during the checkout process.

Note: The option to exclude items from accruing points is only available for spend-based Loyalty programs, and is not available for visit-based, item-based, or category-based programs at this time.

How do I redeem a reward that my customer has earned?

To redeem a reward:

  1. From the Square app, tap Rewards in your item library.
  2. Enter your customer’s 10-digit phone number to search for available rewards.
  3. Select rewards to apply them to the customer’s cart.

Your customer’s reward will be applied to the current sale, and you can finish the transaction as you normally would.

If the customer is completing their transaction with the payment card that is linked to their Loyalty profile, they will automatically be shown any available rewards during checkout. Once any rewards are selected and redeemed, you can proceed to checkout as normal. This is currently available for payments processed on Square Register, Square Terminal, and the Square Point of Sale app for iOS and Android devices.

Additionally, with Square Register buyers are given the option to check-in during their purchase in order to redeem their rewards if they are completing their payment with a card that is not linked to their Loyalty profile. Once they provide their phone number, they can check-in to receive points towards a future reward or redeem available discounts.

You can disable this feature at any time. To do so:

  1. Go to Settings > Loyalty.
  2. Toggle off the Show check-in screen at start of transaction option.

Note: This feature is only available with Square Point of Sale and Square for Retail on the Square Register at this time. It is not yet available for Square for Restaurants.

Is there a Loyalty card that buyers can use with my Loyalty program?

Buyers that are checking in or enrolling in your loyalty program on an Apple device will receive a notification to add a loyalty pass to the digital wallet on their smartphone. Once a buyer taps the notification on their smartphone and verifies their personal information, a digital loyalty pass for your business will be added to their device that reflects your business information, the buyer’s information, and any available rewards.

Note that digital passes are only available for buyers using iOS devices and are not available on Android devices at this time. . You can customize the digital loyalty pass design from the Locations section of your online Square Dashboard, and you can enable the digital loyalty pass feature from the Settings tab within the Loyalty section of your online Square Dashboard.

Can a customer redeem rewards through an online purchase?

Customers can redeem or earn rewards for transactions completed through Square Online. When completing a transaction on your business’ website, the buyer will need to enter in their phone number to apply any accrued rewards to their transaction. The rewards used for the purchase will appear on their digital receipt.

Which points will customers redeem first?

When customers redeem their loyalty points, they will always use the points that will expire the soonest.

How can I change when points expire?

To update or add a point expiration to your current program:

  1. Go to Loyalty > Settings from your online Square Dashboard.
  2. Under “Earning Points,” locate Expiration > click Edit and select whether you’d like your points never to expire, or select after how long you’d like them to expire.
  3. Click Confirm.

Changes to point expiration will only impact future points earned. Customer’s existing points will expire based on the expiration settings at the time of earning.

How can I see when a customer’s points expire?

You view when a customer’s points expire in the online Square Dashboard and from your Square app.

In your online Square Dashboard:

  1. Go to your Customer Directory and select a customer.
  2. Under Loyalty in the customer’s profile, click •••
  3. Click View Expiring Points to view total points that will expire for that customer.

From the Square app:

  1. Go to Customers and select a customer.
  2. Under “Loyalty Summary,” in the customer’s profile, click •••
  3. Click View Expiring Points to view total points that will expire for that customer.

Can I manually adjust a customer’s Loyalty points?

To edit a customer’s point count, locate their customer profile from your online Square Dashboard or the Square Point of Sale app and assign the correct number of points.

From the Square app:

  1. Tap ≡ More > Customers > Search for your customer by name or phone number.
  2. Tap ••• next to their Loyalty status > Adjust Status.
  3. Adjust points using the + / - signs.
  4. Tap Save.

From your online Square Dashboard:

  1. Go to Customers > Directory from your online Square Dashboard.
  2. Search for your customer by name or phone number.
  3. Under “Loyalty,” click Edit above the status bar and adjust points using the + or - signs.
  4. Click Save.

What if my customer is missing points?

If a customer didn’t receive their points or didn’t enter their phone number after a previous purchase, you can adjust their point status. To do so, locate their customer profile and assign them the correct number of points.

To get started:

  1. Tap ≡ More > Customers.
  2. Search for your customer by name or phone number.
  3. Tap ••• next to their Loyalty Summary > Adjust Status.
  4. Adjust points using the + or - signs.
  5. Tap Save.

This can also be done from their Customer Directory profile in your online Square Dashboard.

Does Square automatically keep track of customers’ Loyalty points?

Square Loyalty integrates with the Square Point of Sale app and your Customer Directory to keep track of your customers’ loyalty status, including their loyalty points, rewards earned, redemptions, and more.

Loyalty automatically accrues loyalty points for your customer if they pay by credit card. Your customer’s loyalty phone number is linked with their payment card automatically. When a customer comes back and uses the same payment method to pay for the transaction, Loyalty automatically accrues points based on the linked loyalty phone number.

Learn how to manage linked cards.

Do my customers earn points when I use offline mode?

If you are in offline mode, Loyalty will be skipped and the enrollment screen will not show up for customers to earn points. If you’d like to add points to a customer, you can do that by looking up the customer manually after the sale and adjusting their points.

Read more on adjusting a customer’s loyalty status.

Customers and Refunds

Can I edit the phone number associated with my customer’s Loyalty profile?

You can update or correct a customer’s Loyalty phone number from their Customer Directory profile.

To do so:

  1. Go to Customers from your online Square Dashboard.
  2. Search and select the customer in question.
  3. Next to “Personal Information,” tap Edit > Update their phone number.
  4. Save changes.

I’ve accidentally duplicated a customer profile, how do I merge two Loyalty customers?

You can merge multiple Loyalty customers.

  1. Go to Customers from your online Square Dashboard.
  2. Select the customer profiles you wish to merge.
  3. Click Merge.

Note: Merging customers will erase the points associated with each customer profile. You’ll need to manually adjust your customer’s Loyalty status from your Point of Sale app or online Square Dashboard. Learn how to manually adjust your customer’s Loyalty status.

How do customers check their Loyalty status?

Once your customer has enrolled in your Loyalty program, they’ll receive a welcome SMS notification with a link to their Loyalty status in Cash App. From the Activity tab in Cash App, they’ll be able to view their progress, earned rewards, linked payment cards, and Loyalty activity. If the customer does not have Cash App, they will be prompted to download the app on their mobile device to view their Loyalty activity.

If you do not want your customers to be directed to Cash App to view their Loyalty status, you can disable this feature directly from your online Square Dashboard:

  1. Go to Loyalty.
  2. Click Settings and toggle off Enable Cash App Integration.
  3. Click Save.

With the Loyalty in Receipts feature, customers can also view how many points they have just earned by looking at their receipt once they have made a purchase. They can also click on their personal Loyalty Status page link on their receipt for more information about the Loyalty program, including available rewards and historical Loyalty activities.

Note: Loyalty points earned are only available on digital receipts and do not appear on printed receipts.

How can I manage my customers’ linked cards?

If a customer accidentally links their phone number to the wrong payment card, or vice versa, you can always unlink the two.

To unlink a customer’s payment card:

  1. Go to Customers > Directory from your online Square Dashboard.
  2. Search for your customer by name or phone number.
  3. Click the ••• > Managed Cards Linked Loyalty > Check the box for every card you’d like to unlink.
  4. Click Unlink > Confirm Unlink.

Note: Customers also have the ability to unlink themselves directly from their Status Page > following the link received via SMS when they enrolled into Loyalty.

What is the difference between Paid By and Earned By on my customer’s receipts?

The name which appears after Paid By is the customer making the purchase, whereas Earned By refers to the name associated to the Square Loyalty account that earned the points.

Do refunds adjust a customer's Loyalty Balance?

Yes. See when Loyalty points will be removed automatically based on the loyalty program type and the refund type below:

Loyalty Program Type Full Refund Partial Item Refund Custom Refund Amount
Amount spent program All points will be removed. Points will be removed proportional to the amount refunded. Points will be removed proportional to the amount refunded.
Per Visit All points will be removed. Points will be removed if the amount refunded is below the spending threshold to earn points. Points will be removed if the amount refunded is below the spending threshold to earn points.
Per Item or Category All points will be removed. If an item that earned points is refunded, the points earned for that item will be removed. Otherwise points will not be removed. Points will not be removed.

For exchanges, points will be adjusted based on the items being exchanged. The adjustment is based on the Loyalty program settings at the time of the transaction. If no points were earned in the original transaction because no Loyalty customer was associated with the transaction, then there will be no adjustments to a Loyalty balance.

Reporting and Team Access

Can I view reporting for my Loyalty program?

With Square Loyalty, you’re able to track the progress of your program right from your online Square Dashboard and from the Square app for iOS. In addition to the program details, you’ll be able to see every Loyalty visit and transaction associated with your rewards and a comparison of average visits and spending of loyalty and non-loyalty customers.

Can my team access my Loyalty account?

With Square Team Management, you are able to assign your team members specific permissions to take certain actions on your Loyalty account. Permission sets include granting team members access to view Loyalty reporting, managing customer data, and configuring your Loyalty program settings.

Team members can take action through the online Square Dashboard, a shared point of sale, and your point of sale app. Loyalty permissions are broken down into the following categories and actions:

  • Reporting: Viewing Loyalty reports, program performance, and customer engagement metrics.
  • Program Management: Viewing and editing Loyalty program settings and setting up Loyalty promotions.
  • Customer Management: Viewing and editing Loyalty customers’ account information. Note: This permission requires the “View, edit, create, and delete customer directory data” permission from the Customers permission group to be enabled.

To enable Loyalty permissions for your team members:

  1. Go to Staff > Team from your online Square Dashboard.
  2. Select Permissions > Create Permission Set.
  3. Choose a permission set name and click Loyalty from the list. Select the permissions you would like to assign to the permission set.
  4. Click Continue > choose the device access points > click Save.

Learn more about Team Managemen.