Reward ideas

Loyalty reward ideas for restaurants

A restaurant sees the same person at lunch on Tuesday and at dinner with friends on Friday, and those are different customers to reward. These five are priced against an €18 average ticket at 65 % margin.

Five reward structures that work

Lunch card

In the typical range

8 lunches → the 9th free

The office regular eats with you weekly, so eight stamps is two months. This is where a restaurant card pays back fastest.

8 stamps · reward worth €12.00 ≈ 13 % of what the customer spends to earn it · costs you about €4.20 per reward at 65 % margin

Run these numbers in the calculator

Dessert at six

In the typical range

6 dinners → a free dessert

A small, high-margin reward for the evening crowd. Dessert is often skipped; free, it gets ordered and enjoyed.

6 stamps · reward worth €7.00 ≈ 5 % of what the customer spends to earn it · costs you about €2.45 per reward at 65 % margin

Run these numbers in the calculator

Twenty off at ten

In the typical range

10 visits → €20 off the bill

Money off works when tickets vary a lot between lunch and dinner. Ten visits is a long card, so it suits true regulars.

10 stamps · reward worth €20.00 ≈ 11 % of what the customer spends to earn it · costs you about €7.00 per reward at 65 % margin

Run these numbers in the calculator

Takeaway side

In the typical range

5 takeaway orders → a free side

Cheap to give, and it keeps takeaway customers ordering direct instead of through a platform that takes a cut.

5 stamps · reward worth €5.00 ≈ 7 % of what the customer spends to earn it · costs you about €1.75 per reward at 65 % margin

Run these numbers in the calculator

Family Sunday

In the typical range

4 Sunday visits → kids eat free

A big-basket visit rewarded with a cheap item. The stamp is tied to the day you want to fill.

4 stamps · reward worth €9.00 ≈ 5 % of what the customer spends to earn it · costs you about €3.15 per reward at 65 % margin

Run these numbers in the calculator

Before you pick one

Stamp per visit, not per euro, unless your tickets swing from €10 to €100. Per-visit stamping is the only rule a busy server can apply without looking at the bill.

Other industries

Questions

A reward costs you what it costs to make, not its sales price: the sales price minus your gross margin. The share is the reward's sales price divided by everything the customer spends to earn it. Both use a typical margin for the industry; the calculator lets you put in your own.

A reward worth 5–15 % of the spend needed to earn it is where most programmes land: worth chasing for the customer, affordable for you. Under 5 % is usually ignored; over 15 % works but check the monthly net.

Keep one base rule per loyalty card, so customers and staff can explain it in a sentence. Use campaigns for the rest: double stamps on quiet days, a bonus stamp for trying something new, a birthday reward.

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