Square Loyalty FAQ

Setup and Cost

How can I get started with Square Loyalty?

If you’re using the Square Point of Sale app 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.

To set up your Loyalty Program, log in to Customers > Loyalty in your online Square Dashboard > Select Settings where you'll have the options to edit your loyalty terminology, earning points structure and how your customers can redeem rewards. If you’re on the Square Point of Sale app, tap More > Add-ons > Loyalty.

Learn more on how to Create a Loyalty Program with Square.

How much does it cost to use Square Loyalty?

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:

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.

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 buyers.

Learn more about creating a loyalty program with Square.

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.

Enroll Customers

How do I enrol a customer into a Loyalty Program?

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

To enrol 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 enrol your customers from your Customer Directory:

1. Head to the Customers section of your online Square Dashboard or Square app.

2. Select or create a customer profile.

3. Under the Loyalty section, click or tap Create Account.

4. Enter the customer’s mobile phone number > Save.

Take a look at the Enrol your Loyalty Customer tutorial in the Point of Sale App to see what your customers will need to do to enrol in your loyalty program.

1. Select More > Support.

2. Select Tutorials and Tours and choose Enrol a Loyalty Customer.

3. Swipe through the slides in the pop-up screen to learn how your customers can enrol in your loyalty program after their transaction.

You can also automatically prompt customers to sign in to or sign up for your Loyalty program during checkout by following 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 Loyalty and Show check-in screen at start of transaction.

When making a purchase through your Square Online site or through Square Invoices, customers can also enrol in your Loyalty program by providing their phone number during the checkout process. Keep in mind that buyers are not able to redeem any available rewards through Square Invoices payments, but rewards can be claimed during checkout at your point of sale or through your Square Online site.

How can customers enrol in Loyalty after a sale?

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

1. Visit Customers > Loyalty in your online Square Dashboard > Settings.

2. Toggle on the Send Reminder Emails setting.

Email Collection

How do I collect emails with Loyalty?

Enabling the Collect Contacts feature in Square Loyalty allows new customers to receive an SMS 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. Visit the Settings tab of 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. Head to Customers > Loyalty tab in your online Square Dashboard > Click Actions > Edit.

2. In the Settings tab > enable Offer customers points in return for their email addresses.

3. Enter amount of points being offered for email address.

4. Click Next to continue with setup > Save.

Earning and Redeeming 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. Log in to your online Square Dashboard and navigate to Loyalty > Settings.

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. You can also add the customer to the cart and any available awards will appear during checkout.

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.

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. Navigate to the Loyalty section of your online Square Dashboard and select Settings.

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 the three horizontal dots.

3. Click View Expiring Points to view total points that will expire for that customer.

From the Square app:

1. Go to the Customers section and select a customer.

2. Under Loyalty Summary in the customer’s profile, click the three horizontal dots.

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.

2. Search for your customer by name or phone number.

3. Tap ‘•••’ next to their Loyalty Summary > Adjust Status.

4. Adjust points using the + / - signs.

5. Tap Save.

From your online Square Dashboard:

1. Sign in to the Customers section of your online Square Dashboard > Directory.

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 > Click Save.

What happens 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 and 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 credit 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 my customer’s phone number associated to Loyalty?

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

To do so:

1. Sign in to the Customers section of 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 have a US phone number, can I enrol in a Canadian merchant’s Loyalty Program?

Yes, you can. You will receive SMS text message notification according to the Canadian regulations.

How do I merge two Loyalty customers?

You can merge two Loyalty customers. From your online Square Dashboard, click Fix Duplicate. Then merge your customers one at a time, or all at once by clicking Combine All Duplicates > Combine All.

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 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 status page. From there, they’ll be able to view their progress, earned rewards, linked payment cards and activity.

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. Sign in to the Customers section of your online Square Dashboard > Directory.

2. Search for your customer by name or phone number.

3. Click the three-dotted Actions menu > Managed Cards Linked Loyalty > Check the box for each cards 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:

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 to 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:

1. Reporting: Viewing Loyalty reports, program performance and customer engagement metrics.

2. Program Management: Viewing and editing Loyalty program settings and setting up Loyalty promotions.

3. 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. Log in to your online Square Dashboard > Team.

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.

You can learn more about Team Management in our Support Centre.