Switching loyalty platform is more disruptive than switching most business software, for one structural reason: a wallet card is signed with the issuing platform's certificate, so it cannot be handed over. Every customer has to be re-enrolled on the new system, and how you handle that decides whether you keep them.
This guide covers the migration itself. If you are still deciding whether to move, the comparison pages for each platform set out the trade-offs in detail, and the honest answer for most businesses is to stay where they are.
When you should not switch at all
Stay if your programme is working. If enrolment is healthy, your customers scan the QR without complaint, and stamp cards are the only mechanic you need, switching platforms costs you re-enrolment of your entire customer base for no gain. That cost is almost always underestimated.
- Your enrolment rate is already where you want it
- Stamp cards are the only mechanic you need
- You value a long track record and a large body of reviews
- Your customers are comfortable scanning, and your queue is not the constraint
When an alternative makes sense
The reasons to move are operational rather than cosmetic, and they cluster around three things.
1. Enrolment is too slow at peak
If staff have stopped offering the card during the morning rush because scanning slows the queue, the programme is quietly failing regardless of how good the software is. The fix is a flow that requires nothing from the customer: a staff member types the phone number and the card arrives by text a few seconds later.
2. You need Arabic or another language
If you operate in the Gulf, the Levant, or a market where your customers are not comfortable in English, you need real right-to-left support in the customer-facing card and not only in the dashboard. Most platforms built for Anglo-American markets translate the dashboard and leave the card in English, which is the half that your customers see. Loonine runs in English, French and full right-to-left Arabic.
3. Stamps are the wrong mechanic for you
Stamp cards suit low-ticket, high-frequency businesses. If your ticket sizes vary widely, a restaurant, a beauty salon, a bookshop, points scale the reward to spend and feel fairer to your best customers. If you run appointments, a stamp card with one stamp per visit is more legible than either.
What switching costs
The honest answer is that your existing customers have to be re-enrolled, because wallet cards are signed with a certificate belonging to the platform that issued them and cannot be transferred. Plan for a transition period where you run both, enrol new customers on the new system, and migrate regulars as they come in.
For most independent businesses that takes six to eight weeks to cover the majority of active customers. It is worth doing only if one of the three problems above is costing you enrolments, not because a competitor's feature list looks longer.
Which platform should I move to?
Choose the replacement by the specific problem that made you leave, not by feature count, because a platform that fixes something you do not have wrong is a lateral move with a full re-enrolment attached.
If enrolment speed at the counter is the problem, look for a platform where staff enrol the customer rather than the customer enrolling themselves. If you need Arabic or another language as a first-class citizen, check the customer-facing card and not only the dashboard. If stamps are the wrong mechanic, confirm the new platform supports points before committing.
Loonine publishes a detailed comparison against each of the main platforms in this category, Loopy Loyalty, Stamp Me, BonusQR, LoyaltyPass and Square Loyalty, with a section on each competitor's real advantages. Those pages are the place to make the choice; this one assumes you have made it.
If you already run Square as your till, Square Loyalty removes the separate system entirely by identifying customers by phone at the point of payment. The trade-off is that there is no branded wallet card to message between visits, and it only works in Square's own markets.
And if you have engineering capacity, card infrastructure providers let you build a programme directly on Apple and Google's card APIs. That is a real option for a group with developers and a poor one for a single café.
Can I get my customer list before I move?
Ask for your customer list back before you cancel anything, and check the format while your account is still active. Most platforms in this category let you download your customers as a CSV, but the columns you get vary, and stamp balances are not always among them.
Two practical points. A phone number list is far more useful than an email list for re-enrolment, because you can text the new card directly. And whatever consent record the old platform holds should be requested too: re-contacting customers on a new system still requires a lawful basis, and "they consented on the old platform" is only a defence if you can show it.
How do I migrate without losing customers?
Run both systems in parallel rather than switching on a date. Wallet cards cannot be transferred between platforms because each is signed with the issuing platform's certificate, so every customer has to be re-enrolled, and a hard cutover strands anyone who has not been.
- Ask the old platform to return the customer list and stamp balances first. With Loonine, the customer list belongs to the business and can be returned on request to [email protected].
- Build the new card to match the old design, so regulars recognise it.
- Start enrolling every new customer on the new system only.
- Carry balances across manually as regulars come in: enrol them, then set their stamp count to match.
- Text the customers who have not returned after four weeks, explaining the change and including the new link.
- Keep the old account open until the great majority of active customers have moved: usually six to eight weeks.
- Cancel the old plan, and only then, once the customer list has been returned to you on request.
Step four is what protects the relationship. A regular who had eight stamps and is told to start again at zero experiences the switch as a loss, and some of them will simply stop. Honouring the balance costs you a few free coffees and keeps the customers those coffees were meant to earn.
Will my customers notice?
They will notice the enrolment, because they have to add a new card, and they will notice nothing after that. The card behaves identically once installed: it sits in the same wallet, updates the same way, and shows progress on the lock screen.
Say it plainly when you text them: the card has moved, your stamps have been carried over, tap to add the new one. Businesses that explain the change in one sentence see most regulars move without friction. Businesses that send an unexplained link see it ignored.